Lunch seminar with Gabriela Navarro

The effectiveness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: the case of indigenous territorial rights

In the lunch seminar, Gabriela will present and discuss her PHD dissertation defended in 2021. The research provides strategies for increased effectiveness of international strategic litigation on the matter of indigenous rights by analysing the outcomes of decades of litigation before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and its influence on domestic politics. Over the last two decades, the Court has developed the most advanced binding case law in the field of indigenous territorial rights, expanding the entitlement of rights, amplifying the reach of established guarantees, recognizing implicit rights and ordering a wide range of remedies. The book details the Court’s effectiveness with regards to the recognition of territorial rights and proposes strategies for the enhancement of such impact. The effectiveness is analysed through three different dimensions: norm-development (the effectiveness of interpreting and reasoning upon human rights violations); case specific (the effectiveness of compelling compliance with the reparation measures issued); and embeddedness (the effectiveness of promoting the adoption of the legal parameters domestically). The research details how the Court has developed a very protective normative framework for indigenous peoples, but struggles to make states comply with its decisions. Despite growing domestic incorporation of the Court’s parameters, it has been insufficient to guarantee the factual implementation of indigenous peoples’ territorial rights. The book also details elements that influenced the impact in each of the dimensions, proposing strategies to foment effectiveness of the international litigation.

Speaker bio:

Gabriela Navarro is a professor at the Federal University of Lavras, teaching in the fields of human rights and public law. Her dissertation, "Measuring the effectiveness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights", defended at Johann Wolfgang University (Germany) with summa cum lauda has been awarded with the prestigious WISAG Dissertation Preis. She has researched about the interplay between international adjudication and domestic politics, particularly in the field of indigenous rights. She has published articles in renowned scientific journals regarding strategic international litigation of indigenous peoples rights. Her last article, "Indigenous rights in south america: observance with inter-american standards", analysed whether the South American countries are observing the inter-American parameters for indigenous rights, considering constitutional, legal and judicial parameters.

During her time in iCourts, Gabriela will work on her research about the interplay between the brazilian Supreme Court and the international law on indigenous peoples rights, establishing how the national court became a strong resilience source against intense setbacks on indigenous rights.

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