Mi Viaje a la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos

For a field trip, my Human Rights In Latin America profe took us to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. I was like a little kid on Christmas: big-eyed, excited, and way too enthusiastic about what it would be like. I had been wanting to visit the court since I learned that it was located in San José. I learned about it in a previous class I had back at DU: International Law & Human Rights. When we loaded the van, I couldn't contain my excitement. I forced myself on that field trip, despite my being sick, because it was a visit on my bucket list (if I had a bucket list). How nerdy! I can live with my nerding-out though. 

What is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights?

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial system that along with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, composes the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mission is to uphold and promote basic human rights and freedoms in the Americas. It's two main functions are adjudicatory, meaning it hears and rules on cases of human rights violations, and advisory, meaning it issues opinions on legal interpretation matters. Sadly, though the US is a member of the OAS, it has not ratified the American Declaration of Human Rights, meaning it does not accept the court's jurisdiction. No cases involving human rights abuses in the US can be tried here.

Living the Dream

I originally heard about the court in my International Law and Human Rights course at DU. We learned about the various human rights instruments (treaties and such), commissions, and courts around the world. When I did my case study on the human rights situation in Chile, I utilized documents from this court a lot. When I heard that I would actually get to visit this place that I had done research about, I was ecstatic to say the least.

The Visit

We didn't have too long of a visit, due to the pouring afternoon rain, but we did get to see the court room where all of the magic happens and talk to one of the legal assistants of the court. We also got a chance to visit the library of the court down the road. It was a lot smaller than I expected, but being there, in a building where some victims have been able to seek justice for violations against their human rights, was amazing.