American Convention on Human Rights

The American Convention on Human Rights, also called the Pact of San Jose, is a regional human rights treaty adopted by member states of the Organization of American States. It was signed in San Jose, Costa Rica on 22 November 1969 and entered into force on 18 July 1978 once Grenada became its eleventh ratifying state; as of 2020 it had twenty four active parties, though two states have since denounced it. Its preamble states the aim of consolidating, within the framework of democratic institutions, a system of personal liberty and social justice based on respect for essential human rights. Two bodies oversee compliance: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Washington, D.C., and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, both organs of the OAS that receive and rule on petitions alleging violations. Two later protocols extended the Convention to economic and social rights in 1988 and to the abolition of the death penalty in 1990.