ABSTRACT
The human rights system created under the Organization of American States (OAS) consisted originally of the Inter-American Commission, which in 1959 began promoting and protecting human rights as an autonomous organ of the OAS. Historically, human rights represented the legal battlefield during the authoritarian regimes and civil war period of the 1980s. Democracy and rule of law were praised as the two crucial elements which inaugurated a new era for the protection of human rights, focusing on social, cultural, and economic rights. Protection is multifaceted and takes place not only through formal and institutional channels but also by virtue of bottom-up processes and is evidenced in the relationships between international human rights law and other sectors of international law, such as regional international economic law or international environmental law. The restoration of democracy and rule of law brought the need for truth, accountability and reconciliation.
