Remarks of Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón* Introduction I think the topic of this panel is a fascinating discussion overall, the theme of the conference is a very practical perspective to sit and find some new ideas to improve the protection mechanisms, particularly the individual complaint mechanisms of the Convention against Torture (CAT, Convention), and again to begin to look to different types of mechanisms that exist around the world. In my case, I was invited to talk a bit about the Inter-American Human Rights System. Particularly, I would like to focus on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, Commission). A lot has been written and said about the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, but a more detailed and narrow approach exploring the powers and practice of the Commission as a reference for discussion with the mechanisms of the treaty bodies of the UN—particularly the Committee against Torture—could be extremely useful and has yet to be explored in-depth. international level on the basis of the traditional finding of international responsibility of states. I am going to tell you why I think it is very important to narrow it down and to begin to look at the practice in the Commission in the framework and architecture of the InterAmerican Human Rights System. However, one of the key elements of human rights regimes is the need to prevent human rights violations, which is arguably one of the most important aspects of the object and purpose of such regimes. This is true as a duty of states and it is true to inform the work of international human rights bodies. This may, for example, explain in part why the UN treaty bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee or the Committee against Torture, have established in the Rules of Procedure the power to adopt interim measures.15 Such a preventive mandate requires the exercise of expansive actions to adequately respond to certain human rights violations. Human rights supervision is now a very well-settled practice, general supervision—when we talk about countries, thematic reports, general comments, and advisory services—as well as individual complaints. In order to discharge their mandates under the corresponding human rights treaties, these powers have developed and evolved constantly to improve promotion and protection of human rights in light of the object and purpose of the pertinent treaty. On the one hand, the general supervisory powers play a very important role in inducing states to adopt structural changes that will prevent future violations of human rights in the immediate term. Such general supervision is also a very useful instrument to highlight the existence of endemic problems in specific countries or specific issues in a region, and in many instances empowers the work of civil society organizations and other actors on the local level. This expansive interpretation of these committees’ own powers has been replicated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. While only the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons16 explicitly refers to such a power—interim measures—the Commission has included in its Rules of Procedure such a provision since the 1980s.17 And it is recognized by most states of the [Organization of American States] as a legitimate development of its implied powers in individual cases under the American Convention on Human Rights18 and under other regional international treaties. In the realm of individual complaints, most of the powers of these international mechanisms have been geared toward establishing the international responsibility of the state. This of course usually occurs after violations have occurred, and the only available remedies are reparations, including compensation. In fact, this usually happens months, if not years later, after local remedies have been exhausted. It is ex post facto action on the This provision has evolved constantly to the current draft recently approved by the Commission, which will enter into force in August of this year. Hopefully I will be able to talk a little bit about this process. Structure of the Inter-American Commission I will focus on some aspects of the practice of the Commission that could be interesting and useful for the discussion about provisional measures of the Committee against Torture. * Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón is Professorial Lecturer in Residence and Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law. 14