Part II Means of Protection, Ch.VII Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, s.3 Competence, Article 45

This chapter discusses Article 45 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), which establishes the inter-States communications mechanism. Article 45 of the ACHR follows and has strong ties to the provision organizing the mechanism of individual petitions (Article 44). Both articles describe the avenues to submit to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights a dispute regarding the implementation of the ACHR: either the dispute is raised by individuals under the conditions laid down by Article 44, or by a State Party against another State Party to the ACHR. The structure and philosophy at the basis of Article 45 is very familiar to “classical” international lawyers. Modeled on the rules of functioning of the International Court of Justice (Article 36 of the ICJ Statute), it fully respects the expression of the States' consent.