Danger and Fear in Prison: Protecting the Most Vulnerable Persons in Africa and the Americas by Regional Human Rights Bodies through Interim Measures

Abstract

This article focuses on the role the African and Inter-American human rights systems in protecting the rights of detainees through interim measures. The need for regional human rights to complement protection at the national level is all the more pronounced when it comes to detainees, because they often lack democratic leverage at the national level. While complementing the universal system, regional systems have the added benefit of closer connection and binding judgments. Because the situation of detainees often requires urgent intervention, interim measures are required to ensure that detainees do not suffer undue harm. A comparative survey of interim measures in the two regional systems reveals that, while these measures had been issued in both systems, the Inter-American has used them much more frequently. One of the reasons for this difference is the fact that the Inter-American system does not make the submission of a formal complaint a prerequisite for issuing interim...