This article discusses the tension between the two constituent elements of the international regime for the protection of human rights: the universal normative demands on subjective rights of individuals, and the legal order of the democratic state, through which such expectations are translated into definite rules, supported by institutions strong enough to ensure their effectiveness. The article aims, therefore, the paradox between the universalism of human rights and the inherent particularism of the state. After discussing the issue at the conceptual level, the article examines how this tension manifest itself in two distinct historical contexts, the United States and Latin America, extracting from it some lessons about political relations in the hemisphere.
Human Rights; Sovereign; Unites States; Latin America; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights