An Open Letter to the OAS on the IACHR’s Financial Crisis

The below letter sets out the concerns of academics and human rights practitioners regarding the severe financial crisis which is affecting the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The letter, and the list of signatories, is reproduced in full below. To add your signature, please visit the petition site and fill in your name and institutional affiliation. 

 

27 May 2016

Letter addressed to:

Luis Almagro Lemes, OAS Secretary General

OAS General Assembly

International Donors

The severe financial crisis of the Inter-American Commission seriously jeopardises the future of the Inter-American Human Rights System and the promotion and protection of human rights in the region

The future of the Inter-American Human Rights System is at stake and urgent action is needed. On 23 May, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced that it faces a severe and acute financial crisis. The news that the Commission will lose 40% of its staff by 31 July 2016 unless urgent action is taken, is worrying not only for the consequences that this measure will have on each of the 30 persons affected (and their families). The impact of these forced cuts on human rights protection and promotion in the 35 OAS member states will be devastating.

The financial crisis facing the Commission threatens to effectively dismantle the most important rights institution in the Americas region. The Commission was created in 1959 by OAS member States with the mandate to ensure that human rights were promoted and protected in the hemisphere. Since then, the Commission has travelled across the region documenting human rights violations through on-site visits, has published multiple thematic and country reports on a broad spectrum of rights, has granted protection measures to people in imminent danger and has provided technical assistance to governments. Of particularly significant importance, the Commission has become a key international justice mechanism for people in the hemisphere who have been denied justice at home.

The Commission has also been an active promoter of innovative responses to human rights crises. Most recently, the Inter-disciplinary Group of Independent Experts appointed to investigate the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, offers a notable example of the capacity of the Commission to respond promptly to serious human rights violations. Without doubt, the Commission has significantly contributed to human rights protection and promotion in the Americas and it has served as an example to human rights institutions worldwide.

It is for these reasons that the undersigned scholars, human rights practitioners and organisations deplore the current financial crisis that the Commission is facing, and urge OAS member states, in the first instance, to ensure that the necessary funds are made available to the Commission by 15 June 2016. We also make a call to international donors to help in this moment of deep crisis.

After more than half a century of work, the Commission continues to struggle to carry out its multiple functions as States have historically failed to provide the Commission with the necessary financial resources. This means that the current crisis exacerbates a recurrent problem. The immediate cause of the lack of adequate funding is not the scarcity of financial resources. Rather, the financial crisis is rooted in the absence of the necessary political will to support the Commission’s work. Proof of this is that, according to James Cavallaro, President of the Inter-American Commission, in his editorial published in the newspaper El País, Latin American and Caribbean countries provided 13.7 million US dollars to the International Criminal Court, which is not exercising jurisdiction on any situation involving an OAS member State (only one situation is under preliminary examination). Yet, they only pledged 199,000 US dollars to the Inter-American Commission.

The Commission is already facing a serious backlog of pending cases that hinders victims’ right to international justice. The Commission simply does not have the capacity to deal with the petitions that individuals file across the region and more and more people are turning to the System to achieve justice in what they consider are human rights violations that States have been unable or unwilling to address. Indeed, according to the Commission’s 2015 Annual Report, by the end of that year, a total of 9673 petitions were pending initial evaluation and 1903 were at the admissibility and/or merits stages. The Commission is trying to address this backlog with the limited staff it already has. Losing 40% of its staff simply means the Commission’s capacity to process petitions will diminish even further with devastating consequences for victims for whom, in many occasions, the System is the last hope of achieving justice.

Similarly, the Commission’s capacity to issue precautionary measures is also likely to collapse as the cuts announced by the Commission would affect 80% of the already severely under-resourced team responsible for processing them. Furthermore, promoting human rights in the Americas will also be affected in a moment when it is strongly needed, given the political and economic conditions of the region and the way they affect human rights. Most immediately, the Commission has announced that it will cancel all visits to States that it had planned for this year and will not carry out its June and October sessions.

It has to be clear for all those concerned, including OAS member States, the international community as well as potential donors, that the pressing challenge is not only to avoid the loss of 30 members (out of a total of 78) of the Commission’s staff. It is also vital that the Commission receives the necessary resources to deal with human rights protection and promotion across the region in the years to come. Such work entails far more than dealing with the present financial crisis. If human rights matter to States, as all OAS member states solemnly declare when they ratify international human rights treaties, in their National Constitutions as well as in their domestic laws, they need to show this politically and financially. As the current crisis demonstrates, the funding of a regional human rights institution such as the Inter-American Commission cannot continue to depend on external funding sources. Funding has to come from OAS member States.

Given that the situation is of deep concern, it is crucial to support the IACHR’s public call to States to address the situation by providing it with:

1. urgent donations so as to at least maintain current staff levels and conduct planned activities to date; and
2. an adequate budget from the OAS regular funds earmarked for the Commission, as well as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, at levels that correspond to the workload of these bodies and the institutional importance of their work.

Further, we also call upon all OAS member States to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that no crisis of this nature is repeated in the future.

It should also be recalled that the President of the Inter-American Court, in March of this year, stated before the OAS Permanent Council that the Court operates with the lowest budget of any international tribunal. The Court’s financial situation is serious and deteriorating given that it lost 25% of its budget following the withdrawal of funds from international donors. Therefore, these financial problems not only affect the Commission but also the Court.

The undersigned urge all relevant stakeholders to urgently address the financing of the Inter-American Human Rights System so as to make it viable. It is crucial that all States in the region contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Hemisphere, particularly when what is at stake is the future of the Inter-American System and the protection of millions of persons across the region.

 

Signatories:

Victor Abramovich, Former member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cathy Albisa, National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, Executive Director, US

Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, Faculty Director and Co-Chair, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law

Philip D. Althouse, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Consumer Law Unit, US

Sabrineh Ardalan, Assistant Director, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School, US

Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, President of the board of directors of Asociación Ciudadana ACCEDER, Costa Rica

Sanja Bahun, Professor, Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, University of Essex, UK

María Luisa Bartolomei, Assistant Professor, Institute of Latin American Studies, Dep. of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University, Sweden

David C. Baluarte, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic Washington and Lee University School of Law, US

Colin Bailey, Esq., The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Sacramento, California, U.S

Alisha Bjerregaard, Clinical Lecturer, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, US

Iain Byrne, Director Gender, Sexuality and Identity Programme Amnesty International (acting); Fellow, Human Rights Centre, Essex University, UK[1]

Judith Bueno de Mesquita, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Jo-Marie Burt, Associate professor and Director of Latin American Studies, George Mason University, US

Connie de la Vega, Professor of Law, University of San Francisco, US

Nadia Bernaz, Senior Lecturer, Middlesex University School of Law, UK

Eduardo Bertoni, former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Argentina

Bruno Boti Bernardi, Professor of International Relations, Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Brazil

Dr. Virginia M. Bouvier, Senior Advisor for Peace Processes, U.S. Institute of Peace, US[2]

Bill Bowring, Professor and Barrister, School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

Alison Brysk, Mellichamp Professor of Global Governance, University of California, Santa Barbara, US

Jelke Boesten, King’s College London, UK

Clara Burbano Herrera, PostDoctoral Research Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders Human Rights Center, Ghent University and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, Belgium/US

Elizabeth Brundige, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Director, Gender Justice Clinic, Cornell Law School, US

Brenda Campbell, Barrister, on behalf of Garden Court International Team, UK

David James Cantor, Director of the Refugee Law Initiative, Reader in International Human Rights Law, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK

Maria Alejandra Cardenas. Regional Legal Director. Women’s Link Worldwide, Colombia

Juan Pablo Cardona Chaves, Prosecutors Office, Colombia[3]

Arturo J. Carrillo, Professor and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, George Washington University Law School, US

Florence Carrot, Former Students of the European Inter Universities Centre for Human Rights

Elizabeth Carthy, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Sueann Caulfield, Department of History, University of Michigan, US

Magdalena Cervantes Alcayde, Coordinator of the Interamerican Human Rights System Observatory, UNAM, México

Shohini Chaudhuri, Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies / Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Gastón Chillier, Executive Director, CELS, Argentina

Christina M. Cerna, former Principal Specialist, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (1979-2012); Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law School, US

Laura Clérico, Professor School of Law, University of Buenos Aires/CONICET, Argentina.

Brian Concannon, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Jorge Contesse, Rutgers Law School, US

Vanessa Coria Castilla, Human Rights Lawyer, Mexico

Javier Couso, Director of the Constitutional Law Programme, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile

Jamil Dakwar, Director ACLU Human Rights Programme, US

Eduardo Dargent, Universidad Catolica, Peru

Sacha Darke, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Westminster, UK

Lorena De la Puente, Msc Latin American Studies, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, UK

Christian De Vos, Advocacy Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative, US

Clare Dixon, Head of Region – Latin America and the Caribbean, CAFOD, UK

Dr Elvira Dominguez-Redondo, Associate Professor of International Law at Middlesex University, UK

Edmé Domínguez R., Associate Professor, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Alice Donald, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law and Politics, Middlesex University, UK

Graham Dossett, Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Kate Doyle, Senior analyst, National Security Archive, US

Paulo Drinot, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Ariel Dulitzky, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Clinic, University of Texas, US

Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor, department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK

Par Engstrom, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Dr. Claudia Escobar Mejia, Judge, Instituto de la Judicatura, Guatemala

Stephanie Farrior, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Applied Human Rights, Vermont Law School, US

Tatiana Fernández, Grupo independiente de víctimas Unión Patriótica, Colombia

Maria Dolores Fernos, Professor at Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Carla Ferstman, Director of REDRESS, UK

Leonardo Filippini, Profesor de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Claudia Flores, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, University of Chicago Law School

Tathiana Flores, International consultant on human rights and humanitarian law

Conor Foley, visiting fellow at the Human Rights Centre/University of Essex, UK and Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Marfil Francke Ballvé, Lecturer, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú

Michael Freeman, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Fabian Freyenhagen, Professor, head of the School of Philosophy and Member of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Dr. Isabela Garbin Ramanzini, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil

Jemima García-Godos, Dept. of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway

Roberto Gargarella, Professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

Geoff Gilbert, Professor of international human rights law and humanitarian law, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Denise Gilman, Director, Immigration Clinic, University of Texas School of Law, US

Juan Grigera, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Jean Grugel, Professor of Global Politics, Open University

Robert Kogod Goldman, Professor of Law & Louis C. James Scholar, American University Washington College of Law; Former President & Member, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, US

Márcio Gontijo, Lawyer, Brazil

Marilucy González-Báez, Professor of Law, Puerto Rico

Jennifer M. Green, Associate Professor, Human Rights Litigation and International Legal Advocacy Clinic, University of Minnesota Law School, US

Yves Haeck, Professor of International Human Rights Law, Ghent University, Human Rights Centre / Department of Constitutional Law, Belgium

Julie Hannah, Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, UK

Mary Hansel, Deputy Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, US

Joanne Harwood, Director of Latin American Studies and Essex Collection of Art from Latin America, University of Essex, UK

Dr. Rosalva Aida Hernández Castillo, Professor, CIESAS, México

Nataly Herrera Rodriguez, Independent Researcher, Peru

Dr. Courtney Hillebrecht, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US

Elizabeth Holland, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Karen Hulme, Professor, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Alexandra Huneeus, Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin, US

Paul Hunt, Professor, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Vinodh Jaichand, Dean, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Dr. Gilbert Joseph, President in representation of the Latin American Studies Association, US

Kresimir Kamber, Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ghent Faculty of Law, Belgium

Sharanya Kanikkannan, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Lukas Keller, Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank, US

Catherine Kent, Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project, University of Essex, UK

Patrick William Kelly, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US

Gabriela Kletzel, Director of the International Team, CELS, Argentina

Rebecca Landy, Human Rights Outreach and Advocacy Manager, US Human Rights Network

Philip Leach, Professor of Human Rights Law, Middlesex University, London, UK

Sheldon Leader, Professor, School of Law/Human Rights Centre and Director of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project, University of Essex, UK

Dr. Corinne Lennox, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Associate, Director, Human Rights Consortium, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK

Monica Lewis-Patrick, MALS, President & CEO and the Board Members of We the People of Detroit, US

Caroline de Lima e Silva, Dual Degree Phd Student at iCourts, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, & Political Science Department, Northwestern University, US

Paola Limon, Human Rights Law Implementation Project, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Beatrice Lindstrom, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Debra Long, Human Rights Law Implementation Project, University of Bristol, UK

Domingo Lovera Parmo, Professor, Law School, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile

Peter Low, Inter-American Human Rights Network, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Noam Lubell, Professor and Head of School, Law School and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Cristiane Lucena Carneiro, International Relations Institute, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Irma Lugo Nazario, Director, ProMujeres, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Scott Mainwaring, Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, US

Andrés Malamud, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Lorna McGregor, Professor and Director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, UK

Tony McCulloch, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Annette M. Martínez Orabona, Professor, Clínica de Derechos Humanos, Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Tara J. Melish, Professor of Law and Director, Human Rights Center, SUNY, Buffalo Law School, State University of New York, US

Juan E. Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence, Washington College of Law, and former member and President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, US

Sienna Merope-Synge, Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Hope Metcalf, Clinical Lecturer, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, US

Kevin J. Middlebrook, Professor of Latin American Politics, Institute of the Americas, University College London, UK

Kelly Miller, National Coalition for the Homeless Speakers Bureau, US

Fanni Muñoz Cabrejo, Teaching leader, Department of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru

Aoife Nolan, Professor, School of Law, University of Nottingham, UK

Daragh Murray, lecturer, School of law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Kevin Murray, Executive Director, Program on Human Rights in the Global Economy (PHRGE), Northeastern University School of Law, US

Rachel Murray, Professor and Director, Human Rights Implementation Centre, Bristol Law School, University of Bristol, UK

Claudio Nash, President of Fundación Diálogo Jurisprudencial Iberoamericano, Chile

Mariana Nogales,Partido del Pueblo Trabajador, Puerto Rico

Celeste Novelli, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Darcey O’Callaghan, International Policy Director, Food & Water Watch, US

Colm O’Cinneide, Professor of Law, UCL Laws, UK

Ciara O’Connell, School of Law, University of Sussex, UK

Lutz Oette, Centre for Human Rights Law, SOAS, University of London, UK

Helena Olea-Rodríguez, Adjunct Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, US

Dr. Patricia Palacios Zuloaga, Lecturer in International Human Rights Law, School of Law, University of Essex, UK

Francisco Panizza, Professor in Latin American and Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Sarah H. Paoletti, Practice Professor of Law, Director, Transnational Legal Clinic, University of Pennsylvania Law School, US[4]

Oscar Parra-Vera, Former Senior Legal Officer -Inter-American Court of Human Rights, MSc Candidate in Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Oxford, UK

Peter Patrick, Dept of Language and Linguistics, Member, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Mario Pecheny, Profesor Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Emilio Peluso Neder Meyer, Study Centre on Transitional Justice, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Dr Tom Pegram, Lecturer in Global Governance, Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy, UCL, UK

Carlos Andres Perez-Garzon, Faculty of Law, National University, Colombia

Enrique Peruzzotti, Profesor, Departamento de Ciencia Política y Estudios Internacionales Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Former Member Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Brazil

Mónica Pinto, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Deborah Alejandra Popowski, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School, US

Eva Prados, Laywer, Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Javier Puente, Assistant Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile

Renan Quinalha – PhD candidate at University of São Paulo and Visiting Research Fellow at Brown University, US

Gabriela Ramos, Senior Lecturer in Latin American History, University of Cambridge, Fellow, Newnham College, UK

William Ramp, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, The University of Lethbridge, Canada

Nikki Reisch, Adjunct Professor of Clinic Law, Legal Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law

Yanira Reyes, Associate Professor, Department of Law, Universidad Interamericana, Puerto Rico

Mervat Rishmawi, Human Rights Consultant, Fellow Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Dr. Luis N. Rivera Pagán, Emeritus Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary, Puerto Rico

Sir Nigel Rodley Professor Emeritus and Chair, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Gabor Rona, Visiting Professor of Law, Cardozo Law School and Member UN Working Group on Mercenaries, US

Laura Rubio Diaz Leal – ITAM-CMDPDH, Mexico

Maria Paula Saffon, Race and Ethnicity Fellow, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Princeton University, US

Pedro Salazar, Director del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Colin Samson, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK

Camilo Sanchez, Associate Professor, National University, Colombia

Wayne Sandholtz, John A. McCone Chair in International Relations, Professor of International Relations and Law and Director of the School of International Relations, University of Southern California, US

Clara Sandoval, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

Meg Satterthwaite, Professor of Clinical Law, Faculty Director and Co-Chair, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Director, Global Justice Clinic, Faculty Director, Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights, NYU School of Law

Dr. Nina Schneider, Senior Research Fellow, Global South Study Center (GSSC), University of Cologne, Germany

Judith Schönsteiner, Director, Human Rights Centre, Diego Portales University, Chile

Britton Schwartz, Clinical Fellow and Supervising Attorney, International Human Rights Clinic, Santa Clara University School of Law, US

Ahmed Shaheed, Deputy Director of the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK

James Silk, Clinical Professor, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, US

Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, Centre for Global Accountability, Essex Business School, UK

Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, US

Cynthia Soohoo, Director Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, City University of New York Law School, US

Lorena Sosa, SIM Fellow I Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Helena de Souza Rocha, human rights consultant and Lecturer at Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Brazil

Anne-Katrin Speck, Human Rights Law Implementation Project, University of Middlesex, UK

Chandra Sriram, Professor, University of East London, UK

Lucía Isabel Stavig, Doctoral Student, UNC Chapel Hill, US

Shana Tabak, Georgia State University College of Law, US

Bret Thiele, Co-Executive Director, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, US

Dra. Lizandra Torres Martínez, Professor, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Irma Lugo Nazario, Directora, ProMujeres, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Enzamaria Tramontana, Lecturer of International Law at the University of Palermo, Italy

Luis van Isschot, Department of History, University of Toronto, Canada

Nora Vargas Acosta, Director, Sección de Discrimen por Orientacion Sexual e Identida de Género, Clinica de Asistencia Legal, school of Law, universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Tomas Vial Solar, Professor, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile

Frans Viljoen, Professor and Director of the Human Rights Centre, Pretoria University, South Africa

Saskia Walther, M.A. LMU, Universidad de Munich, Germany

Chuck Walker, MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in International Human Rights, Professor of History and Director, Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, UC Davis, US

JoAnn Kamu Ward, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School, US

Deborah M. Weissman, Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law, School of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US[5]

Louise Winstanley, ABColombia Programme and Advocacy Manager, UK

Graham Woodgate, Principal Teaching Fellow, Environmental Sociology of the Americas, UCL/Institute of the Americas, UK

Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and Global Health , Policy Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health| Harvard University

Dr. Anil Yilmaz, School of Law/Human Rights Centre and Essex and Human Rights Business Project, University of Essex, UK.

 

Organisations:

ABColombia (the joint advocacy project of Oxfam GB, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Trócaire, SCIAF on Colombia), UK

Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, US

American Civil Liberties Union, US

Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Argentina

Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Regional

Center for Reproductive Rights, US

Colombia Caravana UK lawyers’ Group, UK

Comité Amplio para la Búsqueda de Equidad ( CABE ), Puerto Rico

Due Process of Law Foundation, US

Food & Water Watch, US

Foro Ciudadano de Participación por la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Friends of the African Union, US

Gender Justice Clinic at Cornell Law School, US

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, US

Human Rights Advocates, US

Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, City University of New York Law School, US

Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School, US

Institute for Justice & Democracy, Haiti

Instituto Caribeño de Derechos Humanos (ICADH)

International Justice Resource Center

National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, US

National Immigrant Justice Center, Chicago, US

Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), US

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas South Central Community, US

The Centre for Civil and Political Rights, Switzerland

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, US

The Observatory of Citizenship and Human Rights of the Federal University of Rondônia, Brazil

 

Signatures added on 30 May 2016 [in order of receipt]

[1] For identification purposes only

[2] For identification purposes only

[3] For identification purposes only

[4] For identification purposes only.

[5] For identification purposes only