RIGHT TO PERSONAL INTEGRITY: ASPECTS AND EXAMPLES - ARTE - 2024

The right to personal integrity includes the physical, mental and moral spheres of an individual. Every person, due to their own human condition, has the right to have these aspects that make up their entire integrity safeguarded.

These considerations about integrity and fundamental human rights are based on philosophical and ethical reflections. At the level of international agreements, there is consensus that these are fundamental manifestations of people's rights.

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The physical realm aims substantially at the intact preservation of the body. The psychic is in the order of emotional health and moral integrity is the right of human beings to make their own decisions, consistent with their human dignity.

What aspects does the integrity of a person cover?

This concept encompasses three substantial aspects. These are of a physical, mental and moral order. Its definitive recognition occurred with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Physical integrity

The physical integrity of an individual refers to his organism in all its forms. This implies the right that all the tissues of the person's corporality are not violated. Here the right to life is implicit and not to receive injuries of any kind.

This right is radically opposed to the death penalty. Only some countries in the world contemplate this penalty in their legislation, such is the case of Russia, the United States and China, among others.

It is important to mention that in the case of these countries such provisions in relation to the death penalty refer to common crimes of a serious nature.

This includes, for example, homicide cases. However, Chinese law provides for the death penalty for corruption cases.

Psychic integrity

The territory of mental integrity overlaps with physical integrity in the sense that people subjected to torture are violated in both ways.

The current laws that sign this type of agreement at the global level provide severe penalties and categorically condemn torture.

In the case of these practices, psychological aspects of people are terribly violated, just as their corporality receives damage that could be permanent.

Today's forms of torture are particularly “refined” when it comes to causing psychological harm. For example, the so-called “white torture” consists of isolating a prisoner and subjecting him 24 hours a day to conditions of intense lighting and low temperatures.

In such conditions, even though the prisoner does not receive direct damage to his body, psychological injuries occur that cause the captive's emotional "breakdown".

The eyes of the law are focused on the actions of government officials who carry out these practices. Likewise, those employees who tolerate them may also be subject to sanctions.

Moral integrity

Moral integrity represents the constellation of human dignity. This is in accordance with the right of people to decide what kind of life they want to live according to their beliefs and perspectives.

The limitations in relation to free movement and the place where you want to establish residence go in this sense. Similarly, all self-decision making by an individual is part of this facet of human integrity.

Totalitarian regimes in general tend to violate, among others, this area. Usually dictatorial systems, specifically of a communist nature, usually establish regulations around the place of residence, as well as the type of work that people must do.

Crimes Against Humanity

Generally, it is government officials and governments who carry out systematic policies of human rights violations. Often the discourse on which these types of regimes are based is that of the "good of the community" and thus smash the spectrum of personal integrity.

Additionally, there are many cases of crimes and extrajudicial executions that are carried out clandestinely. Some countries in Latin America and Africa have a high incidence of this type of practice.

This type of crime has also occurred in private settings. Kidnapping cases are in this category, as well as gender violence.

These types of crimes fall under the so-called category of against humanity and do not prescribe. In addition to murder, this class includes slavery of any kind, torture, forced pregnancy and forced sterilization, among others.

The fact that these crimes do not prescribe means that their perpetrators can be prosecuted at all times by international justice and police organizations such as Interpol.

Examples of cases of lawsuits related to personal integrity

There have been court cases in the world that have shocked humanity. Linda Loaiza's in one of them. Said kidnapping and torture lasted three months, after which she was found by firefighters.

Later, police actions were initiated and Loaiza, who at the time was a young veterinary student, began law studies, which she concluded. As a result of being demure, a first trial was opened in Venezuela that eventually concluded with the acquittal of her attacker.

Loaiza's defense maintains that this first process was plagued with irregularities. Therefore, it decided to take the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an institution that accepted the request. This new international lawsuit not only included his aggressor, but also the Venezuelan State itself due to failures in handling the case.

Another case of lawsuits that have been relevant regarding the different types of integrity are those carried out in Argentina against officials of the dictatorships of the 70s, specifically those of Videla and Galtieri. They committed crimes against humanity against Argentine citizens during that period.

For these reasons, Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Eduardo Massera and Leopoldo Galtieri were sentenced, among others.

Similarly, the Nuremberg trials after World War II, as well as the situation of the war in Yugoslavia during the 1990s, led to subsequent trials related to personal integrity. In the case of the former Yugoslavia, an International Criminal Court was created for this purpose.

The issue of personal integrity in terms of human rights constitutes a permanent struggle of humanity in pursuit of civilization. Given the current state of the world, there is still a long way to go.

References

1. Bloch, E. (1987). Natural Law and Human Dignity. Cambridge: MIT Press.
2. Kateb, G. (2011). Human Dignity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
3. Landman, T. (2005). Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study. Washington D. C: Georgetown University Press.
4. Marshall, J. (2008). Personal Freedom through Human Rights Law? Leiden: Brill.
5. Sensen, O. (2011). Kant on Human Dignity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.