Rapporteur

Joel Hernández García

2022 - 2023

Commissioner Joel Hernández García was re-elected in the 51st Regular Period of Sessions of the OAS General Assembly, on November 12, 2021, for four years, from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025. His first term as Commissioner was elected on June 21, 2017, by the General Assembly of the OAS, for a period of four years that began on January 1, 2018, and ends on December 31, 2021. He holds a law degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma of Mexico and a master's degree in international law from the New York University School of Law. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and was a member of the Inter-American Juridical Committee during 2015-2018.

He is President of the Mexican branch of the International Law Association. In the foreign service of Mexico, he rose to the rank of ambassador and served in several positions. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OAS. In that capacity, he chaired the working group to strengthen the IAHRS. He has been a guest professor in the fields of international law and international organizations in various academic institutions. He is a citizen of Mexico.

Commissioner Joel Hernández García submitted his resignation from the IACHR on August 3, 2023

Julissa Mantilla Falcón

2020 - 2021

Commissioner Julissa Mantilla Falcón was elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its 49th Regular Period of Sessions, on June 28, 2019, for a four-year term from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. As a lawyer, she specializes in human rights and has a degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), a diploma in Gender from the PUCP, and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at the University of London. She worked in the Peruvian Ombudspersons Office and was in charge of gender issues in the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in Peru. She has served as an international consultant on transitional justice for UN Women. She is a professor at the Law School and the master’s degree in Human Rights at the PUCP and at the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the American University’s Washington College of Law. She has lectured internationally and authored several academic publications. She is a citizen of Peru.

Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva

2017 - 2019

Commissioner Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva was elected in May 2017 by the OAS General Assembly after the vacancy created by the resignation of Commissioner Enrique Gil Botero on March 9, 2017. His term ended on December 31, 2019. He is a Doctor of Law and Social Sciences from Colombia’s Universidad Libre, with a speciality in family law from that same institution, and has a doctorate in private law and personal and family law from the Universidad de Zaragoza. He was a magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, of which he chaired. He also presided the Special Monitoring Chamber for 8 years, which was created by the Constitutional Court to execute the structural sentence of protection of the rights of the displaced population due to the internal armed conflict. He is a university professor and author of essays, lectures and books on procedural and constitutional law. He is a citizen of Colombia.

Margarette May Macaulay

2017

Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay was re-elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its 49th Regular Period of Sessions, on June 28, 2019, for a further four-year term from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. She had previously been elected by the General Assembly of the OAS for a first term as a commissioner that also ran for four years, January 2016-December 2019. President Macaulay holds a bachelor of laws degree from the University of London and is currently an attorney in private practice. She serves as Mediator in the Supreme Court of Jamaica and as Associate Arbitrator, as well as serving as Notary Public. She served as a Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2012, contributing to the formulation of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. She is an honored member of the Gender Justice Legacy Wall of notable women’s rights advocates who have brought about important changes, which was launched in December 2017 at the United Nations in New York, during the Assembly of Ministers. She took part in the reform and drafting of laws in Jamaica and is well known as a strong proponent of and authority on women’s rights. She is a citizen of Jamaica.

Enrique Gil Botero

2016 - 2017

Commissioner Enrique Gil Botero is a citizen of Colombia. He was elected on June 16, 2015, by the OAS General Assembly, for a 4-year mandate that started on January 1, 2016 and was scheduled to end December 31, 2019. On March 9, 2017, he presented his letter of resignation to the IACHR , after his designation as Secretary of Justice in his country. Enrique Gil Botero has a degree in Law and Political Science from Antioquia University. He was Magistrate of the Colombian State Council, a trial lawyer before the Chamber for Administrative Litigation from 1984 to 2006, a founding member of the Institute for Civil and State Responsibility of Antioquia, and President of the Council of State from April 2008 to February 2009. He received the José Ignacio de Márquez gold medal as the best judge of the Court of Administrative Law in Colombia, 2009. He is professor of Liability Extra-Contractual of the state at several universities in Colombia and lectures nationally and internationally. Furthermore, he has been judge of important rulings related on the protection, defense and redress for redress for violations on human rights. He is author of several works on tort law, constitutional law and a treaty of Liability Extra contractual of the State, with translation in French, as well as on articles in magazines and publications on the subject of human rights and state responsibility.

Felipe González

2008 - 2015

Commissioner Felipe González is a citizen of Chile. He was elected during the 37th regular period of sessions of the OAS General Assembly in 2007 for the standard four-year term, which began on January 1, 2008. He was reelected in 2011 for a second term, which started January 1, 2012. He was the IACHR President from March 2010 to March 2011. In the 154th Period of Sessions in March 2015, he was elected Second Vice-President. Commissioner González is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Constitutional Law at Chile’s Diego Portales University. He founded and directed that university’s Human Rights Center, where from 2002 to 2006 he managed the preparation and publication of an Annual Report on Human Rights in Chile. He also founded and coordinated a Latin American Network of Legal Human Rights Clinics. He is S.J.D. from the Carlos III University of Madrid, and he holds a Master of Law degree from American University and a Master of Advanced Human Rights Studies from Carlos III University. He is a Professor at the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University and a Visiting Professor at Carlos III University. Previously he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Lund University, the University of Deusto, and the University of Alcalá de Henares. He also worked for the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights), first in Washington, D.C., and then in Santiago, Chile.