The Inter-American Bar Association was founded on May 16, 1940 and represents an independent professional forum for the exchange of information and professional opinions to enhance the rule of law in democratic institutions in the Western Hemisphere. In counts among its objectives the promotion of the rule of law and the administration of justice by establishing and maintaining independent legal systems throughout the Americas to ensure the preservation and protection of human rights and freedoms and to secure forthe people of this hemisphere the free exercise of their civil and political rights under the democratic principles that founded these nations.

In this context, the IABA has received reports concerning the decline in health conditions of inmates at the National Institute of Feminine Orientation (INOF), a women's prison located in Los Teques, Miranda State, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For example, in only the second half of 2010, three inmates died from lack of prompt medical attention. In the case of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni, the progressive deterioration of her physical and emotional health was not only related to general conditions at the prison but also added factors such as the open defiance of prison authorities of the temporary provisional measures adopted for the Judge by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on 10 December.
Among the reasons why the Court adopted provisional measures in favor of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni were because of the lack of timely medical attention and because of the repeated obstruction of doctors of her choice.

The evident deterioration in the health of Maria Lourdes Afiuni, reflects, among other things, the violation of national and international human rights law and the specific violation of the provisions adopted by an international tribunal. These events have motivated the IABA Executive Committee to express its solidarity with Maria Lourdes Afiuni and to call on the Venezuelan authorities to give immediate effect to the applicable international standards and resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.