TITLE II. On Rights, Guarantees, and Duties
Chapter I. On Fundamental Rights
Article 11
The right to life is inviolate. There shall be no death penalty.
Article 12
No one shall be subjected to forced sequestration, torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 13
All individuals are born free and equal before the law, shall receive equal protection and treatment from the authorities, and shall enjoy the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities without any discrimination on account of gender, race, national or family origin, language, religion, political opinion, or philosophy.
The State shall promote the conditions so that equality may be real and effective and shall adopt measures in favor of groups that are discriminated against or marginalized.
The State shall especially protect those individuals who on account of their economic, physical, or mental condition are in obviously vulnerable circumstances and shall sanction the abuses or ill-treatment perpetrated against them.
Article 14
Every individual has the right to have his/her legal identity recognized.
Article 15
All individuals have the right to personal and family privacy and to their good reputation, and the State has to respect them and to make others respect them. Similarly, individuals have the right to know, update, and rectify information collected about them in data banks and in the records of public and private entities.
Freedom and the other guarantees approved in the Constitution shall be respected in the collection, processing, and circulation of data.
Correspondence and other forms of private communication may not be violated. They may only be intercepted or recorded on the basis of a court order in cases and following the formalities established by statute.
For tax or legal purposes and for cases of inspection, the oversight and intervention of the State may demand making available accounting records and other private documents within the limits provided by statute.
Article 16
All individuals are entitled to the unrestricted development of their identity without limitations other than those imposed by the rights of others and the legal order.
Article 17
Slavery, servitude, and the slave trade in all forms are prohibited.
Article 18
Freedom of conscience is guaranteed. No one shall be importuned on account of his/her convictions or beliefs or compelled to reveal them or obliged to act against his/her conscience.
Article 19
Freedom of religion is guaranteed. Every individual has the right to freely profess his/her religion and to disseminate it individually or collectively. All religious faiths and churches are equally free before the law.
Article 20
Every individual is guaranteed the freedom to express and diffuse his/her thoughts and opinions, to transmit and receive information that is true and impartial, and to establish mass communications media.
The latter are free and have social responsibility. The right to make corrections under conditions of equity is guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
Article 21
The right to dignity is guaranteed. An Act shall provide the manner in which it shall be upheld.
Article 22
Peace is a right and a duty of which compliance is mandatory.
Article 23
Every individual has the right to present respectful petitions to the authorities on account of general or private interest and to secure prompt resolution of same. The legislative body shall be able to regulate its exercise by private organizations in order to guarantee fundamental rights.
Article 24
Any Colombian citizen, except for the limitations established by statute, has the right to move about freely across the national territory, to enter and exit the country, and to remain and reside in Colombia.
Article 25
Work is a right and a social obligation and enjoys, in all its forms, the special protection of the State. Every individual is entitled to a job under dignified and equitable conditions.
Article 26
Every individual is free to choose a profession or occupation. An Act may mandate certificates of competence. The competent authorities shall inspect and oversee the exercise of the professions. Occupations, the arts, and work that does not require academic training are to be freely exercised, except for those which involve social risk.
Legally recognized professions may be organized into professional associations. The internal structure and operation of the latter shall be democratic. An Act may assign public functions to them and establish appropriate controls.
Article 27
The State guarantees freedom of teaching at the primary and secondary level, apprenticeship, research, and professorship.
Article 28
Every individual is free. No one may be importuned in his/her person or family, sent to jail or arrested, nor may his/her home be searched except on the basis of a written order from a competent judicial authority, subject to the legal procedures and for reasons previously defined by statute.
A person in preventive detention shall be placed at the disposition of a competent judge within the subsequent 36 hours so that the latter may make an appropriate determination within the limits established by statute.
In no case may there be detention, a prison term, or arrest for debts, nor sanctions or security measures that are not prescribed.
Article 29
Due process shall be applied in all cases of legal and administrative measures.
No one may be judged except in accordance with previously written laws which shall provide the basis of each decision before a competent judge or tribunal following all appropriate forms.
In criminal law, permissive or favorable law, even when ex post facto, shall be applied in preference to restrictive or unfavorable alternatives.
Every individual is presumed innocent until he/she is proved to be legally guilty. Whoever is accused is entitled to defense and the assistance of counsel picked by the accused or assigned automatically during the investigation and trial; to an appropriate public trial without unreasonable delay; to present evidence and to refute evidence alleged against the accused; to challenge the condemnatory sentence; and not to be placed in double jeopardy for the same act.
Evidence obtained in violation of due process is null and void by right.
Article 30
Whoever is deprived of his/her freedom and believes to be so illegally is entitled to invoke habeas corpus before any legal authority, at any time, on his/her own or through a third party. Habeas corpus must be complied with within 36 hours.
Article 31
Any judicial sentence may be appealed or adjudicated, but for exceptions provided by statute.
When the accused is the sole appellant, the higher court may not impose a heavier penalty.
Article 32
The accused who is caught in the act of committing an offense (flagrante delicto) may be apprehended and taken before a judge by any individual. Should he/she be subject to hot pursuit by the agents of law and order and take refuge in his/her own home, the law-enforcement agents may enter the domicile to apprehend the accused. Should the accused be caught in someone else’s home, a request from the resident shall be sought beforehand.
Article 33
No one may be forced to testify against himself/herself or his/her spouse, permanent companion, or kin to the fourth level of consanguinity, the second level of affinity [by marriage] or the first civil level.
Article 34
Punishments of exile, life imprisonment, and confiscation are prohibited.
However, a judicial sentence may nullify ownership of property when same is injurious to the public treasury or seriously harmful to social morality.
Article 35
Extradition may be requested, granted or offered in accordance with public international treaties and, in their absence, with the relevant statute.
The extradition of Colombians by birth shall also be granted for crimes committed abroad which are considered as such by the Colombian penal legislation. An Act shall regulate the matter.
Extradition shall not be granted for political crimes.
Extradition shall not be granted for acts committed prior to the promulgation of the present provision.
Article 36
The right of asylum is recognized within the limits provided by statute.
Article 37
Any group of individuals may gather and demonstrate publicly and peacefully. An Act alone may establish in specific manner those cases in which the exercise of this right may be limited.
Article 38
The right of free association for the promotion of various activities that individuals pursue in society is guaranteed.
Article 39
Workers and employers have the right to form trade unions or associations without interference by the State. Their legal recognition shall occur by the simple registration of their constituent act.
The internal structure and functioning of trade unions and social or labor organizations shall be subject to the legal order and to democratic principles.
The cancellation or suspension of legal identity may only occur through legal means.
Trade union representatives are provided jurisdiction and other guarantees necessary for the performance of their administration.
Members of the police force do not have the right to form associations.
Article 40
Any citizen has the right to participate in the establishment, exercise, and control of political power. To make this decree effective the citizen may:
- Vote and be elected.
- Participate in elections, plebiscites, referendums, popular consultations, and other forms of democratic participation.
- Constitute parties, political movements, or groups without any limit whatsoever; freely participate in them and diffuse their ideas and programs.
- Revoke the mandate of those elected in cases where it applies and in the form provided for by the Constitution and the statute.
- Take initiatives in public bodies.
- Undertake public measures in defense of the Constitution and the law.
- Agree to undertake public functions and responsibilities, except for those Colombian citizens, native-born or naturalized, who hold dual citizenship. An Act shall spell out this exception and shall determine the cases where they apply.
The authorities shall guarantee the adequate and effective participation of women in the decision-making ranks of the public administration.
Article 41
In all educational institutions, public or private, the study of the Constitution and civics shall be mandatory. In this way, democratic practices for the teaching of principles and values of citizen participation shall be promoted. The State shall publicize the Constitution.
Chapter II. On Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights
Article 42
The family is the basic nucleus of society. It is formed on the basis of natural or legal ties, through the free decision of a man and woman to contract matrimony or through the responsible resolve to comply with it.
The state and society guarantee the integral protection of the family. An Act shall determine the inalienable and unseizable family patrimony. The family’s honor, dignity, and intimacy are inviolable.
Family relations are based on the equality of rights and duties of the couple and on the reciprocal respect of all its members. Any form of violence in the family is considered destructive of its harmony and unity, and shall be sanctioned according to law.
The children born of matrimony or outside it, adopted or conceived naturally or with scientific assistance, have equal rights and duties. An Act shall regulate responsibility to the offspring.
The couple has the right to decide freely and responsibly the number of their children and shall support them and educate them while they are minors or non-self-supporting.
The forms of marriage, the age and qualifications to contract it, the duties and rights of the spouses, their separation and the dissolution of the marriage ties are determined by statute.
Religious marriages shall have civil effects within the limits established by statute.
The civil effects of all marriages may be terminated by divorce in accordance with civil law.
Also having civil effects are decrees of annulment of religious marriages issued by the authorities of the respective faiths within the limits established by statute.
An Act shall determine matters relating to the civil status of individuals and consequent rights and duties.
Article 43
Women and men have equal rights and opportunities. Women cannot be subjected to any type of discrimination. During their periods of pregnancy and following delivery, women shall benefit from the special assistance and protection of the State and shall receive from the latter food subsidies if they should thereafter find themselves unemployed or abandoned.
The State shall support the female head of household in a special way.
Article 44
The following are basic rights of children: life, physical integrity, health and social security, a balanced diet, their name and citizenship, to have a family and not be separated from it, care and love, instruction and culture, recreation, and the free expression of their opinions. They shall be protected against all forms of abandonment, physical or moral violence, sequestration, sale, sexual abuse, work or economic exploitation, and dangerous work. They shall also enjoy other rights upheld in the Constitution, the laws, and international treaties ratified by Colombia.
The family, society, and the State have the obligation to assist and protect children in order to guarantee their harmonious and integral development and the full exercise of their rights. Any individual may request from the competent authority the enforcement of these rights and the sanctioning of those who violate them.
The rights of children take precedence over the rights of others.
Article 45
The adolescent is entitled to protection and integral development.
The State and society guarantee the active participation of adolescents in public and private organs that are responsible for the protection, education, and progress of the youth.
Article 46
The State, society, and the family shall all participate in protecting and assisting individuals in the third age bracket and shall promote their integration into active and community life.
The State shall guarantee to them services of integral social security and food subsidies in cases of indigence.
Article 47
The State shall promote a policy of planning, rehabilitation, and social integration for those who are physically, emotionally, or psychologically handicapped and who shall receive the specialized attention that they need.
Article 48
Social Security is a mandatory public service which shall be delivered under the administration, coordination, and control of the State, subject to the principles of efficiency, universality, and solidarity within the limits established by statute.
All inhabitants are guaranteed the irrevocable right to Social Security.
With the participation of individuals, the state shall gradually extend the coverage of Social Security which shall include the provision of services in the form determined by statute.
Social Security may be provided by public or private entities, in accordance with the relevant statute.
It shall not be possible to assign or use the resources of the Social Security organs for different purposes.
An Act shall define the means whereby the resources earmarked for retirement benefits may retain their constant purchasing power.
The State shall guarantee the rights resulting from the Pensions Systems, its financial sustainability, it shall respect vested rights in accordance with the law and assume the payment of the pension debt for which it is responsible according to the law. The statutes which are enacted on pension matters subsequent to the entry into force of this Legislative Act have to ensure the financial sustainability of the arrangements made by them.
The discounts, reductions and seizures of pensions decreed by the applicable statute notwithstanding, for no reason may the payment of the monthly pensions recognized by statute be suspended or their value be frozen or reduced.
The provisions on infirmity and widower’s pensions notwithstanding, it is necessary to comply with the requirements concerning age, time of service, length of contribution payments or required capital and other conditions defined by an Act in order to obtain the right to a pension. The requirements for and the benefits resulting from obtaining the right to an infirmity or widower’s pension shall be established by the Acts of the General Pensions System.
In pension matters all vested rights are respected.
Pension requirements and benefits for all persons, including those related to old age pensions for high risk activities, shall be established by the Acts on the General Pensions System. No provision may be issued and no contract invoked that would run contrary to the rules thereby enacted.
For the payment of the pensions only those factors are taken into account to which the contributions made by every person are related. No pension may be lower than the existing monthly legal minimum wage. However, an Act may determine the cases in which periodical economic benefits which are lower than the minimum wage are paid to people with limited resources who do not fulfill the conditions required for the right to a pension.
After the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, there shall be no special or excepted regimes, those applicable to the public force and the President of the Republic and those defined by the paragraphs of the present article notwithstanding.
The persons whose right to a pension comes into existence after the entry into force of the present Legislative Act may not receive more than thirteen (13) monthly pension payments per year. It is understood that the pension comes into existence at the time when all requirements for obtaining it are met, even if it has not yet been [formally] recognized.
An Act shall establish speedy proceedings for the revision of pensions which have been awarded by an abuse of law or without fulfilling the requirements established by statute or by valid agreements or arbitral awards.
Paragraph 1
After July 31, 2010 no pensions may come into existence at the expense of public resources that are higher than twenty-five (25) monthly legal minimum wages.
Paragraph 2
After the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, no pension requirements that differ from those established by the Acts of the General Pensions System may be created by agreements, collective bargaining, arbitral awards or any other legal act.
Transitional Paragraph 1
The pension regime of the national, nationalized and territorial teaching staff linked to the official public education service is that which has been established for the teaching profession by the legal provisions which were in force prior to the entry into force of the Act 812 of 2003, and by Article 81 of the latter. Teachers who have joined or join the service after the entry into force of the aforementioned law shall have the right to a medium bonus (prima media) established by the Acts of the General Pensions System, in the terms of Article 81 of the Act 812 of 2003.
Transitional Paragraph 2
Vested rights, the regime applicable to the members of the public force and the President of the Republic and the provisions of the present Article notwithstanding, the special and excepted pension regimes as well as any other [pension regime] that is different from the one established in a permanent manner by the Acts on the General Pensions System shall cease to have effect on July 31 of the year 2010.
Transitional Paragraph 3
The rules concerning pension matters contained in pacts, collective bargains, arbitral awards or validly concluded agreements that are in force on the date of entry into force of this Legislative Act shall remain valid for the period initially established. In the pacts, agreements or awards that are made between the entry into force of this Legislative Act and July 31, 2010 no pension rules that are more favorable than those currently in force may be stipulated. In any case they shall cease to have effect on July 31, 2010.
Transitional Paragraph 4
The transitional regime established by Act 100 of 1993 and the other rules which develop said regime may not extend beyond July 31, 2010, except for the workers who are subject to that regime and have paid contributions for at least 750 weeks or its equivalent in times of service on the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, to whom it shall continue to apply until the year 2014.
The pension requirements and benefits for the persons covered by this regime shall be those established by Article 36 of the Act 100 of 1993 and the other rules which develop said regime.
Transitional Paragraph 5
In accordance with the provisions of Article 140 of law 100 of 1993 and of Decree 2090 of 2003, the high risk regime contemplated by said decree shall apply to the members of the National Prison and Penitentiary Guards Association, starting with the entry into force of the latter. To those who join at a later date the regime that had been in force previously for these people in view of the risks connected to their work shall apply, i.e. the provisions contained to this effect in law 32 of 1986, under which the corresponding contributions must have been paid.
Transitional Paragraph 6
Persons who receive a pension equal to or lower than three (3) monthly legal minimum wages or, if the pension comes into existence before July 31, 2011, who obtain fourteen (14) monthly pension payments per year are excepted from the provisions of section 8 of the present Article.
Article 49
Public health and environmental protection are public services for which the State is responsible. All individuals are guaranteed access to services that promote, protect, and restore health.
It is the responsibility of the State to organize, direct, and regulate the provision of health services to the inhabitants and of environment protection in accordance with the principles of efficiency, universality, and solidarity; in addition, to establish policies for the provision of health services by private entities and to exercise oversight and control over them; and to establish the competences of the nation, territorial entities, and individuals, and to determine the subsidies to their tasks in the terms and conditions established by statute.
Health services shall be organized in a decentralized manner, according to care levels and with the participation of the community.
An Act shall define the terms under which basic care for all inhabitants shall be free of charge and mandatory.
Every individual has the right to have access to the integral care of his/her health and that of his/her community.
The possession and the consumption of narcotic and psychoactive drugs is prohibited, except for medical prescription. For the goals of prevention and rehabilitation an Act shall establish administrative measures and treatments of a pedagogic, prophylactic and therapeutical character for persons consuming these substances. The application of these measures and treatments requires the informed consent of the addict.
In addition, the State shall give special attention to the dependent sick or addict individual and his/her family in order to strengthen it in respect of values and principles which contribute to the prevention of behaviour affecting the comprehensive care for the health of the persons concerned and, by extension, of the community, and shall develop in a permanent manner campaigns for the prevention of consumption of drugs and narcotic substances and in favor of the rehabilitation of addicts.
Article 50
Any child under a year old who may not be covered by any type of protection or Social Security shall be entitled to receive free care in all health entities that receive state subsidies. An Act shall regulate the matter.
Article 51
All Colombian citizens are entitled to live in dignity. The State shall determine the conditions necessary to give effect to this right and shall promote plans for public housing, appropriate systems of long-term financing, and community plans for the execution of these housing programs.
Article 52
The practice of sports, its recreational, competitive and autochthonous manifestations have the function of fully developing the human personality, and to preserve and promote better health in human beings.
Sports and recreation are part of education and constitute public social expenditure.
The right of all persons to recreation, the practice of sports and the enjoyment of their free time are recognized.
The State shall foster these activities and shall inspect, look after and control sports and recreational organizations, whose structure and property must be democratic.
Article 53
The Congress shall issue a labor statute. The appropriate law shall take into account at least the following minimal fundamental principles:
Equality of opportunity for workers; minimum essential and flexible remuneration proportional to the amount and quality of work; stability in employment; irrevocability of minimum benefits established in labor regulations; options to negotiate about and reconcile uncertain and arguable rights; a situation more favorable to the worker in case of doubt in the application and interpretation of the formal bases of the law; the primacy of facts over established formalities in issues of labor relations; guarantees to social security, training, instruction, and necessary rest; special protection of women, mothers, and minor-age workers.
The State guarantees the right of suitable payment and the periodic adjustment of legal retirement benefits.
International labor agreements duly ratified are part of domestic legislation.
Statute, contracts, agreements, and labor settlements may not infringe on the freedom, human dignity, or rights of workers.
Article 54
It is the obligation of the State and employers to offer training and professional and technical skills to whoever needs them. The state must promote the employment of individuals of working age and guarantee to the handicapped the right to employment appropriate to their physical condition.
Article 55
The right of collective bargaining to regulate labor relations, with the exceptions provided for by statute, is guaranteed.
It is the duty of the State to promote agreement and other measures for the peaceful solution of collective labor conflicts.
Article 56
The right to strike is guaranteed, except in the case of essential public services defined by the legislature.
An Act shall regulate this right.
A permanent commission composed of the government, the representatives of employers, and of workers shall promote sound labor relations, contribute to the settlement of collective labor disputes, and coordinate wage and labor policies. An Act shall regulate their makeup and functioning.
Article 57
An Act may establish the incentives and means so that workers may participate in the management of enterprises.
Article 58
Private property and the other rights acquired in accordance with civil laws are guaranteed and may neither be disregarded nor infringed by subsequent laws. When in the application of a law enacted for reasons of public utility or social interest a conflict between the rights of individuals and the interests recognized by the law arises, the private interest shall yield to the public or social interest.
Property has a social dimension which implies obligations. As such, an ecological dimension is inherent to it.
The State shall protect and promote associative and joint forms of property.
Expropriation may be carried out for reasons of public utility or social interest defined by the legislature, subject to a judicial decision and prior compensation. The compensation shall be determined by taking into account the interests of the community and of the individual concerned. In the cases determined by the legislator, the expropriation may take place by administrative action, subject to subsequent litigation before the administrative law courts, including with regard to the price.
Article 59
In case of war and exclusively to meet its requirements, the need for expropriation may be decreed by the national government without prior indemnification.
In the said case, real estate alone may be occupied temporarily to meet the requirements of war or to assign facilities to it.
The state shall always be responsible for expropriations effected by the government on its own or through its agents.
Article 60
The state shall promote access to property in accordance with the law.
When the State sells its interest in an enterprise, it shall take measures promoting the democratization of the ownership of its shares and shall offer its workers or the collective and workers’ organizations special terms to make it possible for them to accede to the said proprietary shares. An Act shall regulate the matter.
Article 61
The State shall protect intellectual property for the period and using the means established by statute.
Article 62
The fate of “intervivos” or testamentary donations, done in accordance with the Act on general interest purposes, may not be altered or modified by the legislature, unless the purpose of the donation should no longer be applicable. In this case, the Act shall assign the property in question to a similar purpose.
The government shall oversee the management and investment of such donations.
Article 63
Property in public use, natural parks, communal lands of ethnic groups, security zones, the archaeological resources of the nation, and other property determined by statute are inalienable, imprescriptible, and not subject to seizure.
Article 64
It is the duty of the State to promote the gradual access of agricultural workers to landed property in individual or associational form and to services involving education, health, housing, social security, recreation, credit, communications, the marketing of products, technical and management assistance with the purpose of improving the incomes and quality of life of the peasants.
Article 65
The production of food crops shall benefit from the special protection of the State. For that purpose, priority shall be given to the integral development of agricultural, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry, and agroindustrial activities as well as to the building of physical infrastructural projects and to land improvement.
Similarly, the state shall promote research and the transfer of technology for the production of food crops and primary resources of agricultural origin with the purpose of increasing productivity.
Article 66
The provisions enacted in the field of private or public credit may regulate the special conditions of agricultural credit, taking into account the cycles of harvests and prices as well as the risks inherent in farming activities and environmental disasters.
Article 67
Education is an individual right and a public service that has a social function. Through education individuals seek access to knowledge, science, technology, and the other benefits and values of knowledge.
Education shall train the Colombian when it comes to respect for human rights, peace, and democracy, and in the practice of work and recreation for cultural, scientific, and technological improvement and for the protection of the environment. The state, society, and the family are responsible for education, which shall be mandatory between the ages of five and fifteen years and which shall minimally include one year of preschool instruction and nine years of basic instruction.
Education shall be free of charge in the State institutions, without prejudice to those who can afford to defray the costs.
It is the responsibility of the State to perform the final inspection and supervision of education in order to oversee its quality, for fulfilling its purposes, and for the improved moral, intellectual, and physical training of those being educated; to guarantee an adequate supply of the service, and to guarantee for minors the conditions necessary for their access to and retention in the educational system.
The nation and the territorial entities shall participate in the management, financing, and administration of state educational services within the limits provided for in the Constitution and statute.
Article 68
Individuals may create educational institutions. An Act shall establish the conditions for their creation and management.
The educational community shall participate in managing educational institutions.
Education shall be in the care of individuals of recognized ethical and pedagogical fitness. An Act guarantees the professionalization and dignity of the teaching profession.
Parents have the right to select the type of education for their minor children. In state institutions, no individual may be obliged to receive religious instruction.
The members of ethnic groups shall have the right to education that respects and develops their cultural identity.
The eradication of illiteracy and the education of individuals with physical or mental limitations or with exceptional capabilities are special obligations of the State.
Article 69
The autonomy of universities is guaranteed. The universities shall be able to administer and govern themselves through their own by-laws, in accordance with the applicable statute.
An Act shall establish a special regime for state universities.
The state shall strengthen scientific research in the public and private universities and shall offer special conditions for their development.
The state shall assist those financial arrangements that make possible the access of all individuals qualified for advanced education.
Article 70
The State has the obligation to promote and foster access to the culture of all Colombians equally by means of permanent education and scientific, technical, artistic, and professional instruction at all stages of the process of creating the national identity.
Culture in its diverse manifestations is the basis of nationality. The State recognizes the equality and dignity of all those who live together in the country. The state shall promote research, science, development, and the diffusion of the nation’s cultural values.
Article 71
The search for knowledge and artistic expression are free to be pursued. Plans of economic and social development shall include the promotion of the sciences and of culture in general. The state shall create incentives for individuals and institutions who develop and foster science and technology and other cultural manifestations and shall offer special incentives to individuals and institutions who pursue these activities.
Article 72
The nation’s cultural heritage is under the protection of the State. The archaeological heritage and other cultural resources that shaped the national identity belong to the nation and are inalienable, not subject to seizure, and are imprescriptible. An Act shall establish the mechanisms to restore control over them when they are in the hands of individuals and shall regulate the special rights that ethnic groups may enjoy when they occupy territories of archaeological wealth.
Article 73
Journalistic activity is protected to guarantee its freedom and professional independence.
Article 74
Every person has the right of access to public documents except in cases established by statute.
Professional secrets are inviolable.
Article 75
The electromagnetic spectrum is an inalienable and imprescriptible public resource subject to the management and control of the State. Equality of opportunity is guaranteed in the access to its use within the limits determined by statute.
To guarantee genuine pluralism and competence, the state shall intervene through the mandate of an Act to avoid monopolistic practices in the use of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Article 76
[Abolished by Legislative Act No. 2 of 2011]
Article 77
The Congress of the Republic shall adopt an Act which determines the policy on matters of television.
Chapter III. On Collective Rights and the Environment
Article 78
An Act shall regulate the control of the quality of goods and services offered and provided to the community as well as the information that must be made available to the public in their marketing.
Those who in the production and marketing of goods and services may jeopardize the health, safety, and adequate supply to consumers and users shall be held responsible in accordance with the relevant statute.
The state shall guarantee the participation of the organizations of consumers and users in the study of the provisions that concern them. In order to enjoy this right the organizations must be of a representative nature and observe internal democratic procedures.
Article 79
Every individual has the right to enjoy a healthy environment. An Act shall guarantee the community’s participation in the decisions that may affect it.
It is the duty of the State to protect the diversity and integrity of the environment, to conserve the areas of special ecological importance, and to foster education for the achievement of these ends.
Article 80
The state shall plan the handling and use of natural resources in order to guarantee their sustainable development, conservation, restoration, or replacement.
Additionally, it shall caution and control the factors of environmental deterioration, impose legal sanctions, and demand the repair of any damage caused.
In the same way, it shall cooperate with other nations in the protection of the ecosystems located in the border areas.
Article 81
The manufacture, importation, possession, and use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons are prohibited as is the introduction into the national territory of nuclear and toxic wastes.
The state shall regulate the entry into the country and the exit from it of genetic resources and their use, in accordance with the national interest.
Article 82
It is the duty of the State to watch over the protection of the integrity of public space and for its assignment to common use, which has priority over the individual interest.
Public entities shall participate in the profits generated by their urban planning activities and shall regulate the use of the soil and the urban air space in order to protect the common interest.
Chapter IV. On the Protection and Application of Rights
Article 83
The activities of individuals and of the public authorities shall conform to the postulates of good faith which shall be presumed in all the measures that the former promote vis-à-vis the latter.
Article 84
When a right or an activity has been regulated in a general way, the public authorities may not establish or demand permits, licenses, or impose additional conditions for their exercise.
Article 85
The rights mentioned in Articles 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 37 and 40 are applicable immediately.
Article 86
Every individual may claim legal protection before the judge, at any time or place, through a preferential and summary proceeding, for himself/herself or by whoever acts in his/her name, the immediate protection of his/her fundamental constitutional rights when the individual fears the latter may be jeopardized or threatened by the action or omission of any public authority.
The protection shall consist of an order so that whoever solicits such protection may receive it by a judge enjoining others to act or refrain from acting. The order, which shall be implemented immediately, may be challenged before the competent judge, and in any case the latter may send it to the Constitutional Court for possible revision.
This action shall be followed only when the affected party does not have access to other means of judicial defense, except when the former is used as a temporary device to avoid irreversible harm. In no case can more than 10 days elapse between the request for protection and its resolution.
An Act shall establish the cases in which the order of protection should apply to individuals entrusted with providing a public service or whose conduct may seriously and directly affect the collective interest or in respect of whom the applicant may find himself/herself in a state of subordination or vulnerability.
Article 87
Any individual may appear before the legal authority to effect the application of a law or administrative act. In case of a successful action, the sentence shall order the delinquent authority to perform its mandated duty.
Article 88
An Act shall regulate popular actions for the protection of collective rights and interests related to the homeland, space, public safety and health, administrative morality, the environment, free economic competition, and other areas of similar nature defined in it.
It shall also regulate the actions stemming from the harm caused to a large number of individuals, without barring appropriate individual action.
In the same way, it shall define cases of responsibility of a civil nature for the damage caused to collective rights and interests.
Article 89
In addition to what is mentioned in the previous articles, an Act shall determine the other resources, actions, and procedures necessary to protect, through the integrity of the legal order, the individual rights of groups or collectives against the acts or omissions of public authorities.
Article 90
The state shall answer materially for the extralegal damages for which it is responsible, caused by the acts or omissions of public authorities.
In the event that the State is ordered to make compensation for some damage or another, which may have been the consequence of the fraudulent or seriously criminal behavior of one of its agents, the former shall claim restitution from the latter.
Article 91
In the case of a manifest violation of a constitutional precept which causes harm to another person, the fact that he/she acted on the order of a superior does not absolve the executing state agent from responsibility.
The military in active service are exempt from this provision. As far as they are concerned, responsibility shall fall exclusively on the superior officer who gives the order.
Article 92
Every person or legal entity may solicit from the competent authority the application of penal or disciplinary sanctions stemming from the behavior of public authorities.
Article 93
International treaties and agreements ratified by Congress that recognize human rights and prohibit their limitation in states of emergency have domestic priority.
The rights and duties mentioned in this Charter shall be interpreted in accordance with international treaties on human rights ratified by Colombia.
The Colombian State may recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in terms of the Rome Statute adopted on July 17, 1998 by the United Nations Plenipotentiary’s Conference and, consequently, ratify said treaty in accordance with the procedure established by this Constitution.
The admission of a different treatment on substantial matters by the Rome Statute with respect to the guarantees contained in this Constitution shall produce effects only within the scope of application of the latter.
Article 94
The enunciation of the rights and guarantees contained in the Constitution and in international agreements in effect should not be understood as a negation of others which, being inherent to the human being, are not expressly mentioned in them.
Chapter V. On Duties and Obligations
Article 95
The quality of being Colombian enhances all members of the national community. Everyone has the duty to exalt and dignify it. The exercise of the rights and liberties recognized in this Constitution implies responsibilities.
Every individual is obliged to obey the Constitution and the laws.
The following are duties of the individual and of the citizen:
- To respect others’ rights and not to abuse one’s own;
- To strive in accordance with the principle of social solidarity, responding with humanitarian actions in the face of situations that endanger the life or the health of individuals;
- To respect and support the democratic authorities legitimately constituted to maintain national independence and integrity;
- To defend and propagate human rights as the foundation of peaceful coexistence;
- To participate in the country’s political, civic, and community life;
- To strive toward achieving and maintaining peace;
- To collaborate toward the good functioning of the administration of justice;
- To protect the country’s cultural and natural resources and to keep watch that a healthy environment is being preserved;
- To contribute to the financing of the State’s expenditures and investments within the principles of justice and equity.
