Translated by Lindsey de Haan
Mexico’s judges “believe the protection and defense of human rights is not a constitutional passing phase”, stated Justice Juan Silva Meza, president of the Nation's Supreme Court of Justice.
Presenting the methodology designed for the teaching and learning of the constitutional reform on human rights, Silva Meza added:
“We believe that a system of administration of justice flourishes better in a society whose members know their rights.”He said that the constitutional reform of June 11th, 2011 [which made all international human rights conventions/treaties signed by Mexico determinative for decisions in Mexican courts] supports the new constitutional system.
“Therefore, the public task,... using the tools presented today, is in perfect harmony with the principle of universality of human rights.”Silva Meza explained that the new online information tool will be used by educational instituions, teachers, students, legal practitioners and whoever is interested to start a teaching-learning process that permits better understanding of constitutional rights.
He also added that the new methodology was developed by a diverse group of renowned experts in the field, all from public eminently institutions.
“We want the people of Mexico to feel entitled to their rights and enforce that attitude in their daily lives, vis-a-vis others, the authorities and regarding themselves, because only a person who sees himself as a “possessor of human rights” is able to oppose the violation of human rights to the detriment of any person,” he said.The methodology addresses nine thematic guides that should be taken as a starting point for a permanent update on human rights: sources of international law, pro person principle [the individual's rights come first], Mexico’s constitutional components, consistent interpretation, difuse control of constitutionality and conventionality, principles and obligations of fundamental guarantees, specific duties of prevention, investigation and punishment, and theory of reparations and protection agencies.
For his part, Eduardo Ferrer MacGregor Poiset, judge of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, said that
“the constitutional reform in regard to human rights is not a simple regulatory change or another renewal of the Constitution. We have a conventionalized constitution because today [international] human rights [conventions] are the foundation for all the authorities, particularly of all the judges, local or federal, of any subject and at all levels.”Javier Hernández Valencia, from the Office of the High Commissioner for the United Nations Human Rights, recognized the work of the Supreme Court for being the leading advocate for constitutional reform on human rights. He said that the implementation of this methodology involved work from diverse institutions over several months.
Finally, Luis González Placencia, President of Mexico City's Human Rights Commission, said that his agency had put Mexico’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN, the Supreme Court and an important group of scholars from national universities in contact with one another to develop the criteria that now serve as guidelines regarding the constitutional reform. Spanish original