ABSTRACT
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was created in 1959 and this led to a Convention of 1969 which came into force in 1978. There are 35 Member States, 25 of which have ratified the Convention and 20 of which recognise the jurisdiction of the Court. The concerns in the Americas have been different from those in Europe as Central and South America were slow to adopt democracy and until fairly recently most states were ru led by un elected military juntas, many of which had corrupt judiciary and indulged in torture and 'disappearances' of opponents. This resulted in different emphases from those that have interested the European states, and there is more diversity and less coherence in the Americas (stretching from Canada and Alaska in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south) than is the case in Europe.
