Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean

At the end of World War II, the international community sought to prevent both future wars and human rights violations by means of international law. In the short span between late 1945 and mid-1949, the world witnessed the creation of the United Nations (1945), the promulgation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and the approval of the four Geneva Conventions on the laws of war (1949). In the Americas, a similar process was taking place. In 1948, at a Conference in Bogota, the countries of the Western Hemisphere created the Organization of American States, now formed by 35 independent States. An important difference with the process at the universal level was that, right from the start, the Americas created a regional political and diplomatic body, but also approved a Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. Significantly, in the same act, a Social Charter was also approved, with a roster of economic and social rights mostly related to the world of labor; unfortunately, that charter is all but forgotten today.