The United States and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Abstract

[T]he last half century has witnessed the internationalization of human rights and the humanization of international law. The recognition of the individual as the holder of rights and that respect for such rights may require specific responses from the state has brought about fundamental changes in international law over the last half-century. Regional human rights systems have played a vital role in this development of international law and have gained steadily increasing legitimacy. All the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Council of Europe, and the African Union are subject to regional human rights supervision. The OAS is the world's oldest regional organization, and the primary multilateral forum for the United States and its hemispheric neighbors. The essential purpose of the OAS is to strengthen peace and security in the Americas, and the inter-American human rights system is an essential tool in the pursuit of this regional objective. Ratification of the OAS Charter creates a minimum set of human rights obligations for a member state. States may opt to expand those obligations by ratifying any or all of a series of regional human rights treaties. The system provides two organs to supervise member-state compliance with regional human rights obligations: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (“Commission”) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“Court”). The Commission carries out a diverse range of quasi-judicial and quasi-political supervisory functions.