The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is a "multilateral regional body focused on human rights, electoral oversight, social and economic development, and security in the Western Hemisphere", according to the Council on Foreign Relations. As of June 2023, 35 states in the Americas are OAS members. Since the 1990s, the organization has focused on election monitoring. Luis Almagro was inaugurated as OAS secretary general in 2015.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was also assisted in its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR). It was the UN's principal mechanism and international forum concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights.
International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, agreements between sovereign states intended to have binding legal effect between the parties that have agreed to them; and customary international law. Other international human rights instruments, while not legally binding, contribute to the implementation, understanding and development of international human rights law and have been recognized as a source of political obligation.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a human rights treaty ratified by members of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Artistic freedom can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Generally, artistic freedom describes the extent of independence artists obtain to create art freely. Moreover, artistic freedom concerns "the rights of citizens to access artistic expressions and take part in cultural life—and thus [represents] one of the key issues for democracy." The extent of freedom indispensable to create art freely differs regarding the existence or nonexistence of national instruments established to protect, to promote, to control or to censor artists and their creative expressions. This is why universal, regional and national legal provisions have been installed to guarantee the right to freedom of expression in general and of artistic expression in particular. In 2013, Ms Farida Shaheed, United Nations special rapporteur to the Human Rights Council, presented her "Report in the field of cultural rights: The right to freedom of expression and creativity" providing a comprehensive study of the status quo of, and specifically the limitations and challenges to, artistic freedom worldwide. In this study, artistic freedom "was put forward as a basic human right that went beyond the 'right to create' or the 'right to participate in cultural life'." It stresses the range of fundamental freedoms indispensable for artistic expression and creativity, e.g. the freedoms of movement and association. "The State of Artistic Freedom" is an integral report published by arts censorship monitor Freemuse on an annual basis.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media functions as a watchdog on media developments in all 57 participating member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He or she provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and promotes full compliance with OSCE principles and commitments regarding freedom of expression and press freedom.
Source protection, sometimes also referred to as source confidentiality or in the U.S. as the reporter's privilege, is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of many countries, as well as under international law. It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story. The right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interests with journalists.
The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. The principles were supplemented and expanded in 2017 to include new grounds of gender expression and sex characteristics and a number of new principles. However, the Principles have never been accepted by the United Nations (UN) and the attempt to make gender identity and sexual orientation new categories of non-discrimination has been repeatedly rejected by the General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies.
Frank La Rue is a Guatemalan labor and human rights law expert and served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, from August 2008 to August 2014. Along with American Human Rights attorneys, Anna Gallagher and Wallie Mason, Mr. La Rue is the founder of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH) and has been involved in the promotion of human rights for over 25 years. He was nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish peace activist and 1976 laureate. Mr La Rue was previously the executive director of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Europe. He has also served as Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO.
Regional human rights regimes are relatively independently coherent human rights sub-regimes that are nested within the larger frame work of International human rights practice. Three principal regional human rights instruments can be identified, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Catalina Botero Marino is a Colombian attorney who served as the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) from 2008 to 2014. From 2016 to 2020, she was the Dean of the Law School of the University of Los Andes (Colombia). Since 2020 she is one of four co-chairs of Facebook's Oversight Board, a body that adjudicates Facebook's content moderation decisions.
The Republic of Uruguay is located in South America, between Argentina, Brazil and the South Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 3,332,972. Uruguay gained independence and sovereignty from Spain in 1828 and has full control over its internal and external affairs. From 1973 to 1985 Uruguay was governed by a civil-military dictatorship which committed numerous human rights abuses.
Margarette May Macaulay is the Jamaican Commissioner and some time President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS).
The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, better known as the Belém do Pará Convention, is an international human rights instrument adopted by the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) at a conference held in Belém do Pará, Brazil, on 9 June 1994. It is the first legally binding international treaty that criminalises all forms of violence against women, especially sexual violence. On 26 October 2004, the Follow-Up Mechanism (MESECVI) agency was established to ensure the State parties' compliance with the Convention.
Paulo Abrão is a Brazilian human rights expert, former government official and law professor. He served as Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) from 16 August 2016 to 15 August 2020. Abrao previously served as Executive Secretary of the Institute of Public Policies of Human Rights of MERCOSUR; President of the Amnesty Commission of Brazil; Secretary of Justice of Brazil; President of the National Committee for Refugees; and President of the National Committee against Trafficking in Persons.
Antonia Urrejola Noguera is a Chilean lawyer who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 11 March 2022 to 10 March 2023. She was previously elected by the Organization of American States (OAS) to serve from 2018 to 2021 as a commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In 2021 she became the President of the IACHR, leading the first all woman team of President and vice-presidents.
Julissa Mantilla Falcón is a Peruvian Rapporteur on the Rights of Older Persons for OAS. She was elected by the Organization of American States (OAS) to serve from 2020 to 2023 as a Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In 2021 she was the first vice-President of the IACHR as part of the first all woman team of President and vice-Presidents.
The Twentieth Anniversary Joint Declaration: Challenges to Freedom of Expression in the next decade, which was published in 2019, is one of many Joint Declarations of the representatives of intergovernmental bodies to protect free media and expression.
Soledad García Muñoz is a Spanish lawyer who in 2017 was elected as first Special Rapporteur on economic, social, culture, and environmental Rights serving on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.