IACHR

Press Release

IACHR Elects New Board

March 13, 2015

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Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) elected today its new board. The board of officers is composed of Rose Marie Antoine (Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago), Chair; James Cavallaro (United States of America), First Vice-Chair; and José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez (Mexico), Second Vice-Chair. The election was held, in accordance with the IACHR rules of procedure, at the beginning of the Commission’s 154th regular Period of Sessions. The other members of the IACHR are Tracy Robinson (Jamaica), Felipe González (Chile), Rosa María Ortiz (Paraguay) and Paulo Vannuchi (Brazil). The Executive Secretary is Emilio Alvarez Icaza (Mexico).

Commissioner Rose-Marie Belle Antoine has dual citizenship of Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. She was elected at the 41st OAS General Assembly in June 2011 for the standard four-year term, which began on January 1, 2012. She is a lawyer, Professor and Dean of the University of the West Indies, specializing in human rights, financial law, comparative law, administrative law, public service law, discrimination law and labor law. She has also lectured abroad, including in the United States. Commissioner Antoine has substantial international consultancy experience. She has served as senior legal advisor to all of the governments of the Commonwealth Caribbean and to governments outside of the region, such as the UK, Venezuela, USA and Canada, and to several international and regional organizations. These include the European Union, UNICEF, UNIFEM, the ILO, the IADB, the World Bank, and the OAS, among others. She is an award-winning author who has written eleven books and numerous reports and articles and drafted laws on a wide range of topics, including discrimination, constitutional reform, public service reform, juvenile justice, mutual legal assistance, women’s rights, health, sexual harassment, trafficking in persons, labor law, free movement of labor, HIV, financial law, anti-drug trafficking and anti-corruption. Commissioner Antoine is an Oxford Commonwealth Scholar and a Cambridge Pegasus Scholar, holding a doctorate from Oxford University, an LL.M. from Cambridge and an LL.B. from the University of the West Indies. Professor Antoine also holds diplomas and certificates in international human rights from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Commissioner James L. Cavallaro is a citizen of the United States. He was elected during the 43rd regular session of the OAS General Assembly in June 2013 for the prescribed four-year term, which began on January 1, 2014. James L. Cavallaro is a lawyer with an undergraduate degree from Harvard College, as well as a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Currently, James L. Cavallaro is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Founding Director of both the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford and the Stanford Human Rights Center. Previously, he was a Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Executive Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard. He founded the Brazil-based Global Justice Center and served as Director of the Brazil offices of Human Rights Watch and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). He is the author of dozens of articles, books, and other publications on human rights and the inter-American human rights system.

Commissioner José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez is a citizen of Mexico. He was elected during the 39th regular period of sessions of the OAS General Assembly in June 2009 for the standard four-year term, which began on January 1, 2010. On June 6, 2013, the General Assembly reelected him for a second term, which will begin on January 1, 2014 and end on December 31, 2017. He was elected Chair of the Commission during the 144th Period of Sessions, in March 2012, and reelected during the 147th Period of Sessions, in March 2013. He is a researcher in constitutional law, human rights, the judiciary, and comparative law, among other areas, at the Legal Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Previously, he served for 16 years as a Magistrate on Mexico's highest electoral courts, first in the Central Chamber of the Federal Electoral Court and then in the Higher Chamber of the Electoral Court of the Judiciary. He earned a Doctor of Law degree with honors from UNAM, and a Master of Comparative Law from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as Doctor Honoris Causa for San Martín de Porres University in Peru, and for the Autonomous University of Coahuila, Mexico. He is the author or co-author of 8 books and the coordinator or editor of another 15, and he has written more than 100 articles for academic publications.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 029/15