Access to Inter-American Justice at the IACHR

Access to Inter-American Justice at the IACHR

I. Presentation

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter "the Inter-American Commission", "the Commission" or "the IACHR") invites academia, donors, specialists, States, national human rights institutions, international organizations, human rights organizations, civil society organizations, and users, in general, to respond to the questionnaire on "Access to Inter-American Justice at the IACHR"1.

II. Target

To gather ideas on new measures or strategies that the Commission could implement to make the processes of deciding petitions and cases more efficient and transparent to increase their productivity and achieve more timely inter-American justice.

III. Instructions

The Executive Secretariat invites you to submit your responses to this online form with information on comparative experiences, best practices, reflections, or innovative ideas for more timely justice at the IACHR.

This questionnaire will be open from September 6, 2023, and will close on October 15, 2023. Those interested in participating may do so by completing the form that will be available on the web page: Questionnaires .

The deadline to receive responses to the questionnaire has been extended until December 18, 2023.

The information sent in response to the questions may refer to all or some of the items requested. The information may be provided in Spanish, English, Portuguese, or French. You are invited to respond directly to each of the questions asked, providing concrete and specific information on what you consider to be the most pertinent, significant, and/or relevant. The questions included in this questionnaire are made considering the legal framework in force that governs the actions of the Commission itself. Once the questionnaire is closed, the responses received will be systematized and considered by the Commission when optimizing or improving the processing and decision of petitions and cases.

IV. Background

The system of petitions and cases is a unique mechanism for the protection of human rights in the region. To the extent that it operates properly, victims have an instrument for resolving their claims that, in addition to providing comprehensive justice and reparation for the case, makes it possible to modify structural situations such as laws, policies, and practices in the States that affect human rights. The IACHR has historically made efforts to address the procedural backlog. Most recently, the implementation of its Strategic Plan 2017-2021 made it possible for it to achieve important results such as the significant elimination of petitions pending initial review, the simplification of processing in admissibility and merits, as well as an unprecedented increase in the production of reports, the use of the figure of the archive, and the sending of cases to the Inter-American Court. However, the number of pending cases in their admissibility and merits portfolios2 reflects the persistence of a procedural backlog that requires priority and constant attention to make procedures more efficient, strengthen case handling capacities, and adopt measures to reduce case portfolios. All of this is to achieve more timely justice.

After a consultation process that involved States and various civil society actors, the IACHR in its Strategic Plan 2023-2027 set as Objective No. 1 "Increase Access to Inter-American Justice". Specifically, the Commission adopted two programs to increase its productivity and impact through the system of petitions and cases: P1. Streamlining of processes and progressive reduction of procedural backlog and P3. Prioritization of petitions and cases to ensure more timely justice and the development of standards with a structural impact on the defense of human rights.

P1. Streamlining of processes and progressive reduction of procedural backlogs.

The purpose of this program is to adopt new measures to accelerate productivity and progressively reduce the case backlog. The Commission has prioritized the assignment of its professionals and consultants to decide cases at the merits stage. During the life of the Plan, the Commission will consider ways to improve existing measures or adopt new measures to address the backlog.

The specific lines of action of this program are as follows:

  1. Regarding management improvement, i) review the classification of the portfolio of petitions and cases and homogeneously improve their categorization into main and subsidiary themes in an electronic platform that facilitates their management; ii) increase and prioritize the allocation of resources and working groups for the preparation of reports on petitions and cases that enable a definitive resolution of the issues, and iii) strengthen the specialization of the teams by themes and contexts to optimize the consistency of the reports.
  2. Regarding the consolidation of existing strategies and the adoption of new measures to expedite and increase decision-making, i) conduct the initial study of petitions the same year they are received, with strict application of statutory and conventional criteria; ii) optimize and strictly apply the archiving policy by statutory criteria; iii) expand the use of strategies such as the joinder of petitions or cases when there is the identity of parties or similar facts or patterns, as well as the combination of decisions on admissibility and merits; iv) develop models and report formats for cases with similar themes and types of violations, to maintain consistency of reports and expedite their preparation, while safeguarding the uniqueness and particular circumstances of the victims; and v) compare experiences to address the procedural backlog and use better technologies to expedite case management and report preparation.

P3. Prioritization of petitions and cases to ensure more timely justice and the development of standards with a structural impact on the defense of human rights.

Although the IACHR has prioritized cases throughout its history and has reported on criteria in this regard, through this program the Commission has decided that it will study and adopt criteria for prioritizing petitions and cases that will enable it to manage pending matters more adequately and clearly, so that it can address in a more timely manner those matters that merit it. It is expected that the decisions adopted by the IACHR will not only be evaluated from a chronological perspective but also based on the greater impact and timeliness of its pronouncements on structural aspects, such as regulations or practices in the States that affect the enjoyment of human rights, thus preventing the occurrence of new violations and the filing of new petitions.  The policy eventually adopted by the IACHR will be reviewed periodically to ensure that, with the human and technical resources available, it can also continue to advance in the chronological order of the portfolio.

Regarding the consolidation of existing strategies and the adoption of new measures, the Commission decided to begin by conducting a study of comparative experiences in other justice systems. To this end, the Commission is implementing the Cycle of events: reflections and experiences for timely justice in the IACHR, to adopt measures to address the procedural backlog, and to analyze criteria for prioritizing petitions and cases, within the framework of the IACHR current regulations.

1 This questionnaire is not intended to obtain information on contentious cases pending before the Commission, nor should it be identified as a mechanism to obtain an indirect pronouncement on a matter in litigation or in dispute before this body.

2 The portfolio of admissibility and merits cases pending is 3,982 (2,036 admissibility petitions and 1,946 merits cases). Of this portfolio, only 58% is procedurally ready and pending for decision (a total of 2,296 cases, of which 1,057 are admissibility petitions and 1,239 cases on the merits).