Part I State Obligations and Rights Protected, Ch.IV Suspension of Guarantees, Interpretation, and Application, Art.31: Recognition of Other Rights

Abstract

This chapter discusses Article 31 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). The purpose of Article 31 of the ACHR is to allow the incorporation into the inter-American human rights conventional protection system other rights and freedoms that were not set forth in the original text of the ACHR. Article 31 can be understood as a closing article of the part of the ACHR devoted to the enunciation of rights and freedoms and to the determination of the legal regime of the rights and liberties. The list of these rights and freedoms is not an exhaustive list and at the end of the first 30 Articles, the drafters of the ACHR chose to add this Article 31 in order to open up the possibility of adding new ones. The amendments must comply with procedures, those set out respectively in Article 76 and Article 77. The purpose of Articles 76 and 77 is the same: to enable a convention negotiated and drafted in the late 1960s to adapt and transform treaty relations between States.