IACHR Elects Board of Directors for 2024

February 26, 2024

Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) elected its Board of Directors for the year 2024 during the opening of its 189th Period of Sessions, on February 26 in Washington, D.C. Commissioner Roberta Clarke (Barbados) will take the Presidency; Commissioner Carlos Bernal Pulido (Colombia) the first Vice Presidency and Commissioner José Luis Caballero Ochoa (Mexico) as second Vice Presidency.

President Roberta Clarke has been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. She led UN Women Regional Offices in East and South Africa, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean and Libya. Prior to her career at the United Nations, she worked as a lawyer in Trinidad and Tobago. She has been involved in human rights civil society at the national and international levels.

First Vice President, Carlos Bernal Pulido, has also been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. He is a professor at the law school of the University of Dayton, Ohio, United States, and at the Universidad de la Sabana, Colombia. He was a magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia. In addition, he is a visiting researcher at Yale University, Kings' College and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Germany.

Second Vice President José Luis Caballero Ochoa was elected at the meeting of the OAS Permanent Council in September 2023. He has an extensive academic and teaching career, and was director of the Law Department of the Universidad Iberoamericana. He is a member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council of Science, Humanities and Technology of Mexico and of the International Commission of Jurists.

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

The Inter-American Commission is composed of seven members, along with the persons already appointed: Commissioner Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana, Commissioner Arif Bulkan, Commissioner Andrea Pochak, and Commissioner Gloria Monique de Mees. The Executive Secretariat is led by Tania Reneaum Panszi, with Patricia Colchero as Chief of Staff, María Claudia Pulido as Deputy Executive Secretary for Monitoring, Promotion and Training, Promotion and Technical Cooperation, and Jorge Meza Flores as Deputy Executive Secretary for Petitions and Cases.

The thematic rapporteurships and those of the 35 countries of the OAS are distributed among the 7 persons commissioned with the aim of providing a 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. 042/24

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