International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America

Abstract

Human rights practices in Latin America provide a lens through whichto examine the relationship between international law and domesticpolitics. International human rights norms are expressed in numerouswidely ratified treaties. Many of those norms also are embedded incustomary international law. The number of binding human rights normsincorporated into international or regional law as well as the precisionand delegation of those norms increased significantly between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s. In addition, in the 1970s and 1980s aninternationalhuman rights advocacy network committed to documenting andspotlighting human rights violations,drafting and implementinginternationalhuman rights standards, and pressuring governments toimplement bilateral and multilateral human rights policies emerged.