IACHR Issues Report on National Mechanisms to Implement Human Rights Recommendations

March 21, 2023

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has published the report National Mechanisms to Implement International Recommendations and Decisions Concerning Human Rights. This report is the outcome of the Commission's efforts to strengthen processes to monitor its recommendations and decisions, in the context of its strategic planning for the periods 2017–2021 and 2023–2027.

The document seeks to promote the implementation of international recommendations and decisions concerning human rights by Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS), to encourage the exchange of information on compliance practices and experiences, and to report on the growing inter-American trend of bracing national structures and procedures to foster effective compliance with recommendations and decisions.

In three chapters, the report highlights five major challenges for States to comply with decisions and recommendations and describes recent progress made in national planning, policies, legislation, and programs. The document also includes a set of guidelines to encourage the creation of National Implementation Mechanisms within each State's domestic framework.

To draft the report, the Commission undertook broad consultations with various stakeholders in processes to ensure compliance with recommendations and sent questionnaires to Member States of the OAS and civil society organizations, whose responses where the basis for this document.

The IACHR thanks States and civil society for their questionnaire answers and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law for its support toward the publication of the report.

The Inter-American Commission invites all stakeholders to read the report and to implement, where appropriate, the practices and guidelines it suggests to strengthen and facilitate these processes. The Commission further stresses its willingness to continue to adopt strategies that promote the implementation of its decisions and recommendations. The IACHR remains available to support States, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders to achieve positive tangible results for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Americas.

A principal, autonomous body of the 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. 050/23

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