IACHR elects its Board of Directors for 2023

March 7, 2023

Washington D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) elected its 2023 Board of Directors during the opening of its 186^th period of sessions, on March 6^th, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). On the eve of International Women's Day, the Inter-American Commission informs that its Board of Directors is composed by the President, Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay (Jamaica); as First Vice President, Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño (Panama); and as Second Vice President, Commissioner Roberta Clarke (Barbados). This is the second historic all-woman board of directors and the first with all-women from the Caribbean and Central American countries.

IACHR Chair-elect, Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay has served on the IACHR since 2016 and is in her second term. She is an attorney in private practice and a mediator in the Supreme Court of Jamaica. She was a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2012. She is also an honorable member of the Legacy Wall for Gender Justice for women's rights advocates, which has achieved significant changes and was launched in December 2017 at the United Nations in New York during the Assembly of Ministers. She is known as a strong advocate and reference for women's rights.

The First Vice President is Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, also integrates the IACHR in her second mandate since 2016. In addition, is the second time that the Vice President of the ICHR, Arosemena having served in these capacities, and as President for the year 2019. She is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Justice. She holds a degree in Philosophy, Letters and Education, and in Law and Political Science. She is a facilitator at the School of the Public Prosecutor's Office for the New Accusatory Criminal System and in training on Juvenile Criminal Justice. She is also an advisor in the elaboration, debates and approval of important laws in these matters, as an ad honorem advisor, in the Legislative Body of Panama.

The second Vice President is Roberta Clarke. She has been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. She led UN Women Regional Offices in East and Southern Africa, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean and Libya. Prior to her career at the United Nations, she was a lawyer in Trinidad and Tobago. She has been involved in civil society at national and international levels. She is an activist for social justice and gender equality. She is a citizen of Barbados.

The election of the Board of Directors takes place every year, on the first day of the first annual period of sessions in accordance with the Chapter 3 of the Commission's Rules of Procedure.

The IACHR is composed of 7 persons, with the aforementioned members of the Board of Directors, it is completed by Commissioner Joel Hernández, Commissioner Julissa Mantilla, and Commissioners Stuardo Ralón Orellanda and Carlos Bernal. The Commission's Executive Secretariat is headed by Tania Renaum Panzi, the Assistant Executive Secretary for the Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation is Maria Claudia Pulido, and the Assistant Executive Secretary for the Petition and Case System is Jorge Meza Flores.

The thematic rapporteurships and those from the 35 OAS countries are distributed among the 7 commissioners with the aim of providing more strategic follow-up, in compliance with the mandate of the IACHR. The distribution of the reports is available on the website.

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. 037/23

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