How we work

History and Structure

In the early 1990s, the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) emerged as an important forum for defending human rights in the Americas. Jurisprudence was constantly evolving as a result of new resolutions issued by the Commission and the Court. These innovative normative systems faced major challenges, as organizations and human rights defenders who worked in the region lacked the necessary knowledge and technical capacity to make the most of the system’s potential.

In response to this situation, in 1991 a group of prominent human rights defenders from across the Americas met in Caracas, Venezuela with the intention of creating a regional organization that, through the use of international human rights law and the organs of the Inter-American System, would pursue the rights to justice, liberty and dignity for the inhabitants of all the countries of the hemisphere. Out of this meeting, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) was born.

In its early years, CEJIL focused primarily on protecting civil and political rights, with most of its cases based on the rights to life, physical integrity, due process, and freedom of expression. Later, in response to emerging needs, CEJIL expanded its range of issues, dedicating increased attention to economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as to the collective rights of vulnerable groups, including indigenous peoples, women, children, and human rights defenders.

CEJIL has made the most of democratic transitions, the end of civil wars, and other opportunities to negotiate friendly settlements in cases that made significant contributions to the implementation of human rights-based policies. Likewise, CEJIL has taken on the task of monitoring the implementation of decisions from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I-A Court) in order to ensure that victims are properly compensated, that justice is enacted, and that promised structural changes are implemented. Today, CEJIL works with around 400 human rights defenders and organizations, as well as more than 27,000 victims and beneficiaries of protective measures, through over 160 cases. CEJIL carries the largest case load of any single organization before the Inter-American Human Rights System. 

Our offices are found across the region and house the following programs:

Bolivia and the Southern Cone: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Brazil: Río de Janeiro, Brazil

Central America and Mexico: San José, Costa Rica

Andean Region, the US and Caribbean: Washington D.C., United States

In addition to the sub-regional programs, some offices also hold specific institutional and strategic responsibilities. Our office in Buenos Aires runs some of our knowledge management activities in coordination with the Costa Rica and Washington, D.C. offices, as well as our Digital Rights program and GQUAL campaign. Our Washington, D.C. office includes our leadership team. Our Director of Finances and Operations works with our Costa Rica office on finances and budgeting. Our Communications Director leads our communications staff, located in the Costa Rica and Brazil offices. Finally, the Washington, D.C. office runs our advocacy activities before the OAS, the IACHR and other key actors in coordination with the Costa Rica office, which manages our advocacy activities before the I-A Court.