Last Update: October 2021
Institutional Framework Database for Social Policy
in Latin America and the Caribbean
Legal and regulatory dimension
The legal and regulatory dimension refers to the existing legal base of the institutional framework of social policy as a central element to identify the State's commitments to guarantee the economic, social, and cultural rights of people. This dimension incorporates the adherence and ratification of international compacts and treaties, the guarantee of rights, and the presence of different social themes in constitutional texts and specific national laws and regulations. Thus, it includes sectoral social laws, especially social development and social protection laws, as well as legislation devoted to specific segments of the population.


Latin America and the Caribbean (33 countries): existence of constitutional and specific regulations on sectoral social issues and concerning specific population groups (In numbers of countries)
Axis Category Constitutional regulations
(Total with indirect mentions
not included)
Constitutional regulations
(Total with indirect mentions
included)
Specific national regulations
Sectoral social issues Education 21 23 33
Sectoral social issues Employment protection/Social Security 21 27 33
Sectoral social issues Health 20 22 32
Sectoral social issues Housing 19 20 31
Sectoral social issues Social development 10 18 23
Sectoral social issues Social development 9 18 23
Specific population groups Comprehensive family protection 17 28 ...
Specific population groups Youth 11 12 25
Specific population groups Older persons 17 18 19
Specific population groups Women 13 19 27
Specific population groups Persons with disabilities 19 23 28
Specific population groups Indigenous people 13 14 10
Specific population groups Afro-descendants 5 8 15
Specific population groups Migrants 13 19 33


Metadata
For the elaboration of this chart, each States’ Political Constitution in the region was analyzed to identify which of them mention the protection of principal rights regarding sectoral topics and prioritized segments of the population. Certain analysis criteria were established in which these rights could be expressed explicitly (indicated with a green checkmark) or indirectly (indicated with a yellow checkmark). To be categorized as “explicit”, the Constitution must recognize the rights that citizens possess regarding main sectoral topics and the rights of specific population groups, establishing that they are protected by the State and its Constitution. To be categorized as “indirect”, constitutional texts that provided mechanisms for the promotion and protection of sectoral topics and prioritized segments of the population were considered, but without classifying them as social rights.

For the elaboration of these charts, official information from the States was used to identify the existence of national legal instruments (laws or decrees) that establish the mechanisms for social protection of main sectoral topics and for certain population segments. Some States are not included in the graphic because they do not have official information on legal instruments available.
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