ABSTRACT
The paradigm of the state-nation has been questioned by globalization. In consequence, new synergies between international and constitutional law have appeared, in which individuals have a legal status as human rights defenders. In this chapter, I analyze human rights defenders’ multilevel legal framework considering the human rights defenders’ regime since the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on human rights defenders in 1998. The setting of this Declaration by the General Assembly opened a new legal framework where the individual is not a passive but an active subject of rights with an intellectual dimension. The Declaration on human rights defenders built a new paradigm in international and constitutional law, where the principle of sovereignty was displaced by the universal principle of the human condition and exercise of rights, as an axiological basis. The tension between these two principles, sovereignty and human condition, was a constant issue during the decades of debate within the Working Group to draft the Declaration on human rights defenders, mostly during Cold War. Consequent to this multilevel analysis, there are conclusions on human rights defenders that are closer to a changing paradigm of law, related not only to the multilevel system but also to global constitutionalism.
