By: dmc-admin//June 18, 2001//
“Nothing in the OAS Charter suggests an intention that member states will be bound by the Commission’s decisions before the American Convention goes into effect. To the contrary, the OAS Charter’s reference to the Convention shows that the signatories to the Charter intended to leave for another day any agreement to create an international human rights organization with the power to bind members. The language of the Commission’s statute similarly shows that the commission does not have the power to bind member states. The Commission’s power is only to make ‘recommendations,’ which, according to the plain language of the term, are not binding.”
Petition for stay of execution denied.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, McKinney, J., Diane P. Wood, J.