extreme gravity and urgency and the need to prevent irreparable damage to persons are met.
Provisional measures thus become a true legal guarantee of a preventative nature.4
5.
Based on its jurisdiction and in the context of this request for expansion and update of the
beneficiaries of the provisional measures, the Court shall solely and strictly consider the
arguments directly related to extreme gravity, urgency, and need to prevent irreparable damage
to persons. Any other fact or argument can only be analyzed and resolved during the
consideration of the merits of a contentious case.5
6.
In the Order of August 30, 2010 (supra Having Seen 1), the Court clarified that in
processing these provisional measures, it cannot rule on “aspects related to the processing of
judicial and administrative actions regarding the restitution of lands and their outcomes, the
census, election of leaders, or the alleged illegal crops and cattle raising on lands that apparently
belong to the beneficiaries,” or on “the judicial and disciplinary investigations carried out by State
into the alleged acts of harassment, threats, detentions and murders committed against the
beneficiaries,” given that all of these issues should be analyzed in a corresponding contentious
case. In that Order, the Court also indicated that it would not address facts that do not refer to
the beneficiaries of the provisional measures, that is, the members of the Jiguamiandó and
Curbaradó Communities. The Court will take all this into account when ruling on the request for
expansion of these provisional measures presented by the Inter-American Commission.
A.
Request for expansion of the instant provisional measures.
7.
As background to the request for expansion, the Commission mentioned that last year the
representatives filed “a request for recognition as beneficiaries of the measures the members of
the humanitarian zones of Caracolí and Caño Manso” before the Court. This was considered by the
Court as a request for “expansion of provisional measures, which should have been formally
requested by the Inter-American Commission.” It indicated that in response to the Court’s
decision (supra Having Seen 1), the representatives submitted a request to the Commission for
provisional measures benefiting certain humanitarian and biodiversity zones “based on the same
risk factors as the provisional measures.” In response, it requested information from the State as
well as from the petitioners. Subsequently, the representatives asked the Commission to submit a
request for the broadening of the instant provisional measures to the Court.6
8.
In its request for expansion of the provisional measures, the Commission asked the
Tribunal to:
[…]
b)
“Broaden the provisional measures to the new families located in the areas benefiting from the
provisional measures, including adding the new members and family units that form part of the families
benefiting from the provisional measures;
4
Cf. Case of “La Nación” Newspaper. Provisional Measures regarding Costa Rica. Order of the Court of September
7, 2001, Considering 4; Matter of Wong Ho Wing. Provisional Measures regarding Perú. Order of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights of March 4, 2011, Considering 10, and Matter of Alvarado Reyes et al., Considering 5.
5
Cf. Case of James et al. Provisional Measures regarding Trinidad and Tobago. Order of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights of August 20, 1998, Considering 6, and Matter of the Urso Branco Prison. Provisional Measures regarding
Brazil. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of April 25, 2011, Considering 4.
6
The Commission stated that among other things, this request was based on the “alleged withdrawal of the army
from the area for more than eight days, on the continuing presence of dozens of paramilitary troops, and on the military’s
sporadic and limited return to the area, added to risk factors shared by the humanitarian zones benefiting from the
provisional measures.” The request was also based on the increase in the number of families benefiting from the instant
provisional measures.
3