During the XXX OAS General Assembly, held in Windsor, Canada from June 4-6, 2000, three judges from the Inter-American Court were re-elected with acclaim: Judge Antonio A. Cançado Trindade (Brazil), President, Judge Oliver Jackman (Barbados), and Judge Alirio Abreu-Burelli (Venezuela). This serves as an unequivocal demonstration that, in the judgment of the states party to the American Convention on Human Rights, the Court has acted effectively in the interpretation and application of this instrument. The judges' second term will run from the beginning of January, 2001, to the end of December, 2006.

The text of the Resolution approved by the General Assembly, after President Cançado Trindade's presentation of the Court's Annual Report, expresses its unqualified support to this judicial organ's work, as well as a clear determination to properly finance the Court during the next years. Furthermore, the General Assembly emphasized, for the first time, that the denunciation by a State Party to the American Convention or the withdrawal from the contentious jurisdiction of the Court (which the Tribunal considers unacceptable) affects the inter-american system for the protection of human rights as a whole and thus stated, with clarity, the State Parties' obligation to comply with the decisions of the Court.

The President of the Court, Judge Cançado Trindade, remarked before the OAS General Assembly on June 6 that the Court has full confidence that the State Parties will uphold the American Convention and added that the safeguarding of the rights protected by the Convention is the work of all, as much the organs created by the Convention as the State Parties.

The composition of the Inter-American Court is the following: Antônio A. Cançado Trindade (Brazil), President; Maximo Pacheco-Gomez (Chile), Vice-President; Hernan Salgado-Pesantes (Ecuador); Oliver Jackman (Barbados); Alirio Abreu-Burelli (Venezuela); Sergio Garcia-Ramirez (Mexico) and Carlos Vicente de Roux-Rengifo (Colombia). The Secretary of the Court is Manuel E. Ventura-Robles and the Deputy Secretary is Renzo Pomi.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States, formally established in 1979. It is composed of jurists of the highest moral standing and competence in the field of human rights, in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights.

For further information, please address all requests to:

Manuel E. Ventura-Robles

Secretary, Inter-American Court of Human Rights

P.O. Box 6906-1000

San Jose, Costa Rica

Telephone: (506) 234-0581, Fax: (506) 234-0584

E-Mail: corteidh@racsa.co.cr

San José, June 9, 2000.

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Footnotes

^(*) The contents of this release are the responsibility of the Secretariat of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The official text of the documents may be obtained by submitting a written request to the Secretariat at the address provided at the end of this document.