2 5. In my Concurring Opinion in the Matter of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó (Order of June 18, 2002) concerning Colombia, I took the liberty of suggesting that the State’s obligation erga omnes to protect all persons subject to its jurisdiction "(...) requires clearly the recognition of the effects of the American Convention vis-à-vis third parties (the Drittwirkung), without which the conventional obligations of protection would be reduced to little more than a dead letter. The reasoning as from the thesis of the objective responsibility of the State is, in my view, ineluctable, particularly in a case of provisional measures of protection as the present. The intention here is to avoid irreparable harm to the members of a community and to the persons who render services to this latter, in a situation of extreme gravity and urgency, which encompasses actions, armed and otherwise, of paramilitary and clandestine groups, along with the actions of organs and agents of the public forces. (paras. 14-15). 6. Similarly, in my Concurring Opinion in the Matter of The Communities of Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó (Order of February 6, 2003), which also involved Colombia, I took the liberty of once again insisting that the response to acts of violence committed by armed irregulars of any kind must be recognition of the thirdparty effects of the American Convention “(the Drittwirkung),” – inherent in obligations erga omnes, - "without which the conventional obligations of protection would be reduced to little more than a dead letter.” (paras. 2-3). I added that given the circumstances of that case –and the recent Matter of Pueblo indígena de Kankuamo (Order for Provisional Measures of Protection of July 5, 2004), which also concerned Colombia, it is clear that … the protection of human rights determined by the American Convention Americana, to be effective, comprises not only the relations between the individuals and the public power, but also their relations with third parties (clandestine groups, paramilitary, and other groups of individuals). This reveals the new dimensions of the international protection of human rights, as well as the great potential of the existing mechanisms of protection, - such as that of the American Convention, - set in motion in order to protect collectively the members of a whole community8, even though the basis of action is the breach - or the probability or imminence of breach - of individual rights. (para. 4). 7. As I have written on previous occasions9 when the sources (including those not identified) of the human rights violations are so diverse, as illustrated here by the succession of members of the Pueblo indígena de Sarayaku alleged to have been victims in the present case, the juridical development of the obligations erga omnes of protection becomes all the more important, as do the convergences –at the normative, interpretational and operative levels- among the International Law of Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and International Refugee Law.10 Recognizing the importance of those obligations is essential to addressing the new needs for protection of the human person, especially in situations of extreme gravity and urgency such as the one posed in the present Matter of the Pueblo indígena de Sarayaku. 2 . Suggesting an affinity with the class actions. 9 . Cf. my aforementioned Concurring Opinions in the Matter of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó (2002, para. 19) and the Matter of The Communities of Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó (2003, para. 5). 10 . A.A. Cançado Trindade, El Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos en el Siglo XXI, Santiago, Editorial Jurídica de Chile, 2001, Chap. V, pp. 183-265.