IACHR announces public hearings schedule for 193rd Period of Sessions

July 3, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has announced the public hearings schedule for its 193rd Ordinary Period of Sessions, to be held between July 14 and 25, 2025. Hearings will take place online, via Zoom, between July 21 and 25, 2025.

Over the week, the IACHR will hold 19 public hearings on the human rights situation in specific countries in the Americas and across the region. The Period of Sessions will also include a follow-up hearing on a case concerning Colombia that is currently being processed. Participants in hearings will include State representatives, civil society organizations, petitioners, and representatives of United Nations agencies for South and Central America.

Among the topics to be addressed in the 193rd Period of Sessions is the closure of civic space in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic and its impact on human rights. Additional hearings will focus on the attacks and obstacles to justice faced by human rights defenders and organizations in Venezuela and the repression targeting dissidents in Nicaragua.

The IACHR will also hold hearings on the situation of violence, organized crime, and public insecurity in Haiti; the harassment of human rights defenders in Guatemala; and disappearances in the context of the militarization of public security in Ecuador.

Other hearings will address the rights of children and adolescents in Bolivia; the use of pretrial detention in Córdoba province, Argentina; and violence against trans people in Colombia. A hearing concerning Peru will examine the impacts of the law modifying the mandate of the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation.

The 193rd Period of Sessions will also include hearings on the current situation of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the United States and on memory, truth, and justice policies in Brazil.

Five hearings will address regionwide issues such as the rights of children and adolescents whose family members are deprived of their freedom and the situation of human rights defenders. The IACHR will also examine the challenges that justice systems are facing with regard to organized crime and the impacts of methane reduction policies on the economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights (ESCERs) of Indigenous peoples and waste pickers. The latter topic will be addressed in an ex officio hearing convened by the IACHR.

In accordance with article 86 of the IACHR's Rules of Procedure, all hearings will be open to the public and will be held online via Zoom. Anyone wishing to follow the hearings in real time must register in advance via the links available in the hearing schedule. All hearings will include simultaneous interpretation and subtitling.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) whose mandate is based on the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. Its mission is to promote and defend human rights throughout the Americas and to serve as an advisory body to the OAS in this area. The IACHR consists of seven independent members elected by the OAS General Assembly who serve in a personal capacity and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 134/25

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