Constitution

Madagascar 2010 Constitution

Table of Contents

TITLE II. OF THE FREEDOMS, THE RIGHTS AND THE DUTIES OF THE CITIZENS

SUB-TITLE I. OF THE CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Article 7

The individual rights and the fundamental freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution and their exercise is organized by the law.

Article 8

The right of all persons to life is protected by the Law. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of life. Death is not considered as inflicted in violation of this Article in the cases where it would result from recourse to the force rendered absolutely necessary, in view of assuring the defense of all persons against illegal violence.

No one may be submitted to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading penalties or treatments.

In particular, it is prohibited to submit a person without their free consent to a medical or scientific experiment.

Article 9

All persons have the right to liberty and may not be subject to arrest or arbitrary detention.

No one may be prosecuted, arrested or detained except in cases determined by the law and accordingly to the forms prescribed by it.

Any individual made a victim of illegal arrest or detention has the right to reparation.

Article 10

The freedoms of opinion and of expression, of communication, of the press, of association, of assembly, of circulation, of conscience and of religion are guaranteed to all and may only be limited by the respect for the freedoms and rights of others, and by the imperative of safeguarding the public order, the national dignity and the security of the State.

Article 11

Any individual has the right to information.

Information under all its forms is not submitted to any prior constraint, except that which infringes the public order and the morality.

The freedom of information, whatever the medium, is a right. The exercise of this right includes duties and responsibilities, and is submitted to certain formalities, conditions, or sanctions specified by the law, which are the measures necessary in a democratic society.

All forms of censorship are prohibited.

The law organizes the exercise of the profession of journalist.

Article 12

Any resident Malagasy has the right to leave the national territory and to return to it within the conditions established by the law.

All individuals have the right to circulate and to establish themselves freely on all the territory of the Republic within respect for the rights of others and the prescriptions of the law.

Article 13

Any individual is assured of the inviolability of their person, their domicile and of the secrecy of their correspondence.

No search may take place except by virtue of the law and on written order of the competent judicial authority, except in the case of flagrante delicto.

No one may be punished except by virtue of a law promulgated and published prior to the commission of the punishable act.

No one may be punished twice for the same act.

The law assures to all the right that justice will be rendered, and that insufficiency of resources will not be an obstacle.

The State guarantees the plenitude and the inviolability of the rights to defense before all the jurisdictions and at all the stages of the procedure, including that of the preliminary investigation, and at the level of the judicial police or of prosecution.

All moral pressure and/or all physical brutality to apprehend a person or to keep them in detention is prohibited.

All defendants or accused have the right to the presumption of innocence until their guilt has been established by a decision of justice becoming definitive.

Preventive detention is an exception.

Article 14

Any person has the right to freely constitute associations, under reserve of conforming themselves to the law.

This same right is recognized for the creation of political parties. The conditions of their creation are determined by a law on political parties and their financing.

The associations and the political parties that jeopardize the unity of the Nation and the republican principles, and that advocate totalitarianism or segregation of ethnic, tribal or religious character, are prohibited.

The parties and political organizations participate in the expression of the suffrage.

The Constitution guarantees the right of democratic opposition.

After each legislative election, the political groups of the opposition appoint a head of the opposition. In default of agreement, the head of the political group of the opposition having obtained the greatest number of the suffrage expressed at the moment of the vote is considered as the official head of the opposition.

The status of the opposition and of the parties of the opposition, recognized by this Constitution and giving them notably an institutional framework to express themselves, is determined by the law.

Article 15

Any citizen has the right to be a candidate to the elections specified by this Constitution, under reserve of the conditions established by the law.

Article 16

In the exercise of the rights and freedoms recognized by this Constitution, all individuals are held to the duty of respect for the Constitution, the institutions, the laws and the regulations of the Republic.

SUB-TITLE II. OF THE ECONOMICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Article 17

The State protects and guarantees the exercise of the rights that assure the individual the integrity and the dignity of their person, and their full physical, intellectual and moral development.

Article 18

The National Legal Service is a duty of honor. Its accomplishment does not infringe the position of work of the citizen or the exercise of the political rights of the citizen.

Article 19

The State recognizes and organizes for all individuals the right to the protection of health from their conception through the organization of free public health care, which gratuitousness results from the capacity of the national solidarity.

Article 20

The family, natural and fundamental element of the society, is protected by the State. All individuals have the right to found a family and to transmit by inheritance their personal assets.

Article 21

The State assures the protection of the family for its free development as well as that of the mother and the child through a legislation and the appropriate social institutions.

Article 22

The State engages itself to take the necessary measures in view to assure the intellectual development of every individual, without other limitation than the aptitudes of each one.

Article 23

Every child has the right to instruction and to education under the responsibility of the parents within respect for their freedom of choice.

The State engages itself to develop professional training.

Article 24

The State organizes a public education, gratuitous and accessible to all. Primary education is obligatory for all.

Article 25

The State recognizes the right to private education and guarantees this freedom of education under reserve of the equivalence of the conditions of education in the matters of hygiene, of morality and of the level of training established by the law.

These establishments of private education are submitted to a fiscal regime within the conditions established by the law.

Article 26

All individuals have the right to participate in the cultural life of the community, in scientific progress and in the well-being resulting from them.

The State, assures, with the participation of the Decentralized Territorial Collectivities, the promotion and the protection of the national cultural patrimony as well as of scientific, literary and artistic production.

The State, with the participation of the Decentralized Territorial Collectivities, guarantees the right of intellectual property.

Article 27

Work and professional training are, for all citizens, a right and a duty.

Access to the public functions is open to all citizens without other conditions that those of capacity and aptitude.

Nevertheless, the recruitment in the public function may be accompanied by contingencies per circumscription for a time period for which the duration and the modalities will be determined by the law.

Article 28

No one may be prejudiced in their work or in their employment for reason of gender, of age, of religion, of opinions, of origins, of belonging to a trade-union or of political convictions.

Article 29

Every citizen has the right to a fair remuneration for their work assuring them, as well as their family, an existence in conformity with human dignity.

Article 30

The State makes an effort to overcome the needs of every citizen who, for reason of their age or their physical or mental incompetence, find themselves in an incapacity to work, notably through the intervention of institutions or organs with a social character.

Article 31

The State recognizes the right of every worker to defend their interests through syndical action and in particular through the freedom to form a trade-union. The affiliation to a trade-union is free.

Article 32

Every worker has the right to participate, notably by the intermediary of their delegates, to the determination of the rules and of the conditions of work.

Article 33

The right to strike is recognized, without it being possible to infringe the continuity of the public service or the fundamental interests of the Nation.

The other conditions for exercising this right are established by the law.

Article 34

The State guarantees the right to individual property. No one may be deprived of it except by way of expropriation for cause of public utility and subject to a fair and prior indemnification.

The State assures the facility of access to land property through the appropriate juridical and institutional provisions and a transparent administration of the information concerning land.

Article 35

The State facilitates the access of the citizens to housing through appropriate financing mechanisms.

Article 36

The participation of each citizen in the public expenditures must be progressive and calculated as a function of their contributive capacity.

Article 37

The State guarantees the freedom of enterprise within the limit of the respect for the general interest, the public order, morality and the environment.

Article 38

The State guarantees the security of capital and of investments.

Article 39

The State guarantees the political neutrality of the Administration, of the Armed Forces, of Justice, of the Police, of Teaching and of Education.

It organizes the Administration to the end of avoiding any act of waste and of diversion of the public funds to personal or political ends.