Inter-American Court of Human Rights

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What’s at Stake in the Abortion Case Before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights?

March 16, 2023

El Salvador’s punitive treatment of women through its absolute criminalization of abortion will come under scrutiny by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the “Court”) on March 22-23, in a case involving the state’s treatment of a woman in need of a life-saving abortion. Beatriz was a young woman from the impoverished state of Usulután, who, after experiencing a pregnancy fraught with complications due to an autoimmune disease, found herself pregnant a second time. Despite medical consensus of the lack of viability of the anencephalic fetus and the harm to Beatriz if the pregnancy continued, Beatriz was forced to wait in physical and mental anguish for months while the hospital decided whether to let her doctors perform a therapeutic abortion, separated from her family and young son while in fear of dying or suffering irreparable health damage. This case follows the Court’s 2021 judgment in Manuela v. El Salvador, which documented the negative consequences of the abortion ban on impoverished women and girls. However, in Manuela the Court…

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Another Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency? The Added Value of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

March 2, 2023

The highest human rights tribunal in the Americas, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), sits in Costa Rica’s capital San Jose, part of a region significantly exposed and vulnerable to climate impacts. If the global temperature continues to rise due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that remain trapped in the atmosphere, enjoying the whole…

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EJIL:The Podcast! Episode 18 – “Be Careful What You Ask For”

February 28, 2023

In this episode Dapo Akande, Marko Milanovic and Philippa Webb are joined by Philippe Sands (University College London and 11KBW) and Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (University of Amsterdam and University of the South Pacific). The focus is on the advisory function of international courts and tribunals. In December 2022, the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International…

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The subtle erosion of democracy in Latin America: the case of Lula in the Human Rights Committee

June 3, 2022

On 12 March 2022, the Human Rights Committee delivered its views on the complaint filed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former President of the Federal Republic of Brazil who was imprisoned in 2018 in the context of the anti-corruption operation known as ‘Operation Car Wash (in Portuguese, ‘Operação Lava Jato’). The representatives of Lula asked the…

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The International Court of Justice’s 2022 Reparations Judgment in DRC v. Uganda: ‘Global Sums’ as the New Device for Human Rights-Based Inter-State Disputes

February 14, 2022

On 9 February 2022, the International Court of Justice issued its much-awaited Reparations Judgment in Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda) [hereafter, "2022 Reparations Judgment"], awarding the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the global sum of US$330 Million as total compensation for damage caused by Uganda's violations…

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