Majority of Mexico's First-Level Judges Ignore International Human Rights Treaties Alfredo Mendez - La Jornada
go to original March 2, 2016

The June 11, 2011, constitutional reform requires all the country's authorities to respect and recognize human rights under the Constitution and international treaties signed by Mexico. It further established that judges have the obligation to apply a principle of interpretation of legal rules known as pro homine, or pro person [i.e., where personal rights have priority].

MV Note: Article One of the Mexican Constitution states: "Laws relating to human rights will be interpreted in conformance with this Constitution and with international treaties, at all times awarding persons the broadest protection."

However, in practice, most judges continue choosing to administer justice by applying only the Constitution and its secondary laws, without studying the catalog of human rights under international law.

Official statistical data collected by the Federal Judiciary, to which La Jornada had access, indicate that in 2015 alone, 7,350 petitions for appeal were filed countrywide in all kinds of court cases (amparo [protection, like an injunction], criminal, environmental, civil , labor, administrative [i.e., involving government operation], agrarian and commercial, among others). Of those, 93 percent derived from the disagreement of litigants with some ruling by the district [first level] court, because the judges did not comply with their constitutional obligation (Article One of the Constitution) to search for and analyze the jurisprudential criteria of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding fundamental guarantees.

According to lawyers consulted, most federal judges do not respect the catalog of fundamental rights contained in international treaties that are not provided for in the Mexican Constitution. Technically, it is an obligation of the judges to apply the clause on agreed interpretation and the principle of conventionality of laws.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: 24 Mexican States Are Now Using Accusatory Court System (Mexico News Daily)

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