Ecuador: IACHR Funding Model a Failure, Undermines Independence

Ecuador's Foreign Ministry has expressed its “concern” over the funding model of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the IACHR, after the body declared this week that it is going through a severe financial crisis that will have serious consequences on its ability to fulfill its mandate and carry out its basic functions.

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The South American country said in a statement Saturday that the crisis is due the body’s dependence on on “non-permanent, conditioned and directed donations” by private entities and foreign states who are not members of the Inter-American system.

“The sudden and unexpected reduction in contributions from such donors has led to a serious financial crisis inside the institution. In addition, this model of financing has led to a politicized agenda in the treatment, defense and promotion of human rights on the continent,” the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement. Up to of 40 percent of IAHCR staff will see their contracts terminated in July

Ecuador and other left leaning Latin American nations have long expressed concern over how the IACHR receives earmarked funding including from external bodies that are not members of the OAS or have not signed the American Convention on Human Rights. The United States is the IACHR largest single funder and is the seat of its headquarters but for decades has refused to sign on to the human rights convention, In recent years, around a third of the Inter-American system’s budget has come from the European Union, which is otherwise not connected to the system.

Ecuador is not the only country that has expressed this concern over the IACHR, which is an organ of the Organization of American States. Back in 2013 Venezuela decided to exit from the regional body after denouncing ties between the organization, the U.S. government, and anti-government groups in Venezuela.

All the countries that comprise the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), including Venezuela and Ecuador, have for years developed several proposals to reform the IACHR and along the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as both bodies comprise the Inter-American system supposedly for the promotion and protection of human rights.