The InterAmerican Court of Human Rights - the Battle Against Impunity?

Latin America has a long history of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity during the period of multiple dictatorships between the 1950's and 1990s. This book is going to examine and assess how important the roles of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) and Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), both founded by the Organisation of American States, are in the battle against impunity. The Inter-American Human Rights System for the protection of human rights has evolved over time, despite setbacks, into a force to be reckoned with, responsible for ensuring and monitoring the implementation of human rights guarantees throughout the 35 independent countries of the Americas. The paper emphasises the gradual accretion of political, legal and moral support within international law in the marginalisation of impunity and evasions of responsibility for human rights violations, before going onto conclude that both the IACHR and the IACtHR play an essential international role for holding perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable for their crimes, whilst also providing their victims with justice.