Ecuador 2008 Constitution (reviewed 2021)

Title II. Rights

CHAPTER 1. Principles for the enforcement of rights

Article 10

Persons, communities, peoples, nations and communities are bearers of rights and shall enjoy the rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution and in international instruments.

Nature shall be the subject of those rights that the Constitution recognizes for it.

Article 11

The exercise of rights shall be governed by the following principles:

1. Rights can be exercised, promoted and enforced individually or collectively before competent authorities; these authorities shall guarantee their enforcement.
2. All persons are equal and shall enjoy the same rights, duties and opportunities.No one shall be discriminated against for reasons of ethnic belonging, place of birth, age, sex, gender identity, cultural identity, civil status, language, religion, ideology, political affiliation, legal record, socio-economic condition, migratory status, sexual orientation, health status, HIV carrier, disability, physical difference or any other distinguishing feature, whether personal or collective, temporary or permanent, which might be aimed at or result in the diminishment or annulment of recognition, enjoyment or exercise of rights. All forms of discrimination are punishable by law.

   The State shall adopt affirmative action measures that promote real equality for the benefit of the rights-bearers who are in a situation of inequality.

3. The rights and guarantees set forth in the Constitution and in international human rights instruments shall be directly and immediately enforced by and before any civil, administrative or judicial servant, either by virtue of their office or at the request of the party.For the exercise of rights and constitutional guarantees, no conditions or requirements shall be established other than those set forth in the Constitution or by law.

   Rights shall be fully actionable. Absence of a legal regulatory framework cannot be alleged to justify their infringement or ignorance thereof, to dismiss proceedings filed as a result of these actions or to deny their recognition.

4. No legal regulation can restrict the contents of rights or constitutional guarantees.
5. In terms of rights and constitutional guarantees, public, administrative or judicial servants must abide by the most favorable interpretation of their effective force.
6. All principles and rights are unalienable, obligatory, indivisible, interdependent and of equal importance.
7. Recognition of the rights and guarantees set forth in the Constitution and in international human rights instruments shall not exclude the other rights stemming from the dignity of persons, communities, peoples and nations that might be needed for their full development.
8. The contents of rights shall be developed progressively by means of standards, case law, and public policies.The State shall generate and guarantee the conditions needed for their full recognition and exercise.

   Any deed or omission of a regressive nature that diminishes, undermines or annuls without justification the exercise of rights shall be deemed unconstitutional.

9. The State’s supreme duty consists of respecting and enforcing respect for the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

The State, its delegates, concession holders and all persons acting in the exercise of public authority, shall be obligated to redress infringements of the rights of individuals for negligence or inadequacies in the provision of public services or for the deeds or omissions of their public officials and employees in the performance of their duties.

The State shall immediately exercise the right to file a claim for restoration against those persons responsible for the damage produced, without detriment to civil, criminal and administrative liabilities.

The State shall be held liable for arbitrary arrest and detention, miscarriage of justice, unjustified delay or inadequate administration of justice, violation of the right to effective protection of the court, and any violations of the principles and rules of due process of law.

When a final judgment of conviction is reversed or vacated, the State shall provide redress to the person who has sustained damages as a result of this judgment; when the responsibility for such acts by public, administrative or judicial servants is identified, they shall be duly charged to obtain restitution.

CHAPTER 2. Rights of the good way of living

SECTION 1. Water and food

Article 12

The human right to water is essential and cannot be waived. Water constitutes a national strategic asset for use by the public and it is unalienable, not subject to a statute of limitations, immune from seizure and essential for life.

Article 13

Persons and community groups have the right to safe and permanent access to healthy, sufficient and nutritional food, preferably produced locally and in keeping with their various identities and cultural traditions.

The Ecuadorian State shall promote food sovereignty.

SECTION 2. Healthy environment

Article 14

The right of the population to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment that guarantees sustainability and the good way of living (sumak kawsay), is recognized.

Environmental conservation, the protection of ecosystems, biodiversity and the integrity of the country’s genetic assets, the prevention of environmental damage, and the recovery of degraded natural spaces are declared matters of public interest.

Article 15

The State shall promote, in the public and private sectors, the use of environmentally clean technologies and nonpolluting and low-impact alternative sources of energy. Energy sovereignty shall not be achieved to the detriment of food sovereignty nor shall it affect the right to water.

The development, production, ownership, marketing, import, transport, storage and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, internationally prohibited agrochemicals, and experimental biological technologies and agents and genetically modified organisms that are harmful to human health or mat jeopardize food sovereignty or ecosystems, as well as the introduction of nuclear residues and toxic waste into the country’s territory, are forbidden.

SECTION 3. Information and communication

Article 16

All persons, individually or collectively, have the right to:

1. Free, intercultural, inclusive, diverse and participatory communication in all spheres of social interaction, by any means or form, in their own language and with their own symbols.
2. Universal access to information and communication technologies.
3. The creation of media and access, under equal conditions, to use of radio spectrum frequencies for the management of public, private and community radio and television stations and to free bands for the use of wireless networks.
4. Access and use of all forms of visual, auditory, sensory and other communication that make it possible to include persons with disabilities.
5. Become part of participation spaces as provided for by the Constitution in the field of communication.

Article 17

The State shall foster plurality and diversity in communication and, for this purpose, shall:

1. Guarantee the allocation, by means of transparent methods and in equal conditions, of radio spectrum frequencies for the management of public, private and community radio and television stations, as well as the access to free bands for the use of wireless networks and shall make sure that, when they are used, the general welfare of the community prevails.
2. Facilitate the creation and strengthening of public, private and community media, as well as universal access to information and communication technologies, especially for persons and community groups that do not have this access or have only limited access to them.
3. Not permit the oligopolistic or monopolistic ownership, whether direct or indirect, of the media and use of frequencies.

Article 18

All persons, whether individually or collectively, have the right to:

1. Look for, receive, exchange, produce and disseminate information that is truthful, accurate, timely, taken in context, plural, without prior censorship about the facts, events, and processes of general interest, with subsequent responsibility.
2. Gain access freely to information generated in public institutions or in private institutions that handle State funds or perform public duties. There shall be no confidentiality of information except in those cases expressly provided for by the law. In the event of a violation of human rights, no public institution shall refuse to provide the information.

Article 19

The law shall regulate the prevalence of contents for informative, educational and cultural purposes in the programming of the media, and shall foster the creation of spaces for the dissemination of independent national production.

It is forbidden to broadcast advertisements that foment violence, discrimination, racism, drug addiction, sexism, religious or political intolerance and all that undermines rights is forbidden.

Article 20

The State shall guarantee the conscience clause for all persons, professional secrecy and the confidentiality of the sources of those who inform, issue their opinions through the media or other forms of communication or who work in any communication activity.

SECTION 4. Culture and science

Article 21

Persons have the right to build and uphold their own cultural identity, to decide their belonging to one or various cultural communities, and to express these choices; the right to aesthetic freedom; the right to learn about the historical past of their cultures and to gain access to their cultural heritage; to disseminate their own cultural expressions and to have access to diverse cultural expressions.

Culture cannot be used as an excuse when infringing rights recognized in the Constitution.

Article 22

Persons have the right to develop their creative capacity, to the commendable and steady exercise of cultural and artistic activities, and to benefit from the protection of moral and heritage rights that pertain to them as a result of the scientific, literary or artistic productions of which they are the authors.

Article 23

Persons have the right to gain access to and participate in public spaces as a sphere for deliberation, cultural exchange, social cohesiveness and the promotion of equality in diversity. The right to disseminate in public spaces one’s own cultural manifestations shall be exercised without any constraint other than those provided for by the law, subject to the principles of the Constitution.

Article 24

Persons have the right to recreation and leisure, the practice of sports and free time.

Article 25

Persons have the right to enjoy the benefits and applications of scientific progress and ancestral wisdom.

SECTION 5. Education

Article 26

Education is a right of persons throughout their lives and an unavoidable and mandatory duty of the State. It constitutes a priority area for public policymaking and state investment, the guarantee of equality and social inclusion and the indispensable condition for the good way of living. Persons, families and society have the right and responsibility to participate in education.

Article 27

Education will focus on the human being and shall guarantee holistic human development, in the framework of respect for human rights, a sustainable environment, and democracy; education shall be participatory, compulsory, intercultural, democratic, inclusive and diverse, of high quality and humane; it shall promote gender equity, justice, solidarity and peace; it shall encourage critical faculties, art and sports, individual and community initiatives, and the development of competencies and capabilities to create and work.

Education is indispensable for knowledge, exercise of rights and building a sovereign country and it is a key strategy for national development.

Article 28

Education shall be for general welfare of the public and shall not be at the service of individual and corporate interests. Universal access, permanence, mobility and graduation without any discrimination shall be guaranteed, as well compulsory attendance of initial schooling, basic education and secondary education or their equivalent.

It is the right of every person and community to interact among cultures and to participate in a society that learns. The State shall promote intercultural dialogue in all of its many dimensions.

Learning shall take place with schooling systems and non-school modalities.

Public education shall be universal and secular at all levels and shall be free of charge up to and including the third level of higher education [post-secondary undergraduate schooling].

Article 29

The State shall guarantee the freedom to teach, academic freedom in higher education, and the right of persons to learn in their own language and cultural environment.

Mothers and fathers or their representatives shall be at liberty to choose for their daughters and sons an education that is in line with their principles, beliefs, and pedagogical options.

SECTION 6. Habitat and housing

Article 30

Persons have the right to a safe and healthy habitat and adequate and decent housing, regardless of their social and economic status.

Article 31

Persons have the right to fully enjoy the city and its public spaces, on the basis of principles of sustainability, social justice, respect for different urban cultures and a balance between the urban and rural sectors. Exercising the right to the city is based on the democratic management of the city, with respect to the social and environmental function of property and the city and with the full exercise of citizenship.

SECTION 7. Health

Article 32

Health is a right guaranteed by the State and whose fulfillment is linked to the exercise of other rights, among which the right to water, food, education, sports, work, social security, healthy environments and others that support the good way of living.

The State shall guarantee this right by means of economic, social, cultural, educational, and environmental policies; and the permanent, timely and non-exclusive access to programs, actions and services promoting and providing integral healthcare, sexual health, and reproductive health. The provision of healthcare services shall be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, interculturalism, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, prevention, and bioethics, with a gender and generational approach.

SECTION 8. Labor and social security

Article 33

Work is a right and a social duty, as well as an economic right, source of personal fulfillment and the basis for the economy. The State shall guarantee full respect for the dignity of working persons, a decent life, fair pay and retribution, and performance of a healthy job that is freely chosen and accepted.

Article 34

The right to social security is a right of all persons and it cannot be waived, and it shall be the State that must bear the prime duty and responsibility for this right. Social security shall be governed by the principles of solidarity, obligation, universality, equity, efficiency, subsidiarity, adequacy, transparency and participation, to meet individual and collective needs.

The State shall guarantee and ensure the full and effective exercise of the right to social security, which includes persons who carry out unpaid work in households, livelihood activities in the rural sector, all forms of self-employed and who are unemployed.

CHAPTER 3. Rights of priority persons and groups

Article 35

Elderly persons, girls, children and adolescents, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, persons in prison and those who suffer from disastrous or highly complex diseases shall receive priority and specialized care in the public and private sectors. The same priority care shall be received by persons in situations of risk, victims of domestic and sexual violence, child mistreatment, natural or manmade disasters. The State shall provide special protection to persons who are doubly vulnerable.

SECTION 1. Elderly women and men

Article 36

Elderly persons shall receive priority and specialized attention in the public and private sectors, especially in terms of social and economic inclusion and protection against violence. Those persons who have reached sixty-five years of age shall be considered to be elderly.

Article 37

The State shall guarantee elderly persons the following rights:

1. Specialized healthcare free of charge, as well as free access to medicines.
2. Paid work, on the basis of their skills, for which purpose their constraints shall be taken into account.
3. Universal retirement.
4. Discounts in public services and private transportation services and entertainment.
5. Tax exemptions.
6. Exemption from paying the costs for notarial and registration services, in accordance with the law.
7. Access to housing that ensures a decent life, with respect for their opinion and consent.

Article 38

The State shall draw up public policies and programs aimed at providing care for elderly persons that bear in mind specific differences between the urban and rural sectors, gender concerns, ethnic group, culture, and the differences pertaining to persons, communities, peoples and nations; it will also foster, to the greatest extent possible, personal autonomy and participation in the drafting and implementation of these policies.

In particular, the State shall take the following measures:

1. Care in specialized centers that guarantee their nutrition, health, education and dairy care, in a framework of integral protection of rights. Care centers shall be established to shelter those who cannot be taken care of by their relatives or who do not have a place to stay permanently.
2. Special protection against any type of labor or economic exploitation The State shall implement policies aimed at fostering the participation and work of elderly persons in public and private institutions so that they can contribute their experience, and it shall develop job training programs, on the basis of their profession and ambitions.
3. Development of programs and policies aimed at fostering their personal autonomy, reducing their dependence and securing their full social integration.
4. Protection and care against all types of violence, mistreatment, sexual exploitation or of any other kind or neglect leading to any of these situations.
5. Development of programs aimed fostering recreational and spiritual activities.
6. Preferential care in cases of disasters, armed conflicts and all kinds of emergencies.
7. Establishment of special system for the enforcement of measures of imprisonment. In the event of a conviction with life sentence, as long as no other alternative measures are applied, they shall fulfill their sentence in centers that are adequate for this purpose and, in the case of pre-trial arrest, they shall be subject to house arrest.
8. Protection, care, and special assistance when they suffer from chronic or degenerative diseases.
9. Adequate economic and psychological assistance guaranteeing their physical and mental health.

The abandonment of elderly persons by their relatives or institutions set up for their protection is punishable by law.

SECTION 2. Young people

Article 39

The State shall guarantee the rights of young people and shall promote the effective exercise of these rights by means of policies and programs, institutions and resources that ensure and uphold, on a permanent basis, their participation and inclusion in all sectors, especially in public sector spaces.

The State shall recognize young people as strategic players in the country’s development and shall guarantee their right to education, health, housing, recreation, sports, leisure, freedom of expression and association. The State shall foster their incorporation into the labor force in fair and decent conditions, with emphasis on training, guarantee of access to first employment, and promotion of their entrepreneurial skills.

SECTION 3. Freedom of movement

Article 40

The right to migrate of persons is recognized. No human being shall be identified or considered as illegal because of his/her migratory status.

The State, through the relevant entities, shall develop, among others, the following actions for the exercise of the rights of Ecuadorian persons abroad, regardless of their migratory status:

1. The State shall provide them and their families, whether they live abroad or in the country, with assistance.
2. The State shall provide care, advisory services and integral protection so that they can freely exercise their rights.
3. The State shall safeguard their rights when, for any reasons, they have been arrested and imprisoned abroad.
4. The State shall promote their ties with Ecuador, facilitate family reunification and encourage their voluntary return.
5. The State shall uphold the confidentiality of personal information located in the files of Ecuadorian institutions abroad.
6. The State shall protect transnational families and the rights of their members.

Article 41

Their rights to asylum and sanctuary are recognized, in accordance with the law and international human rights instruments. Persons who have been granted asylum or sanctuary shall benefit from special protection guaranteeing the full exercise of their rights. The State shall respect and guarantee the principle of non-return, in addition to humanitarian and legal emergency assistance.

Persons requesting asylum or sanctuary shall not be penalized or prosecuted for having entered the country or for remaining in a situation of irregularity.

The State, in exceptional cases and when the circumstances justify it, shall recognize the refugee status of collective group, in accordance with the law.

Article 42

All arbitrary displacement is forbidden. Persons who have been displaced shall have the right to receive protection and emergency humanitarian aid from the authorities, ensuring access to food, shelter, housing, and medical and health services.

Children, adolescents, pregnant women, mothers with underage daughters and sons, elderly persons and persons with disabilities shall receive preferential and specialized humanitarian assistance.

All displaced persons and groups shall have the right to return to their place of origin voluntarily, with safety and dignity.

SECTION 4. Pregnant women

Article 43

The State shall guarantee the rights of pregnant and breast-feeding women to:

1. Not be discriminated for their pregnancy in education, social, and labor sectors.
2. Free maternal healthcare services.
3. Priority protection and care of their integral health and life during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
4. The facilities needed for their recovery after pregnancy and during breast-feeding.

SECTION 5. Children and adolescents

Article 44

The State, society and the family shall promote as a priority the integral development of children and adolescents and shall guarantee the full exercise of their rights; the principle of the higher interest of children shall be upheld and their rights shall prevail over those of other persons.

Children and adolescents shall also enjoy the right to their integral development, construed as a process of growth, maturity, and deployment of their intellect and capabilities, potential and ambitions in family, school, social and community environments marked by affection and security. This environment shall make it possible to meet their social, emotional and affective, and cultural needs, with the support of national and local intersectoral policies.

Article 45

Children and adolescents shall enjoy the rights that are common to all human beings, in addition to those that are specific to their age. The State shall recognize and guarantee life, including care and protection from the time of conception.

Children and adolescents have the right to physical and psychological integrity; to an identity, name and citizenship; to integral health and nutrition; to education and culture, sports, and recreation; to social security, to have a family and enjoy peaceful coexistence with family and community; to social participation; to respect for their freedom and dignity; to be consulted in matters affecting them; to be educated as a priority in their own language and in the cultural context of their own people and nation; and to receive information about their parents or absent relatives, unless it is harmful to their well-being.

The State shall guarantee their freedom of expression and association, the free functioning of student councils and types of associations.

Article 46

The State shall adopt, among others, the following measures that safeguard children and adolescents:

1. Care for children under six years of age that guarantees their nutrition, health, education and dairy care in a framework of integral protection of their rights.
2. Special protection against any type of labor or economic exploitation. The work of children under fifteen years of age is forbidden and policies shall be implemented for the progressive elimination of child labor. Adolescent labor shall be the exception rather than the rule and cannot undermine their right to education nor can it be carried out in situations that are harmful or dangerous to their health or personal development. Their work and other activities shall be respected, recognized, and supported as long as it does not jeopardize their education and integral development.
3. Preferential care for the full social integration of persons with disabilities. The State shall guarantee mainstreaming disabled persons in the regular education system and society.
4. Protection and care against all forms of violence, mistreatment, sexual exploitation or exploitation of any other kind or against neglect leading to these situations.The actions and penalties for crimes against sexual and reproductive integrity whose victims are girls, boys and adolescents will be imprescriptible.
5. Prevention of the use of drugs or psychotropic substances and the consumption of alcoholic beverages and other substances that are harmful to their health and development.
6. Priority care in case of disasters, armed conflicts or any kind of emergency.
7. Protection from the influence of programs or messages disseminated by means of any media and which promote violence or racial or gender discrimination. Public policies for communication shall give priority to their education and respect for their rights to an image, integrity and others pertaining to their age. Limitations and penalties shall be established to enforce these rights.
8. Special protection and assistance when the mother or father or both are arrested and imprisoned.
9. Special protection, care and assistance when they suffer from chronic or degenerative diseases.

SECTION 6. Persons with disabilities

Article 47

The State shall guarantee disability prevention policies and, along with society and the family, it shall ensure equal opportunities for persons with disabilities and their social integration.

Persons with disabilities are recognized the following rights:

1. Specialized attention in public and private entities that provide healthcare services for their specific needs, which shall include the free provision of medicines, especially for those persons that require lifetime treatment.
2. Integral rehabilitation and permanent assistance, which shall include the corresponding technical aids.
3. Discounts for public services and for private transportation services and entertainment.
4. Tax exemptions.
5. Work in conditions of equal opportunity that foster their capabilities and potential by means of policies that permit their incorporation into public and private entities.
6. Adequate housing, with facilities for access and the conditions needed to address their disability and to achieve the highest possible degree of autonomy in their daily life. Persons with disabilities who cannot be cared for by their relatives during the day or who have no permanent place to live shall have welcoming centers for their shelter.
7. An education that develops their potential and skills for their integration and participation in equal conditions.Their education in the regular education system shall be guaranteed. Regular establishments shall incorporate a differentiated treatment and those establishments for special care shall incorporate specialized education. Schools shall comply with standards of accessibility for persons with disabilities and shall implement a scholarship system that in line with the economic conditions of this group.
8. Specialized education for persons with intellectual disabilities and promoting their capabilities by the establishment of specific education centers and teaching programs.
9. Free psychological care for persons with disabilities and their families, in particular in the case of intellectual disabilities.
10. Adequate access to all goods and services. Architectural barriers shall be eliminated.
11. Access to alternative communication mechanisms, media and forms, among which sign language for deaf persons, oralism and the Braille system.

Article 48

The State shall adopt for the benefit of persons with disabilities measures that ensure:

1. Social inclusion, by means of coordinated state and private plans and programs that promote their political, social, educational, and economic participation.
2. Obtaining tax credits and discounts or exemptions that enable them to start up and keep productive activities and obtaining study scholarships at all levels of education.
3. The development of programs and policies aimed at promoting their leisure and rest.
4. Political participation, which shall ensure that they are duty represented, in accordance with the law.
5. The establishment of specialized programs for the integral care of persons with severe and deep disabilities, in order to achieve the maximum development of their personality, the promotion of their autonomy and the reduction of their dependence.
6. Incentive and support for production projects for the benefit of the relatives of persons with severe disabilities.
7. Guaranteeing the full exercise of the rights of persons with disabilities. Abandonment of these persons is punishable by law and any action leading to any kind of abuse, inhuman and degrading treatment and discrimination because of their disability shall be punishable by law.

Article 49

The persons and families who provide care to persons with disabilities and who require permanent attention shall be covered by the Social Security and shall receive periodic training to improve the quality of care.

SECTION 7. Persons with disastrous diseases

Article 50

The State shall guarantee for all persons suffering from disastrous or highly complex diseases the right to specialized, timely, and preferential care free of charge at all levels.

SECTION 8. Imprisoned persons

Article 51

Imprisoned persons are recognized the following rights:

1. To not be subject to solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure.
2. Communication and visit with their relatives and legal professionals.
3. Declaring before a judiciary authority on the treatment received during imprisonment.
4. The human and material resources needed to guarantee their integral health in penitentiaries.
5. Care for their education, labor, productive, cultural, food and recreational needs.
6. Receiving preferential and specialized treatment in the case of pregnant women and breast-feeding women, adolescents, elderly persons, the sick or persons with disabilities.
7. Benefiting from measures of protection for children, adolescents, persons with disabilities and elderly persons who are under their care and who depend on them.

SECTION 9. Users and consumers

Article 52

Persons have the right to have goods and services of the highest quality and to choose them freely, as well as to accurate information that is not misleading with respect to their contents and characteristics.

The law provides for quality control mechanisms and consumer defense procedures, as well as penalties for the infringement of these rights, reparation and compensation for defects, damages or poor quality of goods and services and for the interruption of public services not caused by acts of God or force majeure situations.

Article 53

Companies, institutions and organizations that provide public services must incorporate systems to measure user and consumer satisfaction and put into practice assistance and reparation systems. The State shall be held liable for civil damages caused to persons for negligence and carelessness in the provision of public services under its charge and for the deficiency of services that have been paid.

Article 54

Persons or entities that provide public services or produce or market consumer goods shall be held liable both civilly and criminally for the inadequate provision of the services, for poor quality of the product or when its conditions are not consistent with the advertising that was made or with the description provided.

Persons shall be held liable for any malpractice in the exercise of their profession, craft or trade, especially practices that endanger the integrity or life of persons.

Article 55

Users and consumers will be able to set up associations that promote information and education about their rights and that represent and defend them before judiciary or administrative authorities. For the exercise of this and other rights, nobody shall be obliged to associate.

CHAPTER 4. Rights of communities, peoples and nations

Article 56

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations, the Afro-Ecuadorian people, the back-country people (montubios) of the inland coastal region, and communes are part of the single and indivisible Ecuadorian State.

Article 57

Indigenous communes, communities, peoples and nations are recognized and guaranteed, in conformity with the Constitution and human rights agreements, conventions, declarations and other international instruments, the following collective rights:

1. To freely uphold, develop and strengthen their identity, feeling of belonging, ancestral traditions and forms of social organization.
2. To not be the target of racism or any form of discrimination based on their origin or ethnic or cultural identity.
3. To recognition, reparation and compensation for community groups affected by racism, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance and discrimination.
4. To keep ownership, without subject to a statute of limitations, of their community lands, which shall be unalienable, immune from seizure and indivisible. These lands shall be exempt from paying fees or taxes.
5. To keep ownership of ancestral lands and territories and to obtain free awarding of these lands.
6. To participate in the use, usufruct, administration and conservation of natural renewable resources located on their lands.
7. To free prior informed consultation, within a reasonable period of time, on the plans and programs for prospecting, producing and marketing nonrenewable resources located on their lands and which could have an environmental or cultural impact on them; to participate in the profits earned from these projects and to receive compensation for social, cultural and environmental damages caused to them. The consultation that must be conducted by the competent authorities shall be mandatory and in due time. If consent of the consulted community is not obtained, steps provided for by the Constitution and the law shall be taken.
8. To keep and promote their practices of managing biodiversity and their natural environment. The State shall establish and implement programs with the participation of the community to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
9. To keep and develop their own forms of peaceful coexistence and social organization and creating and exercising authority, in their legally recognized territories and ancestrally owned community lands.
10. To create, develop, apply and practice their own legal system or common law, which cannot infringe constitutional rights, especially those of women, children and adolescents.
11. To not be displaced from their ancestral lands.
12. To uphold, protect and develop collective knowledge; their science, technologies and ancestral wisdom; the genetic resources that contain biological diversity and agricultural biodiversity; their medicine and traditional medical practices, with the inclusion of the right to restore, promote, and protect ritual and holy places, as well as plants, animals, minerals and ecosystems in their territories; and knowledge about the resources and properties of fauna and flora.All forms of appropriation of their knowledge, innovations, and practices are forbidden.
13. To uphold, restore, protect, develop and preserve their cultural and historical heritage as an indivisible part of Ecuador’s heritage. The State shall provide resources for this purpose.
14. To develop, strengthen, and upgrade the intercultural bilingual education system, on the basis of criteria of quality, from early stimulation to higher levels of education, in conformity with cultural diversity, for the care and preservation of identities, in keeping with their own teaching and learning methodologies.A teaching career marked by dignity shall also be guaranteed. Administration of this system shall be collective and participatory, with rotation in time and space, based on community monitoring and accountability.
15. To build and uphold organizations that represent them, in a context of pluralism and cultural, political, and organizational diversity. The State shall recognize and promote all forms of expression and organization.
16. To participate by means of their representatives in the official organizations established by law to draw up public policies concerning them, as well as design and decide their priorities in the plans and projects of the State.
17. To be consulted before the adoption of a legislative measure that might affect any of their collective rights.
18. To uphold and develop contacts, ties and cooperation with other peoples, especially those that are divided by international borders.
19. To promote the use of garments, symbols and emblems that identify them.
20. To restrict military activities in their territories, in accordance with the law.
21. That the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories, and ambitions be reflected in public education and in the media; the creation of their own media in their languages and access to the others without any discrimination.

The territories of the peoples living in voluntary isolation are an irreducible and intangible ancestral possession and all forms of extractive activities shall be forbidden there. The State shall adopt measures to guarantee their lives, enforce respect for self-determination and the will to remain in isolation and to ensure observance of their rights. The violation of these rights shall constitute a crime of ethnocide, which shall be classified as such by law.

The State shall guarantee the enforcement of these collective rights without any discrimination, in conditions of equality and equity between men and women.

Article 58

To build up their identity, culture, traditions and rights, the collective rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian people are recognized, as set forth in the Constitution, the law, and human rights agreements, conventions, declarations and other international instruments.

Article 59

The collective rights of the coastal back-country people (montubios) are recognized to guarantee their process of integral, sustainable and durable human development, the policies and strategies for their progress and their forms of societal management, on the basis of knowledge about their reality and respect for their culture, identity, and own vision, in accordance with the law.

Article 60

Ancestral, indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian and coastal back-country (montubios) peoples can establish territorial districts for the preservation of their culture. The law shall regulate their establishment. Communities (comunas) that have collective land ownership are recognized as an ancestral form of territorial organization.

CHAPTER 5. Rights to participation

Article 61

Ecuadorians benefit from the following rights:

1. To elect and be elected.
2. To participate in affairs of public interest.
3. To submit projects of grass-roots regulatory initiatives.
4. To be consulted.
5. To audit activities conducted by the government.
6. To recall authorities elected by universal suffrage.
7. To hold and discharge public office and duties on the basis of merits and capacities and in a transparent, inclusive, equitable, pluralistic and democratic selection and designation system that guarantees their participation, on the basis of criteria of gender equity and parity, equal opportunities for persons with disabilities, and intergenerational participation.
8. To set up political parties and movements, join or withdraw from them and participate in all the decisions adopted by them.

Foreign persons shall enjoy these rights to the extent that they are applicable.

Article 62

The persons in possession of political rights have the right to equal, direct, secret and publicly scrutinized universal suffrage, in conformity with the following provisions:

1. Voting shall be mandatory for persons over eighteen years of age. Detained persons who have not been convicted and sentenced shall exercise their right to vote.
2. Voting shall be optional for persons between sixteen and eighteen years of age, elderly persons over sixty-five years of age, Ecuadorians who live abroad, members of the Armed Forces and National Police Force, and persons with disabilities.

Article 63

Ecuadorians abroad have the right to elect the President and Vice-President of the Republic, members of parliament representing the country and Ecuadorian nationals abroad, and can be elected to any office.

Foreign persons residing in Ecuador have the right to vote as long as they have resided legally in the country for at least five years.

Article 64

The exercise of political rights shall be suspended, in addition to those cases provided for by law, for the following reasons:

1. Prohibition by the judiciary system, as long it is in force, except in the case of insolvency or bankruptcy that has not been declared fraudulent.
2. Final court judgment convicting a person and sentencing that person to incarceration, as long as it is in force.

Article 65

The State shall promote equality with respect to the representation of women and men in publicly appointed or elected office, in its executive and decision-making institutions, and political parties and movements.

As for candidacies in multi-person elections, their participation shall be respected by rotation of power and sequencing.

The State shall adopt affirmative action measures to guarantee the participation of discriminated sectors.

CHAPTER 6. Rights to freedom

Article 66

The following rights of persons are recognized and guaranteed:

1. The right to the inviolability of life. There shall be no capital punishment.
2. The right to a decent life that ensures health, food and nutrition, clean water, housing, environmental sanitation, education, work, employment, rest and leisure, sports, clothing, social security and other necessary social services.
3. The right to personal well-being, which includes:
   1. Bodily, psychological, moral and sexual safety.
   2. A life without violence in the public and private sectors. The State shall adopt the measures needed to prevent, eliminate, and punish all forms of violence, especially violence against women, children and adolescents, elderly persons, persons with disabilities and against all persons at a disadvantage or in a vulnerable situation; identical measures shall be taken against violence, slavery, and sexual exploitation.
   3. Prohibition of torture, forced disappearance and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments and punishments.
   4. Prohibition of the use of genetic material and scientific experimentation that undermines human rights.
4. The right to formal equality, material equality and nondiscrimination.
5. The right to freely develop one’s personality, without any constraints other than respect for the rights of others.
6. The right to voice one’s opinion and express one’s thinking freely and in all of its forms and manifestations.
7. The right of all persons wronged by information broadcast by the media, without evidence or based on inaccurate facts, to immediate, mandatory and free corresponding correction, reply or response, in the same broadcasting slot or time.
8. The right to practice, keep, change, profess in public or private one’s religion or beliefs and to disseminate them individually or collectively, with the constraints imposed by respect for the rights of others.The State shall protect voluntary religious practice, as well the expression of those who profess no religion whatsoever, and shall favor an environment of plurality and tolerance.
9. The right to freely take informed, voluntary, and responsible decisions on one’s sexuality and one’s sexual life and orientation. The State shall promote access to the necessary means so that these decisions take place in safe conditions.
10. The right to take free, responsible and informed decisions about one’s health and reproductive life and to decide how many children to have.
11. The right to confidentiality about one’s convictions. No one can be obliged to make statements about these convictions. In no case shall it be possible to require or use, without the authorization of the holder or his/her legitimate representatives, personal or third-party information about one’s religious beliefs, political affiliation or thinking, or data about one’s health or sexual life, unless required for medical care.
12. The right to conscientious objection, which shall not undermine other rights or cause harm to persons or nature.All persons have the right to refuse the use of violence and to refuse doing military service.
13. The right to associate, assemble and express oneself freely and voluntarily.
14. The right to travel freely throughout the nation’s territory and to choose one’s place of residence or to freely enter and leave the country, whose exercise shall be regulated by law. Prohibition from leaving the country can only be ordered by a judge authorized to do so.Foreigners cannot be returned or expelled to a country where their lives, liberty, safety or well-being or those of their families are in danger because of their ethnic belonging, religion, nationality, ideology, belonging to a given social group or political opinions.

    The expulsion of groups of foreigners is forbidden Migratory processes must be singled out.

15. The right to develop economic activities individually or collectively, in line with the principles of solidarity, social and environmental responsibility.
16. The right to freedom to enter into contracts.
17. The right to freedom of work. No one shall be obligated to carry out free or forced labor, unless provided for by law.
18. The right to honor and a good reputation The law shall protect the image and voice of every person.
19. The right to protection of personal information, including access to and decision about information and data of this nature, as well as its corresponding protection The gathering, filing, processing, distribution or dissemination of these data or information shall require authorization from the holder or a court order.
20. The right to personal and family intimacy.
21. The right to inviolability and secrecy of hard-copy and on-line correspondence, which cannot be retained, opened or examined, except in those cases provided by law, after court order and under the obligation to uphold the confidentiality of matters other than those motivating their examination This right protects any type or form of communication.
22. The right to the inviolability of one’s domicile. It shall not be possible to enter the house of a person or conduct inspections or searches without their authorization or a court warrant, except in matters of felonies, in those cases and forms provided for by law.
23. The right to file individual and collective complaints with authorities and to receive substantiated responses and replies. No petitions can be addressed on behalf of the people.
24. The right to participate in the cultural life of the community.
25. The right to have access to quality, efficient, and effective public goods and services provided courteously, as well as to receive adequate and truthful information about their contents and characteristics.
26. The right to property in all of its forms, with social and environmental function and responsibility. The right to have access to property shall be enforced by the adoption of public policies, among other measures.
27. The right to live in a healthy environment that is ecologically balanced, pollution-free and in harmony with nature.
28. The right to personal and collective identity, which includes having a first name and last name, which is duty registered and freely chosen, and to preserve, develop and build up the tangible and intangible characteristics of said identity, such as nationality, family origins, and spiritual, cultural, religious, linguistic, political and social manifestations.
29. The rights of freedom also include:
    1. Recognition that all persons are born free.
    2. Prohibition of slavery, exploitation, bondage and smuggling and trafficking in human beings in all their forms.The State shall adopt measures to prevent and eliminate trafficking in persons and to protect and socially reinsert victims of trafficking and other forms of the infringement of freedom.
    3. That no person can be incarcerated for debt, costs, fines, taxes or other obligations, except in the case of alimony payments.
    4. That no person can be obligated to do something forbidden or to cease from doing something not forbidden by law.

Article 67

Family in its various forms is recognized. The State shall protect it as the fundamental core of society and shall guarantee conditions that integrally favor the achievement of its goals. They shall be comprised of legal or common-law ties and shall be based on the equality of rights and the opportunities of their members.

Marriage is the union of man and woman and shall be based on the free consent of the persons entering into this bond and on the equality of rights, obligations and legal capacity.

Article 68

The stable and monogamous union between two persons without any other marriage ties who have a common-law home, for the lapse of time and under the conditions and circumstances provided for by law, shall enjoy the same rights and obligations of those families bound by formal marriage ties.

Adoption shall only be permitted for different-gender couples.

Article 69

To protect the rights of persons who are members of a family:

1. Responsible motherhood and fatherhood shall be fostered; and the mother and father shall be obliged to take care, raise, educate, feed, and provide for the integral development and protection of the rights of their children, especially when they are separated from them for any reason.
2. Unseizable family assets are recognized in terms of amount and on the basis of the conditions and limitations provided for by law. The right to give in legacy and inherit is recognized.
3. The State shall guarantee the equality of rights in decision making for the administration of the marital partnership and the joint ownership of assets.
4. The State shall protect mothers, fathers and those who are the heads of family, in the exercise of their obligations and shall pay special attention to families who have broken up for whatever reason.
5. The State shall promote the joint responsibility of both mother and father and shall monitor fulfillment of the mutual duties and rights between mothers, fathers, and children.
6. Daughters and sons shall have the same rights, without any consideration given to kinship or adoption background.
7. No declaration of the quality of the kinship shall be required at the time of registering the birth and no identity document shall refer to the type of kinship.

Article 70

The State shall draw up and implement policies to achieve equality between women and men, through the specialized mechanism set up by law, and shall mainstream the gender approach in plans and programs and shall provide technical assistance for its mandatory enforcement in the public sector.

CHAPTER 7. Rights of nature

Article 71

Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.

All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature. To enforce and interpret these rights, the principles set forth in the Constitution shall be observed, as appropriate.

The State shall give incentives to natural persons and legal entities and to communities to protect nature and to promote respect for all the elements comprising an ecosystem.

Article 72

Nature has the right to be restored. This restoration shall be apart from the obligation of the State and natural persons or legal entities to compensate individuals and communities that depend on affected natural systems.

In those cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including those caused by the exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources, the State shall establish the most effective mechanisms to achieve the restoration and shall adopt adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate harmful environmental consequences.

Article 73

The State shall apply preventive and restrictive measures on activities that might lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems and the permanent alteration of natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that might definitively alter the nation’s genetic assets is forbidden.

Article 74

Persons, communities, peoples, and nations shall have the right to benefit from the environment and the natural wealth enabling them to enjoy the good way of living.

Environmental services shall not be subject to appropriation; their production, delivery, use and development shall be regulated by the State.

CHAPTER 8. Rights to protection

Article 75

Every person has the right to free access to justice and the effective, impartial and expeditious protection of their rights and interests, subject to the principles of immediate and swift enforcement; in no case shall there be lack of proper defense. Failure to abide by legal rulings shall be punishable by law.

Article 76

In all processes where rights and obligations of any kind are set forth, the right to due process of law shall be ensured, including the following basic guarantees:

1. All administrative or judiciary authorities are responsible for guaranteeing enforcement of the standards and rights of the parties.
2. All persons shall be presumed innocent, and shall be dealt with as such, until their guilt is stated by means of final ruling or judgment of conviction.
3. No one shall be judged or punished for a deed or omission which, at the time of its perpetration, is not legally classified by law as a criminal, administrative or other offense; nor shall a punishment not provided for by the Constitution or law be applied. A person can only be judged by a competent judge or authority and in keeping with the procedures corresponding to each proceeding.
4. Evidence obtained or presented in violation of the Constitution or the law shall not have any validity and shall fail to qualify as evidence.
5. In the case of conflict between two laws on the same subject envisaging different punishments for a single action, the less severe of the two punishments shall be imposed, even when its enactment is subsequent to the offense. In the event of any doubt on a regulation providing for punishments, the regulation shall abide by the most favorable interpretation of its effective force for the benefit of the offender.
6. The law shall establish due proportionality between lawbreaking and criminal, administrative or other punishments.
7. The right of persons to defense shall include the following guarantees:
   1. No one shall be deprived of the right to defense at any stage or level of the proceedings.
   2. To have the time and means to prepare for one’s defense.
   3. To be listened to at the right time and with equal conditions.
   4. Procedures shall be public except for those exceptions provided for by law. The parties shall be able to gain access to all documents and steps of the proceedings.
   5. No one can be questioned, not even for purposes of inquiry, by the Office of the Attorney-General, by police force authority or any other authority, without the presence of a private attorney or a court appointed defense attorney, or outside the premises authorized for this purpose.
   6. To be helped free of charge by a translator or interpreter if the person does not understand or speak the language in which the proceedings are being conducted.
   7. In court procedures, to be helped by an attorney of the person’s choice or by a court appointed defense attorney; access to or free and confidential communication with the person’s defense attorney cannot be restricted.
   8. To submit verbally or in writing the reasons or arguments of those who are being assisted and to respond to the arguments of the other parties; to submit evidence and challenge the evidence that is submitted against them.
   9. No one can be judged more than once for the same case and offense. For this purpose, the cases ruled by the indigenous legal system must also be taken into account.
   10. Those who act as witnesses or experts shall be required to appear before the judge or authority and to answer the respective questions.
   11. To be judged by an independent, impartial and competent judge. No one shall be judged by special courts or by special commissions created for the purpose.
   12. Decisions taken by public authorities must be substantiated. There shall be no substantiation if, in the decision, the legal standards or principles on which it is based are not set forth and if the relevance of their application to the factual background is not explained. The administrative documents, resolutions or rulings that are not duly substantiated shall be considered null and void. The public servants responsible shall be sanctioned.
   13. To appeal the decision or ruling in all of the proceedings where a decision is taken on their rights.

Article 77

In any criminal proceedings where a person has been arrested and detained, the following basic guarantees shall be observed:

1. The deprivation of freedom shall not be considered the general rule and shall be used to ensure the appearance of the accused or defendant to the trial; the right of crime victims to a prompt, timely and expeditious justice; and to ensure compliance with the sanction. It shall proceed by written decision of competent judge, for the time period and in accordance with the formalities established by law. Excepted are in flagrante situations, where the person shall not be detained for more than twenty-four hours without a judicial warrant. Non-custodial measures shall be applied in accordance with the cases, terms, conditions, and requirements established by law.
2. No person shall be admitted to a detention center without a written warrant issued by a competent judge, except in the case of felonies. Persons who are being tried or suspects in a criminal trial and who are incarcerated shall remain in legally established provisional detention centers.
3. All persons, at any moment of detention, shall have the right to know, clearly and in simple language, the reason for their arrest and detention, the identity of the judge or authority ordering the detention, the identity of those who enforced the order and that of the persons responsible for the respective questioning.
4. At the time of detention, the agent shall inform the arrested person of his/her right to remain silent, to request the assistance of an attorney or court-appointed defense attorney in the event he/she is unable to designate one by himself/herself, and to communicate with a relative or any other persons indicated by him/her.
5. If the arrested person is a foreigner, whoever carries out the arrest shall immediately inform the consular representative of the detainee’s country.
6. No one can be kept incommunicado.
7. The right of all persons to defense includes:
   1. To be informed, previously and in detail, in their own language and in simple words, about the claims and proceedings being filed against them and about the identity of the authority responsible for the claim or proceedings being filed.
   2. The right to remain silent.
   3. No one can be forced to make statements incriminating oneself with regard to matters that could lead to their criminal liability.
8. No one can be required to make a statement in a criminal trial against one’s spouse, life partner or relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity, except in cases of domestic, sexual and gender violence. The voluntary statements made by the victims of a crime or by the relatives of these victims, regardless of the degree of kinship, shall be admissible. These persons can file and pursue the corresponding criminal proceedings.
9. Under the responsibility of the judge hearing the proceedings, pre-trial arrest and detention cannot extend for more than six month in those cases of crimes punishable by imprisonment or for more than one year in those crimes punishable by long-term incarceration. If these time-limits are surpassed, the warrant for pre-trial arrest and detention shall be null and void.The warrant for pre-trial detention decision shall remain in effect and the time-limit shall be suspended ipso jure (automatically) if by any means during the term of the custody, the defendant evades, delays, prevents or hinders his/her trial through acts aimed to exhaust the statute of limitations. If such delay occurs during the trial or results in the expiration of the statute of limitations, due to acts or omissions of judges, prosecutors, ombudsmen, experts or subsidiary bodies’ public officers, they shall be considered to have committed a very serious offense and shall be sanctioned (punished) in accordance with the law.
10. Without any exception, once the stay of proceedings or a ruling of acquittal has been issued, the arrested persons shall be set free immediately, even where there is an inquiry or appeal that is pending.
11. The judge shall apply precautionary measures alternative to imprisonment as established by law. Such alternative precautionary measures shall be applied in accordance with the cases, terms, conditions and requirements established by law.
12. Persons declared guilty and sentenced to imprisonment as a result of a final judgment of conviction shall remain in social rehabilitation centers. No person convicted for an ordinary offense shall complete his/or term outside the State’s social rehabilitation centers, except in those cases of alternative punishments or parole, in accordance with the law.
13. Law-breaking adolescents shall be governed by a system of socio- educational measures proportionate to the infringement identified. The State shall determine by law custodial and non-custodial sentences. Incarceration shall be established as a last resort, for the minimum period needed, and it shall be enforced in establishments that are different from those for adults.
14. When ruling on the challenge to a sanction, the situation of the person making the appeal cannot be made worse.

Whoever imprisons a person by infringing these regulations shall be punished. The law provides for criminal and administrative sanctions for the arbitrary detention that takes place as the result of the excessive use of the police force, in their abusive application or interpretation of the penalties or other regulations or for reasons of discrimination.

For disciplinary arrests of members of the Armed Forces and the National Police Force, the provisions of the law shall be applied.

Article 78

The victims of criminal offenses shall benefit from special protection; guarantees shall be provided to them for preventing their revictimization, especially in obtaining and assessing the evidence; and they shall be protected against any threat or other forms of intimidation. Mechanisms shall be adopted for integral reparation, which shall include, without delay, knowledge about the truth of the facts and restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, guarantee of nonrepetition, and satisfaction with respect to the infringed right.

A system for the protection of and assistance to victims, witnesses, and participants in the proceedings shall be established.

Article 79

In no case shall extradition of an Ecuadorian be granted. Trial of said Ecuadorian shall be subject to the laws of Ecuador.

Article 80

Proceedings and punishment for the crimes of genocide, crimes to humanity, war crimes, forced disappearance of persons or crimes of aggression to a State shall not be subject to statutes of limitations. None of the above-mentioned cases shall be liable to benefit from amnesty. The fact that one of these crimes might have been perpetrated by a subordinate shall not exempt the superior who ordered said crime or the subordinate who carried out the order from criminal liability.

Article 81

The law shall establish special and expeditious procedures for bringing to trial and punishing the crimes of domestic violence, sexual offenses, crimes of hate and crimes perpetrated against children, adolescents, young people, persons with disabilities, elderly persons and persons who, because of their specific characteristics, require greater protection. Specialized prosecutors and defense attorneys shall be appointed for dealing with these cases, in accordance with the law.

Article 82

The right to legal security is based on respect for the Constitution and the existence of prior legal regulations that are clear, public and applied by the competent authorities.

CHAPTER 9. Responsibilities

Article 83

Ecuadorians have the following duties and obligations, without detriment to others provided for by the Constitution or by law:

1. To abide by and enforce the Constitution, the law and the legitimate decisions taken by the competent authority.
2. Ama killa, ama llulla, ama shwa. To not be lazy, not lie, not steal.
3. To defend the territorial integrity of Ecuador and its natural resources.
4. To cooperate in keeping the peace and safety.
5. To respect human rights and to fight for their enforcement.
6. To respect the rights of nature, preserve a healthy environment and use natural resources rationally, sustainably and durably.
7. To promote public welfare and give precedence to general interests over individual interests, in line with the good way of living.
8. To administer public assets with honesty and in true compliance with the law and to report and combat acts of corruption.
9. To practice justice and solidarity in the exercise of their rights and the enjoyment of goods and services.
10. To promote unity and equality in diversity and in intercultural relationships.
11. To take on public office as a service to the community and to be accountable to society and authority, in accordance with the law.
12. To practice one’s profession or trade ethically.
13. To preserve the country’s cultural and natural heritage and to take care of and uphold public assets.
14. To respect and recognize ethnic, national, social, generational, and gender differences and sexual orientation and identity.
15. To cooperate with the State and community in social security and to pay taxes levied by law.
16. To help, feed, educate and raise one’s children. This duty is a joint responsibility of mothers and fathers, in equal proportion, and shall also be applicable to children when their own mothers and fathers need them.
17. To participate honestly and transparently in the country’s political, civic and community life.