In a litigation before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, when the Inter-American Commission petitions a state to the Convention, evidence becomes a core issue. The Convention itself, as well as the Rules of Procedure of the Court, do not contain any regulations concerning the treatment of evidential activity, and, as a consequence, the particularities adopted by the Court have in fact resulted from its case law. The following aspects are essential to the understanding of the role of evidence: (a) particularities of the evidential activity within the Inter-American system; (b) constitution of the evidence of the case; (c) burden of proof; (d) evidence assessment system; and (e) standards to identify infringements to the Convention. This issue is of crucial importance, given the particularities presented by serious infringements to human rights. Such peculiarities have been taken into special account in the Court precedents.
Evidence; Assessment of evidence; Sound criticism; Burden of proof; Evidence standards