Human rights are those that comprise the rights and obligations that all people have, without any type of racial, gender, nationality, age or other distinction.
Individual guarantees are mechanisms for the protection of the rights of individuals, established in the constitution of each country.
The difference between human rights and individual guarantees is that the latter are the concrete expressions that will allow human rights to be effectively respected, appealing to the legal framework of each country.
| Human rights | Individual Guarantees | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contemplate the rights that are inherent to all persons from birth. | They are all the legal mechanisms established in a constitution to guarantee human rights. |
| Documents that enshrine them | The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. | The constitution of each country. |
| Activation mechanisms | International law, international treaties. | All those established in the constitution. |
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What are human rights?
Human rights refer to all the rights and obligations inherent to human beings, and which are obtained only by the fact of being born, without any other condition.
These rights are described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document proclaimed at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, at the end of World War II.
Human rights have a universal character and must be fulfilled and respected by all States through multiple mechanisms, such as international treaties, international law and countries’ own constitutions.
Principles of human rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes five basic principles:
Human rights are universal and inalienable.
This is the essential principle of human rights, as it establishes the duty of States to promote such rights, over and above their political, economic and cultural systems.
Human rights are also inalienable. In this sense, they cannot be eliminated, unless the situation is exceptional and there is a guarantee of due process of law. For example, if a person is guilty of having committed a crime, a court must restrict his or her right to liberty, as established in the laws of that country.
Human rights are interdependent and indivisible.
All human rights are interrelated, so that progress in any one of them benefits the others, while setbacks or deprivations also affect the exercise of the remaining rights equally.
Human rights are non-discriminatory
Under this principle, any type of discrimination against people based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual or political preferences, etc. is prohibited. In addition, the principle of non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, which establishes that all human beings are born free and with equal rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
This is the name given to the document that concentrates the 30 articles with the fundamental human rights that must be universally protected.
It was proclaimed on December 10, 1948 at the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris, and its drafting required representatives from various countries, cultures and traditions helped to show a broad perspective on what human rights entailed in various parts of the world.
Among the most outstanding articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are:
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and, endowed as they are with reason and conscience, should behave towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 13
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the territory of a State.
Article 28
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
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What are individual guarantees
Individual guarantees are understood as all the mechanisms established in a constitution to protect a person’s human rights.
In this sense, individual guarantees are the expression of the obligation that States have assumed as guarantors of fundamental rights.
Therefore, it can be said that individual guarantees are all the legal means available to a person to enforce his or her rights.
Characteristics of individual guarantees
Individual guarantees have five fundamental characteristics:
- They are universal: they apply to all people, from the moment they are born.
- They are inalienable: they cannot be renounced.
- They are imprescriptible: they do not extinguish.
- They are inalienable: they cannot be suppressed from the person.
- They limit the power of the StateThe State has no power over them.
- They are protected by constitutional protection.In the event that a human right is not protected by an individual guarantee, an amparo can be used to fulfill this function.
Types of guarantees
Constitutional guarantees are divided into four broad categories:
Equality guarantees.
These are all mechanisms that guarantee the elimination of distinctions between individuals, with the understanding that all are equal and therefore are in the same situation before the law.
In the first article of the Mexican constitution, it is established:
In the United Mexican States every individual shall enjoy the guarantees granted by this Constitution, which may not be restricted or suspended, except in the cases and under the conditions established therein.
Guarantees of freedom
These are the guarantees that ensure that the individual can act freely in society.
Article six of the Mexican Constitution states:
The manifestation of ideas shall not be subject to any judicial or administrative inquisition, except in the case that it attacks morality, the rights of third parties, provokes a crime, or disturbs public order; the right of reply shall be exercised in the terms provided by law.
Property guarantees
They refer to the protection of the right of individuals to access land for productive purposes, either as owner or lessor, understanding that the ownership of land and waters belongs to the State, but the State has to create the mechanisms to transfer it to individuals.
Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, summarizes it as follows:
The ownership of the lands and waters included within the limits of the national territory, corresponds originally to the Nation, which has had and has the right to transfer the domain of them to private individuals, constituting private property.
Guarantees of legal security
These are all mechanisms that protect the privacy and due process of individuals.
The Mexican constitution describes it this way in its article 16:
No one may be disturbed in his person, family, possessions or domicile, if there is no written order.
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