ABSTRACT
The American continent contains a large number of states of varying size and at different stages of economic and social development. First, the economic power of the United States stands in contrast to the relative poverty of some Central and Latin American states. Secondly, the long tradition of democratic government in the United States under the terms of a written constitution contrasts with the military regimes that, at various times, this century have held power in states such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. Thus, this is both the continent which produced the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and so set out in clearest terms the case for limited government under the rule of law; however, it is also the continent in which in some countries of Latin America there is irrefutable evidence of the most serious abuses of human rights including unlawful detentions, state torture and arbitrary executions. In some states, the normal constitutional principle that civilian authority should prevail over military force has been openly flouted; such problems have been accentuated by difficulties arising from grossly unequal distributions of wealth and an immature political culture in which extremism and violence constitute the normal methods of discourse. Insecure democratic structures, wide differences of income, problems of acute poverty and illiteracy have posed serious problems in some states in Latin and South America. So that the American continent has played a large part in the birth of human rights law but it has also been the location of some of the most serious abuses.
