Institutional Structure of the European and Inter-American Protection System of Human Rights: Comparative Legal Analysis

Institutional accoding to normative framework adopted by international organizations established on the European and American continents. In addition, in Europe it is supplemented by the European Union Acts. Both systems have judicial and extrajudicial human rights protection mechanisms. The key judicial bodies are the European and Inter-American Courts for the Protection of Human Rights. Courts perform jurisdictional, advisory and preventive functions. They are authorized to decide both interstate complaints and individual petitions. An indicative criterion for the effectiveness of the work of the European and Inter-American Courts is the implementation of their decisions by the member states of the Council of Europe and the Organization of American States. The extrajudicial mechanism for the protection of human rights is implemented by convention bodies that are present in both systems and ensure the protection of certain categories of persons (convicts, women, children), namely: the Commissioner for Human Rights (Europe) and the Inter-American Commission for the Protection of Human Rights (North and South America ). The Agency for Fundamental Rights, which promotes the realization of human rights and freedoms (European Union), operates on the territory of Europe. The article states that the complaint review procedure has its own peculiarities. In Europe, the European Court of Human Rights is the main body for reviewing complaints. On the American continent, the complaints are first examined by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and then the latter can refer them to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, i.e. a two-level system of human rights protection is provided. On the basis of the given analysis of the theoretical material, conclusions were formulated, which set out the common and distinctive features inherent in the institutional system of human rights protection in the member states of the Council of Europe and the Organization of American States. Key words: European system, American system, institutional system, international conventions, human rights, protection of human rights, protection procedure.