Clean hands and a pure heart?: The application of the clean hands doctrine by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

This article provides an analysis of the practice of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR) regarding the clean hands doctrine and its legitimacy. This text argues that such an approach is unacceptable for the compensation of moral damages in human rights cases. Its use is even more questionable given that IACrtHR has not provided an explanation for its decisions to withhold reparations for moral damages only for some wrongdoers. In this sense, this article reviews cases in which the IACrtHR has (not) awarded monetary compensation for moral damages to highlight its inconsistent jurisprudence, and the lack of clear and defining criteria. Therefore, it concludes that the IACrtHR has applied the clean hands doctrine without explicitly stating so, this not being compatible with the international human rights law.