Constitution

Guatemala 1985 Constitution (reviewed 1993)

Table of Contents

Preamble

INVOKING THE NAME OF GOD

We, the representatives of the people of Guatemala, elected freely and democratically, gathered in [the] National Constituent Assembly, with the goal of legally and politically organizing the State; affirming the primacy of the human person as [the] subject and purpose [fin] of the social order; recognizing the family as the primary and fundamental genesis of the spiritual and moral values of the society and the State, as [the one] responsible for promoting the common good, of the consolidation of the regime of legality, security, justice, equality, freedom and peace; inspired by the ideals of our forefathers and embracing [recogiendo] our traditions and cultural heritage; decided to promote the complete validity [vigencia] of the Human Rights within a stable, permanent, and popular institutional order, [one] where the governed and the governors [can] proceed with absolute attachment to the law;

SOLEMNLY DECREE, SANCTION, AND PROMULGATE THE FOLLOWING: POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA

TITLE I. The Human Person, Objectives and Duties of the State

SOLE CHAPTER

Article 1. Protection of the Person

The State of Guatemala is organized to protect the person and the family; its supreme objective is the realization of the common good.

Article 2. Duties of the State

It is the duty of the State to guarantee to the inhabitants of the Republic the life, the freedom, the justice, the security, the peace, and the integral development of the person.