Inter-American Commission on Human Rights


The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States.
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 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.
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

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:
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:
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. 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 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 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, petitions must be filed within six months of the last action taken in a domestic system, petitions can not be before another court.
Once a petition has been filed, it follows the following procedure:

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.

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".
The Convention 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, and commissioners are required to refrain from participating in the discussion of cases involving their home countries.

Current commissioners

Past commissioners

YearStateCommissionersPresident
Chairman
1960–1963Rómulo Gallegos1960
1960–1964Reynaldo Galindo Pohl
1960–1968Gonzalo Escudero
1960–1972Ángela Acuña de Chacón
1960–1972Durward V. Sandifer
1960–1972Manuel Bianchi Gundián
1960–1979Gabino Fraga
1964–1968Daniel Hugo Martins
1964–1983Carlos A. Dunshee de Abranches
1968–1972Mario Alzamora Valdez
1968–1972Justino Jiménez de Arechega
1972–1976Genaro R. Carrió
1972–1976Robert F. Woodward
1972–1985Andrés Aguilar
1976–1979Carlos García Bauer
1976–1979Fernando Volio Jiménez
1976–1983Tom J. Farer
1976–1978José Joaquín Gori
1978–1987Marco Gerardo Monroy Cabra
1980–1987Franciso Bertrand Galindo
1980–1985César Sepúlveda
1980–1985Luis Demetrio Tinoco Castro
1984–1988R. Bruce McColm
1984–1987Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas
1984–1991Gilda Maciel Correa Russomano
1986–1989Elsa Kelly
1986–1993Marco Tulio Bruni-Celli
1986–1993Oliver H. Jackman
1988–1991John Reese Stevenson
1988–1995Leo Valladares Lanza
1988–1995Patrick Lipton Robinson
1990–1997Óscar Luján Fappiano
1992–1995Michael Reisman
1994–1997John S. Donaldson1997
1998–1999Sir Henry de Boulay Forde
1992–1999Álvaro Tirado Mejía1995
1996–1999Carlos Ayala Corao1998
1996–1999Jean-Joseph Exumé
1994–2001Claudio Grossman1996
2001
1998–2001Hélio Bicudo2000
1999–2001Peter Laurie
2002–2002Diego García Sayán
1996–2003Robert K. Goldman1999
2000–2003Marta Altolaguirre Larraondo2003
2000–2003Juan E. Méndez2002
2000–2003Julio Prado Vallejo
2002–2005Susana Villarán
2001–2005José Zalaquett2004
2004–2007Evelio Fernández Arévalos2006
2004–2007Freddy Gutiérrez
2002–2009Sir Clare Kamau Roberts
2004–2009Florentín Meléndez
2006–2009Víctor Abramovich
2006–2009Paolo Carozza2008
2004–2011Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro
2008–2011Luz Patricia Mejía2009
2009–2011María Silvia Guillén
2010–2013Rodrigo Escobar Gil
2010–2013Dinah Shelton
2008–2015Felipe González Morales2010
2012–2015 Rose-Marie Belle Antoine2015
2012–2015Tracy Robinson2014
2012–2015Rosa María Ortiz

Human rights violations investigated by the Inter-American Commission