OEA/Ser.L/V/II.77 rev.1
doc. 7
17 May 1990
Original:  Spanish

ANNUAL  REPORT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS 1989-1990

INTRODUCTION

 

 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has the honor to submit its preliminary report to the General Assembly, in compliance with the provisions of Article 53.f of the Charter of the Organization of American States.

 

The report contains five chapters and has been prepared in accordance with resolution 331 (VIII-O/80) of the General Assembly and Article 63 of the new Regulations of the Commission.

 

Chapter I is a brief summary of the Commission’s origin and juridical bases.  This Chapter also contains a brief account of the Commission’s relationship with other organs of the inter-American system and regional and global institutions of a similar nature during 1989 and 1990.

 

Chapter II refers to the activities undertaken by the Commission during the period covered by this report.  Emphasis is placed on the Commission’s principal activities, as well as the subjects it dealt with and the most important measures taken during its last session.  It includes the participation of the Commission in the nineteenth regular session of the General Assembly as well as the resolutions adopted by this organ in relation to the work of the Commission in the field of human rights.

 

The first two chapters, with the exception of sections c. and d. of Chapter II, which describes the Commission’s on-site visit to Haiti and its joint meeting with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, were submitted to the Permanent Council on March 1, 1990, and the remaining three were approved by the Commission at its May 1990, 77th Ordinary Period of Sessions.  These latter three chapters form an addendum.  Together the five chapters constitute the Commission’s Annual Report for the period September 1989-May 1990.  This procedure was adopted to permit a normal adjustment to the Organization’s new calendar year.

 

Chapter III is entitled “Resolutions on Individual Cases.”  This chapter contains several resolutions adopted by the Commission regarding specific cases presented to it, which the Commission processed in accordance with the applicable legal provisions.

 

In Chapter IV the Commission has included special reports on developments in the human rights situation in Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, panama, Paraguay, and Suriname, all of which have been the subject of previous Commission reports in these countries during the period encompassed by this report.

 

Chapter V constitutes a study by the Commission on areas in which the States should institute measures to further the cause of human rights, in accordance with the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights.  At this time, the Commission in this chapter shall refer to the current state of human rights and to the measures which, in its judgment, should be adopted to accelerate this process; the important subject of political rights and representative democracy; and to an initiative to promote an instrument for the purpose of defining the rights of indigenous peoples on the occasion of the 500th anniversary in 1992 of the encounter of two worlds.

 

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