The new legitimacy challenges of adjudication at the Inter-American Human Rights System in the context of Latin American democracies

As its title indicates, this work analyses the critiques labeled against the Inter-American Human Rights System by several Latin American countries in the context of the recent Process of Strengthening that took place within the Organization of American States (OAS) between 2012 and 2103. These critiques that came from governments of diverse political spectrum coincided in the alleged deficit of democratic accountability of both the Court and the Commission's adjudicatory processes, and the pretended ideological bias of its rulings in favor of local and international economic elites.;The Dissertation begins with the review of the political and historical context in which the regional human rights agencies developed, in order to understand its difficult consolidation and the evolution of the motivations that both authoritarian and democratic governments have had in order to intend limiting the System's influence over their domestic affairs.;This analysis will lead to the recent crisis and the unsolved underlying tension between a pro-majoritarian and proceduralist conception of democratic legitimacy and the limit to this popularly elected authority through the adjudication of human rights by international courts.;The study of the counter majoritarian allegations against judicial review and international adjudication will stress the connection between a procedural-based argument for questioning the democratic legitimacy of human rights adjudication by a non-popularly elected organ, such as the Commission and Court, and an outcome-related argument that links the lack of popular accountability with legitimacy concerns regarding the social consequences of those decisions, as the members of these human rights organizations would be intrinsically vulnerable to capture by elite interest groups.;Departing from the traditional analysis of jurisprudence through the selection of relevant cases, this Dissertation will perform a systematic review of the Commission and Court's rulings throughout its history. The resulting data regarding the social background of the victims who have resorted to the Inter-American System seeking the justice denied at the local level, will demonstrate that the elitist bias indictment against the OAS human rights agencies is false. This exercise will prevent further undermining of the regional agencies legitimacy, strengthening their role in the protection of human rights in the context of Latin American constitutional democracies.