IACHR
Press Release
IACHR Renews Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
February 19, 2020
Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has decided to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (DESCA), Soledad García Muñoz, from August 28, 2020, until August 28, 2023.
The IACHR is grateful to the special rapporteur, Soledad García Muñoz, for her work to date and for her willingness to accept this second mandate, in accordance with the procedures established in the applicable regulations, particularly article 15 of the IACHR Rules of Procedure.
The OSRESCER supports the IACHR in fulfilling its mandate to promote and protect economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights in the Americas. The OSCRESCER works in coordination with the Executive Secretariat and operates from the OAS headquarters in Washington, DC.
Soledad García Muñoz is the first person to hold the position in question. Her first mandate began in August 2017 after being appointed by the IACHR through an inter-American public selection process. Ms. García Múñoz is a lawyer with extensive experience in national and international litigation and counsel. She holds a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Human Rights from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and obtained a research qualification through a PhD program at the same university. She has taught at numerous universities and educational institutions, including designing and teaching courses on gender, women’s rights, and sexual diversity as part of the master’s programs in Human Rights at the UNLP (Argentina), Rafael Landívar University (Guatemala), and the Diploma in Gender and Public Policy at FLACSO Uruguay. She was part of the Ibero-American Youth Organization’s (OIJ) Expert Commission on Youth and Human Rights. She was also chair of Amnesty International Argentina, vice chair of the organization’s International Executive Board, and chair of its Working Group on Gender and Diversity. She served as the Representative for South America at the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, based in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 2009 until she joined the IACHR.
The IACHR wishes to take this opportunity to note once more that in the short time that it has been in operation the OSRESCER has come to occupy a fundamental place in the IACHR, helping it to strengthen its capacity to respond to major challenges to social and environmental rights in the Americas. As a consequence, it calls on states and donors who are committed to the inter-American system to help strengthen the OSRESCER and ensure it remains sustainable.
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 and to defend 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. 047/20