IACHR

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IACHR Starts 2018 with New Composition and Distributes Rapporteurships

January 10, 2018

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Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has begun 2018 with the incorporation of three new Commissioners elected by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in June 2017. Commissioners Antonia Urrejola, Flávia Piovesan and Joel Hernández took office on January 1, 2018. The IACHR is also composed by Commissioners Francisco Eguiguren, Margarette Macaulay, Esmeralda Arosemena and Luis Ernesto Vargas. The IACHR expresses its profound gratitude to the Commissioners José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez, James L. Cavallaro and Paulo Vannuchi, who finished their terms on December 31, 2017.

The board of the IACHR is composed by President Francisco Eguiguren; First Vice President Margarette Macaulay; and Second Vice President Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño. Pursuant to the IACHR Rules of Procedure, the election of the board will be held on the first day of the first session of the year, which will take place from February 22nd to March 2nd, in Bogota, at the invitation of the Colombian State.

The Thematic Rapporteurships and Units, and the Country Rapporteurships, are now under the responsibility of the following Commissioners:

Commissioner Francisco Eguiguren: Rapporteur for Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela; Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and in charge of the Unit on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay: Rapporteur for Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominica, United States of America, El Salvador, Saint Kitts and Nevis; Rapporteur on the Rights of Women; Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons of African Descent and against Discrimination.

Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño: Rapporteur for Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala; Rapporteur on the Rights of Children.

Commissioner Luis Ernesto Vargas: Rapporteur for Argentina, Chile and the Dominican Republic; Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants.

Commissioner Joel Hernández: Rapporteur for Belize, Barbados, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, Paraguay and Suriname; Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty.

Commissioner Flávia Piovesan: Rapporteur for Canada, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia; Rapporteur for the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Persons (LGBTI) and in charge of the Unit on the Rights of Older Persons.

Commissioner Antonia Urrejola: Rapporteur for Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay; Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in charge of the Unit on Memory, Truth, and Justice.

The American Convention on Human Rights establishes that the IACHR shall be comprised of seven persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights. They are elected in their personal capacity by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States from a list of candidates proposed by the governments of the member states. The members of the Commission are elected for a four-year term and have the possibility to be reelected only once.

Commissioner Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli was elected Commissioner on June 16, 2015, by the OAS General Assembly for a four-year term that runs from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2019. He has a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, with a master's degree in Constitutional Law and a PhD in Humanities. He was Ambassador of Peru to the Kingdom of Spain from 2012 to 2014 and Minister of Justice. He is currently a legal consultant and adviser at both the national and international level, specializing in issues related to Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, and Human Rights. He is a citizen of Peru.

Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay was elected Commissioner on June 16, 2015, by the OAS General Assembly, for a four-year term that runs from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2019. She holds a bachelor of laws degree from the University of London and is currently an attorney in private practice. She serves as Mediator in the Supreme Court of Jamaica and as Associate Arbitrator, as well as serving as Notary Public. She served as a Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2012, contributing to the formulation of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. She is a citizen of Jamaica.

Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño was elected on June 16, 2015, by the OAS General Assembly, for a four-year term that runs from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2019. She held office in Panama's judiciary: she was a Justice of the Supreme Court, of which she was vice-president; she also presided the Chamber for Criminal Cases, and was a judge on the High Court on children and adolescent affairs. She participated in the Special Commission that proposed constitutional reforms in Panama on 2011, and on the Commission that elaborated the Code of Constitutional Procedures in 2016. She has a degree in Philosophy, Letters and Education, with a specialization in Pedagogy, as well as a degree in Law and Political Science. Her post-graduate studies are in gender, with a specialization in family and childhood, as well as constitutional affairs. She is an academic and a professor at the University of Panama, the Superior Judicial Institute and Panama's Judicial Authority. She collaborates with the Public Prosecutor's Office School with regards to the new criminal system and in the subject of juvenile criminal justice. She is a consultant on childhood, adolescence, women and family for international organizations. She was also an ad honorem consultant in the elaboration, debates and approval of important legislation on these matters for Panama's legislative authority. She is a citizen of Panama

Commissioner Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva was elected in May 2017 by the OAS General Assembly after the vacancy created by the resignation of Commissioner Enrique Gil Botero on March 9, 2017. His term will end on December 31, 2019. He is a Doctor of Law and Social Sciences from Colombia’s Universidad Libre, with a speciality in family law from that same institution, and has a doctorate in private law and personal and family law from the Universidad de Zaragoza. He was a magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, of which he chaired. He also presided the Special Monitoring Chamber for 8 years, which was created by the Constitutional Court to execute the structural sentence of protection of the rights of the displaced population due to the internal armed conflict. He is a university professor and author of essays, lectures and books on procedural and constitutional law. He is a citizen of Colombia.

Commissioner Joel Hernández García was elected on June 21, 2017, by the General Assembly of the OAS, for a period of four years that began on January 1, 2018, and ends on December 31, 2021. He holds a law degree in the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a master's degree in international law from the New York University School of Law. He is the vice-President of the Inter-American Juridical Committee, member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and international advisor of the American Law Institute. In the foreign service of Mexico, he rose to the rank of ambassador and served in several positions. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OAS. In that capacity, he chaired the working group to strengthen the IAHRS. He has been a guest professor in the fields of international law and international organizations in various academic institutions. He is a citizen of Mexico.

Commissioner Flávia Piovesan was elected on June 21, 2017, by the General Assembly of the OAS, for a period of four years which began on January 1, 2018, and ends on December 31, 2021. She is a professor of Constitutional Law and Humans Rights at the Catholic University of São Paulo since 1991. She is also a PhD professor at the University of Buenos Aires, and a professor at the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of the American University, in the United States. She has been a professor of human rights in the post-graduate programs of the Catholic University of Paraná and the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain. Commissioner Piovesan worked as Special Secretary of Human Rights in Brazil and chaired the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labour. She is the author of numerous academic publications and has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She also has given hundreds of lectures and made presentations at universities in several of countries. She is a citizen of Brazil.

Commissioner Antonia Urrejola was elected on June 21, 2017, by the General Assembly of the OAS, for a period of four years that began on January 1, 2018, and ends on December 31, 2021. She is a lawyer graduated from the University of Chile and has a post-title in Human Rights and Transitional Justice. Commissioner Urrejola worked as a human rights advisor for the Presidency of Chile, mainly drafting and editing bills related to the rights of children, sexual diversity and human rights institutions. She also worked in the Special Commission of Indigenous Peoples of Chile. The work developed by her at the Ministry of National Assets and the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation of Chile focused on the rights of indigenous peoples. She also served as an advisor to the Ministry of the Interior, participating in the preparation and processing of various bills on national institutions of human rights, political detention and torture, among others. She has been working as a consultant for international organizations and was a principal advisor to the former Secretary General of the OAS between 2006 and 2011. She is a citizen of Chile.

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. 002/18