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CHAPTER
III THE
PETITIONS SYSTEM AND INDIVIDUAL CASES 1.
This chapter deals with the work done by the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights during 2001, and it concerns the system of
petitions and individual cases before both the Commission and the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This chapter, which was incorporated
by the Commission into its 1997 Annual Report at its 98th regular session,
covers the following: the precautionary measures that the Commission
granted and asked the member states of the Organization to implement; its
reports adopted in accordance with Article 51 of the American
Convention—or, in the case of those states not party to the Convention,
Article 53(4) of its Regulations in force prior to May 1, 2001, or Article
45(5) of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure that came in force on that
date—and which the Commission has decided to publish; and its reports on
cases declared admissible or inadmissible under the terms of Articles 46
and 47 of the Convention and Article 37(1) of the Rules of Procedure. This
chapter also describes the activities of the Commission before the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, vis-à-vis provisional measures,
contentious cases, and requests for advisory opinions. 2.
Section B includes statistical tables on the information contained
in this chapter; section C1 contains information on the precautionary
measures agreed on or extended by the IACHR, this section covers 50
precautionary measures granted or extended by the IACHR and with respect
to which there has been activity during this period. In this regard, the
Commission has continued its practice of reporting on the precautionary
measures sought from member states of the Organization, either on its own
initiative or at the request of a party, pursuant to the provisions of
Article 25 of its Rules of Procedure, in those cases where such action was
necessary to prevent irreparable harm to persons.
The precautionary measures are presented in alphabetical order
according to the names of the states to which the request was submitted;
the listings also indicate the name of the person or persons on whose
behalf the request was made, a summary of the information on which the
request was grounded, the rights of the persons exposed to grave and
imminent danger, the number of the case, if any, and, finally, the date of
the request and the name of the state in question.
Section C2 details its reports on petitions and cases. 3.
Section C2 includes all the petitions and cases processed and
resolved by the Commission during the time covered by this report. It
contains a total of 74 reports: 36 cases that were declared admissible; 22
reports on petitions that were deemed inadmissible; 12 friendly settlement
reports; and 4 reports on merits. 4. In conformity with Resolution AG/RES. 1828 /XXXI-O/01) and in accordance with Article 46 of the IACHR’s Rules of Procedure, section D includes an analysis relative to compliance by States with the recommendations contained in reports on individual cases published in the Annual Report for 2000. 5.
Section E deals with the individual petitions and cases taken by
the Commission to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It lists the
17 provisional measures ordered by the Court at the Commission’s request
in cases of extreme gravity and urgency, pursuant to the provisions of
Article 63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights; a summary of a
number of Court judgments; and the actions taken by the Commission in
several contentious cases. The provisional measures are also listed in the
order of their presentation; they include the name of the person or
persons on whose behalf they were requested, a summary of the facts of the
case and of the rights at stake, the date of the request, the name of the
state in question, and the date on which the Court adopted the relevant
decision. 6.
Over 2001, the Commission received 718 complaints alleging
violations of human rights protected in the American Declaration of the
Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights; it
also instituted 96 petitions during the period covered by this report,
giving a total of 936 individual cases and petitions that underwent
processing in the year 2001. 7.
This chapter of the 2001 Annual Report contains statistical
information to provide a general overview of the different activities
carried out by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 8. First it presents data concerning the cases and petitions being processed. These comprise the greater volume of the Commission's work. “Cases” is taken as meaning all those petitions declared admissible by means of a report on admissibility. “Petitions” is taken as meaning all those complaints that have been forwarded to the state involved but in which no report on admissibility has been issued. Note that the Inter-American Commission’s former practice—whereby a case was declared open when the petition, prima facie, was judged to meet the requirements for processing—was changed when the new Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights came into force on May 1, 2001. Articles 26 to 30 of the new Rules of Procedure govern the procedure applicable to the initial processing of petitions and to the declaration of admissibility following which a petition is deemed to have become a case. [ Table of Contents | Previous | Next ] |