2.
Article 63(2) of the American Convention establishes that in “cases of extreme
gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons,” the
Court may, in a case not yet submitted to its consideration, order such provisional measures
as it deems pertinent at the request of the Commission. This provision is also regulated in
Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court.1
3. The relevant part of Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure stipulates that:
1. At any stage of proceedings involving cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when
necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons, the Court may, on its own motion, order such
provisional measures as it deems appropriate, pursuant to Article 63(2) of the Convention.
[…]
9. The Court, or its President if the Court is not sitting, may convene the Commission, the
beneficiaries of the measures or their representatives, and the State to a public or private hearing
on provisional measures.
4.
In its last order issued on November 25, 2009, owing to the alleged acts of violence
that occurred while in custody, and the claims of torture and other ill-treatment attributed to
state agents or other inmates of the same prison, the Court considered that there subsisted
in the Urso Branco Prison (hereinafter “the Prison” or “Urso Branco”) “a situation of extreme
gravity and urgency, and the risk of irreparable damage and, consequently, it was
appropriate to maintain the provisional measures in force, by virtue of which the State has
the obligation to protect the life and physical integrity of all the persons deprived of liberty in
the Prison, as well as that of the other persons who may be in the prison.”2
a) Implementation of these provisional measures
5.
that:
In relation to the implementation of these provisional measures, the State indicated
a) Regarding the list of people who had died in the Prison presented by the State
during the public hearing of September 30, 2009, “it has not yet been possible to
conclude the work of correcting” it; this includes: (a) individual file cards with the
information of the deceased; (b) the updated list of violent deaths, and (c) the
names that were removed from the previous list of deaths with the respective
justification. This updating process is still underway and should be concluded
soon;
b) Regarding the complaints about violent incidents that allegedly occurred between
July 2009 and December 2010, in which the victims have been identified, the
State is taking action by inquiries initiated by the police, the Office for Internal
Affairs, and the Public Prosecutors’ Office, as well as by the ongoing judicial
proceedings.
Moreover,
the
representatives
were
asked
to
present
“complementary data and information that make it possible to clarify the reported
facts”;
1
Rules of Procedure approved by the Court at its eight-fifth regular session held from November 16th to
28th, 2009.
2
Matter of the Urso Branco Prison. Provisional measures with regard to Brazil. Order of the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights of November 25, 2009, forty-first considering paragraph.
2