Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Composition

IACHR is a permanent body based in Washington, D.C., United States. It holds regular and special sessions throughout the year to review human rights complaints in the Americas.

The Commission’s mandate is based on three key documents: the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and the American Convention on Human Rights.

History of the Inter-American human rights system

The Inter-American system for protecting human rights began in April 1948 with the adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States (OAS). This was the first general international human rights instrument, preceding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by more than six months.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was established in 1959. It held its first session in 1960 and conducted its first on-site visit in 1961 to examine the human rights situation in the Dominican Republic.

In 1965, the Commission was formally authorized to investigate individual complaints of human rights violations. Since then, it has received thousands of petitions and processed over 12,000 cases.

The American Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1969, expanded on the principles of the 1948 Declaration. It set out the obligations of states to uphold specific rights and established the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. As of now, the Convention is binding on 24 of the OAS’s 35 member states.

The commission's performance has not been always welcomed. Among others, Venezuela has accused the Commission of politicization. Others criticize the commission's stress on certain issues over others. These criticisms have given rise to what was called the "Strengthening Process of the Commission". This process began in 2011, led by the States belonging to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.

Functions

The main task of the IACHR is to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the Americas.

In pursuit of this mandate it:

• Receives, analyzes, and investigates individual petitions alleging violations of specific human rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights.
• Works to resolve petitions in a collaborative way that is amiable to both parties.
• Monitors the general human rights situation in the OAS's member states and, when necessary, prepares and publishes country-specific human rights reports.
• Conducts on-site visits to examine members' general human rights situation or to investigate specific cases.
• Encourages public awareness about human rights and related issues throughout the hemisphere.
• Holds conferences, seminars, and meetings with governments, NGOs, academic institutions, etc. to inform and raise awareness about issues relating to the inter-American human rights system.
• Issues member states with recommendations that, if adopted, would further the cause of human rights protection.
• Requests that states adopt precautionary measures to prevent serious and irreparable harm to human rights in urgent cases.
• Refers cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and litigates those same cases before the Court.
• Asks the Inter-American Court to provide advisory opinions on matters relating to the interpretation of the convention or other related instruments.

Rapporteurships and units

Special rapporteur

The IACHR has created several thematic rapporteurships and two special rapporteurships to monitor OAS states' compliance with inter-American human rights treaties in the following areas:

• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1990)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women (the first rapporteurship created by the IACHR in 1994)
• Rapporteurship on Migrant Workers and their Families (1996)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of the Child (1998)
• Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders (2001)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty (2004)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination (2005)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons (2014)
• Rapporteurship on Memory, Truth, and Justice (2019)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Older Persons (2019)
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2019

The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and the are full-time dedicated positions. The former was created in 1997, while the latter was established in 2017, with Soledad García Muñoz of Argentina as the first holder of the office. The other rapporteurships are in the hands of the commissioners, who have other functions at the IACHR and also their own jobs in their home countries, since their work as commissioners is unpaid.

Rapporteurships are initially established by the commission as thematic units prior to being upgraded to rapporteurships.

The IACHR also has a Press and Outreach Office.

Petitions

Under its Rules of Procedure, the IACHR reviews petitions submitted by individuals or non-governmental organizations. These petitions are treated as confidential and are not made public. To be admissible, a petition must meet three conditions: domestic legal remedies must have been exhausted, the petition must be submitted within six months of the final decision in the domestic system, and it must not be under consideration by another international body.

Once a petition has been filed, it follows the following procedure:

• Petition is forwarded to the Secretariat and reviewed for completeness; if complete, it is registered and is given a case number. This is where the state is notified of the petition.
• Petition reviewed for admissibility.
• The Commission tries to find a friendly settlement.
• If no settlement is found, then briefs are filed by each side on the merits of the case.
• The Commission then files a report on the merits, known as an Article 50 report from relevant article of the convention. This is a basically a ruling by the commission with recommendations on how to solve the conflict. The Article 50 report is sent to the state. This is a confidential report; the petitioner does not get a full copy of this report.
• The state is given two months to comply with the recommendations of the report.
• The petitioner then has one month to file a petition asking for the issue to be sent to the Inter-American Court (only applicable if the State in question has recognized the competence of the Inter-American Court).
• The commission has three months, from the date the Article 50 report is given to the state, to either publish the Article 50 report or send the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Alternatively, the commission can also choose to monitor the situation. The American Convention establishes that if the report is not submitted to the Court within three months it may not be submitted in the future, but if the State asks for more time in order to comply with the recommendations of the Article 50 report, the Commission might grant it on the condition that the State signs a waiver on this requirement.

Composition

The IACHR's ranking officers are its seven commissioners. The commissioners are elected by the OAS General Assembly, for four-year terms, with the possibility of re-election on one occasion, for a maximum period in office of eight years. They serve in a personal capacity and are not considered to represent their countries of origin but rather "all the member countries of the Organization" (Art. 35 of the convention). The convention (Art. 34) says that they must "be persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights". No two nationals of the same member state may be commissioners simultaneously (Art. 37), and commissioners are required to refrain from participating in the discussion of cases involving their home countries.

Current commissioners (2024)

Source of IACHR Composition.

Past commissioners

Executive Secretaries

The staff of the IACHR comprise its Secretariat, which is led by an Executive Secretary, who serves for what have recently been four-year, renewable contracts.

In August 2020, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro announced that he would not renew Paulo Abrão's contract as Executive Secretary of the IACHR, citing 61 personnel complaints by staff of the organization. The Commissioners of the IACHR had unanimously approved the contract extension in January 2020, and expressed their "profound rejection" of Almagro's action "whose refusal to renew this contract breaks with a 20-year practice of respecting the IACHR's decision to appoint its own Executive Secretary and thus makes it difficult to obtain truth, justice, and reparation for those whose labor rights have been affected." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Human Rights Watch, and the Mexican government have also objected to Abrão's removal.

Tania Reneaum, a Mexican, was appointed as the new Executive Secretary in 2021.

Human rights allegations investigated by the Inter-American Commission

• 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping (Mexico)
• Antoine Izméry (Haiti)
• Barrios Altos massacre (Peru)
• Censorship in Venezuela (Venezuela)
• Deaths in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico)
• District of Columbia voting rights (United States)
• Domestic violence protection in the case of Jessica Gonzales (United States)
• El Caracazo (Venezuela)
• Extrajudicial detention in Guantánamo of Djamel Ameziane (United States)
• Internment of Japanese Latin Americans (United States)
• Japanese embassy hostage crisis (Peru)
• La Cantuta massacre (Peru)
• Lori Berenson (Peru)
• Massacre of Trujillo (Colombia)
• Plan de Sánchez massacre (Guatemala)

References

References

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