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The American Convention on Human Rights (also known as the Pact of San José) is an International human rights instrument. It was adopted by the nations of the Americas meeting in San José, Costa Rica, in 1969. It came into force after the eleventh instrument of ratification (that of Grenada) was deposited on 18 July 1978. The Memorial at El Mozote, El Salvador For permission to use this photo elsewhere, please contact Eric Rojas at erojas@scu. ...
John Hancocks signature is one of the most prominent on the United States Declaration of Independence. ...
1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ...
San José skyline San José is the capital and largest city of the nation of Costa Rica. ...
Coming into force refers to the date on which a legislation, or part of legislation, becomes a law. ...
July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ...
1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...
A party is a person or group of persons that compose a single entity which can be identified as one for the purposes of the law. ...
International human rights instruments can be classified into two categories: declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which are not legally binding although they may be politically so; and conventions, which are legally binding instruments concluded under international law. ...
San José skyline San José is the capital and largest city of the nation of Costa Rica. ...
1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ...
July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ...
1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...
The bodies responsible for overseeing compliance with the Convention are the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, both of which are organs of the Organization of American States (OAS). The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in Spanish, CIDH) is one of the two bodies that comprise the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. ...
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. ...
The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA. Its members are the 35 independent nations of the Americas. ...
Content and purpose
According to its preamble, the purpose of the Convention is "to consolidate in this hemisphere, within the framework of democratic institutions, a system of personal liberty and social justice based on respect for the essential rights of man."
Chapter I establishes the general obligation of the states parties to uphold the rights set forth in the Convention to all persons under their jurisdiction, and to adapt their domestic laws to bring them into line with the Convention. The 23 articles of Chapter II give a list of individual civil and political rights due to all persons, including the right to life "in general, from the moment of conception", to humane treatment, to a fair trial, to privacy, to freedom of conscience, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, etc. The single article in Chapter III deals with economic, social, and cultural rights. The somewhat cursory treatment given to this issue here was expanded some ten years later with the Protocol of San Salvador (see below).
Chapter IV describes those circumstances in which certain rights can be temporarily suspended, such as during states of emergency, and the formalities to be followed for such suspension to be valid. Chapter V, with a nod to the balance between rights and duties enshrined in the earlier American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, points out that individuals have responsibilities as well as rights. American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man Place signed Bogotá, Colombia Date signed April 1948 Date entered into force April 1948 Conditions for entry into force Parties The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man was the worlds first international human rights instrument of a...
Chapters VI, VII, VIII, and IX contain provisions for the creation and operation of the two bodies responsible for overseeing compliance with the Convention: the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in Spanish, CIDH) is one of the two bodies that comprise the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. ...
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. ...
Chapter X deals with mechanisms for ratifying the Convention, amending it or placing reservations in it, or denouncing it. Various transitory provisions are set forth in Chapter XI.
Ratifications At present, 24 of the OAS's member states are parties to the Convention:
Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago suspended its ratification on 26 May 1998 (effective 26 May 1999) over the death penalty issue. May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ...
1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ...
The treaty is open to all OAS member states, including the United States and Canada. The United States is unlikely to ever ratify it; the US does not believe that any international court or other body should be able to judge its actions.
Canada did at one point seriously consider ratification, but has decided against it, despite being in principle in favour of such a treaty. The ACHR, having been written by strongly Catholic Latin American nations contains anti-abortion provisions, which contradict with the right to abortion provided by the Canadian constitution. Although Canada could ratify the convention with a reservation with respect to abortion, that would contradict Canada's stated opposition to the making of reservations to human rights treaties. Another solution would be for the other states to remove the anti-abortion provisions, but that is unlikely to occur due to strong Catholic feeling in those countries.
Additional Protocols In the ensuing years, the states parties to the American Convention have supplemented its provisions with two additional protocols.
The first – the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (more commonly know as the "Protocol of San Salvador") – was opened for signature in the city of San Salvador on 17 November 1988. It represented an attempt to take the inter-American human rights system to a higher level by enshrining its protection of so called second-generation rights in the economic, social, and cultural spheres. The protocol's provisions cover such areas as the right to work, the right to health, the right to food, and the right to education. It came into effect on 16 November 1999 and has been ratified by Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay. This article is about the capital of El Salvador. ...
17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece. ...
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Bold textThe division of human rights into three generations was initially proposed in 1979 by the Czech jurist Karel Vasak at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ...
November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
The second – the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty – was adopted at Asunción on 8 June 1990. While Article 4 of the American Convention had already placed severe restrictions on the states' ability to impose the death penalty – only applicable for the most serious crimes; no reinstatement once abolished; not to be used for political offenses or common crimes; not to be used against those aged under 18 or over 70, or against pregnant women – signing this protocol formalizes a state's solemn commitment to refrain from using capital punishment in any peacetime circumstance. To date it has been ratified by Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Map of Paraguay Panteón de los Héroes in Asunción Asunción, population 1,304,087 (1992), is the capital of Paraguay. ...
June 8 is the 159th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (160th in leap years), with 206 days remaining. ...
This article is about the year. ...
External links - American Convention on Human Rights (text)
- Additional Protocol on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (text)
- Protocol to Abolish the Death Penalty (text)
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
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