Mobilising the Inter-American Human Rights System: Regional Litigation and Domestic Human Rights Impact in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter analyses the impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System on litigating human rights organisations, and in turn, the ability of HROs to advance the realisation of rights and achieve redress for rights violations through international litigation. The chapter is divided into three main parts. The first part draws on theoretical insights from the literature on social movements and legal mobilisation to develop an analytical framework for understanding both how the IAHRS fosters transnational legal mobilisation, in the form of HRO litigation, and how such mobilisation may affect domestic human rights change. This discussion generates expectations for the subsequent empirical analysis outlined in the following two parts of the chapter, which examine patterns of human rights litigation before the IAHRS, the System’s responses, and the impact that such mobilisation may have on domestic human rights. The second main part of the chapter offers a quantitative analysis of the IACHR’s petition data, while the third part provides an in-depth qualitative assessment of key litigating human rights organisations in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. In the conclusion we draw out the broader lessons concerning the role of HROs in the mobilisation and impact of the IAHRS, while reminding ourselves of the many limitations of such mobilisation.

Keywords: Inter-American Human Rights System, human rights, international human rights, international human rights law, Latin America, human rights compliance, litigation