On 22 November 1969, at San Jose, Costa Rica, the American states signatory concluded the American Convention on Human Rights, called the Pact of San Jose, at the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human Rights (7–22 November). Spanish, English, Portuguese and French, equally authentic. Depositary: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. Article 74: open for signature, ratification or adherence by any OAS member state; it enters into force when eleven states have deposited their instruments; for any state that ratifies or adheres thereafter, on the date of deposit. Entry into force: 18 July 1978. It is not the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, not the 1988 Protocol of San Salvador, and not the 1990 protocol on the death penalty.

The preamble: to consolidate in this hemisphere, within the framework of democratic institutions, a system of personal liberty and social justice. Essential rights are not derived from nationality but from attributes of the human personality. Article 1: respect and ensure the rights, without discrimination, to all persons subject to their jurisdiction; “person” means every human being. Article 2: domestic measures to give effect to those rights. Article 4: the right to have life respected, protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception; no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. Where not abolished, the death penalty only for the most serious crimes after a final judgment; it shall not be reestablished where abolished; not for political offenses; not upon persons under 18 or over 70 at the time of the crime, nor applied to pregnant women.

Article 5: physical, mental and moral integrity; no one shall be subjected to torture. Article 27: in time of war, public danger, or other emergency that threatens the independence or security of a State Party, derogations strictly required, without discrimination; it does not authorize any suspension of Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 23, or of the judicial guarantees essential for their protection. Article 26: economic, social and cultural rights through progressive measures. Article 32: every person has responsibilities to his family, his community, and mankind.

Article 33: competent organs — the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Article 44: petitions by any person, group of persons, or nongovernmental entity. Article 61: only the States Parties and the Commission may submit a case to the Court. Article 62: recognition of the Court’s jurisdiction as binding, ipso facto, by declaration. Article 78: denunciation at the expiration of five years from entry into force, by one year’s notice; it does not release the State from obligations in respect of acts prior to the effective date.

Done in the city of San Jose, Costa Rica, this twenty-second day of November, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine.

National Theatre, San Jose. The city of the conference, not the confirmed signing hall. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

For context: American Convention on Human Rights. The text: UNTS, Pact of San José, Costa Rica.