Barbadian heads IACHR Board of Directors for 2024

CMC – Barbadian Roberta Clarke has been elected President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Board of Directors for the year 2024.

She was elected to the position Monday during the opening of the 189th Period of Sessions of the IACHR that is a main and autonomous body of the Organisation of American States (OAS), whose mandate arises from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights.

Clarke has been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. She led UN Women Regional Offices in Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean and Libya. Prior to her career at the United Nations, she served as a lawyer in Trinidad and Tobago. She has been involved in human rights civil society at the national and international level.

Apart from Clarke, Colombian Carlos Bernal Pulido was elected to the First Vice Presidency with Mexican José Luis Caballero Ochoa, the Second Vice Presidency.

Pulido has also been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. He is a Professor at the Law School of the University of Dayton, Ohio, United States, and the University of Sabana, Colombia. He was a Magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Additionally, he is a visiting scholar at Yale University, King’s College and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Germany.

Ochoa has an extensive academic and teaching career. He was Director of the Law Department of the Universidad Iberoamericana. He is a member of the National System of Researchers of the National Council of Science, Humanities and Technology of Mexico and of the International Commission of Jurists.

The IACHR said that the election of the Board of Directors is carried out, each year, on the first day of the first Period of Sessions, in accordance with its regulations.

Apart from the President and the two Vice Presidents, the Inter-American Commission is made up of seven members and the IACHR said that the thematic rapporteurs and those of the 35 OAS countries are distributed among the seven commissioned people with the objective of providing more strategic follow-up, in compliance with the mandate of the IACHR. The distribution of the reports is available on the website.

The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.