Bill 37.

Summary.

The bill recognizes December 10 of each year as Human Rights Day throughout the national territory. The proposed observance would apply nationwide and recur annually. Its provisions connect that recognition with actions to promote human rights and with activities to be carried out by the country’s educational and cultural institutions.

To give effect to that recognition, the bill provides that the State and its public institutions, civil society, and municipalities would establish actions, plans, and programs aimed at promoting a culture of human rights protection and promotion. It also assigns them the task of undertaking actions that highlight the importance of those rights. The provision links these actions to promoting values such as respect, love, mutual assistance, tolerance, and honesty. Alongside designating the date, the bill thus assigns these participants planning and implementation duties concerning a culture of human rights.

The bill establishes a specific obligation for all educational and cultural institutions in the country. On the recognized day, they would be required to carry out activities that help people appreciate and make visible the importance of knowing human rights. Those activities would also address the need to encourage, through concrete actions, the strengthening and promotion of those rights and the protection of the individual. The provision places these activities on the same date designated for the observance and covers educational and cultural institutions throughout the country, regardless of their particular sphere of activity.

The final provision states that the proposed law would take effect on the day following its promulgation. The articles organize the bill around the annual recognition of December 10, the actions, plans, and programs of the participants named in the text, and the activities of educational and cultural institutions on that day. Its provisions would therefore reach both those responsible for advancing the actions and those responsible for conducting activities related to knowledge and protection of human rights.

The public bodies connected with the bill’s subject matter include the State, its public institutions, municipalities, and the country’s educational and cultural institutions. The proposed actions could also be of interest to civil society and the education and cultural sectors. The subject matter concerns a nationwide human rights observance, knowledge of those rights, and activities intended to promote and strengthen them and to protect the individual.