INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is varied. First, we wish to offer the reader a general overview of the political and social context in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights carries out its activities. Although human rights are universal, every region finds ways to adjust this universality as far as protection systems are concerned. In order to fulfil their role as watchdogs of States’ compliance with human rights obligations, these systems need to be able to deal with different realities in the States and the culture in which the people are immersed at a given time. Second, once the Court is set within its context, this chapter will deal with several issues that shape the Court’s work with regard to all types of cases and rights.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

A salient feature of Latin America in the time the system was set up was a clear inclination from the States not to comply with international legal norms. These norms had been subscribed to and ratified in the spirit of being nominally “in the club” of those States who respect and are concerned with international human rights rather than with the aim of applying them. The adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (American Declaration) passed almost unnoticed for 11 years. In 1959, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR or Commission) was created. Some delegates rejected the idea of a Commission since there was no Convention that would set forth State obligations on human rights. However, the majority thought that legal and technical arguments did not justify rejecting this idea. Latin America was undergoing “a democratic surge” that had to be put to use in order to advance the protection of human rights; furthermore, there was the conviction that to take this step would send a strong message of encouragement to Latin American democracy. While 1948 was a year of rhetoric and Utopia, and 1959 saw the first attempt to make this true, 1969 was the year in which a number of these aspirations took form.