Deprived of Liberty
Functions
The Office of the Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas of the IACHR issues special recommendations to the member States of the OAS in order to move forward with the respect and guarantee of the human rights of the persons deprived of liberty. In fulfilling its mandate, the Rapporteurship carries out visits to the member States of the OAS, and organizes seminars, workshops and consultation meetings with experts and conducts promotional activities. Furthermore, the Rapporteurship advises the Inter-American Commission in processing petitions and individual cases as well as precautionary and provisional measures where a violation of the human rights of persons deprived of liberty is alleged.
Our work
Since its creation, and in fulfilling its mandate, the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty has undertaken work visits to more than a dozen countries of the hemisphere: El Salvador (October 2010); Argentina (June 2010); Ecuador (May 2010); Uruguay (May 2009); Argentina (April 2009); Paraguay (September 2008); Chile (August 2008); Mexico (August 2007); Haiti (June 2007); Argentina (December 2006); Bolivia (November 2006); Brazil (September 2006); Dominican Republic (August 2006); Colombia (November 2005); Honduras (December 2004); Brazil (June 2005); Argentina (December 2004); and Guatemala (November 2004).
During these visits the Rapporteurship develops mainly three lines of action: visits to jails, penitentiaries, police holding cells, precincts and other places of deprivation of liberty; dialogue with the authorities in charge of designing penitentiary policy and the administration of prisons; and meetings with civil society organizations committed to the work in favor of the rights of persons deprived of liberty. Moreover, academic and promotional activities are mainly targeted and conducted to officials responsible for law enforcement.
Likewise, and in fulfilling its promotional mandate, the Rapporteurship has also participated in a relevant number of workshops, seminars and other academic activities. Also, it organized, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Public Ministry of Argentina, the first Latin-American Seminar of Good Practices, held in Buenos Aires in November 2007.
A significant contribution of the Rapporteurship to the development of the standards of protection of the Inter-American System is the preparation and promotion of the Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of the Persons Deprived of Liberty. This document, approved by the Inter-American Commission in its 131 º Period of Sessions by Resolution No. 1/08, sets what the IACHR considers as the main international standards of protection related to the persons deprived of liberty. During its preparation it was taken into account the progressive development of the corpus iuris of the rights of the persons deprived of liberty; the jurisprudence of the Inter-American System, and the opinions of independent experts that made valuable contributions to the final document. In addition, consultations were held with the Member States of the OAS as part of the preparation process of these standards regarding the respect of the rights of the persons deprived of liberty.
Petitions and cases of violations of the Human Rights of the persons deprived of liberty
One of the main activities of the Rapporteurship is the advice given to the Commission in processing petitions and individual cases where a violation of the human rights of persons deprived of liberty is alleged. Thus, from its creation, the contribution of the Rapporteurship on the rights of persons deprived of liberty has been determinant to the processing of the admissibility reports of the cases Jorge, José y Dante Peirano Basso (Report No. 86/09), in which the Commission referred to the application parameters of the preventive detention in the light of international human rights law; Antonio Ferreira Braga (Report No. 35/08), related with the use of torture as a criminal investigation method and the State’s duty to investigate, prosecute and punish the violations to the right to humane treatment, and to compensate the victims; César Alberto Mendoza et al (Report No. 172/10), which has to do with the application of life imprisonment to juvenile offenders; and Rafael Arturo Pacheco Teruel et al, “Fire at San Pedro Sula Prison” (Report No. 118/10), where the Commission expressed that the State, as guarantor of the rights of detained persons, must adopt all necessary measures to prevent the deaths of interns in emergency situations such as fire and other calamities.
Moreover, the Rapporteurship on Persons Deprived of Liberty has been collaborating in processing protection measures. In respect with provisional measures, it has worked in the issues of the Penitentiary “Dr. Sebastian Martins Silveira” of Araraquara; the Complex of Tatuape of the FEBEM; the prison of Urso Branco; of the Internado Judicial Capital El Rodeo I and II; of the Centro Penitenciario de la Region Centro Occidental: Uribana Prison; of the Centro Penitenciario Region Capital Yare I and II; of the Internado Judicial of Monagas (“La Pica”); of Eduardo Jose Natera Balboa and Francisco Dionel Guerrero Lárez. The Office of the Rapporteur also collaborates in the study and processing of precautionary measures, such as those granted in favor of the persons deprived of liberty in the Comisaria Tercera de Ensenada in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, as well as those for Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina and his family, in Cuba.
Upcoming activities
The Rapporteurship on Persons Deprived of Liberty continues with its work visits program to the countries of the hemisphere as a work method to strengthen the State responsibilities regarding the protection of the human rights of the persons deprived of liberty, and it continues exercising its general monitoring function of the general situation of the persons deprived of liberty in the Americas.
Besides, in the mid term it is scheduled the publication of a thematic report about the situation of the persons deprived of liberty in the Americas and the preparation of the Second Seminar of Good Practices, in this occasion targeted to the Anglophone countries of the hemisphere.