A MEXICAN IS ELECTED TO THE INTERAMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

• The OAS General Assembly elected three new judges to the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.

• Mexican citizen, Eduardo Ferrer MacGregor, becomes one of the new judges.

 During the 42nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, three new members were elected to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the 2013-2018 term.

The judges elected to begin a new term on January 1, 2013 are Dr. Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor of Mexico, with 18 votes; Dr. Roberto de Figueiredo Caldas of Brazil, with 19 votes; and Dr. Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto of Colombia with 15 votes.

The court, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, is an autonomous judicial institution of the OAS. It was created in 1979 to apply and interpret the American Convention on Human Rights and other treaties. The court has seven judges, all of whom are citizens of the organization’s member states, and who are elected in their personal capacity from among renowned jurists of the highest moral character in the field of human rights.

The Mexican government applauds the election of Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor, who is highly qualified, given his strong academic background and broad judicial and professional experience in human rights. Ferrer Mac-Gregor has also served previously as an ad hoc judge on the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.

Judge Ferrer Mac-Gregor holds a PhD in Law from the University of Navarra, Spain, and an undergraduate law degree from the Autonomous University of Baja California. He is currently a Researcher at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI, II). He has written several books and recently coordinated the book El control difuso de convencionalidad: Diálogo entre la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y los jueces nacionales (Diffused Control of Conventionality: Dialogue of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights and National courts).

Several prominent Mexicans have served as judges of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, such as Dr. Hector Fix Zamudio (1986-1997) and Dr. Sergio García Ramírez (1998-2009).