“worrying” weakening of democracy and judicial independence in Latin America

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed in its annual report on the situation of fundamental guarantees in the Americas in 2022 that the trends of “weakening” of democracy and attacks on judicial independence in the region are “worrying.”

The Washington-based regional body and part of the Organization of American States (OAS) warned when publishing the report on April 21 that the 35 States that make up the regional body face serious challenges, especially due to the loss of democratic institutions and the constant violations of justice.

“During 2022, the IACHR observed state actions from the different powers that pose serious challenges to the system of checks and balances and therefore put democratic institutions at risk; in particular, through actions that would have the effect of weakening judicial independence in the region,” the report says.

At the same time, the organization that guarantees human rights in the region calls on States to “protect justice operators against attacks” that manifest themselves in acts of intimidation, threats and harassment when they prosecute those involved in human rights violations.

“If the States do not guarantee the security of their justice operators against all kinds of external pressures, the exercise of the jurisdictional function can be seriously affected, thus frustrating access to justice,” the report continues.

The IACHR warns that the problem has unleashed a series of challenges at the regional level that arise from the “weakening of democratic institutions” that in effect cascade lead to social distrust in state institutions.

“The IACHR has observed obstacles to the exercise of journalistic work; violence and criminalization against defenders and journalists – murders, harassment, intimidation, murders, criminalization”, reads the report.

The militarization of security

The Commission also includes in the report that the tendencies of a persistent militarization in the region “highlights with concern”, such as the propensity to resort to the figure of the states of exception as a strategy to “address situations that affect citizen security.”

The report has also reiterated – based on the compilation of data from more than 50 hearings held last year – that the increase in “non-state armed groups in dispute over control of illicit economies” persists, which leads to the alarming increase in homicides.

The IACHR says that among all this panorama, it observes with concern “the persistence of high levels of impunity and corruption in cases of human rights violations, both structural and circumstantial.”

In 2022, the regional body ensures that it received 1,033 requests for precautionary measures, of which it approved 97.09%, with which it was allowed to protect some 1,648 people.

The president of the IACHR, Margarette May Macaulay, said in a statement that this annual report “is a regional benchmark of inter-American public interest to understand the human rights challenges that people in the Americas and the Caribbean experience and face.”

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