This project studies the in situ visits of the IACtHR to Indigenous communities, analyzing the transformative impact of this practice. It focuses on 4 case studies, in Honduras and Argentina.
Since 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) has developed a remarkable practice of conducting on-site visits during its cases. These visits, often to Indigenous communities, break with the principle of subsidiarity and the distance that international courts usually keep. Very little research has been done on this practice. The objective of this project is to provide a detailed account of the practice of on-site visits itself and its meaning to the stakeholders, focusing on Indigenous cases. These will be assessed using the concept of transformative impact, originating from the framework of transformative constitutionalism. These concepts have been central in recent research on the Inter-American Human Rights System. For this project, four cases concerning Indigenous rights have been selected, located in Argentina and Honduras. These will be analysed through case studies consisting of archival and legal research and interviews with the selected stakeholders. This research will be a pioneering project which will initiate the academic discussion of the IACtHR’s on-site visits. Combining it with the transformative constitutionalism framework will contribute to recent academic discourse. Finally, due to the focus on Indigenous cases, this research engages with the discussion on Indigenous representation and participation in human rights debates.
