The Role of Country Reports in the Inter-American System of Human Rights
| Author | Cecilia Medina |
| Published date | 01 December 1997 |
| Date | 01 December 1997 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/092405199701500403 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
457
The Role
of
Country Reports in the Inter-American System
of
Human Rights
Cecilia Medina'
Abstract
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one
of
the organs
of
the inter-
American system
for
the promotion and protection
of
human rights, has a variety
of
powers with which it carries out its function. This article deals with one
of
these powers
that results in the issuance by the Commission
of
reports containing an examination
of
the
general situation
of
human rights in a country. The article gives a
brief
description
of
the
Commission's various powers and describes the development, out
of
the Commission's
practice,
of
the very important procedure to prepare and publish country reports. The
remarkable flexibility
of
this procedure is examined in the light
of
the contents
of
many
reports produced by the Commission, and particularly
of
the 1994 Report on El Salvador.
The reaction
of
the
GAS
political organs to the country reports is also examined, as well
as a modality
of
country reports incorporated in the Commission's Annual Reports, which
purport to monitor in a shorter manner the situation
of
human rights in some countries.
IIntroduction
The inter-American system for the promotion and protection
of
human rights, unlike the
European system, did not come to life in an orderly fashion. The first glimpses
of
an
apparent concern for human rights started to develop within the Organization
of
American
States (OAS) after the Second World War by means
of
resolutions
of
its political organs,I
and the motive was mainly to rally around the United States the rest
of
the OAS Member
States in the struggle against communism and the Soviet Union.' In 1948 the Organization
gave itself aCharter and at the same time adopted an American Declaration on the Rights
Researcher
of
the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM); Professor
of
International Law at the Law
Faculty of the University Diego Portales, Chile; Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School (Robert F.
Kennedy Chair) and Member
of
the UN Human Rights Committee. This article is a slightly adjustedversion
of a chapter that will be published in:
DJ.
Harris and S. Livingstone (eds.), The Inter-American System
of
lluman Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming in March 1998.
The Organization
of
American States, the regional organisation in the Americas, has a long history. It started
out as the Panamerican Union at the end of the 19th century under the leadership of the United States, and
its concern was (i) on the part
of
the United States, to develop a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of
disputes that would facilitate trade between the United States and the rest of the countries in the Americas;
and (ii) on the part
of
Latin American countries, to set forth an international rule forbidding a State to
intervene in the internal affairs of other States (See for a history of the system, C. Medina, The Battle
of
Human Rights. Gross, Systematic Violations and the Inter-American System, Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht,
1988, Chapter III). The OAS Charter was adopted on 30 April 1948 and entered into force on 13 December
1951. It has been amended by the Protocol of Buenos Aires (adopted in 1967), by the Protocol
of
Cartagena
de Indias (adopted in 1985), by the Protocol
of
Washington (adopted in 1992), and by the Protocol of
Managua (adopted in 1993). The last text of the Charter entered into force on 29 January 1996.
See ibidem, pp. 21-24.
Netherlallds Quarterly
of
Human Rights. Vol. 15/4. 457-473, 1997.
©Netherlands Institute
of
Human Rights (SIM). Prillted ill the Netherlands.
NQHR
4/1997
and Duties
of
Man, similar in its nature to the Universal Declaration
of
Human Rights
adopted some months later in the framework
of
the United Nations.'
The existence
of
an American Declaration did not serve any purpose in connection with
human rights until, in 1959, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was created
by Resolution VIII
of
the Fifth Meeting
of
Consultation of Ministers
of
Foreign Affairs."
The Commission's Statute directed it to use the standards in the American Declaration to
evaluate the conduct
of
States in matters
of
human rights.' Thus the Commission and the
human rights it was supposed to study were
of
aprecarious nature, since neither the
Commission nor the human rights under its care were supported by the sound legal basis
of
a treaty. The situation changed when the American Convention on Human Rights was
adopted and entered into force." The Commission had become an organ
of
the OAS with
the amendment
of
the OAS Charter at the Third Special Inter-American Conference in
1967,7 but the Convention tumed it also into an organ
of
the treaty charged with the
supervision
of
the human rights set forth therein." With the entry into force
of
the
Convention the Commission was then to function in a double capacity, as organ
of
the
Convention and as organ
of
the Charter, since, by means
of
aresolution
of
the Permanent
Council, the Commission retained its powers to examine the situation
of
human rights in
OAS Member States which did not or would not become parties to the Convention."
From its inception and until the American Convention entered into force in 1978, the
Commission reigned alone over human rights in the continent and enjoyed an exceptional
freedom to establish and develop through practice procedures and mechanisms to fit the
specific situation
of
the countries it had to supervise." Furthermore, the Commission was
vested, unlike other international supervisory organs in the field
of
human rights, with an
extensive and varied range
of
powers, including the power to develop an awareness
of
human rights in the peoples
of
the Americas and that
of
examining communications from
individuals who consider themselves victims
of
a violation
of
their human rights by an
OAS Member State.
Three powers were instrumental to the creation by the Commission
of
the procedure
to examine the general situation
of
human rights in a country and prepare and publish a
country report based upon this examination. These were the powers (i) to prepare such
The American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man was adopted in t948 as Resolution XXX of the
Ninth International Conference of American States. Text in OEA, CIDH, Documentos Basicos en Materia
de Derechos Humanos en el Sistema 1nteramericano (actualizado a mayo de 1996), OEA/Ser.LIVIII.92 doc.
31 rev. 3, 3 May 1996, original: Spanish, hereinafter Basic Documents 1996.
Resolution VIII, Fifth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Final
Act
(OENSer.CIII.5,
English).
Text of 1960 Statute in IACHR, Basic Documents (OEA/Ser.LIV/I.4, IDecember 1960, original: Spanish).
The American Convention on Human Rights was adopted at San Jose, Costa Rica, on 22 November 1969;
it entered into force on 18 July 1978 and has, as of October 1997, 25 States Parties. Text in OEA, CIDH,
Basic Documents 1996, supra note 3.
The Third Special Inter-American Conference met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 15-27 February 1967
and the Protocol of Buenos Aires, amending the Charter, was adopted on 26 February. The Protocol entered
into force in February 1970. The current OAS Charter mentions the Inter-AmericanCommission as an organ
of the Organization in Articles 52 and
Ill.
The American Convention also created a new supervisory organ, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,
ajudicial body with contentious and advisory jurisdiction. See Articles 33 and 52 to 69.
See Resolution 253 of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States. Spanish text of the
Resolution in OEA, Consejo Permanente, Actade la sesion ordinaria celebrada el 20 de septiembre de 1978
(OEA/Ser.G, CP/ACTA 343/28, 20 September 1978).
10 For an elaboration on this point, see Medina, op.cit. (note 1), particularly Chapter IV.
458
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