Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms - Brookings

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Regional Mechanisms | The Americas
exhaustion of Domestic remedies Both the Commission and Court require a showing of
exhaustion of domestic remedies unless they are unavailable or ineffective or unreasonably delayed.
Both have a detailed jurisprudence of the scope of this rule, which should be consulted prior to
submitting a petition.
Duplication of Procedures Neither the Commission nor the Court will consider a petition that
is pending before, or has already been examined by, another international human rights mechanism.
However, procedures that do not provide “a mechanism whereby the violation denounced can be
effectively resolved between the petitioner and the authorities of the State,” such as the 1503
procedure (page 51) and the Special Procedures, are exempted from this rule.
Time issues Petitions to the Commission must be submitted within six months of the notification
of the “final ruling” from the domestic system or within a reasonable period of time after violation
if no domestic remedies are available or effective.
Both the Commission and the Court may call upon a state to take “precautionary” or “provisional”
measures in serious and urgent cases to prevent “irreparable harm to persons” pending the decision
on a petition. A petitioner may make a separate request to the Commission for precautionary
measures even before a petition is formally filed.
language and format No specific rules are articulated on the language of petitions; however, the
official languages of the Commission and Court are Spanish, French, English and Portuguese. The
Commission has issued a form for petitions, reproduced below (page 176).
confidentiality The identity of the petitioner will be kept confidential (including from the state
concerned) during processing of a petition, if requested.
Procedure Upon receipt of a petition, the Commission’s secretariat will conduct an initial screening
for admissibility. It may contact the author for more information. If passed by this initial screening,
the petition is registered and transmitted to the state identified, which has two months to respond.
The Commission may ask for further information or argument from the parties before making
its decision on admissibility. Once deemed admissible, the petition is considered a “case” and the
petitioner is given thirty days to provide additional comments on the merits of the case, which are
transmitted to the state for its response. The Commission will also seek to assist the parties to find
a “friendly settlement” to the dispute.
The Commission may hold a hearing to verify the facts, to which the state and petitioner are
invited to be represented, and may conduct an informal visit to the country in question. If it finds
no violation, it prepares a report to this effect, shares it with the parties and includes it in its annual
report. If it finds there has been a violation, it prepares a confidential preliminary report with
recommendations, which it transmits to the state party. Petitioners only receive a summary of this
report. States have two months in which to comply with the recommendations. If the Commission
is unsatisfied with the state’s compliance, it may then transmit the case to the Court if the state is a
Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms
for Internally Displaced Persons and their Advocates 1