The Inter-American Court of Human Rights was established by the 1969 OAS American Convention on Human Rights to ensure, along with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the observance of the rights and freedoms protected therein. The Inter-American Court, installed in 1979, is an autonomous judicial institution of the OAS. The permanent headquarters of the Court is located in San José, Costa Rica and is composed of seven independent judges who are elected from OAS Member States.

The Court's Statute was approved during the OAS' ninth regular session of its General Assembly in 1979. The Court's first Rules of Procedure were approved in 1980, but its most recent Rules of Procedure were passed in 2010.

How to access the Inter-American System: FAQs (in Spanish).

Information on procedures, petitions and consultations within the Inter-American System of Human Rights.

The Court has a Multimedia Gallery that includes photographs and videos from the Court's sessions.

The Interactive guide to the Court's cases (by country).

The following links lead to the Court's official web site. Not all documents are available in English. You can search Jurisprudence by country and, in the advanced search option, by date or subject.

Selected Publications of the Court