Media Center

Press Release

OAS SECRETARY GENERAL LAUDS HEMISPHERE’S HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES

“Defending human rights in the Americas is not only vital to the struggle for democracy, but is also rooted in it,” says Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. He made the comments as he formally delivering the Report on the Situation of Human Rights Advocates in the Americas, published recently by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
During a ceremony where, for the first time, a Secretary General was presenting an IACHR report, Insulza applauded the hard work undertaken by human rights defenders, underscoring how “dangerous” that work can be. Noting the history in some countries of the hemisphere where democracy was restored after civil wars were ended, he commended the important role of these advocates during a period when the legal system was being reformed during the transition. He said many of those advocates are now involved in democratic governments, “lending their experience to the building of more just democracies.”
“Our hemisphere’s recent history, along with the development of human rights itself, was largely a response to social crisis, military dictatorships and civil wars that put individuals at serious risk, subjecting them to brutal violations of their basic rights. Accordingly, the Secretary General said, “the work of human rights advocates was crucial to saving lives and to protecting thousands of those who were tortured, exiled, displaced and jailed.”
Secretary General Insulza went on to note that as a result of such developments, international initiatives are being formulated as to criteria to be used in assessing transitions to democracy and their policies on how to establish a legal framework for processes to deal with human rights violations. “The new role of the human rights movement has focused, on the one hand, on establishing historical evidence of actual violations and devising reparation mechanisms; and on the other hand, on engaging in newly-democratic governments,” Insulza observed.
Despite their many efforts in the past and even now, human rights advocates continue to be victimized, as targets of attacks and threats, Insulza said, warning that “the perpetrators described in the Report we submitted today are without question still cause for concern and evidence that we still face challenges at this point in history.”
The Secretary General said, “Our hemisphere is privileged to have the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, both of which make recommendations to member states, pursuant to their mandates. Those recommendations have helped strengthen public policy reform processes in the area of human rights, at the legislative, executive and judicial levels.”
During the presentation ceremony, IACHR Chairman Evelio Fernández Arévalo thanked Insulza for participating, saying the Report is intended to identify hindrances to human rights protection in the region, in order to develop strategies and the capability to tackle them. He said the Commission’s priority is to reform the legal framework for the inter-American system which should be applied to protect and promote the work of those who safeguard human rights in the Americas.
For his part, the IACHR’s Executive Secretary Santiago Canton expressed optimism, saying this first report emphasizes the need to coordinate efforts with OAS member states and with human rights advocates, “in order to deal with problems and threats in our democracies.”

Reference: E-225/06