Sao Tome and Principe 1975 Constitution (reviewed 2003)

PART II. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ORDER

Title I. General Principles

Article 15. Principles of Equality

1. All citizens are equal before the law, enjoy the same rights and are subject to the same obligations without distinction as to social or racial origin, sex, political tendency, religious belief or philosophical conviction.
2. Woman is equal to man in rights and obligations, being guaranteed to her full participation in political, economic, social and cultural life.

Article 16. The Citizen Overseas

1. Every Sao Tomean citizen who resides or finds himself overseas enjoys the same rights and is subject to the same obligations as the other citizens, except for that which would be incompatible with absence from the country.
2. Sao Tomean citizens resident overseas enjoy the care and protection of the State.

Article 17. Foreigners in São Tomé and Príncipe

1. The foreigners and displaced persons who reside or find themselves in São Tomé and Príncipe enjoy the same rights and are subject to the same obligations as the Sao Tomean citizen, except insofar as are concerned political rights, the exercise of public functions and other rights and obligations expressly reserved by law for the national citizen.
2. The exercise of public office only will be permitted to foreigners provided it has a predominantly technical nature, save the presence of an international agreement or convention.
3. Subject to reciprocal terms, the law may grant foreign citizens resident in the national territory active and passive electoral capacity for the election of the holders of the organs of local government.

Article 18. Scope and meaning of rights

1. The rights consecrated in this Constitution do not exclude any which might be foreseen in laws or in rules of International Law.
2. The precepts relative to fundamental rights are interpreted and integrated in harmony with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 19. Restriction and Suspension

1. The exercise of fundamental rights only can be restricted in cases foreseen in the Constitution and suspended during the validity of a state of siege or state of emergency declared in the terms of the Constitution and of the law.
2. No restriction or suspension of rights may be established for longer than strictly necessary.

Article 20. Access to the Courts

Every citizen has the right of resorting to the courts against acts which violate his rights recognized by the Constitution and by the law, justice not being deniable for insufficiency of economic means.

Article 21. Obligations and Limits to Rights

The citizens have obligations with respect to society and the State, not being able to exercise their rights through violation of the rights of the other citizens, and not respecting the just demands of morality, of public order and of national independence defined in the law.

Title II. Personal Rights

Article 22. Right to Life

1. Human life is inviolable.
2. In no case, shall capital punishment exist.

Article 23. Right to Personal Integrity

1. The moral and physical integrity of the person is inviolable.
2. No one may shall be submitted to torture or mistreatment or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 24. Right to Identity and Privacy

Personal identity and the confidentiality of the intimacy of private and family life are inviolable.

Article 25. Inviolability of the home and of correspondence

1. The home and the secrecy of correspondence and of private means of communication are inviolable.
2. Entrance into the home of citizens against their will only may be ordered by competent judicial authority, in the cases and by the manner prescribed by the law.

Article 26. Family, Marriage and Relationships

1. All have the right to form a family and to enter into matrimony in conditions of full equality.
2. The law regulates the requirements and effects of marriage and of its dissolution, by death or divorce, independent from the form in which it was celebrated.
3. Spouses have equal rights with respect to civil or political competency and to the maintenance and education of their children.
4. Children born out of wedlock cannot, for that reason, be the object of any discrimination.
5. Parents have the right and duty of educating and maintaining their children.

Article 27. Freedom of conscience, religion and worship

1. Freedom of conscience, religion and worship is inviolable.
2. No one may be persecuted, deprived of right or exempted from civic obligations or duties because of his convictions or practice of religion.
3. No one may be questioned by any authority about his convictions or religious practices except for the collection of statistical data not individually identifiable nor be prejudiced for refusing to answer.
4. Religious confessions are free in worship, in education and in their organization.

Article 28. Freedom of cultural creation

Intellectual, artistic and scientific creation are free.

Article 29. Freedom of expression and information

1. All have the right to freely express and divulge their thinking by word, by image or by any other means.
2. Infractions committed in the exercise of this right remain subject to the general principles of criminal law, their appreciation being within the competence of the courts.

Article 30. Freedom of the press

1. Freedom of the press is guaranteed in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, within the terms of the law.
2. The State guarantees a public service press independent of the interests of economic and political groups.

Article 31. The right to learn and the freedom to teach

1. The right to learn and the freedom to teach are guaranteed.
2. The State may not reserve for itself the right to plan education and culture according to any philosophical, political, ideological or religious policies.

Article 32. Freedom to choose profession

All have the right to freely choose a profession or a type of work, with the exception of the legal restrictions imposed by the collective interest or inherent to the profession.

Article 33. Right of relocation and immigration

1. To all citizens the right is guaranteed to freely relocate and establish themselves in any part of the national territory.
2. To all is guaranteed the right to emigrate or to leave the national territory and the right to return.

Article 34. Right to meet and to demonstrate

1. All citizens have the right to meet, peacefully and without arms, even in places open to the public.
2. The right to demonstrate is recognized for all citizens, within the terms of the law.

Article 35. Freedom of association

1. The citizens have the right to, freely and without dependence on any authorization, form associations, so long as they are not contrary to the penal law or do not question the Constitution and national independence.
2. Associations pursue their ends freely.
3. No one can be obliged to take part in an association nor be compelled by any means to remain in one.

Article 36. Personal freedom and security

1. All have the right to personal freedom and to personal security.
2. No one may be deprived of freedom, except in cases provided for in the law and always by decision or with the review of the appropriate court.

Article 37. Application of the Penal Law

1. No one may be sentenced criminally except by virtue of prior law which declares punishable the action or omission nor suffer security measures whose purposes are not fixed in prior law.
2. However, penal laws are applied retroactively when their content is more favorable to the accused or to the sentenced.

Article 38. Limits of sentences and of security measures

1. There may be no punishments nor security measures which deprive or restrict liberty which are of a perpetual, unlimited duration or undefined nature.
2. Sentences are not subject to commutation.
3. No sentence presumes the loss of any civil, professional or political rights.

Article 39. Habeas Corpus

1. In case of imprisonment or illegal detention resulting from the abuse of power, the citizen has the right of recourse to the provision of habeas corpus.
2. The provision of habeas corpus is lodged before the Court and its procedure is fixed by the law.

Article 40. Guarantees of criminal procedure

1. Criminal procedure will assure all the defense guarantees.
2. Every accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, being tried in the shortest time compatible with defense guarantees.
3. The accused has the right to choose defense counsel and to be assisted by him in all the acts of the trial, the law specifying the instances and the aspects in which that assistance is obligatory.
4. Every instruction is within the competence of a Magistrate, who may, within the terms of the law, delegate to other entities the practice of instructional acts which do not directly affect fundamental rights.
5. Criminal procedure has an accusatory structure with the hearing of the trial and the instructional acts subordinated to the principle of cross-examination.
6. All evidence obtained through torture, coercion or offense to the physical or moral integrity of the person, abusive intromission into private life, in the home, in correspondence or in telecommunications are null.
7. No case may be removed from the court whose competence has been established in prior law.

Article 41. Extradition, expulsion and right of asylum

1. The extradition and the expulsion of Sao Tomean citizens from the National territory are not allowed.
2. Extradition for political motives is not permitted, nor for crimes which carry the death penalty according to the law of the petitioning State.
3. The expulsion of foreigners who have obtained a residence permit, only may be determined by judicial authority, the law assuring expeditious means of decision.
4. Asylum is granted to foreigners persecuted or gravely threatened with persecution, in virtue of their activity in favor of democratic rights.

Title III. Social rights and economic, social and cultural order

Article 42. Right to Work

1. All have the right to work.
2. The obligation to work is inseparable from the right to work.
3. It is incumbent upon the State to ensure equality of opportunity in the choice of profession or type of work and conditions do that access to any position, work or professional category are not blocked.
4. The right to exercise professions is guaranteed in the conditions obtaining in the law.

Article 43. Rights of workers

All the workers have rights:

1. To recompense for work, according to quantity, nature and quality, observing the principal of equal salary for equal work, so as to guarantee a deserved living;
2. To labor-union freedom, as a means of promoting their unity, defending their legitimate rights and protecting their interests;
3. To the organization of work in socially dignifying conditions, in order to facilitate personal accomplishment;
4. To being able to perform work in hygienic and safe conditions;
5. To a maximum limit to the work day, to weekly rest and to periodic paid holidays;
6. To strike, under terms to be regulated by law, taking into account the interests of the workers and of the National economy.

Article 44. Social Security

1. The State guarantees to every citizen, through the social security system, the right to protection in illness, handicap, widowhood, orphanhood and other instances prescribed in the law;
2. The organization of the system of social security of the State does not prejudice the existence of private institutions, with the implementation in mind of the objectives of Social Security.

Article 45. Cooperatives

1. The right of free establishment of cooperatives is guaranteed.
2. The State stimulates, and supports the creation and the activity of cooperatives.

Article 46. Intellectual property

The State protects the inherent rights to intellectual property, including the rights of the author.

Article 47. Private property

1. The right to private property and to its transfer in life or through death is guaranteed to all, in accordance with the law.
2. Requisition and expropriation for public use only may be effected as based on the law.

Article 48. Private enterprises

1. The State oversees the respect for the law by private enterprises and protects the economically and socially viable small and medium enterprises.
2. The State may authorize foreign investment, provided it is useful to the economic and social development of the Country.

Article 49. Housing and environment

1. All have the right to housing and to an environment of human life and the duty to defend it.
2. It is incumbent upon the State to plan and execute a housing policy inserted in the plans for zoning of the territory.

Article 50. Right to health care

1. All have the right to health care and the duty to defend it.
2. In accordance with the National system of Health, it is incumbent upon the State to promote the Public Health which has as objectives the physical and mental well-being of the populations and their balanced fitting into the socio-ecological environment in which they live.
3. The exercise of private medical practice is permitted, in the conditions fixed by law.

Article 51. Family

1. As the fundamental element of the society, the family has the right to the protection of the society and of the State.
2. It is incumbent, especially, upon the State:
   1. To promote the social and economic independence of households;
   2. To promote the creation of a national network of maternal infant assistance;
   3. To cooperate with parents in the education of their children.

Article 52. Childhood

Children have the right to the respect and to the protection of the society and of the State, with a view toward their complete development.

Article 53. Youth

The youth, especially the young workers, enjoy special protection in order to render effective their economic, social and cultural rights.

Article 54. Senior citizens

Persons of advanced age have the right to satisfactory family life and economic security.

Article 55. Education

1. Education, as a right recognized to all the citizens, strives for the whole formation of man and his active participation in the community.
2. It is the responsibility of the State to promote the elimination of illiteracy and permanent education, in accordance with a National system of instruction.
3. The State ensures basic compulsory and free education.
4. The State gradually promotes the possibility of equal access to the other levels of education.
5. Education is permitted through private Institutions, in the terms of the law.

Article 56. Culture and sports

1. Conditions will be created so that all citizens may have access to culture are encouraged to participate actively in its creation and dissemination.
2. The State preserves, defends and esteems the cultural patrimony of the Sao Tomean people.
3. It is incumbent upon the State to encourage and promote the practice and spreading of sports and of physical culture.

Title IV. Civic-political rights and obligations

Article 57. Participation in public life

All citizens have the right to take part in public life and in the direction of the affairs of the country, directly or by through freely elected representatives.

Article 58. Right to suffrage

All citizens of more than eighteen years have the right of suffrage, excepting incompetence as provided in the general law.

Article 59. Right to access to public office

All citizens have the right of access, in conditions of equality, and liberty, to public office.

Article 60. Right of petition

All citizens have the right to present, individually or collectively, to the organs of political power or to any authority petitions, representations, protests or complaints for defense of their rights in the Constitution, in the laws or of the general interest.

Article 61. Right of indemnity

Every citizen has the right to be indemnified for damage caused by illegal and harmful actions to his legitimate rights and interests, whether from State organs, Social Organizations or whether from public officials.

Article 62. Civic organizations

The State supports and protects the social organizations recognized by law which, in correspondence with specific interests, frame and foment the civic participation of the citizens.

Article 63. Political Organizations

1. Every citizen may form or participate in political organizations recognized by law which encompass the free and plural participation of the citizens in public life.
2. Special law shall regulate the formation of political parties.

Article 64. National defense obligations

1. It is a privilege, honor and the supreme duty of a citizen to participate in the defense of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the State.
2. Every citizen has the duty of rendering military service under the terms of the law.
3. Treason to the Fatherland is a crime punishable by the most severe punishment.

Article 65. Taxes

1. All citizens have a duty to contribute to public expenditure, under the law.
2. The taxes seek to satisfy the financial necessities of the State and a just distribution of income.