The Right of Access to Information at the Inter-American Court fo Human Rights

Résumé

[extract] The Inter-American System for the protection of human rights is one of the world’s three regional human rights systems and it is responsible for monitoring and ensuring the implementation of human rights guarantees in the 35 independent countries of the Americas that are members of the Organization of American States (henceforth, OAS).

In particular, the Inter-American System is composed of two bodies: a) the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and b) the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Commission is responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights, while the Court produces advisory opinions on issues pertaining to the interpretation of the Inter-American instruments at the request of an OAS Member State.

The Inter-American Court’s jurisdiction is twofold: a) a contentious jurisdiction, within which these types of cases are resolved with, providing the necessary provisions as well as the mechanism to monitor their own judgments; and b) an advisory opinion.

In the Inter-American system, the interconnection between access to public information and democracy has been highlighted in several ways in recent years. There have been many resolutions of the General Assemblies of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the importance of access to public information and the need for its protection.