During the 41st General Assembly of the Organization of American States, currently underway in El Salvador, the OAS Member States elected three new commissioners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. [CEJIL] The three new members are Tracy Robinson of Jamaica, Rosa Maria Ortiz of Paraguay and Rosa-Mary Bella Antoine of Belize. These new commissions will begin their four-year terms in January of 2012 and will join the four commissioners whose terms expire in 2013 (Dinah Shelton of the United States, Rodrigo Escobar Gil of Columbia, José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez of Mexico). The newly-elected members will replace outgoing commissioners Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro of Brazil, María Silvia Guillén of El Salvador and Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero of Venezuela.
Also at the General Assembly, the IACHR presented its 2010 Annual Report. [IACHR] The Annual Report details its processing of petitions and requests for precautionary measures during last year and highlights issues of concern for human rights protection in the hemisphere, with a particular focus on Cuba, Honduras, Columbia and Venezuela, and a follow-up to conditions in Haiti.