CEJIL will participate in twelve hearings and five working meetings during the 143rd Session of the Inter-American Commission

Washington D.C., October 21, 2011 – Beginning Monday, October 24 through Friday, October 28, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) – together with more than 50 Latin American civil society organizations – will participate in twelve public hearings and five private working meetings before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington D.C. during its 143^rd Session.

Two specific cases previously admitted by the Commission will be highlighted among the public hearings: Opario Lemoth Morris and Others (Buzos Miskitos) v. Honduras and Jesús Ángel Gutiérrez Olvera v. México. Both hearings will include appearances by victims who have travelled to Washington to testify.

In addition, CEJIL will participate in various regional thematic hearings on pressing human rights issues, including: human rights defenders in Central America, security in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and the rights of the LGBTI community across the continent.

At the national level, CEJIL and its co-petitioners will denounce problems related to political rights in Nicaragua, women’s rights in Colombia, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and the María da Penha law on domestic violence in Brazil. In addition, CEJIL and its counterparts will denounce the denial of the right to nationality for Dominicans of Haitian descent and the conditions for access to public information in Venezuela, as well as the violence faced by rural population of Bajo Aguán, Honduras.

Moreover, the IACHR has called for four official working meetings on October 26. These will be related to compliance with friendly settlements and recommendations of the Commission in three important cases from Peru – Mamérita Mestanza, MM and the case of the Joint Press Release of February 22, 2001 –  as well as one on femicide in Honduras and one on a case from El Salvador concerning the  assassination of six Jesuit priests and their housekeepers, the assassination of Monseñor Romero, and the Las Hojas Massacre.

The hearings will be broadcast live on the website of the Organization of American States here. The schedule of CEJIL’s hearings can be found here.