Help for Human Rights Victims in the Americas from IACHR Under Threat Tracy Wilkinson - The Los Angeles Times
go to original June 9, 2016

Indigenous women attend the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt in 2013. (European Press)

A U.S.-backed commission that helps provide justice for victims of human rights abuses in the Americas is in danger of collapse because of a severe cash crunch.

Advocates say some donor governments may be happy to see the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights falter because it has harshly criticized them.

Hearings and fact-finding trips have been canceled for the rest of the year and nearly half the 78 staff members will be laid off this summer if the commission can’t make up an immediate $1 million shortfall, officials said.

As a result, pending investigations - including those looking into allegations of rapes of indigenous women by the military in Central America and the disappearance and suspected murder of college students in Mexico - could collapse.

Created in 1959, the seven-member panel has investigated thousands of complaints of torture, executions and other abuses of labor leaders, gay activists, environmentalists, journalists and others, especially under authoritarian regimes in Central and South America.

The commission is an autonomous arm of the Organization of American States, which is asking its 35 member nations, including the United States, for help. The OAS promotes democracy, development, human rights and security from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego.

Several member nations normally provide half the commission’s $10-million annual budget, with the rest coming from a few of the nations that hold “observer” status at the OAS, or from other sources.

But several member states have been slow to pay, or have reduced their donations. The problem worsened recently when “observer” nations Norway and Sweden, which are overwhelmed with refugees from Syria and elsewhere, cut all their contributions.

The commission's fate is expected to be debated next week during the OAS General Assembly meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Read the rest at The Los Angeles Times

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