President Carter led a private meeting with ambassadors to the Organization of American States (OAS) to discuss the current Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reform process, a process that is entering its final stage this month. The meeting, co-convened by Katya Salazar, Executive Director of the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) and Dean Claudio Grossman of American University, was an opportunity for those who participated to talk openly and frankly about the current CIDH reform process. Among those who participated in the meeting were the ambassadors of Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, USA, Canada, Jamaica and Haiti. Also present were OAS General Secretary José Miguel Insulza, the president of the IACHR José de Jesús Orozco and Executive Secretary of the IACHR Emilio Alvarez.
Before opening the meeting for discussion, President Carter spoke of the important role that the IACHR has played in the region and noted that, while the inter-American human rights system was created during a time when military dictatorships were prevalent in the hemisphere, democracies are also imperfect and benefit from a system that helps them strengthen their own efforts to ensure the protection of human rights. He then proceeded to ask the Mexican Ambassador –who was president of the Permanent Council of the OAS in its last session- to give an analysis of the current situation of the reform process. He also asked the representatives from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil to give their opinion of the proposed reforms to their rules and practices presented by the IACHR. During this very respectful dialogue, President Carter also sought to understand the critiques other States had of the IACHR document, thus the ambassadors of Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia spoke of their disagreement with some aspects of the reform proposal while explaining that they were not interested in weakening the IACH. The meeting allowed for an exchange of opinions between high ranking OAS authorities and President Carter, who shared with the OAS Ambassadors, Secretary General and IACHR officials his interest in participating in a follow-up meeting in the near future.