Abstract

ACUNA, Juan Manuel. Democracy and rights in the inter american system of human rights. Cuest. Const. [online]. 2014, n.30, pp.3-23. ISSN 1405-9193.

The old discussion about relations between constitution and democracy or majority rule and rights currently holds in modern constitutional democracies. This Issue has begun discussing a new scenario; the Inter American system of human rights. The inter American court of human rights in resolving several cases, has established the relationship between democracy and rights and thus has managed a series of principles for the design of constitutional democracies in the hemisphere. The cases referred to amnesty laws and their in conventionality have enable to the inter American High Court set standards about the limits that majorities must respect about how to deal with crimes against humanity in the process of democratic transitions. In this paper we propose to clarify the Inter American doctrine on the relationship between democracy and rights and consequently, the basic guidelines that democracies in the area should continue to establish a real constitutional democracy.

Keywords : Constitutional democracy; rule of majority; rights; quality of democracy; amnesty laws; Inter American system of human rights; conventionality control.