The Inter-American Human Rights System and US-Latin American Relations

Abstract

The Inter-American Human Rights System (the IAHRS) has been an integral part of the regional institutional landscape of the Americas since the mid-twentieth century. The regional human rights system has evolved in the light of the specific conditions prevailing in the region. A progressive development of regional human rights jurisprudence is reflected in the way the system struggled in its adolescent form during the early period of the Cold War to promote human rights in the region and how it judged the political calculations of transitional governments. Such developments received a boost with the return to democratic rule in the region and in this sense the direction of the Inter-American System as a whole became bound up with the maintenance and progress of political democracy. But, of course, democratic rule as such is not a guarantee for the respect of human rights, as the system has turned its attention to the challenge of ensuring the quality of democratic rule. The system has established the legal obligation under regional and international jurisprudence of states to protect the rights of citizens, and in the light of the failure to do so, the international obligation to hold states accountable. The IAHRS, therefore, has gradually evolved into a transnationalized regime as the system has opened up space for transnational political activity.1