The applicable standards in the Inter-American system
consist of the originally non-binding American Declaration on the Rights and
Duties of Man (1948) and the American Convention on Human Rights (1969). The
relationship between the two is comparable in some ways to that between the
UDHR and the two International Covenants, institutional structure and normative
provisions superficially are similar.
But they are distinctive in many ways. Conditions under which the two
systems developed were radically different. For example, within the Council of
Europe, military and other authoritarian governments have been rare and
short-lived, while in Latin America they were close to be the norm until the
1980s. The issues American system has been forced to address also are often
quite different and graver from those that have preoccupied the ECtHR, for
example: Disappearances, killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, the death
penalty, amnesty laws and related issues have been on the agenda of the
Commission since 1970s and of the Court since the 1980s.
In terms of functions, the Inter-American Court’s
advisory jurisdiction is much broader than that of the ECtHR. Similarly, in its
contentious jurisdiction the former is authorized to interpret not only the
American Convention but also other human rights treaties ratified by OAS
(Organization of American States) member states. Another important difference
it that the Inter-American Court no longer permits a state against whom a case
is brought to have its own national or an ad hoc sitting in the case.
Among the significant contributions made by the
Inter-American Court to human rights jurisprudence in general have been its defense
of the rights of indigenous peoples and its emphasis on the provision of
extensive and carefully tailored reparations by states found to have violated
their human rights obligations.
Over the years also Inter-American Commission has evolved
significantly in terms of its techniques. Significant success was with in-loco
visits to countries experiencing human rights problems. Its reports on
Argentina of the problem of disappearances (1978) remains a classic in terms of
effective fact finding and follow-up
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