TITLE III. DECLARATIONS, RIGHTS, AND GUARANTEES
CHAPTER I. Declarations
Article 59
The human being is the supreme end of Society and of the State. Everyone has the obligation to respect and protect the person.
The dignity of the human being is inviolable.
In order to guarantee the rights and liberties recognized in this Constitution, the institution of the National Commissioner of Human Rights is created.
The organization, prerogatives, and powers of the National Commissioner of Human Rights shall be the object of a Special Law.
Article 60
All men are born free and equal in rights. There are no privileged classes in Honduras. All Honduras are equal before the law.
All forms of discrimination on account of sex, race, class, or any other reason prejudicial to human dignity shall be punishable.
The law shall establish the crimes and penalties for violators of this provision.
Article 61
The Constitution guarantees to all Hondurans and to foreigners residing in the country the right to the inviolability of life, and to individual safety, freedom, equality before the law, and property.
Article 62
The rights of every man are limited by the rights of all others, by collective security, and by the just demands of the general welfare and democratic development.
Article 63
The declarations, rights and guarantees enumerated in this Constitution shall not be construed as a denial of other declarations, rights and guarantees not specified that spring from the national sovereignty, from the republican, democratic and representative form of government, and from the dignity of man.
Article 64
Laws and governmental provisions or any other provisions that regulate the exercise of declarations, rights and guarantees established in this Constitution shall not be enforced if they diminish, restrict, or evade such rights and guarantees.
CHAPTER II. Individual Rights
Article 65
The right to life is inviolable.
Article 66
The death penalty is prohibited.
Article 67
The unborn shall be considered as born for all rights accorded within the limits established by law.
Article 68
Every person has the right to have his physical, mental, and moral integrity respected.
No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.
Every person deprived of his liberty shall be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.
Article 69
Personal freedom is inviolable and may be restricted or temporarily suspended only according to law.
Article 70
All Hondurans have the right to do that which is not harmful to others; likewise, no one shall be obliged to do that which is not legally prescribed nor shall be prevented from doing that which the law does not prohibit.
No one may take justice into his own hands, nor exercise violence to claim his rights.
No personal service may be exacted, nor must it be rendered gratuitously, except by virtue of the law or by a sentence based on the law.
Article 71
No one may be detained nor held incommunicado for longer than twenty-four hours after his detainment, without being freed or placed at the order of the competent authority to begin his process of trial. By exception, this term shall be extended by the competent authority to forty-eight hours when it is regarding crimes of complex investigation, due to a multitude of related facts, difficulty in obtaining proof, or because of a high number of suspects or victims.
The measure of exceptionalness shall be developed in the Procedural Penal Code.
Judicial detention to question may not exceed six days counted from the moment in which it is begun.
Article 72
Expression of thought shall be free, and be expressed through any means of dissemination, without prior censorship. Those who abuse this right, and those who by direct or indirect methods restrict or limit the communication and circulation of ideas and opinions shall be liable before the law.
Article 73
Printing shops, radio broadcasting, television stations, and any other means of broadcast and dissemination of thought, as well as their machinery and equipment, may not be seized or confiscated nor may their work be closed down or interrupted by reason of an offense or misdemeanor relating to the dissemination of thoughts, without prejudice to the liabilities incurred by these reasons in accordance with the law.
No enterprise for the dissemination of thought may receive subsidies from foreign governments or political parties. The law shall establish the penalty for violations of this provision.
The control of print newspapers, of radio and television newscasts, and the intellectual, political and administrative orientation of the same shall be exercised exclusively by Hondurans by birth.
Article 74
The right of expression of thought may not be restricted by indirect avenues or means, such as the abuse of government or private controls over newsprint, radio broadcasting frequencies, or equipment used in the dissemination of information.
Article 75
The law that regulates the expression of thought may establish prior censorship to protect the ethical and cultural values of the society, as well as the rights of persons, especially those of childhood, adolescence and youth.
Commercial advertisements of alcoholic beverages and tobacco consumption shall be regulated by law.
Article 76
The right to honor, to personal privacy, to family, and to one’s dignity is guaranteed.
Article 77
The free exercise of all religions and cults is guaranteed without preference to one, provided they do not violate the law and public order.
Ministers of the various religions may not hold public office or engage in any form of political propaganda, invoking religious motives or, as a means to such end, thus taking advantage of the religious beliefs of the people.
Article 78
Freedom of association and assembly is guaranteed provided its exercise is not contrary to the public order or to public morals.
Article 79
Everyone has the right of peaceful assembly, without arms, in a public demonstration or temporary assembly, in connection with their common interests of whatever nature, without the need of notice or special permission.
Outdoor meetings and those of a political nature may be subject to a system of special permission, with the sole purpose of ensuring public order.
Article 80
Every person or association of persons has the right to present petitions to the authorities, for reasons of either private or general interest, and to obtain a prompt reply within the time allowed by law.
Article 81
Every person has the right to move freely within the national territory, as well as leave, enter and remain in it.
No one may be compelled to change his domicile or residence, except in special cases and with the requirements provided by law.
Article 82
The right of defense is inviolable.
The inhabitants of the Republic have free access to the courts to bring actions in accordance with law.
Article 83
The State shall appoint counsel to defend the poor and to protect the persons and interests of minors and the incompetent. They shall give legal assistance to them and represent them judicially in defense of their personal liberty and other rights.
Article 84
No one may be arrested or detained except by virtue of a warrant from a competent authority, issued in accordance with the legal formalities and for reasons previously established by law.
Notwithstanding, a person in flagrante delicto may be apprehended by anyone, for the sole purpose of being handed over to the authority.
The arrested or detained must be informed upon arrest and with total clarity of his rights and the charges against him; furthermore, the authorities must permit him to report his detention to a relative or to a person of his choice.
Article 85
No one may be detained or imprisoned in places other than those established by law.
Article 86
Accused persons subject to criminal prosecution shall, while in detention, have the right to be segregated from convicted persons.
Article 87
Prisons are establishments for the security and social defense. They shall be used to bring about the rehabilitation of prisoners, and their training for work.
Article 88
Duress or coercion of any type to obtain confessions shall not be employed.
No one may be required, in criminal, disciplinary or police matters, to testify against himself, his spouse or household companion, nor against his relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity.
Testimony given only before a competent judge shall be evidence.
Testimony obtained in violation of any of these principles shall be null, and those responsible shall incur the penalties established by law.
Article 89
Every person shall be presumed innocent so long as his guilt has not been declared by the competent authority.
Article 90
No person may be tried except by a competent judge or tribunal, with the formalities, rights and guarantees established by law.
Military jurisdiction is recognized for offenses and wrongdoings of a military nature. Military courts may in no case extend their jurisdiction to persons who are not on active duty with the Armed Forces.
Article 91
If an offense or wrongdoing of a military nature involves a civilian or a discharged soldier, the case shall be tried by the competent authority of the regular justice.
Article 92
Formal charges may only be brought when there is convincing evidence of the existence of a crime and reasonable indications that the accused is the actor or accomplice.
Arraignments shall be made in the same manner.
Article 93
No one may be committed to jail, even by a bill of indictment, nor detained therein, if he furnished sufficient bail in accordance with law.
Article 94
No one may be punished without having been heard and convicted in a trial, and without final sentence imposed by a judge or competent authority.
In cases of contempt of court, and other measures of a similar nature in civil or labor matters, as in cases involving fines or police arrest, the defendant shall always be heard.
Article 95
No one shall be punished with penalty not previously established by law, nor be tried a second time for the same punishable acts for which a previous trial was held.
Article 96
No law has retroactive effect, except in criminal matters when the new law favors the defendant.
Article 97
Infamous, proscriptive and confiscatory punishment is forbidden.
The punishment of perpetual deprivation of liberty is established. The penal law shall determine its application for those crimes in which commission occurs in grave, offensive, and degrading circumstances and through their impact cause commotion, rejection, indignation, and repugnance in the national community.
Punishments that deprive liberty for simple crimes and those accumulated for various crimes shall be fixed in the Penal Law.
Article 98
No person may be detained, arrested or imprisoned for obligations that do not arise from crimes or offenses.
Article 99
The home is inviolable. No entrance or search may be made without the consent of the occupant or without order from a competent authority. Nevertheless, it may be searched, in case of urgency, to prevent the commission of or impunity from crimes, or to avoid grave injury to persons or damage to property.
Except in cases of urgency, search of the home may not take place between six o’clock in the evening and six o’clock in the morning, without incurring responsibility.
The law shall determine the requirements and formalities regarding the manner in which the entrance, inspection or search may be carried out, as well as the responsibilities that may be incurred by the authority carrying it out.
Article 100
Every person has the right to the inviolability and privacy of communication, specifically mail, telegrams and telephone conversations, except by judicial order.
Books and documents of merchants and their private papers shall be subject only to inspection and supervision by the competent authorities, in accordance with law.
The communications, books and documents referred to in this article that are violated or seized shall not serve as evidence in a trial.
In any case, the secrecy of strictly private matters which have no bearing on the matter of the action taken shall be maintained.
Article 101
Honduras recognizes the right of asylum in the form and conditions established by law.
When asylum is revoked or denied in accordance with the law, in no case shall the political refugee or asylee be returned to the territory of the State that may claim him.
The State shall not authorize the extradition of persons accused of committing political crimes or related common offenses.
Article 102
No Honduran may be expatriated nor handed over to the authorities of a foreign state.
Excepted from this provision are cases related with crimes of trafficking of narcotics in any of their forms, terrorism and any other illegal act of organized crime and when there exists a Treaty or Convention of extradition with the requesting country.
In no case may a Honduran be extradited for political crimes and related common offenses.
Article 103
The State recognizes, guarantees, and promotes the existence of private property in its broadest sense as a social function and without further limitations than those established by law for reasons of necessity or public interest.
Article 104
The right to property shall not prejudice the right of eminent domain of the State.
Article 105
Confiscation of property is prohibited.
Property may not be limited in any way for reasons of political crimes.
The right to recover confiscated property is imprescriptible.
Article 106
No one may be deprived of his property except by reason of public need or interest defined by law or a decision based on law, and shall not take place without assessed prior compensation.
In the event of war or internal disorder, it is not necessary that the compensation be paid in advance; however, the corresponding payment shall be made not later than two years after the termination of the state of emergency.
Article 107
State lands and municipal lands (ejidales), community lands, or private property located in zones adjacent to boundaries with neighboring states, land located along the shores of the two oceans, to a width of forty kilometers toward the interior of the country, and land situated on islands, cays, reefs, cliffs, rocks, shoals and sand banks may be acquired, possessed or occupied under any title only by native-born Hondurans, by associations composed entirely of Honduran members, and by State institutions, under penalty of nullification of the pertinent act or contract.
The acquisition of urban property within the limits established in the previous paragraph shall be dealt with by a special law.
Registrars of property are prohibited from recording documents that violate this provision.
Article 108
Every author, inventor, producer or merchant shall enjoy the exclusive ownership of his work, invention, trademark, or commercial name, according to law.
Article 109
Taxes shall not be confiscatory.
No one shall be obligated to pay taxes and other imposts that have not been duly enacted by, the National Congress in regular sessions.
No authority shall impose measures in violation of this provision without incurring the liability established by law.
Article 110
No individual who freely administers his property may be deprived of the right to discharge his civil affairs by compromise or arbitration.
CHAPTER III. Social Rights
Article 111
The family, marriage, motherhood and childhood are under the protection of the State.
Article 112
The right of a man and a woman, who have that quality naturally, to contract marriage between themselves is recognized, as well as the legal equality of spouses.
Only a civil marriage performed by competent officials and under the conditions established by law is valid.
De facto union between persons having the legal capacity to marry is recognized. The law shall indicate the conditions under which it shall have the effect of a civil marriage.
Marriage and de facto union between persons of the same sex is prohibited.
Marriages or de facto unions between persons of the same sex that are celebrated or recognized under the laws of other countries shall not be valid in Honduras.
Article 113
Divorce as a means of dissolving the matrimonial bond is recognized.
The law shall regulate the grounds for divorce and its effects.
Article 114
All children have the same rights and duties.
Qualifications concerning the nature of filiation are not recognized. No statement of any kind as to differentiations in births or the marital status of the parents shall be contained in any birth registrations or in any document relating to filiation.
Article 115
Investigation of paternity is authorized. The procedure shall be determined by law.
Article 116
The right of adoption is recognized for persons united through matrimony or de facto union.
The giving of children through adoption to persons of the same sex who form marriages or de facto unions is prohibited. The law shall regulate this institution.
Article 117
The aged merit the special protection of the state.
Article 118
The homestead shall be the subject of special legislation designed to protect and further it.
CHAPTER IV. Rights of the Child
Article 119
The State has the duty to protect children.
Children shall enjoy the protection afforded to them in international treaties that safeguard their rights.
Child protection laws are matters of public order, and the official establishments serving this purpose shall have the status of social welfare centers.
Article 120
Physically or mentally handicapped minors, those with abnormal behavior, orphans, and abandoned children shall be subject to special legislation for their rehabilitation, supervision, and protection as the case may be.
Article 121
Parents are under obligation to feed, assist, and educate their children during their minority, and beyond in those cases established by law.
The state shall provide special protection for minors whose parents or guardians are economically unable to do so, to provide for their care and education.
Under circumstances of equal qualifications, these needy parents and guardians shall be given preference in filling public positions.
Article 122
The law shall establish the jurisdiction and the special courts that shall hear family and juvenile matters.
No one under eighteen years of age shall be permitted to be confined in a jail or prison.
Article 123
All children shall enjoy the benefits of social security and education.
Every child shall have the right to grow and develop in good health, for which special care shall be given during the prenatal period, as much for the child as for the mother, both being entitled to food, housing, education, recreation, exercise, sport, and adequate medical services.
Article 124
Every child must be protected against every form of abandonment, cruelty and exploitation. No child shall be the object of any type of bondage.
No child shall work before reaching an adequate minimum age, nor shall he be permitted to dedicate himself to any occupation or employment that may be prejudicial to his health, education, or serve as an impediment to his physical, mental, or moral development.
The use of minors by their parents or other persons for the purpose of begging is prohibited.
The law shall establish the applicable penalties for those who violate this provision.
Article 125
The communications media shall cooperate in the training and education of children.
Article 126
Every child, regardless of circumstances, shall be among the first to receive aid, protection, and assistance.
CHAPTER V. Labor
Article 127
Every person has the right to work under equitable and satisfactory working conditions, to choose his occupation freely and to give it up, and to protection against unemployment.
Article 128
Laws governing the relations between employers and workers are matters of public order. All acts, stipulations or agreements that involve the waiver, diminution or restriction or evasion of the following guarantees shall be void:
- Regular day work shall not exceed eight hours a day, nor forty-four hours a week.Regular night work shall not exceed six hours a day or thirty-six hours a week.Regular combined work shall not exceed seven hours a day or forty-two hours a week.
All work shall be paid for at a salary equivalent to forty-eight hours a week. Overtime work shall be paid for in the manner specified by law.
These provisions shall not apply in those well-defined exceptional cases indicated by law.
- No worker shall be required to perform work that covers more than twelve hours in any period of twenty-four consecutive hours, except in those cases specified by law.
- Equal work shall receive equal pay without any discrimination, provided that the position, the working hours, the conditions of efficiency and the time of service are also equal.Wages must be paid in legal tender.
- The amount of wages, indemnity compensation, and other social benefits shall constitute a preferred credit in accordance with law.
- Every worker is entitled to earn a minimum wage fixed periodically by participation of the State, employers and workers, sufficient to meet the normal needs of his home, in both material and cultural matters, in accordance with the standards of each kind of work, the conditions peculiar to each region and type of work, the cost of living, the relative skill of workers, and the pay systems of the enterprises.A minimum occupational wage shall also be fixed for those activities not wage-regulated by a collective contract or agreement.The minimum wage shall be exempt from attachment, compensation or discount, except as prescribed by law governing family and trade union obligations of the worker.
- In the facilities of his establishments, the employer must observe and enforce the legal provisions concerning hygiene and health and adopt adequate safety measures in work, which help to prevent occupational hazards and ensure the physical and mental integrity of workers.Employers in agricultural enterprises are also subject to the same security system. Special protection shall be given to women and minors.
- Minors under sixteen years of age and those above that age who are subject to mandatory education by virtue of national legislation may not be employed in any kind of work.The labor authorities may authorize their employment when they deem it indispensable for their own support or for the support of their parents or brothers and sisters provided that their working does not hinder their compliance with the requirements of mandatory education.For minors under seventeen years of age the work period, which must be daytime, may not exceed six hours a day or thirty hours a week, for any kind of work.
- A worker shall be entitled to annual paid vacations, the duration and time of which shall be regulated by law.In any event, a worker shall be entitled to a cash payment for vacations already earned and for proportional vacations corresponding to the period worked.Vacations may not be compensated by a cash payment, nor accumulated, and the employer shall be obligated to give them to the worker and the worker must take them.
The law shall regulate these obligations and shall determine the exceptional cases that permit the accumulation and compensation of vacations.
- Workers shall be entitled to leave with pay for holidays specified by law. The law shall also specify what kind of work shall not be governed by this provision, but in such cases workers shall be entitled to overtime.
- The right of workers to receive payment for a seventh day is hereby recognized; permanent workers shall receive, in addition, payment for a thirteenth month as a Christmas bonus. The law shall regulate the terms and manner of application of these provisions.
- A woman is entitled to leave before and after childbirth, without loss of employment or wages. During the nursing period she shall be entitled to a rest period each day for nursing her child. The employer may not terminate the employment contract of a pregnant woman, nor after childbirth, except after having proved just cause before a competent judge, in the cases and conditions indicated by law.
- Employers shall be required to indemnify their workers for work injuries and occupational diseases, according to law.
- The right to strike or to lockout is recognized. The law shall regulate its exercise and may subject it to special restrictions in specified public services.
- Workers and employers shall be entitled to associate freely for purposes exclusively related to their economic-social activities, by forming trade unions or professional associations, according to law.
- The State shall protect individual and collective contracts made between employers and workers.
Article 129
The law guarantees stability for workers in their jobs, in accordance with the characteristics of industries and professions, and just causes of severance. Whenever an unjustifiable discharge occurs upon final judgment, respective the punishment, the worker shall be entitled at his option to compensation for unpaid wages damages as actual and consequential damages, and to the legal indemnity as well as the indemnity agreed to, or else to be reinstated to the job with recognition of unpaid wages, as actual and consequential damages.
Article 130
Homeworkers shall have a legal status analogous to that of other workers, with due consideration for the peculiarities of their work.
Article 131
Domestic workers shall be protected by social legislation. Persons rendering domestic services in industrial, commercial, and social enterprises and in others of a similar nature shall be considered manual workers and have the rights granted to them.
Article 132
The law shall regulate the hiring of: agricultural, livestock, and forestry workers; land, air, sea, inland waterborne and railway transportation workers; mining and petroleum activities workers; business employees, and all other employees hired under special conditions.
Article 133
Independent intellectual workers and the product of their work must be covered by protective legislation.
Article 134
All legal disputes arising from relations between employers and workers shall be subject to the labor jurisdiction. The law shall establish the corresponding rules governing this jurisdiction and the institutions entrusted with their application.
Article 135
Labor laws shall be based on harmony between capital and labor, as the factors of production.
The State must protect the rights of workers while also protecting capital and employers.
Article 136
Workers may share the profits of employers, but may never assume his risks or losses.
Article 137
Under equal conditions Honduran workers shall be given preference over foreign workers.
It is prohibited for employers to hire less than 90 percent Honduran workers and to pay them less than 85 percent of the total amount of the salaries paid in the respective enterprises. Those percentages may be modified in exceptional cases specified by law.
Article 138
In order to enforce these guarantees and labor laws, the State shall supervise and inspect enterprises, and, when necessary, impose the penalties established by law.
Article 139
The State has an obligation to promote, organize and regulate conciliation and arbitration procedures for the peaceful settlement of labor disputes.
Article 140
The State shall promote the vocational and technical training of workers.
Article 141
The law shall determine which employers, according to the amount of their capital and the total number of their workers, shall be required to provide them and their families with educational, health, housing and other services.
CHAPTER VI. SOCIAL SECURITY
Article 142
Every person is entitled to the security of his economic means of subsistence in the event of work disability or inability to obtain remunerated employment.
Social Security services shall be furnished and administered by the Honduran Social Security Institute and shall cover cases of sickness, maternity, family allowance, old-age, orphanhood, forced lockouts, work injury, involuntary unemployment; occupational disease, and all other contingencies affecting the capacity to produce.
The State shall establish social welfare institutions that shall function unified in a single state system with the contribution of all interested parties and the state.
Article 143
The State, employers and workers are required to contribute to the financing, improvement and expansion of social security. The social security system shall be established in a gradual and progressive way, both as to the type of risks covered as well as the geographic zones and the categories of protected workers.
Article 144
It shall be considered in the public interest to expand the social security system to urban and rural workers.
CHAPTER VII. HEALTH
Article 145
The right to the protection of one’s health is hereby recognized. It is everyone’s duty to participate in the promotion and preservation of individual and community health. The State shall maintain a satisfactory environment for the protection of everyone’s health. Consequently, access to water and sanitation are declared to be a human right. Their enjoyment and use shall be equitable with preference to human consumption. Therefore, the preservation of sources of water is guaranteed such that they shall not put life and public health at risk.
The activities of the State and of public and private entities shall be subject to this provision. The law shall regulate this subject.
Article 146
It is the duty of the State to regulate, supervise and control all food products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biological products through its duly constituted agencies and institutions in accordance with law.
Article 147
The law shall regulate the production, traffic, possession, donation, use and marketing of psychotropic drugs that may be destined only for health services and scientific experimentation under the supervision of a competent authority.
Article 148
The Honduran Institute for the Prevention of Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, and Drug Dependency is hereby created. It shall be governed by a special law.
Article 149
The Executive branch, through the Ministry of Health, shall coordinate all public activities of the centralized and decentralized institutions of that field, by means of a national health plan, which shall assign priority to the neediest groups.
It is the responsibility of the State to supervise private health activities according to law.
Article 150
The Executive branch shall promote integrated programs for the improvement of the nutritional level of all Hondurans.
CHAPTER VIII. EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Article 151
Education is an essential function of the State for the preservation, development, and dissemination of culture, which must extend its benefits to society without discrimination of any kind.
National education shall be secular and shall be based on fundamental principles of democracy. It shall instill and promote in all students a deep feeling of Honduran patriotism and shall be directly connected with the economic and social development process of the country.
Article 152
Parents have a preferential right to choose the type of education they wish to give their children.
Article 153
The State has the obligation to develop the basic education of the people, creating for that purpose the necessary administrative and technical institutions which shall be directly dependent on the Secretary of the Cabinet in the Department of Education.
Article 154
The elimination of illiteracy is a primary task of the State. It is the duty of all Hondurans to cooperate in order to achieve this objective.
Article 155
The State recognizes and protects freedom of investigation, of learning and of teaching.
Article 156
The levels of formal education shall be determined by the corresponding laws, except for higher education which is the exclusive competence of the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
Article 157
Education at all levels of the formal educational system, except at the higher levels, shall be authorized, organized, directed and supervised exclusively by the Executive branch through the Secretariat of Education, which shall administer all the establishments of the system that are entirely financed by public funds.
Article 158
No educational establishment may provide education of a quality below the level established by law.
Article 159
The Secretariat of Education and the National Autonomous University of Honduras, without impairing their respective competence, shall adopt the necessary measures so that the general curricula of national education are integrated in a coherent system, in order that all students satisfactorily meet the requirements of higher education.
Article 160
The National Autonomous University of Honduras is an autonomous institution of the State, with juridical personality. It enjoys the exclusive privilege of organizing, directing, and developing higher and professional education. It shall contribute to scientific, humanistic and technological research, to the general dissemination of culture, and to the study of national problems. It shall program its participation in the transformation of Honduran society.
The law and the bylaws of the University shall determine its organization, functioning, and responsibilities.
For the creation and functioning of private universities, a special law shall be enacted in accordance with the principles established by this Constitution.
The only academic degrees having official validity shall be those granted by the National Autonomous University of Honduras, as well as those granted by private and foreign universities that are recognized by the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
The National Autonomous University of Honduras is the only institution authorized to determine the incorporation of professionals who are graduates of foreign universities.
Only persons who hold a valid degree may engage in professional activities.
Non-university degrees granted by the Executive branch shall have legal validity.
Article 161
The State shall contribute to the maintenance, development and enlargement of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, with a required annual appropriation of not less than six percent of the budget of net revenues of the Republic, the amounts of loans and donations excluded.
The National Autonomous University is exempt from any form of taxes or contributions.
Article 162
Due to its informational and educational nature, teaching has a social and human function that determines for the educator scientific and moral responsibilities toward his students, the institution in which he works, and toward society.
Article 163
The training of teachers is an exclusive function and responsibility of the State. A teacher is anyone who administers, organizes, directs, imparts or supervises educational work and whose profession is that of teaching.
Article 164
Elementary school teachers shall be exempt from all taxes on their salaries and on the amounts they later receive as pensions during retirement.
Article 165
The law guarantees to teacher professionals work stability, a standard of living in accordance with their high mission, and an appropriate pension.
A corresponding Honduran Teachers Statute shall be enacted.
Article 166
All natural and juridical persons have the right to establish educational centers with due compliance with this Constitution and other laws.
Working relations between teachers and owners of such private institutions shall be governed by the educational laws, without prejudice to the benefits that may originate in the labor legislation.
Article 167
Owners of farms, factories and other production centers located in rural areas are obligated to establish and maintain schools of basic education for the benefit of the children of their permanent workers, as long as the number of children of school age exceeds thirty, and in border areas when it exceeds twenty.
Article 168
The teaching of the Constitution of the Republic and the history and geography of Honduras is compulsory and shall be entrusted to Honduran teachers.
Article 169
The State shall support and promote the education of handicapped persons.
Article 170
The State shall promote the development of extracurricular education by means of libraries, cultural centers and all forms of dissemination.
Article 171
Public education shall be free and compulsory for one year at the pre-basic level and entirely at the basic and intermediate levels, completely funded by the State, which shall establish the mechanisms of compulsion to make this provision effective.
Article 172
All the anthropological, archeological, historical and artistic wealth of Honduras forms part of the cultural patrimony of the nation;
The law shall establish the norms that will serve as basis for its preservation, restoration, maintenance and restitution, as the case may be.
It is the duty of all Hondurans to safeguard its conservation and prevent its unlawful removal.
All sites of natural beauty, monuments and reserved zones shall be under the protection of the State.
Article 173
The State shall preserve and promote the native cultures as well as authentic expressions of national folklore, popular art and handicrafts.
Article 174
The State shall promote an enthusiasm for and the practice of physical culture and sports.
Article 175
The State shall promote and support the dissemination of works of national and foreign authors that contribute to national development because they are legitimate, philosophical, scientific or literary creations.
Article 176
The mass media of social communication of the state shall be at the service of education and culture. Private media of communication must collaborate in the achievement of that purpose.
Article 177
Compulsory membership in professional associations is established. Its organization and functioning shall be regulated by law.
CHAPTER IX. HOUSING
Article 178
It is recognized that all Hondurans have the right to decent housing. The State shall design and implement housing programs of social interest.
The law shall regulate the leasing of housing and premises, the use of urban soil and construction, in accordance with the public interest.
Article 179
The state shall promote, support and regulate the creation of systems and mechanisms for the utilization of internal and external resources to be used for solving the housing problem.
Article 180
All internal or external credits and loans obtained by the State for housing purposes shall be regulated by law for the benefit of the ultimate user of the credit.
Article 181
The Social Fund for Housing is hereby created. Its purpose shall be to develop housing in urban and rural areas. A special law shall regulate its organization and functioning.
