CHAPTER II. NEW RIGHTS AND GUARANTEES
Article 36
This Constitution shall remain in force even if its observance is interrupted by acts of force against the institutional order and the democratic system. Such acts shall be irrevocably void.
Their authors shall be subject to the sanction provided in Article 29, forever disqualified from holding public office and excluded from the benefits of pardon and commutation of sentences.
Also suffering the same sanctions shall be those who, as a consequence of these acts, usurp the functions reserved to the authorities of this Constitution or those of the Provinces, and shall answer civilly and criminally for their acts. The aforementioned actions are not subject to the statute of limitations.
All citizens have the right of resistance against those who execute the forcible acts stated in this article.
Likewise, he who commits a serious fraudulent crime against the State that leads to his enrichment shall have acted against the democratic system [and] is thereafter disqualified from holding public office or employment for the period of time that the laws specify.
Congress shall pass a law concerning public ethics in the exercise of public functions.
Article 37
This Constitution guarantees full enjoyment of political rights, in accordance with the principle of popular sovereignty and with the laws dictated pursuant thereto. Suffrage is universal, equal, secret and mandatory.
True equality of opportunity between men and women in running for elected and party offices shall be guaranteed through affirmative actions in the regulation of political parties and in the electoral system.
Article 38
Political parties are fundamental institutions of the democratic system.
Their creation and the exercise of their activities are free, so long as they respect this Constitution, which [hereby] guarantees their democratic organization and operation, the representation of minorities [within the party], the authority [of parties] to nominate candidates to elected public office, access to public information and the dissemination of their ideas.
The State shall contribute to the financial support of their activities and educational improvement of their leaders.
Political parties must make public the source and destination of their funds and their economic net worth.
Article 39
Citizens have the right of initiative in presenting bills in the Chamber of Deputies. Congress must give them express treatment within the period of twelve months.
By an absolute majority vote of the totality of the members of each Chamber, the Congress shall pass a regulatory law that may not require [the signatures of] more than three percent of the National electoral register [for an initiative to be valid], [with the regulatory law] requiring an adequate territorial distribution [of signatures] to endorse the initiative.
Bills referring to constitutional reform, international treaties, taxes, the budget and penal matters shall not be the subject of popular initiatives.
Article 40
At the initiative of the Chamber of Deputies, Congress may submit a bill to a popular referendum. The law calling for the referendum may not be vetoed. The affirmative vote on the bill by the people of the Nation shall make it law and its enactment shall be automatic.
Congress or the President of the Nation, within their respective competence, may call for a non-binding popular referendum. In this case, voting is not obligatory.
Congress, by an absolute majority vote of the totality of the members of each Chamber, shall regulate the topics, procedures, and occasion for popular referendum.
Article 41
All inhabitants enjoy the right to a healthful, balanced environment fit for human development, so that productive activities satisfy current needs without compromising those of future generations, and have the duty to preserve the environment. Environmental damage shall generate as a priority the obligation to repair it under the terms that the law shall establish.
The authorities shall provide for the protection of this right, for the rational use of natural resources, for the preservation of the natural and cultural patrimony and of biological diversity, and for information and education on the environment.
It falls to the Nation to dictate laws containing a minimum budget [necessary] for protecting the environment, and to the Provinces [to dictate] those laws necessary to complement the National laws, without such laws altering local jurisdictional [authority].
The entry into the National territory of dangerous or potentially dangerous wastes and of radioactive materials is prohibited.
Article 42
Consumers and users of goods and services have the right, in the consumer relationship, to the protection of their health, safety and economic interests, to adequate and truthful information, to freedom of choice, and to conditions of equitable and dignified treatment.
The authorities shall provide for the protection of these rights, for consumer education, for the defense of competition against any type of market distortion, for the control of natural and legal monopolies, for the quality and efficiency of public services, and for the establishment of consumer and user associations.
Legislation shall establish effective procedures for the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and a regulatory framework for public services within National jurisdiction, taking into consideration the necessary participation of consumer and user associations and of the interested Provinces in the directing bodies.
Article 43
Any person may file an expeditious and swift action of “amparo,” whenever no other more appropriate judicial means exists, against any act or omission by public authorities or by private individuals, that presently or imminently harms, restricts, alters or threatens, in an arbitrary or manifestly illegal manner, the rights and guarantees recognized by this Constitution, by a treaty, or by a law. As appropriate, the judge may declare the norm upon which the harmful act or omission is founded unconstitutional.
[When] this action complains of any form of discrimination, or regards the rights that protect the environment, competition, the user, the consumer, or rights of a collective nature in general, it may be brought by the affected party, the Defender of the People, and the associations that support these ends that are registered as required by a law that shall determine the requirements and forms of their organization.
Any person may file an amparo action to find out and to learn the purpose of data about him which is on record in public registries or data banks, or in any private [registers or data banks] whose purpose is to provide information, and in case of falsity or discrimination, to demand the suppression, rectification, confidentiality, or updating of the same. The secrecy of journalistic information sources shall not be affected.
When the harmed, restricted, altered, or threatened right is that of physical liberty, or in case of illegal worsening in the manner or conditions of detention, or in case of the forced disappearance of persons, the writ of habeas corpus may be filed by the affected person or by anyone else on his behalf and the judge shall immediately resolve it, even while a state of siege is in effect.
