Newsletter - April 2010
76th Regular Session of the Inter-American Juridical Committee
The
Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI) held its
76th regular session in Lima, Peru, from March
15-24, 2010, at the invitation of the Government of
Peru. Although the Committee has its headquarters in
Rio de Janeiro, in special cases it may decide to
meet elsewhere.
The CJI is the principal advisory organ of the
Organization of American States on legal matters.
Its main functions are to promote the progressive
development and codification of international law,
to study legal problems related to the integration
of the developing countries of the Hemisphere, and
promote the process of attaining uniformity in the
member states’ legislation.
At its latest session the Committee approved two
final reports: a proposal with comments on the draft
Inter-American Convention against Racism and All
Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance and a report
clarifying the Committee’s advisory capacity. It
also approved a progress report on national
legislation and training of personnel for
cooperation with the International Criminal Court.
Other topics addressed included, inter alia, the
promotion and strengthening of democracy, access to
justice in the Americas, freedom of thought and
expression, and the implementation of international
humanitarian law in the OAS member states.
In conjunction with the meeting, the members of the
CJI held a series of meetings with Peruvian
government officials, among them the Deputy Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Ambassador Néstor
Francisco Popolizio Bardales; the Under Secretary
for Multilateral Affairs of the Peruvian foreign
ministry, Luzmila Zanabria; the Chair of the Justice
and Human Rights Committee of the Congress, Víctor
Rolando Sousa Huanambal; the Attorney General,
Gladys Margot Echaíz Ramos; and the President of the
Constitutional Court, Juan Vergara Gotelli. They
also held academic meetings with faculty and
students of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del
Perú and San Martín de Porres University. In
addition, CJI members had meetings with
representatives of international governmental and
nongovernmental organizations based in Lima.
The next regular session of the Inter-American
Juridical Committee will take place at its
headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August
2010. On that occasion the thirty-seventh course in
the series of international law courses organized
annually by the Committee and the OAS Department of
International Law will take place.
The Committee is composed of 11 jurists: Guilllermo
Fernández de Soto (Chair), João Clemente Baena
Soares (Vice Chair), Freddy Castillo Castellanos,
Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa, Jean-Paul Hubert, Hyacinth
Evadne Lindsay, Fabián Novak Talavera, Jorge
Palacios Treviño, Miguel Pichardo Olivier, David P.
Stewart, and Ana Elizabeth Villalta Vizcarra. The
Department of International Law of the Secretariat
for Legal Affairs serves as the Committee’s
technical secretariat.
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