The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) makes recommendations to the Member States of the Organization of American States (OEA) in order to promote due respect for human rights. This is one of the functions mandated to the Commission to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the Americas. Within the framework of its petition and case system, the Commission adopts and follows up on the recommendations in published merits reports; the decisions in the reports which approve friendly settlement agreements between Member States and petitioners before the inter-American human rights system; and, the decisions in the resolutions that grant or extend precautionary measures to persons or groups in situations of imminent risk. Within the framework of its monitoring system, the Commission adopts and follows up on the recommendations published in thematic reports, the Annual Report of the IACHR and in reports on the human rights situations in countries. Throughout its history, the Commission has consolidated its practice of following up on its reports by producing specific follow-up reports that aim to assess compliance with previously issued recommendations.
The Commission assessed that the effectiveness and efficiency of the recommendations it makes to States through both its petition and case system, and its monitoring system, were identified as essential elements upon which the Commission should redouble its efforts. In this sense, in order for this search for effectiveness to have a viable instrument for its implementation as part of the new 2017-2021 Strategic Plan of the IACHR, the Commission is developing a special program that crosscuts across all of the Strategic Objectives and Programs of the Strategic Plan: the Special Program to Monitor IACHR Recommendations (Program 21). Program 21 is developing ongoing coordinated actions to follow up on recommendations using all of the IACHR’s mechanisms. This Program seeks to strengthen the capacities of the IACHR to promote an effective follow-up of the recommendations and decisions it produces, as well as to verify the level of compliance and domestic incorporation of States’ international human rights obligations. Through the Program, the IACHR hopes to contribute to the improvement of its current mechanisms for following up on the recommendations issued, in an integrated and coordinated manner, in order to strengthen these mechanisms and to create a system for following up on recommendations, expanding the effectiveness of the inter-American human rights system as a pillar and shared commitment of the Americas.
In accordance with its 2017-2021 Strategic Plan, the IACHR created and put into operation in 2018 the Follow-up of Recommendations Section, which is structurally linked to the Assistant Executive Secretariat for the Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation in Human Rights, and which has the function of organizing the follow-up work of the entire Executive Secretariat of the IACHR in an integral, transversal and coordinated manner. The Section is responsible for coordinating the follow-up of the recommendations issued by the IACHR through its various mechanisms and tools (Executive Order SG/OAS No. 17/06, Annex I, D, 7).
Contact information
Follow-up of Recommendations Section
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
1889 F Street NW
Washington D.C. 20006 – United States of America
E-mail: [email protected]