Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Established	22 May 1979 (1979-05-22)
Country	The Americas
Location	San José, Costa Rica
Authorized by	American Convention on Human Rights Statute of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Judge term length	Six years
Number of positions	Seven
Website	Official Website
President
Currently	Judge Roberto de Figueiredo Caldas
Since	2016
Lead position ends	2018
Vice-President
Currently	Judge Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot
Since	2016
Lead position ends	2018

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it makes up the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States (OAS), which serves to uphold and promote basic rights and freedoms in the Americas.

Purpose and functions

The Organization of American States established the Court in 1979 to enforce and interpret the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights. Its two main functions are thus adjudicatory and advisory. Under the former, it hears and rules on the specific cases of human rights violations referred to it. Under the latter, it issues opinions on matters of legal interpretation brought to its attention by other OAS bodies or member states.

Adjudicatory function

The adjudicatory function requires the Court to rule on cases brought before it in which a state party to the Convention, and thus has accepted its jurisdiction, is accused of a human rights violation.

In addition to ratifying the Convention, a state party must voluntarily submit to the Court's jurisdiction for it to be competent to hear a case involving that state. Acceptance of contentious jurisdiction can be given on a blanket basis – to date, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela have done so^[1] – or, alternatively, a state can agree to abide by the Court's jurisdiction in a specific, individual case.

Trinidad and Tobago originally signed the Convention on 28 May 1991 but suspended its ratification on 26 May 1998 (effective 26 May 1999) over the death penalty issue. In 1999, under President Alberto Fujimori, Peru announced it was withdrawing its acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction. This decision was reversed by the transitional government of Valentín Paniagua in 2001.

The United States signed but never ratified the Convention.

Under the Convention, cases can be referred to the Court by either the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or a state party. In contrast to the European human rights system, individual citizens of the OAS member states are not allowed to take cases directly to the Court.

The following conditions must be met:

• Individuals who believe that their rights have been violated must first lodge a complaint with the Commission and have that body rule on the admissibility of the claim.
• If the case is ruled admissible and the state deemed at fault, the Commission will generally serve the state with a list of recommendations to make amends for the violation.
• Only if the state fails to abide by these recommendations, or if the Commission decides that the case is of particular importance or legal interest, will the case be referred to the Court.
• The presentation of a case before the Court can therefore be considered a measure of last resort, taken only after the Commission has failed to resolve the matter in a noncontentious fashion.

Proceedings before the Court are divided into written and oral phases.

Written phase

In the written phase, the case application is filed, indicating the facts of the case, the plaintiffs, the evidence and witnesses the applicant plans to present at trial, and the claims for redress and costs. If the application is ruled admissible by the Court's secretary, notice thereof is served on the judges, the state or the Commission (depending on who lodged the application), the victims or their next-of-kin, the other member states, and OAS headquarters.

For 30 days following notification, any of the parties in the case may submit a brief containing preliminary objections to the application. If it deems necessary, the Court can convene a hearing to deal with the preliminary objections. Otherwise, in the interests of procedural economy, it can deal with the parties' preliminary objections and the merits of the case at the same hearing.

Within 60 days following notification, the respondent must supply a written answer to the application, stating whether it accepts or disputes the facts and claims it contains.

Once this answer has been submitted, any of the parties in the case may request the Court president's permission to lodge additional pleadings prior to the commencement of the oral phase.

Oral phase

The president sets the date for the start of oral proceedings, for which the Court is considered quorate with the presence of five judges.

During the oral phase, the judges may ask any question they see fit of any of the persons appearing before them. Witnesses, expert witnesses, and other persons admitted to the proceedings may, at the president's discretion, be questioned by the representatives of the Commission or the state, or by the victims, their next-of-kin, or their agents, as applicable. The president is permitted to rule on the relevance of questions asked and to excuse the person asked the question from replying, unless overruled by the Court.

Ruling

After hearing the witnesses and experts and analyzing the evidence presented, the Court issues its judgment. Its deliberations are conducted in private and, once the judgment has been adopted, it is notified to all the parties involved. If the merits judgment does not cover the applicable reparations for the case, they must be determined at a separate hearing or through some other procedure as decided on by the Court.

The reparations the Court orders can be both monetary and nonmonetary in nature. The most direct form of redress are cash compensation payments extended to the victims or their next-of-kin. However, the state can also be required to grant benefits in kind, to offer public recognition of its responsibility, to take steps to prevent similar violations occurring in the future, and other forms of nonmonetary compensation.

For example, in its November 2001 judgment^[2] in the Barrios Altos case – dealing with the massacre in Lima, Peru, of 15 people at the hands of the state-sponsored Colina Group death squad in November 1991 – the Court ordered payments of US$175,000 for the four survivors and for the next-of-kin of the murdered victims and a payment of $250,000 for the family of one of the victims. It also required Peru:

• to grant the victims' families free health care and various forms of educational support, including scholarships and supplies of school uniforms, equipment, and books;
• to repeal two controversial amnesty laws;
• to establish the crime of extrajudicial killing in its domestic law;
• to ratify the International Convention on the Nonapplicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity;
• to publish the Court's judgment in the national media;
• to publicly apologize for the incident and to undertake to prevent similar events from recurring in the future;
• and to erect a memorial monument to the victims of the massacre.

While the Court's decisions admit no appeal, parties can lodge requests for interpretation with the Court secretary within 90 days of judgment being issued. When possible, requests for interpretation are heard by the same panel of judges that ruled on the merits.

Advisory function

The Court's advisory function enables it to respond to consultations submitted by OAS agencies and member states regarding the interpretation of the Convention or other instruments governing human rights in the Americas; it also empowers it to give advice on domestic laws and proposed legislation, and to clarify whether or not they are compatible with the Convention's provisions. This advisory jurisdiction is available to all OAS member states, not only those that have ratified the Convention and accepted the Court's adjudicatory function. The Court's replies to these consultations are published separately from its contentious judgments, as advisory opinions.

Criticisms

The Court's behaviour has also been criticized. Among other issues, some authors have criticized the politization of the Court.^[3] Some of the latest criticisms come from Peru ^[4] and Venezuela.^[5] Up to now Trinidad and Tobago is the only State who has withdrawn from the system.^[6] Peru tried to do so, but did not follow the appropriate procedure.^[7] The last of these criticisms is directed against the Court's decision in the case of the Mapiripán Massacre declaring that some people were murdered with the consent of the Colombian state, a few of whom were subsequently found alive.^[8]

Composition

As stipulated by Chapter VIII of the Convention, the Court consists of seven judges of the highest moral authority from the Organization's member states. These judges are elected to six-year terms by the OAS General Assembly; each judge may be reelected for an additional six-year term.

Unlike the commissioners of the Inter-American Commission, judges are not required to recuse themselves from hearing cases involving their home countries; however no member state may have more than one representative judge serving on the Court at any time. In the event a member state is party to a case as a defendant does not have a representative judge sitting on the Court, the member state is entitled to appoint a judge to the court ad hoc for the case.

After the Convention came into force on 18 July 1978, the first election of judges took place on 22 May 1979. The new Court first convened on 29 June 1979 at the Organization of American States Headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States.

Current Judges

Name	State	Position	Term
Roberto de Figueiredo Caldas	Brazil	President	2013–2018
Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot	Mexico	Vice-President	2013–2018
Eduardo Vio Grossi	Chile	Judge	2016–2021
Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto	Colombia	Judge	2013–2018
Elizabeth Odio Benito	Costa Rica	Judge	2016–2021
Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni	Argentina	Judge	2016–2021
Patricio Pazmiño Freire	Ecuador	Judge	2016–2021

Former Presidents of the Court

Years	Country	Judge
2014–2015	Colombia	Humberto Sierra Porto
2010–2013	Peru	Diego García-Sayán
2008–2009	Chile	Cecilia Medina
2004–2007	Mexico	Sergio García Ramírez
1999–2003	Brazil	Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade
1997–1999	Ecuador	Hernán Salgado Pesantes
1994–1997	Mexico	Héctor Fix Zamudio
1993–1994	Colombia	Rafael Nieto Navia
1990–1993	Mexico	Héctor Fix Zamudio
1989–1990	Uruguay	Héctor Gros Espiell
1987–1989	Colombia	Rafael Nieto Navia
1985–1987	United States	Thomas Buergenthal
1983–1985	Venezuela	Pedro Nikken
1981–1983	Honduras	Carlos Roberto Reina
1979–1981	Costa Rica	Rodolfo E. Piza Escalante

Former members of the Court

Year	State	Members of the Court	President
1979–1981	Colombia	César Ordóñez
1979–1985	Venezuela	Máximo Cisneros Sánchez
1979–1985	Jamaica	Huntley Eugene Munroe
1979–1985	Honduras	Carlos Roberto Reina	1981–1983
1979–1989	Costa Rica	Rodolfo E. Piza Escalante	1979–1989
1979–1989	Venezuela	Pedro Nikken	1983–1985
1979–1991	United States	Thomas Buergenthal	1985–1987
1981–1994	Colombia	Rafael Nieto Navia	1987–1989, 1993–1994
1985–1989	Honduras	Jorge R. Hernández Alcerro
1985–1990	Uruguay	Héctor Gros Espiell	1989–1990
1985–1997	Mexico	Héctor Fix-Zamudio	1990–1993, 1994–1997
1989–1991	Honduras	Policarpo Callejas
1989–1991	Venezuela	Orlando Tovar Tamayo
1989–1994	Costa Rica	Sonia Picado Sotela
1990–1991	Argentina	Julio A. Barberis
1991–1994	Venezuela	Asdrúbal Aguiar Aranguren
1991–1997	Nicaragua	Alejandro Montiel Argüello
1991–2003	Chile	Máximo Pacheco Gómez
1991–2003	Ecuador	Hernán Salgado Pesantes	1997–1999
1998–2003	Colombia	Carlos Vicente de Roux-Rengifo
1995–2006	Barbados	Oliver H. Jackman
1995–2006	Venezuela	Alirio Abreu Burelli
1995–2006	Brazil	Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade	1999-2003
2001-2003	Argentina	Ricardo Gil Lavedra
2004–2009	Mexico	Sergio García Ramírez	2004-2007
2004–2009	Chile	Cecilia Medina Quiroga	2008-2009
2004-2015	Costa Rica	Manuel Ventura Robles
2004-2015	Peru	Diego García-Sayán	2010-2013
2007–2012	Jamaica	Margarette May Macaulay
2007-2012	Dominican Republic	Rhadys Abreu Blondet
2007-2012	Argentina	Leonardo A. Franco
2010-2015	Uruguay	Alberto Pérez Pérez

Notable cases heard by the Court

See also

• European Court of Human Rights, regional court originally established in 1959
• African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, regional court established in 2006
• Utrecht School of Law Clinical Programme on Conflict, Human Rights and International Justice in cooperation with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, established in 2009.

References

Further reading

• T. Buergenthal, R. Norris, D. Shelton, Protecting Human Rights in the Americas. Cases and material, Kehl, N.P Engel Publisher. Verlag, 1995.
• L. Burgorgue-Larsen, A. Ubeda de Torres, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Case law and Commentary, Oxford, OUP, 2011.
• L. Hennebel, "The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: The Ambassador of Universalism", Quebec Journal of International Law, Special Edition, p. 57, 2011.

External links

• Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• IACHR case law and basic documents