Plurinational State of Bolivia 2009 Constitution - Page 3 of 21

Table of Contents

TITLE II. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND GUARANTEES

CHAPTER I. General Matters

Article 13

The rights recognized in this Constitution are inviolable, universal, inter-dependent, indivisible and progressive. The State has the duty to promote, protect and respect them.
The rights declared in this Constitution shall not be understood to deny other rights that are not enumerated.
The classification of the rights established in this Constitution does not determine any hierarchy or superiority of some rights over others.
International treaties and conventions ratified by the Pluri-National Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa), which recognize human rights and prohibit their limitation in States of Emergency, prevail over internal law. The rights and duties consecrated in this Constitution shall be interpreted in accordance with the International Human Rights Treaties ratified by Bolivia.

Article 14

Every human being, without distinction, has legal status and capacity under the law and enjoys the rights recognized in this Constitution.
The State prohibits and punishes all forms of discrimination based on sex, color, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin, culture, nationality, citizenship, language, religious belief, ideology, political affiliation or philosophy, civil status, economic or social condition, type of occupation, level of education, disability, pregnancy, and any other discrimination that attempts to or results in the annulment of or harm to the equal recognition, enjoyment or exercise of the rights of all people.
The State guarantees everyone and all collectives, without discrimination, the free and effective exercise of the rights established in this Constitution, the laws and international human rights treaties.
In the exercise of rights, no one shall be obligated to do anything that is not mandated by the Constitution or laws, nor be deprived of that which they do not prohibit.
Bolivian laws are applied to every person, natural and legal, Bolivian and foreign, within Bolivian territory.
Foreigners who are in Bolivian territory have the rights, and must fulfill the duties, established in the Constitution, except for the restrictions that it may contain.

CHAPTER II. Fundamental Rights

Article 15

Every person has the right to life and physical, psychological and sexual integrity. No one shall be tortured, nor suffer cruel, inhuman, degrading or humiliating treatment. The death penalty does not exist.
Everyone, in particular women, have the right not to suffer physical, sexual or psychological violence, in the family as well as in the society.
The State shall adopt the necessary measures to prevent, eliminate and punish sexual and generational violence, as well as any action or omission intended to be degrading to the human condition, to cause death, pain, and physical, sexual or psychological suffering, whether in public or private spheres.
No person shall be submitted to a forced disappearance for any reason or under any circumstance.
No person shall be submitted to servitude or slavery. The trade and trafficking of persons is prohibited.

Article 16

Every person has the right to water and food.
The State has the obligation to guarantee food security, by means of healthy, adequate and sufficient food for the entire population.

Article 17

Every person has the right to receive an education at all levels, which is universal, productive, free, comprehensive and inter-cultural, and without discrimination.

Article 18

Every person has the right to health.
The State guarantees the inclusion and access to health for all persons, without any exclusion or discrimination.
There shall be a single health system, which shall be universal, free, equitable, intra-cultural, intercultural, and participatory, with quality, kindness and social control. The system is based on the principles of solidarity, efficiency and co-responsibility, and it is developed by public policies at all levels of the government.

Article 19

Every person has the right to an adequate habitat and home that dignifies family and community life.
The State, at all levels of the government, is responsible for promoting the development of housing for social benefit, using adequate financing systems, based on principles of solidarity and equity. These plans shall be directed preferentially to families with scarce resources, to disadvantaged groups and to rural areas.

Article 20

Every person has the right to universal and equitable access to basic services of potable water, sewer systems, electricity, gas services in their domicile, postal, and telecommunications services.
It is the responsibility of the State, at all levels of government, to provide basic services through public, mixed, cooperative or community entities. In the case of electricity, gas and telecommunications services, these may be provided by contracts with private companies. The provision of services should respond to the criteria of universality, responsibility, accessibility, continuity, quality, efficiency, equitable fees and necessary coverage; with social participation and control.
Access to water and sewer systems are human rights, neither are the object of concession or privatization, and are subject to a regimen of licensing and registration, in accordance with the law.

CHAPTER III. Civil and Political Rights

Section I. Civil Rights

Article 21

Bolivians have the following rights:

To cultural self-identification.
To privacy, intimacy, honor, their self image and dignity.
To freedom of belief, spirituality, religion and cult, expressed individually or collectively, in public and in private, for legal purposes.
To freedom of assembly and association, publicly and privately, for legal purposes.
To freely express and disseminate thoughts and opinions by any means of oral, written or visual communication, individually or collectively.
To have access to information and to interpret, analyze and communicate it freely, individually or collectively.
To freedom of residence, permanence and circulation throughout the territory of Bolivia, which includes the right to leave and enter the country.

Article 22

The dignity and freedom of persons is inviolable. It is the primary responsibility of the State to respect and protect them.

Article 23

Every person has the right to freedom and personal security. Personal liberty may only be restricted within the limits set forth by law to assure the discovery of the true facts concerning acts in jurisdictional processes.
The imposition of measures depriving the liberty of adolescents shall be avoided. Every adolescent who is deprived of liberty shall receive preferential treatment on the part of the judicial, administrative and police authorities. They shall assure at all times respect for the dignity of the adolescent and their anonymity. The detention shall be carried out in premises distinct from those assigned to adults, taking into account the needs of his or her age.
No one shall be detained, apprehended or deprived of liberty, except in the cases and according to the forms established by the law. The execution of a warrant shall require that it be issued by a competent authority in writing.
Any person found in flagrant commission of a crime may be arrested by any other person, even without a warrant. The sole purpose of the arrest shall be to bring the person before a competent judicial authority, who must resolve their legal status within a maximum period of twenty-four hours.
At the time that a person is deprived of liberty, he shall be informed of the reasons for his detention, as well as the charges or complaint formulated against him.
Those responsible for the detention centers must keep a registry of the persons deprived of liberty. They shall not receive any person without copying the corresponding warrant in the registry. Failure to fulfill this duty shall give rise to the procedures and sanctions set forth in the law.

Article 24

Every person has the right to petition, individually and collectively, whether orally or in writing, and to receive a formal and prompt response. To exercise this right, the only requirement is to identify the petitioner.

Article 25

Every person has the right to the inviolability of his home and to the confidentiality of private communications of all forms, except as authorized by a court.
Correspondence, private papers and private statements contained in any medium are inviolable and may not be seized except in cases determined by law for criminal investigation, based on a written order issued by a competent judicial authority.
No public authority, person or organization may intercept private conversations or communications by an installation that monitors or centralized them.
The information and proof obtained by violation of correspondence and communications, in whatever form, has no legal effect.

Section II. Political Rights

Article 26

All citizens have the right to participate freely in the formation, exercise and control of political power, directly or through their representatives, individually or collectively. Participation shall be equitable and under equal conditions for men and women.
The right to participate includes:
1. Organization for purposes of political participation, in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
2. The right to suffrage, by equal, universal, direct, individual, secret, free and obligatory vote, which is publicly counted.
3. Where communitarian democracy is practiced, the electoral processes shall be exercised according to their own norms and procedures, and shall supervised by the Electoral Organ (Organo Electoral) only if the electoral act is not subject to equal, universal, direct, secret, free and obligatory vote.
4. The direct election, designation and nomination of the representatives of the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples, in accordance with their own norms and procedures.
5. The monitoring of the acts of public function.

Article 27

Bolivians who reside outside the country have the right to participate in the election of the President and Vice President of the State, and in other elections as established by law. The right to vote is exercised by registration and recording carried out by the Electoral Organ (Organo Electoral).
Foreigners resident in Bolivia have the right to vote in municipal elections, in accordance with the law, pursuant to the application of principles of international reciprocity.

Article 28

The exercise of political rights is suspended in the following instances after a sentence has been executed and while the sentence has not been completed:

For having taken up arms and serving in the armed forces of the enemy in times of war.
For embezzlement of public funds.
For acts of treason against the country.

Article 29

The right of foreigners to request and receive asylum or political refuge for ideological or political persecution is recognized in accordance with the laws and international treaties.
Anyone who has been granted asylum or refuge in Bolivia shall not be expelled or deported to a country where his life, bodily integrity, security or liberty is endangered. The State shall attend in a positive, humanitarian and efficient manner to requests for family reunification presented by parents or children who are given asylum or refuge.

CHAPTER IV. Rights of the Nations and Rural Native Indigenous Peoples

Article 30

A nation and rural native indigenous people consists of every human collective that shares a cultural identity, language, historic tradition, institutions, territory and world view, whose existence predates the Spanish colonial invasion.
In the framework of the unity of the State, and in accordance with this Constitution, the nations and rural native indigenous peoples enjoy the following rights:
1. To be free.
2. To their cultural identity, religious belief, spiritualities, practices and customs, and their own world view.
3. That the cultural identity of each member, if he or she so desires, be inscribed together with Bolivian citizenship in his identity card, passport and other identification documents that have legal validity.
4. To self-determination and territoriality.
5. That its institutions be part of the general structure of the State.
6. To the collective ownership of land and territories.
7. To the protection of their sacred places.
8. To create and administer their own systems, means and networks of communication.
9. That their traditional teachings and knowledge, their traditional medicine, languages, rituals, symbols and dress be valued, respected and promoted.
10. To live in a healthy environment, with appropriate management and exploitation of the ecosystems.
11. To collective ownership of the intellectual property in their knowledge, sciences and learning, as well as to its evaluation, use, promotion and development.
12. To an inter-cultural, intra-cultural and multi-language education in all educational systems.
13. To universal and free health care that respects their world view and traditional practices.
14. To the practice of their political, juridical and economic systems in accord with their world view.
15. To be consulted by appropriate procedures, in particular through their institutions, each time legislative or administrative measures may be foreseen to affect them. In this framework, the right to prior obligatory consultation by the State with respect to the exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources in the territory they inhabit shall be respected and guaranteed, in good faith and upon agreement.
16. To participate in the benefits of the exploitation of natural resources in their territory.
17. To autonomous indigenous territorial management, and to the exclusive use and exploitation of renewable natural resources existing in their territory without prejudice to the legitimate rights acquired by third parties.
18. To participate in the organs and institutions of the State.
The State guarantees, respects and protects the rights of the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples consecrated in this Constitution and the law.

Article 31

The nations and the rural native indigenous peoples that are in danger of extinction, in voluntary isolation and not in contact, shall be protected and respected with respect to their forms of individual and collective life.
The nations and the rural native indigenous peoples that live in isolation and out of contact enjoy the right to maintain themselves in that condition, and to the legal definition and consolidation of the territory which they occupy and inhabit.

Article 32

The Afro-Bolivian people enjoy, in everything corresponding, the economic, social, political and cultural rights that are recognized in the Constitution for the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples.

CHAPTER V. Social and Economic Rights

Section I. Environmental Rights

Article 33

Everyone has the right to a healthy, protected, and balanced environment. The exercise of this right must be granted to individuals and collectives of present and future generations, as well as to other living things, so they may develop in a normal and permanent way.

Article 34

Any person, in his own right or on behalf of a collective, is authorized to take legal action in defense of environmental rights, without prejudice to the obligation of public institutions to act on their own in the face of attacks on the environment.

Section II. Right to Health and Social Security

Article 35

The State, at all levels, shall protect the right to health and promote public policies designed to improve the quality of life, the collective well being, and free access of the population to health services.
The health system is unitary and includes traditional medicine of the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples.

Article 36

The State shall guarantee access to universal health care.
The State shall control the practice of public and private health services and shall regulate them by law.

Article 37

The State has the irrevocable obligation to guarantee and sustain the right to health care, which is a supreme function and primary financial responsibility. The promotion of health and the prevention of diseases shall be prioritized.

Article 38

Public health goods and services are State property and may not be privatized or licensed to others.
Health services shall be provided in uninterrupted form.

Article 39

The State shall guarantee public health services, and it recognizes private health services; it shall regulate and oversee the quality through sustained medical audits that evaluate the work of personnel, the infrastructure and equipment, in accordance with the law.
The law punishes negligent actions and omissions committed in the practice of medicine.

Article 40

The State shall guarantee the organized participation of the population in decision-making and in the management of the entire public health system.

Article 41

The State shall guarantee the access of the population to medicines.
The State shall prioritize generic medicines through the promotion of their domestic production and, if need be, shall decide to import them.
The right to access medicine shall not be restricted by intellectual property rights and commercial rights, and it contemplates quality standards and first generation medicines.

Article 42

It is the responsibility of the State to promote and guarantee the respect for, and the use, research and practice of traditional medicine, rescuing ancestral knowledge and practices created from the thinking and values of all the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples.
The promotion of traditional medicine shall include the registry of natural medicines and of their curative properties, as well as the protection of their knowledge as intellectual, historic, cultural property and as patrimony of the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples.
The law shall regulate the practice of traditional medicine and shall guarantee the quality of service.

Article 43

The law shall regulate the donations and transplants of cells, tissue or organs, based on principles of humanity, solidarity, opportunity, providing them free of charge, and efficiency.

Article 44

No one shall be submitted to surgical intervention, medical examination or laboratory test without his or her consent or that of legally authorized third persons, except when his or her life is in imminent danger.
No one shall be submitted to scientific experiments without his or her consent.

Article 45

Every Bolivian has the right to social security.
Social security is provided under the principles of universality, comprehensiveness, equity, solidarity, unity of management, economy, opportunity, its inter-cultural character, and effectiveness.
The social security system covers assistance for the following reasons: sickness, epidemics and catastrophic diseases; maternity or paternity; professional and work risks, and risks in farm labor; disability and special necessities; unemployment and loss of employment; being an orphan, crippled, widowed, of old age, and death; housing, family allowances and other social reasons.
The State guarantees the right to retirement, which is universal, supportive and equitable.
Women have the right to a safe maternity, with an inter-cultural practice and vision; they shall enjoy the special assistance and protection of the State during pregnancy and birth and in the prenatal and postnatal periods.
The public social security services shall not be privatized nor licensed to others.

Section III. Right to Work and Employment

Article 46

Every person has the following rights:
1. To dignified work, with industrial and occupational health and safety, without discrimination, and with a fair, equitable and satisfactory remuneration or salary that assures a dignified existence for the worker and his or her family.
2. To a stable source of work under equitable and satisfactory conditions.
The State shall protect the exercise of work in all its forms.
All forms of forced work or other analogous exploitation that obligates a person to work without his or her consent and without fair remuneration is prohibited.

Article 47

Every person has the right to dedicate him or herself to business, industry or any other legal economic activity under conditions which do not harm the collective well being.
The workers in small urban or rural productive units, or who are self-employed, and guild members in general, shall enjoy special protection on the part of the State through a policy of equitable commercial exchange and fair prices for their products, as well as a preferential allowance of financial economic resources to promote their production.
The State shall protect, promote and strengthen communitarian forms of production.

Article 48

The social and labor dispositions are of obligatory fulfillment.
The labor norms shall be interpreted and applied based on the following principles: the protection of workers as the primary productive force of society; the primacy of the labor relation; work continuity and stability; non discrimination and the making of investments in favor of the worker.
The recognized rights and benefits in favor of workers cannot be waived, and agreements that are contrary to, or that tend to deride their effects, are null and void.
The salaries or earned pay, labor rights, social benefits and contributions to social security, which are not paid, have a privilege and priority over any other debt and may not be attached or made unenforceable.
The State shall promote the incorporation of women into the workforce and shall guarantee them the same remuneration as men for work of equal value, both in the public and private arena.
Women shall not be discriminated against or fired because of their civil status, because of pregnancy, because of their age or physical features, or because of the number of children they have. It is guaranteed that pregnant women and parents cannot be dismissed from employment until the child completes one year of age.
The State guarantees the incorporation of youth into the productive system, in accordance with their capacity and training.

Article 49

The right of collective bargaining is recognized.
The following shall be regulated by law: labor relations related to contracts and collective agreements; general sector minimum wages and salary increases; reincorporation; paid vacations and holidays; calculation of seniority, the work day, extra hours, night time overtime, Sunday work; Christmas bonuses, vouchers, bonuses and other systems of participation in the profits of the enterprise; indemnification and severance pay; maternity leave; professional training and formation; and other social rights.
The State shall protect the stability of employment. Unjustified dismissal and all forms of labor harassment are prohibited. The law shall determine the corresponding sanctions.

Article 50

The State, through the courts and specialized administrative bodies, shall resolve all conflicts arising from labor relations between employer and employee, including those of industrial safety and social security.

Article 51

All workers have the right to organize unions pursuant to the law.
The State shall respect the union principles of unity, union democracy, political pluralism, self financing, solidarity and internationalism.
Unionization is recognized as a form of defense, representation, support, education and culture of workers in the countryside and in the city.
The State shall respect the ideological and organizational independence of the unions. The unions shall have legal personality derived from the sole fact of being organized, and they shall be recognized by their parent entities.
The tangible and intangible property of union organizations is inviolable; it may not be attached or delegated.
The union leaders enjoy union privileges; they may not be fired for one year after the end of their office term, and their social rights may not be diminished; nor may they be subjected to persecution or deprivation of liberty for acts undertaken in fulfillment of their union work.
Workers who are self employed have the right to organize to defend their interests.

Article 52

The right of free business association is recognized and guaranteed.
The State shall guarantee recognition of the legal personality of business associations, as well as democratic forms of business organizations, according to their own statutes.
The State recognizes the training institutions of business organizations.
The tangible and intangible property of business organizations is inviolable and may not be attached.

Article 53

The right to strike is guaranteed as the exercise of the legal power of workers to suspend work to defend their rights, in accordance with the law.

Article 54

It is the obligation of the State to establish employment policies that avoid unemployment and underemployment and that have as their objective the creation, maintenance and generation of conditions that guarantee workers the possibility of dignified work and fair remuneration.
It is the duty of the State and society to protect and defend industrial equipment and that of state services.
The workers, in defense of their source of work and to safeguard the social interest, shall, in accordance with the law, reactivate and reorganize enterprises that are in the process of bankruptcy, insolvency or liquidation, or closed or abandoned unjustifiably, and they shall form communitarian or social enterprises. The State shall support the actions of the workers.

Article 55

The cooperative system is based on principles of solidarity, equality, reciprocity, equity of distribution, social purpose, and the non profit motive of its members. The State shall promote and regulate the organization of cooperatives by means of the law.

Section IV. Right to Property

Article 56

Everyone has the right to private, individual or collective property, provided that it serves a social function.
Private property is guaranteed provided that the use made of it is not harmful to the collective interests.
The right to inheritance is guaranteed.

Article 57

Expropriation shall be imposed for reasons of necessity or public utility, defined in accordance with the law and upon prior fair indemnification. Urban real estate is not subject to reversion.

Section V. Rights of Children, Adolescents and Youth

Article 58

Every person of minor age is considered a child or adolescent. Children and adolescents have rights recognized in the Constitution, with the limits established by it, and they have the specific rights inherent to their development; to their ethnic, socio-cultural, gender and generational identity; and to the satisfaction of their needs, interests and aspirations.

Article 59

Every child and adolescent has the right to physical development.
Every child and adolescent has the right to live and to grow up in the bosom of his or her natural or adoptive family. When that is not possible, or is contrary to his or her best interests, he or she shall have the right to a substitute family in accordance with the law.
Every child and adolescent, without regard to origin, has equal rights and duties with respect to his or her parents. Discrimination among offspring on the part of parents shall be punished by law.
Every child and adolescent has the right to identity and filial relationship with respect to his or her parents. When the parents are not known, the conventional surname chosen by the person responsible for his or her care will be used.
The State and society guarantee the protection, promotion and active participation of youth in productive, political, social, economic and cultural development, without any discrimination whatsoever, in accordance with the law.

Article 60

It is the duty of the State, society and the family to guarantee the priority of the best interests of the child or adolescent, which includes the preeminence of his or her rights, the priority of receiving protection and aid in any circumstance, priority in the attention of public and private services, and access to prompt and appropriate administration of justice, and the assistance of specialized personnel.

Article 61

Any form of violent punishment against children or adolescents is prohibited, both in the family as well as in society.
Forced work and child labor is prohibited. The activities of children and adolescents within their families and society shall be directed to their full development as citizens, and they shall have a formative function. Their rights, guarantees, and the institutional mechanisms for their protection shall be the object of special regulation.

Section VI. Rights of the Family

Article 62

The State recognizes and protects the family as the fundamental nucleus of society, and guarantees the social and economic conditions necessary for its full development. Every member has equal rights, obligations and opportunities.

Article 63

The marriage between a man and a woman is formed by legal bond and is based on equality of the rights and duties of the spouses.
The free unions or de facto unions, which meet the conditions of stability and singularity and that are maintained between a man and a women without legal impediment, shall have the same effects as a civil marriage, both in the personal and property relations of the couple as well as with respect to adopted children or to children born to the couple.

Article 64

Spouses or cohabitants have the duty, in equal conditions and by common effort, to attend to the maintenance and responsibility of the home, and to the education and development of the children while they are minors or have some disability.
The State shall protect and assist those who are responsible for the family in the exercise of their obligations.

Article 65

Because of the best interests of children and adolescents and their right to the identity, presumed parentage shall be validated by indication of the mother or father. This presumption shall be valid in the absence of proof of the contrary, with the burden of proof on the person who denies parentage. In case that the proof negates the presumption, the costs incurred shall correspond to the one who indicated parentage.

Article 66

Women and men are guaranteed the exercise of sexual rights and their reproductive rights.

Section VII. Rights of the Elderly Adults

Article 67

In addition to the rights recognized in this Constitution, every person of adult age has the right to a dignified old age that has quality and human warmth.
The State shall provide an old age pension within the framework of full social security, in accordance with the law.

Article 68

The State shall adopt public policies for the protection, attention, recreation, rest and social occupation of elderly adults, in accordance with their capacities and possibilities.
All forms of mistreatment, abandonment, violence and discrimination against elderly persons is prohibited and punished.

Article 69

The war veterans deserve the gratitude and respect of the public and private institutions and of the population in general; they shall be considered heroes and defenders of Bolivia and shall receive a life pension from the State as established by the law.

Section VIII. Rights of Disabled Persons

Article 70

Everyone who has a disability enjoys the following rights:

To be protected by his or her family and by the State.
To a free education and physical health.
To an alternative language of communication.
To work in appropriate conditions, consistent with his or her possibilities and capacities, with fair remuneration that assures a dignified life.
To the development of his or her individual potential.

Article 71

Any kind of discrimination, mistreatment, violence and exploitation of anyone who is disabled shall be prohibited and punished.
The State shall adopt measures of affirmative action to promote the effective integration of disabled persons into the productive, economic, political, social, and cultural sphere, without any discrimination whatsoever.
The State shall create the conditions that permit the development of individual potential of disabled persons.

Article 72

The State shall guarantee disabled persons comprehensive prevention and rehabilitation services, as well as other benefits that are established by law.

Section IX. Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty

Article 73

Every person who is submitted to any form of deprivation of liberty shall be treated with the respect due to human dignity.
Every person deprived of liberty has the right to communicate freely with his or her defense lawyer, interpreter, family and close friends. Deprivation of communication is prohibited. Any limitation of communication may only take place in the context of investigation of the commission of crimes, and shall last a maximum of twenty four hours.

Article 74

It is the responsibility of the State to reinsert into society the persons deprived of liberty, to assure respect for their rights and their retention and custody in an adequate environment, according to the classification, nature and seriousness of the crime, as well as the age and sex of the persons detained.
Persons deprived of liberty shall have the opportunity to work and to study in penitentiary centers.

Section X. Rights of Users of Services and Consumers

Article 75

The users and consumers enjoy the following rights:

To the supply of food, pharmaceuticals, and products in general, in harmless and quality condition, in sufficient and adequate quantity, and with efficient service and timely supply.
To reliable information about the characteristics and contents of the products they consume and of the services they use.

Article 76

The State guarantees access to a comprehensive system of public transportation in diverse modalities. The law shall determine that the system of transportation be efficient and effective, and that it generates benefits to the users and to the providers.
No customs controls, squads or control points of any kind may exist in Bolivian territory, except those that have been created by law.

CHAPTER VI. Education, Cultural Diversity and Cultural Rights

Section I. Education

Article 77

Education is one of the most important functions and primary financial responsibilities of the State, which has the mandatory obligation to sustain, guarantee and coordinate it.
The State and society have complete control of the educational system, which consists of regular education, alternative and special education, and higher education for professional training. The educational system develops its processes on the basis of the criteria of harmony and coordination.
The educational system is composed of public educational institutions, private educational institutions and those which are contracted.

Article 78

Education is unitary, public, universal, democratic, participatory, communitarian, decolonizing and of quality.
Education is intra-cultural, inter-cultural and multi-lingual throughout the entire educational system.
The educational system is based on education that is open, humanistic, scientific, technical and technological, productive, territorial, theoretical and practical, liberating and revolutionary, critical and supportive.
The State guarantees vocational education and humanist technical learning for men and women, which is related to life, work and productive development.

Article 79

Education shall promote civic-mindedness, intercultural dialogue and ethical moral values. The values shall incorporate gender equality, non differentiation of roles, non-violence, and the full enforcement of human rights.

Article 80

Education shall have as its objectives the full development of persons and the strengthening of social conscience that is critical in and for life. Education shall be directed toward the following: individual and collective development; the development of the competencies, attitudes, and physical and intellectual skills that link theory to productive practice; the conservation and protection of the environment, biodiversity and the land to assure well being. Its regulation and fulfillment shall be established by law.
Education shall contribute to strengthening the unity and identity of everyone as part of the Pluri-National State (Estado Plurinacional), as well as strengthening the identity and cultural development of the members of each nation and rural native indigenous people, and the intercultural understanding and enrichment within the State.

Article 81

Education is obligatory up to the secondary school diploma.
Public education is free at all levels including higher education.
Upon completion of studies at the secondary level, a bachelor diploma shall be awarded immediately and without charge.

Article 82

The State shall guarantee access to education and continuing education to all citizens under conditions of full equality.
The State shall give priority support to the students with less economic possibilities so that they can achieve different levels in the educational system, by providing economic resources, meal programs, clothing, transportation, school materials, and student residences in the distant areas, according to the law.
Students of excellent achievement shall be rewarded at all levels of the educational system. Every child and adolescent with natural, outstanding talent has the right to be attended to educationally with the teaching methodology and learning that makes possible the best development of his or her aptitudes and skills.

Article 83

Social participation, community participation, and the participation of the parents in the educational system are recognized and guaranteed by means of representative organizations at all levels of the State and in the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples. Their composition and attributes shall be established by the law.

Article 84

The State and society have the duty to eradicate illiteracy through programs compatible with the cultural and linguistic reality of the population.

Article 85

The State shall promote and guarantee the continuing education of children and adolescents with disabilities, or of those with extraordinary talents in learning, under the same structure, principles and values of the educational system, and shall establish a special organization and development curriculum.

Article 86

Freedom of thought, faith and religious education, as well as the spirituality of the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples, shall be recognized and guaranteed in the educational centers. Mutual respect and coexistence among persons of diverse religions shall be promoted, without dogmatic imposition. There shall be no discrimination on the basis of religious choice with respect to the acceptance and permanence of students in these centers.

Article 87

The operation of contracted educational units for purposes of social service, which offer free access and are non-profit, shall be recognized and respected. They shall operate under the supervision of public authorities, respecting the right of the administration of religious entities over said educational units, without prejudice to that established in national dispositions, and they shall be governed by the same norms, policies, plans and programs of the educational system.

Article 88

Private educational units are recognized and respected at all levels and in all modalities; they shall be governed by the policies, plans, programs and authorities of the educational system. The State guarantees their operation pursuant to prior verification of the conditions and compliance with the requisites established by law.
The right of mothers and fathers to choose the education they prefer for their sons and daughters is respected.

Article 89

The follow up, measurement, evaluation and accreditation of the quality of education in the entire educational system, shall be entrusted to a technically specialized public institution, which is independent of the Ministry of the branch. Its composition and operation shall be determined by the law.

Article 90

The State shall recognize the validity of institutes of humanistic, technical and technological training, at middle and higher levels, upon prior fulfillment of the conditions and requisites established in the law.
The State shall promote technical, technological, productive, artistic and linguistic training through technical institutes.
The State, through the educational system, shall promote the creation and organization of distance educational programs and popular education programs for those who have not attended school, with the objective of elevating the cultural level and developing the Pluri-National consciousness of the people.

Section II. Higher Education

Article 91

Higher education develops processes of professional training for the generation and dissemination of knowledge aimed at the full development of society, for which purpose the universal and collective knowledge of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples shall be taken into account.
Higher education is intra-cultural, intercultural and multi-lingual, and it has as its mission the comprehensive formation of highly qualified and professionally competent human resources for the following objectives: to develop processes for scientific research to solve problems of the productive base and of social conditions; to promote policies of extension and social interaction to strengthen scientific, cultural and linguistic diversity; to participate together with the people in all the processes of social liberation in order to construct a society with greater equity and social justice.
Higher education is composed of the public and private universities, the colleges for teacher training, and the technical, technological and artistic institutes.

Article 92

Public universities are autonomous and equal in hierarchy. The autonomy consists of the free administration of their resources; the naming of their officials, and teaching and administrative personnel; the elaboration and approval of their statues, study plans and annual budgets; the receipt of bequests and donations, as well as the signing of contracts to carry out their purposes and to sustain and improve their institutes and faculties. The public universities may negotiate loans with the guarantee of their assets and resources, upon prior legislative approval.
In exercise of their autonomy, the public universities shall form the Bolivian University, which shall coordinate and program their goals and functions by means of a central body, pursuant to a university development plan.
The public universities shall be authorized to give academic diplomas and professional titles with validity throughout the entire State.

Article 93

The State shall be obligated to sufficiently subsidize the public universities, independently of the departmental, municipal and their own resources, which have been or are to be created.
The public universities, within the framework of their statutes, shall establish mechanisms for social participation that are consultative, coordinating and advisory in character.
The public universities shall establish mechanisms for making reports and provide transparency of the use of their resources through the presentation of financial statements to the Pluri-National Legislative Assembly (Asamblea Legislativa), the Controller General (Contraloria General) and the Executive Organ (Organo Ejecutivo).
The public universities, within the framework of their statutes, shall establish decentralized academic and inter-cultural programs pursuant to the necessities of the State and the nations and rural native indigenous peoples.
The State, in coordination with the public universities, shall promote the creation and operation of universities and multicultural communitarian institutes in rural areas, assuring social participation. The opening and operation of these universities shall address the needs of strengthening production in the region, based on its potential.

Article 94

The private universities shall be governed by the policies, plans, programs and authorities of the educational system. Their operation is authorized by supreme decree, upon prior verification of compliance with the conditions and requisites established by law.
The private universities shall be authorized to issue academic diplomas. Professional titles, which are valid throughout the country, shall be granted by the State.
For the granting of academic diplomas in all modalities of titles in the private universities, examination tribunals shall be formed which shall be composed of titled professors, named by the public universities, under the conditions established by the law. The State shall not subsidize private universities.

Article 95

The universities must create and maintain inter-cultural centers for technical and cultural education and training, which is freely accessible to the public and consistent with the principles and purposes of the educational system.
The universities must implement programs for the recovery, preservation, development, learning and dissemination of the different languages of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples.
The universities shall promote centers for the creation of productive units, in coordination with community, public and private productive initiatives.

Article 96

The formation and training of teachers for public schools, by means upper level training schools, is the responsibility of the State. The training of teachers shall be exclusive, public, free of charge, intra-cultural, inter-cultural, multi-language, scientific and productive, and it shall be based on social commitment and a vocation for service.
School teachers must participate in the process of continual updating and pedagogical training.
The teaching career is secure, and teaching personnel may not be removed, in conformity with the law. Teachers shall receive a dignified salary.

Article 97

Post graduate training at all levels shall have as its fundamental mission the qualification of professionals in different areas, through processes of scientific research and the generation of knowledge linked to reality in order to contribute to the comprehensive development of society. Post-graduate training shall be coordinated by a body formed by the universities of the educational system, in accordance with the law.

Section III. Cultures

Article 98

Cultural diversity constitutes the essential basis of the Pluri-National Communitarian State (Estado Unitario Social de Derecho Plurinacional Comunitario). The inter-cultural character is the means for cohesion and for harmonic and balanced existence among all the peoples and nations. The intercultural character shall exist with respect for differences and in conditions of equality.
The State takes strength from the existence of rural native indigenous cultures, which are custodians of knowledge, wisdom, values, spiritualities and world views.
It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to preserve, develop, protect and disseminate the existing cultures of the country.

Article 99

The cultural patrimony of the Bolivian people is inalienable, and it may not be attached or limited. The economic resources that they generate are regulated by law to give priority to their conservation, preservation and promotion.
The State shall guarantee the registry, protection, restoration, recovery, revitalization, enrichment, promotion and dissemination of its cultural patrimony, in accordance with the law.
The natural, architectural, paleontological, historic, and documentary riches, and those derived from religious cults and folklore, are cultural patrimony of the Bolivian people, in accordance with the law.

Article 100

The world views, myths, oral history, dances, cultural practices, knowledge and traditional technologies are patrimony of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples. This patrimony forms part of the expression and identity of the State.
The State shall protect this wisdom and knowledge through the registration of the intellectual property that safeguards the intangible rights of the nations and rural native indigenous peoples and of the intercultural and Afro-Bolivian communities.

Article 101

The intangible aspects of the manifestations of art and popular industries shall enjoy the special protection of the State. Likewise, the tangible and intangible aspects of places and activities, which are declared cultural patrimony of humanity, shall be protected.

Article 102

The State shall register and protect individual and collective intellectual property in the works and discoveries of authors, artists, composers, inventors and scientists, under the conditions determined by law.

Section IV. Science, Technology and Research

Article 103

The State shall guarantee the development of science and scientific, technical and technological research for the benefit of the general interest. The necessary resources shall be provided, and state science and technology systems shall be created.
The State shall adopt a policy of implementing strategies to incorporate the knowledge and application of new information and communication technologies.
In order to strengthen the productive base and to stimulate full development of society, the State, the universities, the productive and service enterprises, both public and private, and the nations and rural native indigenous peoples, shall develop and coordinate processes of research, innovation, promotion, and dissemination, and the application and transfer of science and technology, in accordance with the law.

Section V. Sports and Recreation

Article 104

Everyone has the right to sports, physical culture and recreation. The State guarantees access to sports without distinction as to gender, language, religion, political orientation, territorial location, social, cultural membership or any other characteristic.

Article 105

The State shall promote, by educational, recreation and public health policies, the development of physical culture and the practice of sports in their preventive, recreational, training and competitive levels, with special attention given to persons with disabilities. The State shall guarantee the methods and necessary economic resources to make them effective.

CHAPTER VII. Social Communication

Article 106

The State guarantees the right to communication and the right to information.
The State guarantees the right of Bolivians to freedom of expression, opinion and information, to rectification and reply, and the right to freely publish ideas by whatever means of dissemination, without prior censorship.
The State guarantees freedom of expression and the right to communication and information to workers of the press.
The conscience clause of the information workers is recognized.

Article 107

The public means of communication must contribute to the promotion of the ethical, moral and civic-minded values of the different cultures of the country with the production and dissemination of multi-lingual educational programs and in an alternative language for the disabled.
Information and opinions issued by the public means of communication must respect the principles of truth and responsibility. These principles shall be put into practice through the rules of ethics and self-regulation of the organizations of journalists and of the means of communication and their law.
The public means of communication shall not form, either directly or indirectly, monopolies or oligopolies.
The State shall support the creation of communitarian means of communication with equal conditions and opportunities.