This book is the result of the experience gained by a group of human rights organizations, which has extensive in-depth familiarity with problems on the ground and came together in an informal alliance in light of the need to develop new strategies to accompany the so-called “strengthening process” of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The participants in this initiative were the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS, Center for Legal and Social Studies) from Argentina; Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL, Legal Defense Institute) from Peru; Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), a regional organization; Conectas Direitos Humanos (Conectas Human Rights) from Brazil; Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (DeJusticia, Center for Studies of Law, Justice, and Society) from Colombia; and Fundar, Centro de Análisis e Investigación (Center for Analysis and Research) from Mexico.
The articles written by members of these organizations address various issues related to the IACHR’s functioning, topics of work, strategies, and potentialities in the region currently. They include an analysis of its functioning and structure, addressing the financial situation of the Inter-American system, which reveals the mismatch between States’ rhetoric and the system’s budgetary reality. There is also an evaluation made of the current transparency levels of the Commission with regard to, for example, how appointments are made and cases are processed.
