Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages – Spanish, French, and Organization of American States (OAS).

Along with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, it is one of the bodies that comprise the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights.

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.

Its human rights duties stem from three documents:

• the OAS Charter
• the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
• 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Functions of the Inter-American Commission

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.^[1]
• 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:

• Rapporteurship on Migrant Workers and their Families
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women - it was the first Rapporteurship created by the IACHR in 1994
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of the Child
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination
• Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders

• Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression It is the only Special Rapporteurship of the IACHR, meaning that it has a Rapporteur dedicated full-time to the job. 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.

Petitions

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

Petitions may be filed by states, 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:

• 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 make either publish the Article 50 report or to 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

Politization and position in debatable matters

The Commission's performance has not been always welcomed. Among others, Venezuela has criticized its politization. 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, lead by the States belonging to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.^[2]

Position on debatable matters

Some scholars have criticized the Commission's position in relation to debatable themes, such as its support of some kinds of abortion and homosexual marriage.^[3]

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 of the Inter-American Commission

The IACHR's ranking officers are its seven commissioners. The commissioners are elected by the

Current Commissioners

Name	State	Position	Elected	Term
Dinah Shelton	USA	Chair	2010	2010–2013
Jesús Orozco Henríquez	Mexico	First Vice Chair	2010	2010–2013
Rodrigo Escobar Gil	Colombia	Second Vice Chair	2010	2010–2013
Felipe González Morales	Chile	Commissioner	2007	2008–2015
Rose-Marie Belle Antoine	St. Lucia	Commissioner	2011	2012–2015
Rosa María Ortiz	Paraguay	Commissioner	2011	2012–2015
Tracy Robinson	Jamaica	Commissioner	2011	2012–2015
Source: IACHR elects officers (16 March 2009). See also: IACHR distributes rapporteurships (4 March 2008).

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	Chile	Ángela Acuña de Chacón
1960–1972	USA	Durwood V. Sandifer
1960–1972	Chile	Manuel Bianchi Gundián
1960–1979	Mexico	Gabino Fraga
1964–1968	Uruguay	Daniel Hugo Martins
1964–1983	Brazil	Carlos A. Dunshee de Abranches
1968–1972	Peru	Mario Alzamora Valdez
1968–1972	Uruguay	Justino Jiménez de Arechega
1972–1976	Argentina	Genaro R. Carrió
1972–1976	USA	Robert F. Woodward
1972–1985	Venezuela	Andrés Aguilar
1976–1979	Guatemala	Carlos García Bauer
1976–1979	Costa Rica	Fernando Volio Jiménez
1976–1983	USA	Tom J. Farer
1976–1978	Colombia	José Joaquín Gori
1978–1987	Colombia	Marco Gerardo Monroy Cabra
1980–1987	El Salvador	Franciso Bertrand Galindo
1980–1985	Mexico	César Sepúlveda
1980–1985	Costa Rica	Luis Demetrio Tinoco Castro
1984–1988	USA	R. Bruce McColm
1984–1987	Bolivia	Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas
1984–1991	Brazil	Gilda Maciel Correa Russomano
1986–1989	Argentina	Elsa Kelly
1986–1993	Venezuela	Marco Tulio Bruni-Celli
1986–1993	Barbados	Oliver H. Jackman
1988–1991	USA	John Reese Stevenson
1988–1995	Honduras	Leo Valladares Lanza
1988–1995	Jamaica	Patrick Lipton Robinson
1990–1997	Argentina	Óscar Luján Fappiano
1992–1995	USA	Michael Reisman
1994–1997	Trinidad and Tobago	John S. Donaldson	1997
1998–1999	Barbados	Sir Henry de Boulay Forde
1992–1999	Colombia	Álvaro Tirado Mejía	1995
1996–1999	Venezuela	Carlos Ayala Corao	1998
1996–1999	Haiti	Jean-Joseph Exumé
1994–2001	USA	Claudio Grossman	1996 2001
1998–2001	Brazil	Hélio Bicudo	2000
1999–2001	Barbados	Peter Laurie
2002–2002	Peru	Diego García Sayán
1996–2003	USA	Robert K. Goldman	1999
2000–2003	Guatemala	Marta Altolaguirre Larraondo	2003
2000–2003	Argentina	Juan E. Méndez	2002
2000–2003	Ecuador	Julio Prado Vallejo
2002–2005	Peru	Susana Villarán
2001–2005	Chile	José Zalaquett	2004
2004–2007	Paraguay	Evelio Fernández Arévalos	2006
2004–2007	Venezuela	Freddy Gutiérrez
2002–2009	Antigua and Barbuda	Sir Clare Kamau Roberts
2004–2009	El Salvador	Florentín Meléndez
2006–2009	Argentina	Víctor Abramovich
2006–2009	USA	Paolo Carozza	2008
2004–2011	Brazil	Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
2008–2011	Venezuela	Luz Patricia Mejía	2009

Human rights violations investigated by the Inter-American Commission

• Massacre of Trujillo (Colombia)
• Barrios Altos massacre (Peru)
• Lori Berenson (Peru)
• La Cantuta massacre (Peru)
• El Caracazo (Venezuela)
• Japanese embassy hostage crisis (Peru)^[4]
• Deaths in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico)
• Antoine Izméry (Haiti)
• Plan de Sánchez massacre (Guatemala)
• Freedom of expression in Venezuela (Venezuela)
• District of Columbia voting rights (United States of America) ^[5]
• Domestic violence protection in the case of Jessica Gonzales^[6]
• Extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo of Djamel Ameziane.^[7]

References