THE END OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE REALITY OF THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM

Abstract

American States, has played a relevant role in the recognition and implementation of human rights. Within the OAS, many legal instruments, as they relate to human rights, both conventional - hard law- instruments, as well as other types have been produced by multiple agencies of the OAS. Several of them deal with the right of public security, which will be shown in this paper as examples to evaluate the performance of the Inter-American Human Rights System- IAHRS. This study aims to present the bureaucratic structure of the OAS, to briefly explain its performance in relation to human rights, to point out the main ideas supported by Costas Douzinas in his book " The End of Human Rights", and finally to draw parallels between the empirical reality of the OAS and Douzinas' reflections. The analysis takes into account the multi-faceted subject of human rights, especially regarding the issue of public security. Searching literature, performing document analysis, and searching virtual OAS sites, enabled this analysis to show, in general, the fundamentals that underpin the work of the OAS in the field of public safety, in order to ascertain whether "The End of Human Rights" makes sense in light of the reality of IAHRS, the latter comprising the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.