Syrian Arab Republic 2017 Draft Constitution

Chapter 2. Human and Civil Rights and Freedoms

Article 18

1. Everyone shall have the right to life, security and freedom and the State shall guarantee these rights. No right can be restricted or denied to a person unless otherwise provided by law and following the decision by the appropriate judicial authority.
2. All persons shall be equal before the law without discrimination among them on grounds of gender, race, nationality, origin, color, religion, personal convictions, beliefs or views, and economic and social status.

Article 19

1. Everyone shall have the right to participate in the political, economic, social and cultural life.
2. Citizens, men and women, shall have the right to participate in managing State affairs and exercise their political rights including the right to elect and be elected.
3. No person shall be coerced to become a member of any party, association, society or political organization, or to keep his or her membership in said organizations.
4. Everyone shall respect and observe the Constitutions and laws.

Article 20

1. Everyone shall be guaranteed freedom of thought and speech, and freedom of conscience and religion. Nobody shall be forced to express his thoughts and convictions or to deny them.
2. The State shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and the protection of places of worship. Sacred shrines and religious sanctuaries shall be considered places of religious and cultural importance, and the State shall assume the responsibility to safeguard and protect them.
3. Everyone shall have the right to participate for lawful purposes in meetings, peaceful rallies and strikes.
4. Everyone shall have the right freely to seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information by any legal means. In accordance with the law the State ensures freedom of the press and mass media.
5. Propaganda or agitation, which incites social, racial, national or religious hatred and hostility, and propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic supremacy, shall be prohibited.

Article 21

1. The law shall regulate the Syrian citizenship.
2. A citizen of Syria may not be deprived of his (her) citizenship.
3. A citizen of Syria may not be deported from Syria or extradited to another state.
4. Every citizen may freely enter and leave Syria unless otherwise stipulated by law and expressed in an applicable decision of the court or the prosecutor’s office.
5. Persons who are persecuted for their political convictions may not be extradited to other states.
6. Syria shall guarantee protection and patronage to its citizens living abroad permanently or temporarily.

Article 22

1. Everyone shall have the right to the inviolability of his (her) person, home, personal and family privacy.
2. Collecting, keeping, using and disseminating information about the private life of a person shall not be permitted without his (her) consent.
3. The State shall guarantee a person’s right to privacy of correspondence, of telephone conversations and of postal, telegraph and other communications. This right may be limited by law to prevent a crime or to uncover the truth when investigating a crime.
4. Except when the law says otherwise or when following a court’s order, nobody may enter a home against the will of its occupants.

Article 23

1. Everyone shall have the right to property.
2. Property rights, including individual private ownership, shall be protected by law.
3. Nobody may be deprived of property except under a court order. Private ownership may be removed in the State or public interest only against fair compensation according to the law.
4. The State shall guarantee the right of inheritance in accordance with the law.

Article 24

1. Labor is the basis for personal and public prosperity. Everyone shall have the right to freely choose the type of activity, occupation and place of work based on his (her) skills. The State shall use all means at its disposal to eliminate unemployment.
2. Everyone shall have the right to work in conditions, which meet safety and hygiene requirements, and to receive remuneration for labor without any discrimination whatsoever.
3. Everyone shall have the right to rest. For those working under labor contracts the duration of work time, days of rest and public holidays and annual paid leave established by federal law shall be guaranteed.
4. The law shall regulate employer-employee relations based on economic principles and the norms of social justice.
5. The State shall guarantee the right of its people to lawfully form labor associations and unions and to join them.
6. Individual and collective labor disputes are to be resolved in a manner stated by law.

Article 25

Everyone shall be obliged to pay legally established taxes and levies.

Article 26

1. Everyone shall be guaranteed social security payments for legal retirement age, in case of illness, disability, loss of breadwinner, incapacitation, unemployment, and in other cases specified by law. Minimum state pensions and social benefits shall be established by law.
2. Helping people in need is the obligation of his (her) family members.
3. The State shall facilitate development of charity movements, voluntary social insurance programs and other forms of social security.

Article 27

1. Everyone shall have the right to participate in cultural life, and use cultural establishments and access cultural valuables.
2. Everyone shall respect the historical, cultural and spiritual heritage; take care of it and protect historical and cultural monuments.

Article 28

1. Everyone has the right to health protection and medical care in state and municipal health institutions.
2. The State shall take the necessary measures to develop all forms of health services based on various forms of property and guarantee sanitary and epidemiological well-being.

Article 29

1. Everyone shall have the right to education. The State shall guarantee free secondary education. The law shall specify cases when a person can receive free secondary vocational and higher education.
2. The education system is controlled by the State.
3. The State shall encourage and promote physical culture and sport. It shall also provide everything needed for such purposes.
4. The state shall support scientific research and guarantee the freedom of scientific, literary, artistic, and cultural creative activity. It shall also provide for the development of talents and abilities, and allocate the funds necessary for such purposes.
5. The State shall encourage scientific and technological inventions, creative skills and talents and protect their results.

Article 30

1. No one can be unlawfully deprived of a home.
2. The State shall promote housing construction and create conditions for exercising the right to a home.

Article 31

1. Punishment shall be personal; no crime and no punishment except by a law.
2. Anyone shall be considered innocent until his (her) guilt is proven and confirmed by a court sentence which has entered into legal force.
3. The right to conduct litigation and remedies, review, and the defense before the judiciary shall be protected by the law, and the state shall guarantee legal aid to those who are incapable to do so, in accordance with the law
4. No immunity of any act or administrative decision from judicial review shall be allowed.
5. A law, which introduces or increases liability, shall not have retroactive force.

Article 32

1. No one may be investigated or arrested, except under an order or decision issued by the competent judicial authority, or if he was arrested in the case of being caught in the act, or with the intent to bring him to the judicial authorities on charges of committing a felony or misdemeanor.
2. No one may be tortured or treated in a humiliating manner, and the law shall define the punishment for those who do so.
3. Any person who is arrested must be informed of the reasons for his arrest and his rights, and may not be incarcerated except by an order of the competent judicial authority.
4. Any person sentenced by a final ruling, who has carried out his sentence and the ruling proved wrong shall have the right to ask the state for compensation for the damage he suffered.

Article 33

Any assault on individual freedom, on the inviolability of private life or any other rights and public freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution shall be considered a crime punishable by law.