On the occasion of the current constituent process we are talking a lot about rights – congratulations – of fundamental rights, of rights whose ownership is universal, of all, and not only of one or the other segment of society. Fundamental rights are based on the common and even dignity that we recognize to each other, so that no one could be surprised that these are universal rights that subscribe to every individual of the human species without exception.
There is much less talk of homework, and sometimes it is done from conservative positions and as a somewhat overlapping way of circumventing the mention of rights and resisting the expansion that the latter have experienced since they began to be talked about no more than three centuries ago. First it was civil rights, which put limits on power; then political rights, which allow participation in the origin and exercise of power; it was later the turn of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, which translate into demands on anyone who sees power; and today we have digital rights and even neuro-rights. It is in this way that fundamental rights were expanding, since they are human works and not creations of divinity or nature that we could find in a sacred book, or written in the firmament together with the stars, or in the heads of some sages or religious leaders. But there is no shortage of those who accept some kind of fundamental rights – for example, civilians or personal rights – but who are reluctant to do so with another, as is the case with social rights.
The current Chapter III of the Constitution is titled “Of Constitutional Rights and Duties”, and a similar name is likely to remain in the new Constitution. However, with regard to duties, this constitutional text establishes only those of respect for Chile and its national emblems, honoring the homeland, preserving the national security and essential values of the Chilean tradition, and military service, all of which is somewhat closer to a nationalism preferably formal than to the greater obligations imposed today by life in common.
Shortly months before the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Declaration of Human Rights and Duties (note the name given to it) was adopted, and it is appropriate to look at it to see what kind of duties it established for the inhabitants of America. Inspired by it, the new Constitution could declare the following duties: to live with others in a way that facilitates that all people can form their personality and develop it fully; duty to assist, nurture, educate and support minor children; duty to acquire a certain degree or level of education (which is also a right to obtain it free of charge and of quality); duty to vote in popular elections (which is equally a right); duty to pay taxes, to avoid tax avoidance and evasion, and thus to contribute to the support of public services and to the benefits expected of the State; duty, in short, to cooperate with the State and society in social assistance and security in accordance with the possibilities and circumstances of each.
A more supportive society is achieved through economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, but also through assuming and fulfilling the above duties, duties that are not intended to contradict rights, but to complement them.
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