The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is one of three regional human rights tribunals, together with the European Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights. It is an autonomous legal institution whose objective is to interpret and apply the American Convention. The Inter-American Court exercises a contentious function, in which it resolves contentious cases and supervises judgments; an advisory function; and a function wherein it can order provisional measures.

Twenty States have recognized the contentious jurisdiction of the Court, including as follows: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay.

The seat of the Inter-American Court is in San José, Costa Rica.

The organization, procedure and function of the Court are regulated in the American Convention. In addition, the Court has a Statute approved by the States through the OAS General Assembly and a Regulation issued by the Court itself.

The Secretary-General of the OAS requests States parties to the Convention to present a list of names of candidates to be Judges of the Court. Each State party may propose up to three candidates, nationals of the State that proposes them or of any other Member State of the Organization. If a list of three candidates is proposed, at least one of the candidates must be a national of a State different than the proponent.
The Judges are chosen on a personal basis by States parties, by secret ballot and by absolute majority, during the OAS General Assembly just before the end of term of the exiting Judges.

The Court is composed of seven Judges, nationals of the member states of the OAS. The current composition of the Court is as follows, in order of precedence: Judge Nancy Hernández López, President; Judge Rodrigo Mudrovitsch, Vice President; Judge Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto; Judge Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot; Judge Ricardo C. Pérez Manrique; Judge Verónica Gómez and Judge Patricia Pérez Goldberg.

In accordance with the American Convention, the Court mainly exercises three functions: (I) contentious, (II) the power to issue provisional measures, and (III) the advisory function.

Starting in 2005, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has celebrated Periods of Special Sessions away from its seat in San José, Costa Rica. On such occasions, the Court has relocated to Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. This initiative of the Court allows it to efficiently fulfill two objectives: On one hand, it has allowed the Court to increase its jurisdictional activities, and on the other, it has allowed it to efficiently spread both its work in particular and that of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights in general.