Facing new challenges at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: The procedural delay as a substantive —and not only procedural— problem.

One of the main challenges confronted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights today is the problem of procedural delay. In effect, the Commission has received such numerous applications over the last years, that the capacity of the system has become overwhelmed. The Commission has adopted several measures to resolve this problem since 2016. Most commonly, experts and practitioners refer the lack of human and financial resources as the main factor that explains this delay. This paper will present a different perspective. This work will claim that the problem of procedural delay is mainly related to this set of circumstances: (a) the growing tendency of the Commission to expand its area of work, and (b) the misreading of the admissibility requirements contained in Articles 46 and 47 of the American Convention on Human Rights. This paper will conclude that an institutional change of perspective will assist the Commission to move forward in these matters.