Keough School of Global Affairs faculty member Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, who is director of the Kellogg Institute, alongside University of Notre Dame alumna Angie García Atehortúa, published an article titled “Oversight Hearings, Stakeholder Engagement, and Compliance in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights” in the journal International Organization.
The article argues that compliance with international law is not guaranteed and looks at the ways in which international bodies can obtain greater compliance with their decisions. Pérez-Liñán and Atehortúa cite “dialogical oversight” including regular reports, supervision by non-governmental organizations, and regular hearings to oversee the implementation of directives, as a key to increased compliance with human rights.
Pérez-Liñán and Atehortúa studied specifically the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as an example of the dialogical oversight approach. They collected novel data on 1,878 reparation measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and 197 supervision hearings conducted from 1989 to 2019. It was found that after the 2007 implementation of oversight hearings there was an increased compliance with human rights mandates. From this study Pérez-Liñán and Atehortúa were able to draw the conclusion that dialogical oversight is a contributing factor to the compliance with human rights in Latin America.
Aníbal Pérez-Liñán is professor of political science and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame. His work focuses on democratization, political institutions, executive-legislative relations, and the rule of law. Angie García Atehortúa is a 2020 Notre Dame Law School alumna who works as a human rights lawyer. She was awarded a prestigious placement as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court in Hague, Netherlands.
Read the Duck of Minerva “6+1 Questions” article about the paper here.