The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has elected Jamaican Margarette May Macaulay as President of its 2023 Board of Directors.
With the second historic all-woman board of directors and the first with all-women from the Caribbean and Central American countries, Roberta Clarke of Barbados has been elected as Second Vice President. The First Vice President, is Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño of Panama.
Macaulay has served on the IACHR since 2016 and is in her second term. She is an attorney in private practice and a mediator in the Supreme Court of Jamaica. She was a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2012.
She is also an honorable member of the Legacy Wall for Gender Justice for women’s rights advocates, which has achieved significant changes and was launched in December 2017 at the United Nations in New York during the Assembly of Ministers. She is known as a strong advocate and reference for women’s rights.
Clarke has been a member of the IACHR since January 2022. She led UN Women Regional Offices in East and Southern Africa, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, and Libya. Before her career at the United Nations, she was a lawyer in Trinidad and Tobago.
She has been involved in civil society at national and international levels. She is an activist for social justice and gender equality.
The election of the board of directors takes place every year, on the first day of the first annual period of sessions in accordance with Chapter 3 of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure.
The IACHR comprises seven persons, with the other members being Joel Hernández, Julissa Mantilla, Stuardo Ralón Orellanda, and Carlos Bernal.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission is mandated to promote respect for and defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area.
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