Enforcing Human Rights in Latin America
Published January 9, 2015
The MacArthur Fondation reports that a brief from FUNDAR, recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, explores three cases in which international courts have made pioneering rulings ordering governments to allocate resources and implement policies that seek to enforce and protect human rights. The cases are from Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, where the judiciary made ruled to restore and enforce the right to education, to an adequate policy for internally displaced people, and to health services, respectively. The brief emphasizes that judicial reviews are transforming justice processes in Latin America and highlights the role of judges as agents of social change and the importance of organized coalitions in providing legal support to victims.

:: JUDICIAL REVIEWS: AN INNOVATIVE MECHANISM TO ENFORCE HUMAN RIGHTS IN LATIN AMERICA
Through ground-breaking rulings, judges in Latin America are driving social change by ordering governments to restore and enforce human rights.
Janet Oropeza Eng, Researcher and ELLA Project Coordinator
29 de septiembre de 2014 :: 7 pages
FUNDAR, Policy Brief – ELLA Evidence and Lessons from Latin America
Summary
Due to persistent and systematic human rights violations, lawsuits have increasingly been brought before various Latin American courts. In some cases, courts have made pioneering rulings ordering governments to allocate budget resources and implement specific public policies aimed at enforcing and protecting human rights. This Brief focuses on three successful cases from Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, where the judiciary made innovative rulings to restore and enforce the right to education, to an adequate policy for internally displaced people and to health, respectively. In particular, this Brief highlights the way that judicial reviews are transforming processes of justice in Latin America, including the role of judges as agents of social change and the importance of organised coalitions in providing legal support to victims. Since judicial reviews have evolved considerably in Latin America over recent years, human rights practitioners from other regions will likely benefit from learning about the particular characteristics of this phenomenon in Latin America.