The Inter-American System of Human Rights The Inter-American System of Human Rights is the regional framework of human rights protection for the member states in the Organization of American States (OAS). The system consists of two distinct bodies: the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The commission is a principal and autonomous organ of the OAS, created by the OAS Charter. It is charged with the promotion and protection of human rights in the Western hemisphere.48 The court is a body created by the American Convention of Human Rights (ACHR). It rules on alleged violations of the ACHR in the 23 countries that have accepted the court’s jurisdiction, including Brazil, Chile, and Colombia.49 The foundational human rights instrument of the OAS, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, was adopted shortly before the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in May 1948, during the Ninth International Conference of American States in Bogotá, Colombia.50 The declaration contains a provision specific to the right to a nationality, Article XIX: Every person has the right to the nationality to which he is entitled by law and to change it, if he so wishes, for the nationality of any other country that is willing to grant it to him. This definition of the right to nationality is quite limited and does not explicitly create substantive safeguards to prevent or address statelessness. Furthermore, unlike Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,51 it does not create protections against arbitrary deprivation of nationality. It is likely that the framers of the American Declaration did not foresee this problem, given the predominance of jus soli provisions in the nationality legislation of OAS states. However, the American Declaration is declaratory and non-binding52; its value rests on being the foundation for the American Convention on Human Rights and the further development of rights in the region.53 The American Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1969 and entered into force in 1978, is a legally binding document signed and ratified by 25 American states including this report’s focal countries.54 Its Article XX contains a robust guarantee to the right to nationality: 30 1. Every person has the right to a nationality. 2. Every person has the right to the nationality of the state in whose territory he was born if he does not have the right to any other nationality. 3. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality or of the right to change it. REGIONAL CONTEXT