The Chamber of Senators would reform the Constitution, in terms of the right to petition by electronic means

“Article 8 of the Constitution has not been reformed since 1917 and, now, it is necessary to take into account technological advances for the effective exercise of this right, understanding that it is increasingly common for people to petition the authorities or make complaints through electronic means, since a petition made through technological means can also be considered as a digital written form, as long as it complies with the constitutional parameters”, cites the initiative promoted by Ricardo Monreal Avila.

The president of the Political Coordination Board (JCP) of the Upper House and coordinator of the parliamentary group of the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party argues that recent resolutions of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) make it necessary to amend the Magna Carta .

The use of Information and communication technologies (TIC), cites the constitutional amendment proposal, has been fundamental for the improvement of public administration in Mexico, for which reason its regulation is considered necessary to guarantee the right to petition through social networks and carry out a correct processing of these by part of the corresponding departments.

It refers that when resolving the amparo under review 245/2022, the First Chamber addressed the case regarding whether citizen petitions made from the digital platform “Twitter” are covered by the “right to petition” protected by article 8 of the Constitution, and resolved that the official use of this platform by an authority that, beyond an informational purpose, has implied the capture and attention of citizen requests obliges it to respond to requests that it subsequently receives through that channel.

Hence, the senator from Zacatecas promotes reforming article 8 of the Constitution, in order to include the normative elements that contemplate the exercise of this right by electronic media.

“With this, it will be possible to expand this right from the Constitution itself, with the consequent benefit for all people who make requests and access information through social networks or official pages of government entities, thus contributing to empowering citizens. through a more open government”, details the initiative in the explanatory statement.

The proposal consists of amending the aforementioned article, which establishes that “public officials and employees will respect the exercise of the right to petition, provided that it is formulated in writing, in a peaceful and respectful manner”, in order to add the following: ” including the electronic means institutionally authorized by the authority to carry out acts of interaction with the citizenry, in which the reception of petitions is allowed”.

The Constitution It provides in the same article that “in political matters only the citizens of the Republic may make use of this right.”

rolando.ramos@eleconomista.mx