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OAS SECRETARY GENERAL BID FAREWELL TO OUTGOING HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONERS

  November 13, 2009

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, bid farewell Friday to the four members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) who will cease working at the end of the year. The IACHR concluded this week the last period of sessions of 2009.

“It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to four greatly appreciated commissioners, both within and outside the IACHR. During their terms they performed a very good job, and the current positive outlook the Commission enjoys shows that they walked the right path,” Secretary General Insulza said.

Secretary General Insulza met with the president of the Commission, Luz Patricia Mejía, and four other current members: Paolo Carozza, Felipe González, Sir Claire Kamau Roberts and Víctor Abramovich. Also in attendance were the IACHR Executive Secretary, Santiago Cantón, and the Assistant Executive Secretary, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed. Absent were commissioners Paulo Sergio Pinheiro and Florentín Meléndez.

Commissioners Carozza, Roberts and Abramovich finish their terms on December 31, 2009, and will be replaced by José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez, Dinah L. Shelton and Rodrigo Escobar Gil, who were elected at the OAS General Assembly in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. That same day Commissioner Meléndez's resignation will also take effect. In July 2009, Commissioner Meléndez took office as Vice President of the Constitutional Court of El Salvador's Supreme Court of Justice. No substitute has yet been designated.

Reference: E-383/09