Accountability on human rights: The Legislative Branch and the mexican ombudsman

Abstract

In the so-called Humans Rights Constitutional Reform of 2011, it was included a new agreement between the Ombudsman and the Legislative Branch. As part of the Article 102, Part B, it was ruled that the Ombudsman can request appearance before a legislative commission, to those public officials that have not complied or not willing to accept a human rights recommendation, so they are able to explain the reasons of the rejection.

Is this reform opening a real door for collaboration allowing the legislator to evaluate the arguments for or against a resolution based on an investigation that includes evidence and humans rights legal reasoning, or does it mean a high risk regarding that evaluation to become subject of negotiations or arrangements typical of the legislative activity and calls into question the impartiality of the Ombudsman?

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the on-going discussion on this regulation that expands the institutional network of human rights protection, linking two institutions of different types, the Legislative Branch and the Ombudsman, in the light of the essential mechanism that assures democratic quality to a representative democracy: Accountability.