Professor Alexandra Huneeus, J.D., Ph.D. is the U.S. Candidate to serve as Commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2022-2025)
In March 2021, the United States government nominated Professor Huneeus to run for one of the three positions on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR acts as an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) and works to promote and protect human rights across the Americas. At any one time, the Commission has seven Commissioners who are legal experts and human rights advocates from different Member States of the OAS.
The United States selected Professor Huneeus for this position because of her deep understanding of the Inter-American System as well as her excellent leadership and interpersonal skills.
Professor Huneeus is running against four other candidates for one of three spaces opening in 2022 on the IACHR. Elections will take place at the OAS General Assembly (OASGA) in November. The United States is proud to put forward such an experienced and credentialed candidate for the position of IACHR Commissioner. Although the United States government played an important role in selecting the country’s nominee, Professor Huneeus’s candidacy is independent of the U.S. government.
Professor Huneeus is currently a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She received her J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and did her post-Doctoral studies at Stanford University. Professor Huneeus’s scholarship focuses on human rights law with a special emphasis on Latin America and the Inter-American system, and she is published in a variety of well-renowned law journals.
Professor Huneeus is the first Latina candidate put forward by the U.S. for the IACHR. Originally from Chile, her bicultural background allows Professor Huneeus to have a personal connection with Latin American policy and human rights issues. In 2017, Professor Huneeus was named to serve a ten-year term as Foreign Expert Jurist for the Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which is a court created as part of the Colombian peace process. She has had many scholarly articles published about the Inter-American system and this topic remains her academic focus. Her expansive knowledge about the inner workings of the Inter-American Court and Commission gives her a level of expertise that makes her stand out as a candidate for Commissioner. Professor Huneeus’s fluency in Spanish and English would allow her to effectively communicate in the native language of most of the OAS Member States.
As Professor Huneeus approaches the IACHR elections at the OASGA, she is engaging with a broad range of civil society and regional government representatives across the Americas to learn how she can best serve the region as a Commissioner if elected to the IACHR.
In meetings with representatives of the OAS Member States, Professor Huneeus has learned a great deal about each country’s priorities and their relationship with the IACHR. If elected, Professor Huneeus can draw on these conversations to ensure the IACHR is performing as efficiently and effectively as possible during her tenure.
If you would like to learn more about Professor Huneeus’s qualifications and candidacy, please see the key documents section which includes her CV as well as her brochure in both English and Spanish.
