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This article examines the scope and implications of the provisional measures adopted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Vélez Loor v. Panama within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, situating them in the broader framework of the Court’s compliance monitoring proceedings. Through this case, the study explores how the Inter-American System has developed specific human rights standards for the protection of migrants in situations of vulnerability, particularly regarding access to healthcare, detention conditions, and the principle of non-discrimination. The article contrasts two interpretative approaches to the Court’s actions: a formalist public international law perspective, which questions the Court’s jurisdiction at this procedural stage, and a transformative constitutionalism approach, which accounts for its expansive and rights-protective role.
Additionally, the article analyzes the functioning of compliance monitoring mechanisms in international human rights law, highlighting their structural challenges, especially in relation to the implementation of guarantees of non-repetition. It further argues that, in the Panamanian context, this dynamic finds normative grounding in a constitutional openness clause derived from Articles 4 and 17 of the Constitution, enabling the incorporation of Inter-American standards into domestic law. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how the interaction between international law and domestic constitutionalism contributes to a multi-level framework for enhanced human rights protection.
