By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SUCRE, Bolivia – Bolivian President Evo Morales has made recent comments about the country’s withdrawal from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR).

This announcement came immediately after the IAHCR ‘s hearing on the construct of a road through the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory.

“We are seriously considering withdrawing from the commission,” Morales said, according to The Associated Press. “We have our dignity and sovereignty to put in place in these kinds of institutions,”

President Morales’ stance is similar to Ecuadorean President’s Correa’s, who is advocating a series of reforms to the IACHR. One of Correa’s reforms is to change IAHCR’s headquarters in Washington D.C. The Commission “has offices in the United States and that country has not ratified any human rights treaty,” said Morales. President Correa and the Bolivian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) received approval for the proposal to block the Organization of American States (OAS) rapporteur’s office from pushing reports on freedom of expression, block the office from independent financial support and place it under control from member states. The OAS is made up of ambassadors from member states.

The ALBA members have threatened to withdraw from the human rights organization if their proposal was not met. ALBA took advantage of the weakening support for the human rights system in South America. The OAS is in charge of writing the restructuring for the organization that encompasses the ALBA’s recommendations.

Morales has accused the OAS of coming to Bolivia for the purpose of defending governments “that were massacring the Bolivian people.”

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said that he would oppose efforts to weaken human rights. However, in response to the ALBA’s recommendations, Insulza proposed a statutory overhaul to govern the IACHR. His recommendations are for the governments to decide the IAHCR monitoring, force delays in the organization’s  findings and restrict the power to issue precautionary measures.

Isuluza has said, “  “The OAS and its member states need an autonomous and strong commission and an autonomous and strong court of human rights. But these bodies also need to take into consideration, in the course of their work, the points of view of the democratic governments of the hemisphere.”

The Inter-American system for the protection of human rights occurred after the adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in 1948. The Commission of Human Rights was created in 1959.

Venezuela withdrew from the American Convention on Human Rights in September.

 

For further information, please see:

Christian Science Monitor — Victory for human rights in Latin America? – 25 March 13

 Al Jazeera — The IACHR against colonialism – 23 March 13

 Fox News Latino — Bolivia Threatens To Pull Out of International Human Rights Organization – 22 March 13

Americas Quarterly — Human Rights Under Siege in the Americas – 12 February 13