Title: Getting to know the IAHRS
Course: Inter-American Human Rights System - 2nd. Edition > Section: The IAHRS

First, we invite you to watch this video

The IAHRS is a regional system for the promotion and protection of human rights, composed of two main organs: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IA Court).

The Commission and the Court serve one of the most important mandates of the Organization of American States (OAS) — the promotion and protection of human rights. Both bodies are responsible for establishing regional parameters, or standards, regarding the obligations of States to respect the human rights of all persons.

✅The IAHRS is based on the American Declaration, the OAS Charter, and the American Convention, and is complemented by a series of instruments that include declarations, conventions, and additional protocols and principles developed over the years.

 The American Declaration, as part of customary law, is binding on all OAS Member States. Treaties, on the other hand, are binding on States Parties.

In addition, as we have seen, there are a number of treaties, declarations, and principles on specific topics, which are listed below:

In this course, when we talk about State we are referring to the political entity that is a subject of international law. It should not be confused with the entities in some countries that compose a federation. The State is the original subject of international law endowed with a government or sovereign power that exercises its authority over a given territory and the population that inhabits it, which provide the geophysical and demographic conditions for it to exist, and which relates to other subjects in accordance with the rules of the system.

Now watch the video by the Comissioner, Margaret May Macalauy, about the IAHRS.