Abstract
Over a period of fifty years, the nations of the Western Hemisphere have developed a relatively sophisticated and progressive system of international human rights protection for their citizens. Though the region is often thought of as Latin America, the system also comprises the independent nations of the Caribbean, which include Spanish-speaking Cuba and the Dominican Republic, French-speaking Haiti, and about a dozen English-speaking island nations, plus English-speaking United States and Canada. Also included is Suriname, whose official language is Dutch; and Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken. The cultural diversity of the region is, however, even greater than these officially recognized languages suggest, given the many different indigenous peoples (in some countries comprising the majority of the population) and the vast contingents from Europe, Africa, and Asia whose ancestors came as immigrants or slaves.
The author gratefully acknowledges the contribution to this article of Javier Mariezcurrena.
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Notes
For a comprehensive analysis of Cuba’s legal situation vis-à-vis the inter-American system of protection, see Thomas Buergenthal, Robert Norris, and Dinah Shelton, La Protección de los Derechos Humanos en las Américas (San José: Civitas-IIHR, 1983), pp. 120–35.
It took forty-six years for the OAS to adopt this doctrine, first proposed in 1945 by Uruguayan minister Rodríguez Larreta. At the time, the so-called Rodríguez Larreta doctrine was apparently considered dangerously vague and interventionist in character, especially because no treaty or protection procedure to implement it was offered. Héctor Gros Espiell, “La democracia en el sistema interamericano de promocion y proteccion de los derechos humanos,” in Estudios sobre Derechos Humanos II (Madrid: Civitas-IIHR, 1988), p. 129.
Antonio A. Cançado Trindade, “Democracia y Derechos Humanos: El regimen emergente de la promocion internacional de la democracia y el estado de derecho,” in Rafael Nieto, ed., La Corte y el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (San José: IACourtHR, 1994).
See Douglass Cassel, “Lecciones en las Américas: Lineamientos para una respuesta internacional ante la amnistía de las atrocidades” in Revista IIDH, No. 24 (San José: IIHR), 1996, p. 318
Héctor Gros Espiell, “La democracia en el sistema interamericano,” in lecciones y Ensayos (Buenos Aires: School of Law and Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, 1999), p. 621.
The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) was signed in 1969 and came into force in 1979. See, for example, F.V. Garcia-Amador, ed., The Inter-American System: Treaties, Conventions and Other Documents (New York: Oceana Publications, 1983)
See Viviana Krsticevic, Juan E. Méndez, Drew Porter, and José Miguel Vivanco, “Freedom of Expression and National Security in the Inter-American System of Human Rights Protection,” in Sandra Coliver, Joan Fitzpatrick, and Paul Hoffman, eds., Secrecy and liberty: National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (Boston: M. Nijhoff, 1999).
See Aryeh Neier, “What Should be Done About the Guilty?” The New York Review of Books, February 1, 1999, p. 32; Diane F. Orentlicher, “Addressing Gross Human Rights Abuses: Punishment and Victim Compensation,” in Louis Henkin and John L. Hargrove, eds., Human Rights: An Agenda for the Next Century (Washington, DC: American Society of International Law, 1994)
Naomi Roth-Arriaza, ed., Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)
UN Doc. A/Conf.183/9, 1998, in M. Cherif Bassiouni, comp., The Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Documentary History (Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 1998).
Federal Criminal Court of Appeal of Buenos Aires, Cause No. 450, Suarez Mason, Carlos Guillermo s/homicidio, privación de la libertad, etc., known as the Lapaco case, and Supreme Court of Argentina, Urteaga case cit. See also Juan E. Méndez, “The Right to Truth” in Christopher Joyner, ed., Reining in Impunity for International Crimes and Serious Violations of Fundamental Human Rights (Siracusa, Italy: Association Internationale de Droit Penal, Eres, 1998).
See Juan E. Méndez, “La Participación de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en los Conflictos entre los Miskitos y el Gobierno de Nicaragua,” in Vargas Carreño, ed., Human Rights in the Americas: Homage to the Memory of Carlos A. Dunshee de Abranches (Washington, DC: OAS, 1984).
See Viviana Krsticevic, “Líneas de trabajo para mejorar la eficacia del sistema,” in Juan E. Méndez and Francisco Cox, eds., El Futuro del Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos (San José: IIHR, 1998), p. 426.
Oscar Fappiano, “La ejecución de las decisiones de tribunales internacionales por parte de los órganos locales,” in Martín Abregú and Christian Courtis, eds., La aplicación de los tratados de derechos humanos por los tribunales locales (Buenos Aires: CELS-Del Puerto, 1997), p. 149.
Thomas Buergenthal, El sistema inter americano para la protección de los derechos humanos in Anuario Jurídico Interamericano (Washington, DC: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1981), p. 161.
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© 2000 Samantha Power and Graham Allison
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Méndez, J.E. (2000). The Inter-American System of Protection: Its Contributions to the International Law of Human Rights. In: Power, S., Allison, G. (eds) Realizing Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-03608-7_6
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