A/HRC/39/58 III. Achievements of regional and subregional human rights arrangements Judicial and quasi-judicial decisions 10. The most visible contributions of regional human rights arrangements have occurred in the form of court rulings and attempts by commissions to sway the behaviour of member States.12 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the landmark decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights even have an impact on countries beyond the scope of the original ruling. For example, military officers from several Latin American dictatorships had benefited from amnesty laws until the Court ruled in the case of Barrios Altos v. Peru in 2001 that they were in violation of international human rights law. Consequently, several countries, including Argentina and Chile, repealed their amnesty legislation and began to prosecute military officers for violations going back to the 1970s. Indeed, throughout the 2000s, the preventive approach of the Court to human rights violations, especially its demands for reparations, led some to consider it a “unique driving force for change.”13 11. The decisions of the European Commission of Human Rights 14 and later the European Court of Human Rights have also had a considerable impact on law and practice in several States. Examples of this include changes to detention practices in Belgium, Germany, Greece and Italy, the treatment of aliens in the Netherlands, Switzerland and other countries, press freedom legislation in Britain, wiretapping regulations in Switzerland, legal aid practices in Italy and Denmark, procedures to speed up trials in Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, and privacy legislation in Italy. 15 In Dudgeon v. United Kingdom in 1981, the Court held that the criminal laws of Northern Ireland prohibiting consensual sex between consenting adult males violated the right to privacy, as protected by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. As a consequence of the judgment, homosexual relations between males were decriminalized in Northern Ireland in 1982. 16 Even if the judgments of the Court are only formally binding vis-à-vis the respective State, the case law develops human rights standards with significant relevance for all member States. 12. In 2001, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights considered a communication that dealt with alleged violations of the human rights of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. It marked the first time the Commission was able to deal with alleged violations of economic, social and cultural rights in a substantial and firm manner.17 Another interesting example of court activism is the East African Court of Justice, which has reinterpreted its mandate to include cases of human rights violations. 18 Furthermore, the ECOWAS system, which is best known for its jurisprudence on women’s and children’s rights, allows actio popularis, the filing of complaints by third parties on behalf of victims, which even the European mechanism does not permit. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 6 It should be noted that the African, Inter-American and European commissions on human rights, among other regional arrangements, use precautionary measures where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm to individuals or groups. That is a powerful protection mechanism, especially for human rights defenders at risk. Geneviève Lessard, “Preventive reparations at a crossroads. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Colombia’s search for peace”, International Journal of Human Rights, (January 2017). The precursor of the enlarged European Court of Human Rights until the entry into force of Protocol 11 in 1998. See Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. (Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 2013). European Court of Human Rights factsheet, “Homosexuality: criminal aspects”, (2014), available at www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Homosexuality_ENG.pdf. Fons Coomans, “The Ogoni case before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights”, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 52 (July 2003). Ally Possi, “The East African Court of Justice: towards effective protection of human rights in the East African Community”, Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, vol. 17 (2013).