ABSTRACT
It has often been affirmed that the constitutions in the ‘new constitutionalism’ tradition are stronger on human rights because they include ample catalogues of fundamental rights, some even going beyond internationally recognized human rights. Ecuador’s charter, for example, includes rights of Nature (Pacha Mama), which every citizen has the right to pursue; 2 both the Ecuadorian and Bolivian constitutions include ample catalogues of indigenous rights. 3 Further, these ‘new constitutions’ contain a number of elements which suggest that they make it easier for those rights to be enforced through constitutional courts and by lowering the threshold of accessibility to new legal mechanisms such as the tutela, the collective acción popular, or the writ of unconstitutionality against legal norms. 4 In Colombia, the decentralized Constitutional Court is a well-known example of the effort to make legal remedies more accessible to broader sectors of the population. In addition, an Ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) was established, 5 which has a mandate not only to intervene or control, but also to educate, orient and advise citizens about the scope and application of their constitutional rights with the ultimate aim of making their rights more effective. In Ecuador, where a similar institution had been established by the earlier constitution of 1998, 6 the constitution of 2008 introduced an additional Public Ombudsman (Defensoría Pública), 7 which is charged with providing free legal services in order to guarantee equal and ready access to justice, particularly for those who are in a vulnerable position, in economic or other terms, and would otherwise lack access.
