22
by the person who claims to have been the subject of a violation of human rights from
various sources both domestic and international.
74.
Nevertheless, this effort of normative integration between the provisions of domestic
and Inter-American legislation can, and on occasion, must, be more widely recognized when
there is a norm that might result more favorable to the individual.
75.
Thus, Article 29(b) of the American Convention provides that “No provision of this
Convention shall be interpreted as […] restricting the enjoyment or exercise of any right or
freedom recognized by virtue of the laws of any State Party or by virtue of another
convention to which one of the said states is a party.” This necessarily leads to the
approach regarding that in the domestic forum the integrative exercise of the rights must be
broad and marked by the diverse international treatises of which each State is a Party. In
some latitudes, this integration of norms –and of jurisprudence— has led to the
understanding or recognition of the existence of “blocks of rights” or “blocks of
constitutionality”114 or “parameter of constitutional regularity.”115
76.
In the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court, the interpretative norm of Article
29 of the American Convention has been utilized in order to integrate the rights provided for
in both the Convention, as well as in the constitutions and domestic laws.
77.
The Inter-American Court has recognized that, in conformance with Article 29(b) of
the American Convention – which precludes a restrictive interpretation of rights – an
evolutionary interpretation of the American Convention, in relation to the international
instruments on the protection of human rights, is evident,116 which, in turn, leads to the
affirmation that human rights treaties are living instruments, whose interpretation must go
hand in hand with evolving times and current living conditions117 The Inter-American Court
has found that such an evolutionary interpretation is consistent with the general rules of
interpretation set forth in Article 29 of the American Convention, as well those set forth in
114
The design, content and scope of the "constitutional block” takes on different nuances and particularities
of each country. On the matter, the classical studies of Favoreu, Louis, and Rubio Llorente, Francisco are
illustrative, The constitutionality block. [El bloque de la constitucionalidad], Madrid, Civitas, 1991. See also Manili,
Pablo Luis, The reception of international law on human rights in constitutional argentine law. [El bloque de
constitucionalidad. La recepción del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos en el derecho constitucional
argentino], Madrid, Civitas , 1991. Also see, Manili , Pablo Luis Buenos Aires, The Law, 2003; Londoño Ayala, César
Augusto, Constitutionality Block [Bloque de constitucionalidad], Bogotá, New Legal Editions, 2010; Uprimny,
Rodrigo, Constitutionality Block, human rights and criminal proceedings [Bloque de constitucionalidad, derechos
humanos and proceso penal], Bogotá, Superior Council of the Judiciary, 2006. An interesting comparative study
and of reception of this doctrine in latin American countries, can be seen in Góngora Mera, Manuel Eduardo, InterAmerican judicial Constitutionalism: On the Constitutional Rank of Human Rights Treaties in Latin American
through National and Inter-American Adjudication, San José, Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, 2011.
115
Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (México). Contradiction Thesis 293/2011, resolved on September
3, 2013 (pending more). It is useful to understand the dimension of the “constitutional block/conformity with the
Convention” in Mexico, the works of Caballero Ochoa, José Luis, The interpretation in conformity. The
Constitutional model under international treaties on human rights and the control of conformity with the
Convention, [La interpretación conforme. El modelo constitucional ante los tratados internacionales sobre derechos
humanos and el control de convencionalidad], México, Porrúa-IMDPC, 2013, p. 184 and ss.
116
Cf. Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community V. Nicaragua. Merits, Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of August 31, 2001. Series C No. 79, para. 148.
117
Cf. Case of the Mapiripan Massacre V. Colombia. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September
15, 2005. Series C No. 134, para. 106.