Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of May 12, 2007 Provisional Measures with regard to El Salvador in favor of Adrián Meléndez Quijano et al. Matter of of Adrián Meléndez Quijano et al. HAVING SEEN: 1. The petition of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter, “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) and its annexes, received at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter, “the Court”, “the InterAmerican Court” or “the Tribunal”) on March 21, 2007. In this petition, the Commission requested that the Court order provisional measures, in accordance with article 63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, “the Convention” or “the American Convention”) and article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court (hereafter, the “Rules of Procedure”). The Commission requested these provisional measures with the objective that the Republic of El Salvador (hereinafter, “El Salvador” or “the State”) take the necessary steps to protect the life and personal integrity “of Major Adrián Meléndez Quijano and his family members, as well as his brother and attorney, Eurípides Manuel Meléndez Quijano and his family members”. 2. The background for the request for provisional measures brought by the Commission are, inter alia, the following: a) according to the petitioners, the facts referred to (infra Having Seen 2(b), 2(c), 2(d), 2(e) and 2(f), and 4) have occurred due to the fact that Major Adrián Meléndez Quijano (hereinafter, “Major Adrián Meléndez Quijano” or “Major Meléndez Quijano) was Chief of the Department of Human Rights of the National Defense Ministry (“Departamento de Derechos Humanos del Ministerio de Defensa Nacional”), where he reported several human rights violations allegedly committed by the Salvadoran Army; b) that Major Adrián Meléndez Quijano has been subject to threats and pursuits since 2004. Likewise, his wife and daughters “were subjected to exhaustive searches of their persons and vehicles by orders of high-ranking officials when [Major] Meléndez [Quijano] was arrested by order of the Ministry of National Defense in the Special Brigade of Military Security (“Brigada Especial de Seguridad Militar”)”; c) that in early 2006, Gloria Tránsito Quijano viuda de Meléndez, mother of Major Adrián Meléndez Quijano received threatening phone calls at her residence; d) that on November 29, 2005, Eurípides Manuel Meléndez Quijano was, “in an apparent robbery attempt, stabbed by two unknown individuals when he was entering his residence”. The events were reported to the Attorney General of the Republic under reference number 5625-UDN-05;