IACHR

Press Release

IACHR Announces Schedule of Hearings for 147 Sessions

March 1, 2013

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announces the schedule of hearings for the 147th Period of Sessions, which will be held from March 7th to 22nd, 2013. The hearings will take place March 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 16th. All hearings will take place in the General Secretariat Building of the Organization of American States (OAS), 1889 F Street NW, Washington, D.C.

In the hearings requested by the States, civil society will have 15 minutes available to present any information it considers relevant. Those interested in participating should communicate their interest by e-mail, at [email protected], before March 5th, 2013. In the e-mail, they should include the names of the individuals and/or organizations wishing to attend and specify what hearing they would like to participate in, along with any other information that might be of interest to include.

The OAS will transmit all the public hearings live via webcast. The videos of these hearings will subsequently be posted on the OAS and the IACHR websites. Those who would prefer to have a high-resolution copy of a hearing’s video should bring their own flash drive or external drive. Details about these services can be found in the Commission's guidelines for press coverage of public hearings. In addition, all the public hearings may be heard on the Internet, through audio recordings posted on this page of the Commission's website. Both the audio recordings and the videos will be available only in the language used by each participant, even in the cases when several channels with interpretation with different languages are available through the webcast service.

In the case of private hearings, no webcast or audio or video recordings will be available, and no members of the public or the press will be allowed to enter.

Members of the public who are interested may attend public hearings without having to register ahead of time. Journalists do not need any special accreditation. The IACHR does not make minutes or transcripts of the hearings public.

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. 14/13