Jamaican National Elected To IACHR New Board

WASHINGTON, DC Apr. 4, (CMC) – Jamaican Margarette May Macaulay has been elected to the Board of the Inter-American Commission on Human rights (IACHR).

May Macaulay, an attorney, also served as a Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2012, contributing to the formulation of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. She will serve as Second Vice-Chair.

Margarette May Macaulay

The IACHR said, today, that the Board is led by American James Cavallaro, a former Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Executive Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard.

Peru national Francisco Eguiguren Praeli was elected as First Vice-Chair.

“The election was held, in accordance with the IACHR rules of procedure, at the beginning of the Commission’s 157th regular Period of Sessions,” the IACHR said in a statement.

It said the other members of the IACHR are José de Jesús Orozco Henriquez, Paulo Vannuchi, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, and Enrique Gil Botero. The Executive Secretary is Emilio Alvarez Icaza.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights.

The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area.

The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.