IACHR presents the projects of the Specialized Academic Network for Technical Cooperation

June 1, 2021

Washington, D.C.- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announces that as part of the Specialized Academic Network for Technical Cooperation (Academic Network), it selected ten projects proposed by different universities in the region, which will generate inputs to provide technical support to the thematic and specialized Rapporteurships in their monitoring, promotion and protection of human rights work.

These inputs produced by the Academic Network, as announced on March 2, will also serve to measure the level of compliance, impact and effectiveness of the recommendations and decisions of the IACHR through the use of the Inter-American SIMORE, which aims to map successful cases, good practices and lessons learned in the implementation of recommendations by OAS States.

The universities and institutions that integrate the Academic Network and are carrying out the projects are the Law School of São Paulo and the Law School of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo, Brazil; the Cooperative University of Colombia; the National University of Mar de Plata in Argentina; the Public Actions Group of the ICESI University of Cali, Colombia; the Institute of Justice and Human Rights of the National University of Lanús of Argentina; the Socio-Legal Research and Publication Center of the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the Indoamerican Technological University of Ecuador; the Nucleus of Human Rights of the Department of PUC-Rio of Brazil; the International Institute of Law and Society - IIDS of Peru; the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences of the University of Zulia; the Center for Peace and Human Rights of the Central University of Venezuela and Aula Abierta of Venezuela; the Human Rights Research Center of the University of Ottawa, Canada; the Scholars at Risk Center of the United States, and the Latin American Observatory of Business and Human Rights of the Department of Constitutional Law of the Externado University of Colombia.

With these institutions, the various country, thematic and special Rapporteurships and the IACHR section for Follow-up on Recommendations will be implementing a series of projects and studies that will include a lecture to promote the general work of the Commission among the academic community and students, as well as the work it carries out through several of its thematic areas of work, including those related to women, Afro-descendants, LGBTI and migrants. They will also conduct a series of courses on the rights of migrants, LGBTI and Afro-descendants, women and indigenous peoples, as well as thematic reports that will facilitate the monitoring of the human rights situation in different countries of the region.

The work carried out within the framework of the Network will also contribute to finding new forms of participation for persons with disabilities in the design and implementation of public policies and in the systematization of information and analysis of the level of compliance with the recommendations in different thematic areas.

It will also contribute to the development of the Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy, which will be based on existing international norms and standards, with a focus on groups with special protection; and will propose a system of indicators to measure the impact of the norms, principles and recommendations of the IACHR in this area, among other projects.

With these activities, the Commission seeks to comply with its IACHR 2017-2021 Strategic Plan, in particular, Program 12 of its 3rd Strategic Objective, which focuses on the relevance of creating a Specialized Academic Network of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights; as well as Program 5 of the 2nd Strategic Objective of the plan, which aims to improve the scope and impact of the work of monitoring human rights situations in the countries from a thematic approach, through the articulation of its various functions and mechanisms.

The Commission thanks the universities participating in the Specialized Network for the proposals and initiatives presented, which are crucial to support the Commission in the implementation of its human rights promotion and observation mandate in the region.

A CIDH é um órgão principal e autônomo da Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA), cujo mandato surge a partir da Carta da OEA e da Convenção Americana sobre Direitos Humanos. A Comissão Interamericana tem como mandato promover a observância e defesa dos direitos humanos na região e atua como órgão consultivo da OEA na temática. A CIDH é composta por sete membros independentes, que são eleitos pela Assembleia Geral da OEA a título pessoal, sem representarem seus países de origem ou de residência.

No. 140/21