Provisional Measures in the Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Provisional measures are instruments used by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Their purpose is to prevent irreparable harm to the rights and freedoms ensured, under the American Convention on Human Rights, of persons who are in a situation of extreme gravity and urgency. The measures, ordered ex officio or at the request of a party, result in protection offered by the respondent State to alleged victims. Those can include family members of alleged victims, witnesses, journalists, political candidates, human rights defenders, members of indigenous communities, prisoners who live in deplorable conditions, the seriously ill or those on hunger strikes, officials of the justice system, aliens under orders of deportation or extradition, and those sentenced to capital punishment. This does not in any way result in prejudging the merits of the matter before the Inter-American Court. Today, interim measures have a key role in many of the cases that are brought before the Inter-American