Supported in many circles for his long-standing anti-communist policies, Orfila nevertheless actively opposed the tide of human rights abuses in Latin America. Working with President Carter and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Patricia Derian, he marshalled the then-dormant Inter-American Commission on Human Rights into investigations inside repressive regimes like his own country's, the Argentine military junta; after looking into allegations of widespread political murders and kidnappings in September 1979, the commission's 1980 report removed any doubts as to the state of freedoms in the country at the time, and helped lead to an improvement in the climate of civil liberties.