The Organization of American States (OAS) promotes and protects human rights in the Western Hemisphere through a comprehensive system of norms, institutions, and procedures. The OAS Charter, the constitution of the organization, contains few references to human rights, although there are provisions specifically devoted to representative democracy, human rights and equality, economic rights, and the right to education.

Two of the most important legal instruments for the OAS member states are the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (1948) and the American Convention on Human Rights (1969). The Convention has been supplemented by two further treaties: the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1988) and the...