-5- persons,” the Court may adopt such provisional measures as it may deem pertinent at the Commission’s request in matters not yet submitted to the Court. 3. That, on this issue, Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure provides that: [...] 2. With respect to matters not yet submitted to it, the Court may act at the request of the Commission. [...] 6. The beneficiaries of provisional measures or urgent measures ordered by the President may address their comments on the report made by the State directly to the Court. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights shall present observations to the State’s report and to the observations of the beneficiaries or their representatives. 4. That, in the context of municipal legal systems (domestic procedural law), provisional measures are usually intended to preserve the rights of the parties to a dispute, guaranteeing that the enforcement of the judgment on the merits of the case will not be hindered or prevented by any action taken by the parties pendente lite. 5. That, in the International Law of Human Rights, provisional measures are not only precautionary, to the extent that they maintain the legal status quo, but also and essentially they are protective in nature, as they protect human rights, insofar as they are intended to avoid irreparable damage to persons. Provided that the basic requirements of extreme gravity and urgency and prevention of irreparable damage to persons are met, provisional measures become a true preventive judicial guarantee. 6. That Article 1(1) of the Convention lays down the general obligation of State Parties to respect the rights and freedoms recognized therein and to ensure to all persons subject to their jurisdiction the free and full exercise of those rights and freedoms. 7. That the merits of the case that led to the adoption of these provisional measures have not been submitted to the Court, and that the adoption of provisional measures does not entail a ruling on the merits of the dispute between the petitioners and the State. By ordering provisional measures, the Court is merely exercising its authority under the Convention in cases of extreme gravity and urgency that warrant the adoption of measures of protection in order to avoid irreparable damage to persons. 8. That the Inter-American Commission has requested that this Tribunal order the protection of the inmates housed at the Yare Prison, as well as any future inmates of that facility. Even though in ordering provisional measures the Court has found that, in certain specific cases, it is essential to specifically identify the persons who are in danger of sustaining irreparable damage so as to provide them with the required measures of protection,1 in previous cases the Tribunal has ordered the 1 Cf. Matter of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian-Origin in the Dominican Republic. Provisional Measures. Order of the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of September 14, 2000. Series E No. 3, Considering clause No. 4; and Matter of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian-Origin in the