Inter-American human rights protection: how methods and rules of interpretation are framed

This thesis is an analytical study of the rules and methods in the respective cultural context used in the interpretation of human rights treaties. It involves an examination of the interpretation methods and rules of ordinary international treaties, which are being compared with those of the interpretation methods and rules of human rights treaties. The Inter-American human rights protection system with the judgements of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the decisions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights serve as an example. This thesis also includes a comparative overview of the various international and regional human rights protection mechanisms. Human rights treaties have a special nature when being compared to other international treaties. They are concluded by states which limit their sovereignty for an indefinite period of time, while granting rights to individuals, who are not partners of the treaty. Through a process of evolution those treaties are not interpreted in the classic objective or subjective method ofinterpretation, but in a newly developed dynamic approach. That is, the meaning of the text is looked at under the intention of the treaty, however, under present day conditions. All codified and non-codified rules of treaty interpretation are applied, however, under the limitation that the rights of the individual are being protected