For a critical approach to the impact of the decisions of the Inter-American Human Rights System

Abstract

This article addresses the importance of analyzing the impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) based on a methodology that distinguishes decisions that imply a genuine jurisprudential advance from those that entail a lower impact or one that is merely rhetorical with regards to the «Inter-American Law». To this end, we define impact beyond the compliance with reparation measures in a concrete complaint, focusing on the IAHRS capacity to generate a minimum consensus on the scope of the States’ obligations. The article maintains that the effectiveness of the IAHRS lies in the potential to create new parameters for states action derived from the decisions of the inter-American organs. Finally, it proposes some criteria to measure the intensity of the impact of the pronouncements of the Inter-American Commission and Court and it describes some decisions based on said criteria.