Part II Means of Protection, Ch.VII Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, s.1 Organization, Article 36

This chapter details Article 36 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). Article 36 of the ACHR is the exact same provision as Article 2-2 of the Statute of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. The main object of that article is to deal with some questions regarding the election of the members of the Commission. Besides the procedural elements regarding the nomination and the election of the candidates, Article 36-1 requires the members to be elected “in a personal capacity.” This requirement must be read in conjunction with Article 35, which provides that the Commission represents all Organization of American States (OAS) members. Article 36 is part of the guarantees which contribute to avoid the “politicization” of the Commission and its members. This provision also highlights the fact that the candidates are directly proposed by the States; it raises the question of a possible qualitative control of the candidacies.