Abstract
Inter-American system of human rights protection is a complex one and still under development. Contrary to the European system, it has not undergone so deep structural reforms, therefore its basic structure still keeps the shape adopted in 1948 and amended in 1969.
At the same time, it presents an original combination of the charter-based (i.e.on the Charter of the OAS) and the treaty-based mechanisms. The former covers all the Member States of the OAS and is based on the 1948 American Declaration.
The latter includes only States parties to the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights (among them are still missing e.g. the USA and Canada). Moreover, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights does not have an obligatory jurisdiction with respect to all the States Parties,but a special declaration is needed.
The system thus remembers the original European Convention on Human Rights (1950) before its amendment by the Protocol No. 11. Although the Inter-American system lacks an access (application) of individuals to the Court as well as a systematic monitoring of the execution of reports of the Commission and judgments of the Court, it displays a number of original features.
Those features include the combination of charter-based and treaty-based mechanisms, advisory jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court as well as widely recognized right of individual complaints to the Commission. They can also be a source of inspiration for both universal and European mechanisms of human rights protection.