Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

English 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	www.oas.org/en/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 precautionary measures 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^[13]
• Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination^[14]
• Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders^[15]

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.^[16]

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^[when?] its 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.^[17][18]

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
Antonia Urrejola Noguera	Chile	President	2017	2018–2021
Julissa Mantilla Falcón	Peru	First Vice-president	2019	2020–2023
Flávia Piovesan	Brazil	Second Vice-president	2017	2018–2021
Margarette May Macaulay	Jamaica	Commissioner	2015	2016–2023
Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño	Panama	Commissioner	2015	2016–2023
Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana	Chile	Commissioner	2019	2020–2023
Source of IACHR Composition.[19]

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	Durward 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	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	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
2009–2011	El Salvador	María Silvia Guillén
2010–2013	Colombia	Rodrigo Escobar Gil
2010–2013	USA	Dinah Shelton
2008–2015	Chile	Felipe González Morales	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	Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva
2016–2019	Peru	Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli
2018–2021	Mexico	Joel Hernández García

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.
Edmundo Vargas Carreño	Chile	September 1977 – March 1990
David J. Padilla	United States	March – June 1990	Interim Executive Secretary.
Edith Márquez Rodríguez	Venezuela	May 1990 – February 1996
David J. Padilla	United States	January – May 1996	Interim Executive Secretary.
Jorge Enrique Taiana	Argentina	March 1996 – July 2001
Santiago Canton	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]
• Internment of Japanese Latin Americans (United States)^[29][30]