The Organization of American States has rebuffed an effort by some members to limit the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its special rapporteur for freedom of expression,
The OAS extraordinary assembly of foreign ministers, held March 22 in Washington, D.C., adopted a resolution rejecting a series of proposals from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). The Alliance, led by Ecuador, recommended barring the rapporteur’s office from seeking independent funding, allowing member states to assert greater control, and preventing the office from publishing reports on freedom of expression, including freedom of information. Other ALBA members are Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Opponents of the proposals included Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, and the United States, according to reports on the outcome, such as one by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
With Ecuador and Bolivia threatened to withdraw from the commission, a compromise was reached with a paragraph in the resolution instructing the OAS permanent council “to continue the dialogue on the core aspects for strengthening” the system. The campaign to weaken the commission has been under way since mid-2011. The commission is in the process of evaluating the criticisms and considering adjustments to its practices, a study promised in 2012 in response to the attacks.
“It was a resounding victory for the commission, and a major defeat for the Venezuela-Ecuador bloc,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the Americas section of the Human Rights Watch advocacy organization, quoted in a Miami Herald article.
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