Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

English abbreviation logo
Abbreviation	IACHR
Formation	1959
Purpose	Human Rights monitoring in the Americas
Location	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Region served	Americas (ACHR signatories, OAS members)
Membership	Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela
Executive Secretary	Maria Claudia Pulido (Interim)
Parent organization	Organization of American States
Website	IACHR

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR^[1] or, in the three other official languages – Spanish, French, and Portuguese – CIDH, Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos, Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme, Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos) is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The separate Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together the Court and the Commission make up the human rights protection system of the OAS.

The IACHR is a permanent body, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States, and it meets in regular and special sessions several times a year to examine allegations of human rights violations in the hemisphere.^[2]

Its human rights duties stem from three documents:

• the OAS Charter^[3]
• the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man^[4]
• the American Convention on Human Rights

History of the Inter-American human rights system[]

The inter-American system for the protection of human rights emerged with the adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the OAS in April 1948 – the first international human rights instrument of a general nature, predating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by more than six months.^[5][6]

The IACHR was created in 1959. It held its first meeting in 1960, and it conducted its first on-site visit to inspect the human rights situation in the Dominican Republic in 1961.^[6]

A major step in the development of the system was taken in 1965 when the Commission was expressly authorized to examine specific cases of human rights violations. Since that date the IACHR has received thousands of petitions and has processed in excess of 12,000 individual cases.^[6]

In 1969, the guiding principles behind the American Declaration were taken, reshaped, and restated in the American Convention on Human Rights. The Convention defines the human rights that the states parties are required to respect and guarantee, and it also ordered the establishment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It is currently binding on 24 of the OAS's 35 member states.^[5]

Functions[]

The main task of the IACHR is to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the Americas.^[7]

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 to prevent serious and irreparable harm to human rights in urgent cases.^[8]
• 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[]

The IACHR has created several rapporteurships, a special rapporteurship and a unit to monitor OAS states' compliance with inter-American human rights treaties in the following areas:^[9]

• Rapporteurship on Migrant Workers and their Families^[10]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women (the first rapporteurship created by the IACHR in 1994)^[11]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of the Child^[12]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples^[13]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty^[14]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination^[15]
• Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders^[16]

The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights are the two special rapporteurships of the IACHR, having a rapporteur dedicated full-time to the job.^[9] 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.

The Unit on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons was created in 2011.

The IACHR also has a Press and Outreach Office.^[17]

Petitions[]

The Commission processes petitions lodged with it pursuant to its Rules of Procedure.

Petitions may be filed by NGOs or individuals. Unlike most court filings, petitions are confidential documents and are not made public. Petitions must meet three requirements; domestic remedies must have already been tried and failed (exhaustion), petitions must be filed within six months of the last action taken in a domestic system (timeliness), petitions can not be before another court (duplication of procedure).

Once a petition has been filed, it follows the following procedure:^[7]

• 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.

Criticisms[]

Politicization and position in debatable matters[]

The Commission's performance has not been always welcomed. Among others, Venezuela has criticized its politicization. Many others criticize the Commission's stress in some rights instead of some 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.^[18][19]

Location of its headquarters[]

Officers of Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, supported the motion for moving the Commission's headquarters, which are currently in Washington, D.C. These countries suggested moving the IACHR's headquarters to a Member State to the American Convention of Human Rights. Among the suggested countries were Argentina, Costa Rica and Peru.

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[]

Name	State	Position	Elected	Term
	Mexico	President	2017	2018–2021
	Chile	First Vice-President	2017	2018–2021
	Brazil	Second Vice-President	2017	2018–2021
Margarette May Macaulay	Jamaica	Commissioner	2015	2016–2023
Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño	Panama	Commissioner	2015	2016–2023
	Peru	Commissioner	2019	2020–2023
	Chile	Commissioner	2019	2020–2023
Source: IACHR Composition.

Past commissioners[]

José Zalaquett, President 2004

Year	State	Commissioners	President (post-2001) Chairman (pre-2001)
1960–1963	Venezuela	Rómulo Gallegos	1960
1960–1964	El Salvador	Reynaldo Galindo Pohl
1960–1968	Ecuador	Gonzalo Escudero
1960–1972	Costa Rica	Ángela Acuña de Chacón
1960–1972	USA
1960–1972	Chile
1960–1979	Mexico
1964–1968	Uruguay
1964–1983	Brazil
1968–1972	Peru
1968–1972	Uruguay
1972–1976	Argentina	Genaro R. Carrió
1972–1976	USA	Robert F. Woodward
1972–1985	Venezuela	Andrés Aguilar
1976–1979	Guatemala
1976–1979	Costa Rica	Fernando Volio Jiménez
1976–1983	USA
1976–1978	Colombia
1978–1987	Colombia
1980–1987	El Salvador
1980–1985	Mexico
1980–1985	Costa Rica
1984–1988	USA
1984–1987	Bolivia	Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas
1984–1991	Brazil
1986–1989	Argentina	Elsa Kelly
1986–1993	Venezuela
1986–1993	Barbados
1988–1991	USA
1988–1995	Honduras
1988–1995	Jamaica	Patrick Lipton Robinson
1990–1997	Argentina
1992–1995	USA
1994–1997	Trinidad and Tobago		1997
1998–1999	Barbados
1992–1999	Colombia		1995
1996–1999	Venezuela		1998
1996–1999	Haiti
1994–2001	Chile	Claudio Grossman	1996 2001
1998–2001	Brazil	Hélio Bicudo	2000
1999–2001	Barbados	Peter Laurie
2002–2002	Peru	Diego García Sayán
1996–2003	USA		1999
2000–2003	Guatemala		2003
2000–2003	Argentina	Juan E. Méndez	2002
2000–2003	Ecuador
2002–2005	Peru	Susana Villarán
2001–2005	Chile	José Zalaquett	2004
2004–2007	Paraguay		2006
2004–2007	Venezuela
2002–2009	Antigua and Barbuda
2004–2009	El Salvador
2006–2009	Argentina
2006–2009	USA		2008
2004–2011	Brazil	Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
2008–2011	Venezuela		2009
2009–2011	El Salvador
2010–2013	Colombia
2010–2013	USA
2008–2015	Chile		2010
2012–2015	Saint Lucia  Trinidad and Tobago	Rose-Marie Belle Antoine	2015
2012–2015	Jamaica	Tracy Robinson	2014
2012–2015	Paraguay	Rosa María Ortiz
2017–2019	Colombia
2016–2019	Peru

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.^[20] The Commissioners of the IACHR had unanimously approved the contract extension in January 2020,^[20] 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 Abrao's removal.^[21][22]

Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Name	Country	Term	Notes
Luis Reque	Bolivia	1960 – June 1976
Charles D. Moyer	United States	January – August 1977	Interim Executive Secretary.
	Chile	September 1977 – March 1990
David J. Padilla	United States	March – June 1990	Interim Executive Secretary.
	Venezuela	May 1990 – February 1996
David J. Padilla	United States	January – May 1996	Interim Executive Secretary.
Jorge Enrique Taiana	Argentina	March 1996 – July 2001
	Argentina	August 2001 – June 2012
Emilio Alvarez Icaza	Mexico	August 2012 – August 2016
Paulo Abrão	Brazil	August 2016 – August 2020
María Claudia Pulido	Colombia	17 August 2020 – present	Acting Executive Secretary.
Source: OAS, Former IACHR Executive Secretaries.

Human rights violations investigated by the Inter-American Commission[]

• Massacre of Trujillo (Colombia)^[23]
• Barrios Altos massacre (Peru)
• Lori Berenson (Peru)
• La Cantuta massacre (Peru)
• El Caracazo (Venezuela)
• Japanese embassy hostage crisis (Peru)^[24]
• Deaths in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico)
• Antoine Izméry (Haiti)
• Plan de Sánchez massacre (Guatemala)
• Censorship in Venezuela (Venezuela)
• District of Columbia voting rights (United States of America)^[25]
• Domestic violence protection in the case of Jessica Gonzales^[26]
• Extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo of Djamel Ameziane^[27]
• 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping (Mexico)^[28]
• Intermnent of Japanese Latin Americans (United States)^[29][30]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• IACHR case law
• OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression