| BOLIVIA Republic of Bolivia Republica de Bolivia Joined United Nations: 14 November 1945 Human Rights as assured by their constitution Updated 09 September 2012 |
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FIRST
THE PERSON LIKE MEMBER OF THE STATE
I TITLE FIRST
RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES OF THE PERSON
I ARTICULATE 5º. - Prohibition of servitude and slavery
Any sort of servitude is not recognized and nobody could be forced to lend personal works without its total consent and joust repayment.
The PS could only be indispensable when therefore they establish the laws.
I ARTICULATE 6º. - Personality and legal standing
I. All human being has personality and legal standing, in accordance with the Laws. It enjoys the rights, liberties and guarantees
recognized by this Constitution, without distinction of race, sex, language, religion, political opinion or of another nature, origin, economic
or social condition, or another anyone.
II. The fundamental rights of the person are inviolable. To respect them and to protect them are to have fundamental of the State.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
III. The woman and the man are equal before the Law and gozn of such right politicians, social, economic and cultural.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
IV. The State will sanction all form of discrimination and will adopt measures of positive action to promote the effective equality between
all the people.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
V. The fundamental rights and guarantees of the person, will interpret and apply according to the Universal Declaration of Human rights
and Treaties, Conventions and International treaties ratified by Bolivia in this matter.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
(*Reforms of Article 6 introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002 were rejected by the Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of 2005 July.)
I ARTICULATE 7º. - Right Fundamental
All person has the following fundamental right:
a) To the life, the health, the security and physical and moral integrity and the free development of the personality.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
b) To the freedom of conscience, thought and religion; to freely emit and to receive ideas, opinions, beliefs and information by any means
of diffusion.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
c) To meet and to be associated for allowed and pacific aims.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
d) To the work and to dedicate itself to the commerce, the industry and to the profession, office or allowed economic activity of its
election, in conditions that do not harm the collective well-being.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
e) To a right remuneration by its work, that assures for himself and its family to him a worthy existence the human being.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
f) To receive education and to acquire culture.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
g) To teach under the supervision of the State.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
h) To enter, to remain, to journey and to leave the national territory.
i) To formulate requests individual or collectively and to obtain opportune answer.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
j) To the deprived property, individual or collective, whenever it acts a as social.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
k) To the health Public and the social security, in the form determined by this Constitution and the Laws.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
l) To the name, to the privacy and personal and familiar privacy, as well as to its image, it honors and reputation.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
m) To enjoy healthy environment, ecologically balanced and adapted for its well-being, protecting the rights of the future generations.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
n) Access to the public information.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
(*Reforms introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002 were you reject by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 8º. - Fundamental Duties
All person has the following fundamental duties:
a) to accept and to fulfill the Constitution and the Laws of the Republic;
b) to work, according to its capacity and possibilities, in socially useful activities;
c) to acquire at least primary instruction;
d) to contribute, in proportion to its economic capacity, to the support of the services public.
e) to attend, to feed and to educate its minor children, as well as to protect and to aid its parents when they are in situation of disease,
misery or neglect;
f) to be in the military civil and that the Nation requires for its development, defense and conservation.
g) to cooperate with the organs of the State and the community in the social service and the security;
h) Of you protect and to protect the goods and interests of the collectivity.
I TITLE SEGUNDO
GUARANTEES OF THE PERSON
I ARTICULATE 9º. - Principle of jurisdictional legality
I. Nobody can be prisoner, arrested, sanctioned, nor deprived of their freedom, but in the cases and according to the forms established by
Law, requiring itself for the execution of the respective order that this one emanates of competent Judge and is written.
II. Nobody can be prisoner, but by the strictly necessary time for aims of investigation of the crime, that will not be able to exceed
twenty-four hours.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
III. The incomunicación will not be able to prevail, but in the cases of well-known gravity determined by Law, the one that will not be
able to exceed twenty-four hours.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 10º. - Halting in flagrant state
All delinquent “in fraganti” can be apprehended, even without order, by any person, for the only object of being lead before the authority
or the competent judge, that will have to take its declaration him in the maximum term from twenty-four hours.
I ARTICULATE 11º. - Principle of execution legality
The ones in charge of the prisons will not receive to anybody like prisoner, arrested or imprisoned without copying in their registry the
corresponding order. They will be able, nevertheless, to receive in the enclosure from the prison to the lead ones, with the intention of
being presented/displayed, when more within the twenty-four hours, to the competent judge.
I ARTICULATE 12º. - Prohibition of tortures
I. Is prohibited all species of tortures, coaction, exacción, threatens or any form of physical, psychological and sexual violence. It is
prohibited all form of violence in the family.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of; 6 of July, 2005.)
II. Some will not have effect the test obtained by means of torture, bad treatments, threatens, deceit or violation of the fundamental rights
and guarantees of the person, nor to obtained by virtue of information originated in a procedure or illicit means.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 13º. -
The attacks against the personal security make people in charge to their immediate authors, without it can serve as excuse the be to them
committed by superior order.
I ARTICULATE 14º. - Principle of natural Judge
Nobody can be judged by special commissions or be put under or three judges who the designated ones prior to the fact of the cause, nor
will be able to be forced to declare against itself in penal matter, or its consanguíneos relatives until the fourth degree inclusively, or its
relatives by marriage until the second, according to the civil calculation.
I ARTICULATE 15º. - Suspension of fundamental rights during the state of siege
The authorities, civil employees or agents public and the individuals that harm the rights and guarantees of the person, are subject to the
criminal action who corresponds and the civil action for the repair of the damages and caused prejudices.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 16º. - Guarantee of the state of innocence and the right to be heard in process
I. presumes the innocence of all person while its culpability in executive sentence is not declared.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
II. Nobody can be condemned to pain some, without to be heard and to be judged previously in legal process, nor will undergo it if it has
not been imposed by executive sentence and competent authority. The penal sentence must be based on a Law previous to the process
and the later Laws will be only applied when they are more favorable to the encausado one.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
III. All person has right, in equality of conditions and all judicial or administrative process:
To that one in detail communicates previously and the accusation and the test to him in his against.
To exert its own defense or being attended by a defender of its election, from the moment of the syndication like presumed contributor
author or in the commission of a crime, to the aim of the execution of the sentence and to communicate freely and in private with its
defender.
To being attended by a defender provided by the State, in case of not counting on resources to pay for it.
To being judged without illegal delays in the process.
To present/display tests, to ask for the appearance and to interrogate witnesses or experts and to exercise all necessary the procedural
acts for its defense.
To resort the condemnatory sentence before the Judge or Superior Court.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 17º. - Prohibition of the capital punishment
It does not exist the pain of infamia, nor the one of civil death. In the cases of murder, parricidio and treason to the Mother country, the
pain of thirty years of military prison will be applied, without right to I pardon. The complicity is understood by treason with the enemy
during the foreign state military.
I ARTICULATE 18. - Action of Habeas Corpus
I. All person who will believe to be illegal or illegally persecuted, prisoner, accused or prey will be able to happen, in case or by anyone to
their name, with being able profession of notary or without him, before the Superior Court of the District or before any Judge of Party, to
lesson hers, in demand of which the legal formalities keep. In the places where there will not be Judge of Party the demand will be able to
interpose before Judge Instructor.
II. The judicial authority will indicate immediately to day and hour of public hearing, arranging that the actor is lead to their presence. With
this order summons or by certificate in the office of the demanded authority will practice, order that will be obeyed without observation
nor excuses, as much by that whatever by the ones in charge of the jails or places of halting without these, once mentioned, can disobey
arguing superior order.
III. In no case the hearing will be able to be suspended. Instructed of the antecedents, the judicial authority will dictate to sentence in the
same hearing ordering the freedom, causing that repair the legal defects or putting to the plaintiff to disposition of the competent judge.
The failure will have to be executed in the act. The decision that is pronounced will elevate in revision, of office, before the Constitutional
Court, in the term of twenty-four hours, without for that reason the execution of the failure is suspended.
IV. If the demanded one after attending the hearing leaves it before listening to the sentence, this one will be notified validly in estrados. If
it will not concur, the hearing will take to effect in its revolt and, heard the exhibition of the actor or its representative, sentence will be
dictated.
V. The officials particular government or people who resist the judicial decisions, in the cases anticipated by this article, will be sent by
order of the authority that corpus knew the “habeas”, before the Judge in the Penitentiary for their juzgamiento like criminals of attack
against the constitutional guarantees.
I SAW. The judicial authority that did not come according to the arranged thing by this article will be holds to sanction with adjustment
the article 123º, attribution 3ª of this Constitution.
I ARTICULATE 19º. - Resource of Constitutional Shelter
I. Outside the resource of “habeas corpus” to that the previous article talks about, settles down the resource of shelter against the illegal
acts or the illegal omissions of the civil employees or individuals that they restrict, they suppress or they threaten to restrict or to suppress
to the rights and guarantees of the people recognized by this Constitution and the laws.
II. The shelter resource will interpose by the person who will be believed offended or by another one to her name with being able
sufficient - except for the arranged thing in article 129 of this Constitution -, before Superior Cortes in the capitals of Department or
before the Judges of Party in the provinces, transacting it to it in highly summarized form.
The Public Ministry will be able to also interpose of east office resource when it does not do it or the person cannot do it affected.
III. The authority or the demanded person will be mentioned in the form anticipated by the article previous to object of which it lends
present information and, in its case, the acted ones concerning the denounced fact, in the maximum term of forty and eight hours.
IV. The final resolution will be pronounced in public hearing immediately of received the information of the denounced one and, for want
of her, it will do it on the test base that offers the recurrent one. The judicial authority will examine the competition of the civil employee
or the acts of the individual and, finding the denunciation certain and effective, will grant the shelter asked for whenever there will not be
another means or legal resource for the close-in protection of the rights and restricted, suppressed and threatened guarantees, elevating of
office their resolution before the Constitutional Court for their revision, in the term of twenty-four hours.
V. The previous determinations of the judicial authority and the final decision that the shelter grants will be executed immediately and
without observation, being applied, in case of resistance, arranged in him the previous article.
I ARTICULATE 20º. - Inviolabilidad of correspondence and private papers
Is. Are inviolable the correspondence and papal the private ones, which could not be seized but in the cases determined by the laws and
by virtue of written order and motivated of competent authority. The private documents do not produce legal effect that will be violated or
subtracted.
II. Neither the public authority, nor person or organisms some will be able to intercept conversations and communications deprived by
means of installation that controls them or centralizes.
I ARTICULATE 21º. - Inviolabilidad of residence
All house is an asylum inviolable; at night it will not be possible to be entered her without consent of which it inhabits it and by day only
the entrance to requisition written and motivated of competent authority will be crossed, except for the case of crime “in fraganti”.
I ARTICULATE 22º. - Guarantee of the private property
I. is guaranteed the private property whenever the use that becomes of her is not detrimental to the collective interest.
II. The expropriation prevails because of public utility or when the property does not act a as social, described according to law and
previous right indemnification.
I ARTICULATE 23º. - Action of Habeas Data
I. All person who will believe to be illegal or illegally crippled to know, to object or to obtain the elimination or rectification of the data
registered by any average physicist, electronic, magnetic, computer science in archives or data banks public or deprived that affects their
fundamental right to the privacy and personal and familiar privacy, to his image, she honors and reputation recognized in this Constitution,
will be able to interpose the resource of Habeas Data before the Court Superior from the District or before any Judge of Party to election
hers.
II. If the court or competent judge declares originating the resource, will order the revelation, elimination or rectification of the personal
data whose registry was opposed.
III. The decision that is pronounced will elevate in revision, of office before the Constitutional Court, in the term of twenty-four hours,
without for that reason the execution of the failure is suspended.
IV. The resource of Habeas Data will not come to raise the secret in the matter of press.
V. The resource of Habeas Data will be transacted according to the procedure established for the Resource of Constitutional Shelter
anticipated in the Article 19º of this Constitution.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 24º. - Principle of territorialidad
The foreign companies and subjects are put under the Bolivian laws, without in no case can invoke exceptional situation nor appeal to
diplomatic claims.
I ARTICULATE 25º. -
Within fifty kilometers of the borders, the foreigners can acquire neither to have, by no title, ground nor subsoil, directly or indirectly,
individually or in society, under penalty of losing, in benefit of the State, the property acquired, except the case of national necessity
declared by express law.
I ARTICULATE 26º. - Taxes
No tax is obligatory but when it has been established according to the prescriptions of the Constitution. The harmed ones can interpose
resources before the Constitutional Court against the illegal taxes.
The municipal taxes are obligatory when in their creation have been observed the constitutional requirements.
I ARTICULATE 27º. - The taxes and other obligations owned to government also force all. Their creation, distribution and suppression
will have general character, having to determine itself in relation to an equal sacrifice of the contributors, in proportional or progressive
form, according to the cases.
I ARTICULATE 28º. - The goods of the Church, the religious orders and congregations and the institutions that exert educative work, of
attendance and charity, such enjoy and guarantees that right the pertaining ones to the individuals.
I ARTICULATE 29º. - Only the Legislative Power has faculty to alter and to modify the codes, as well as to dictate to regulations and
dispositions on judicial procedures.
Agreed with Art. - 59 Interjection 1, and Art. - 233.
I ARTICULATE 30º. - The powers public will not be able to delegate the faculties that to them this Constitution confers, nor to attribute
to the Executive authority other that those that specifically are decided to them by her.
I ARTICULATE 31º. - The acts Are null of which they usurp functions that are not incumbent on to them, as well as the acts of which
exert jurisdiction or power that does not emanate of the law.
I ARTICULATE 32º. - Nobody will be forced to do what the Constitution and the laws do not command, nor to deprive itself of which
they do not prohibit.
I ARTICULATE 33º. - The law only arranges to the successor and it does not have retroactive effect, except in social matter when it
determines it specifically, and in penal matter when it benefits the delinquent.
I ARTICULATE 34º. - Those that harm constitutional rights and guarantees have left subjects the ordinary jurisdiction.
I ARTICULATE 35º. - The declarations, rights and guarantees that this Constitution proclaims will be understood like negation of other
rights and guarantees nonenunciated that are born of the sovereignty of the town and the republican form of government.
I TITLE THIRD
NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP
I CAPITULATE I
NATIONALITY
I ARTICULATE 36º. - They are Bolivian of origin:
1º. The been born ones in the territory of the Republic, with exception of the children of foreigners who are in Bolivia to the service of
their government.
2º. Been born abroad of Bolivian father or the mother by the single fact to domicile themselves in the national territory or to register in the
consulates.
I ARTICULATE 37º. - They are Bolivian by naturalization:
1º. The Latin American Spaniards and who acquire the Bolivian nationality without for a reason or purpose to make resignation of the one
of their origin, when they exist, of reciprocity, agreements of plural nationality with its respective governments.
2º. The foreigners who being resided two years in the Republic declare their will to acquire the Bolivian nationality and obtain
naturalization paper according to law.
The dwell time will be reduced to a year being foreigners who are in the following cases:
a) That it has Bolivian spouse or children;
b) That they are dedicated regularly to the agricultural or industrial work.
c) That they exert educative, scientific or technical functions.
3º. The foreigners who to the legally required age are in the military.
4º. The foreigners who by their services to the country obtain it from the Senate.
I ARTICULATE 38º. - The Bolivians, men and women, married with foreigners, do not lose their nationality. The foreigners, men and
women married with Bolivians or Bolivians acquire the Bolivian nationality whenever they reside in the country and they show his
conformity and do not even lose in the cases of widowhood or divorce.
(*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 39º. - The Bolivian nationality is not lost to acquire foreign nationality. Who it acquires Bolivian nationality will not be
forced to resign to its nationality of origin.
(*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I CAPITULATE II
CITIZENSHIP
I ARTICULATE 40º. - The citizenship consists:
1º In concurring like voter or eligible to the formation or the exercise of the powers public.
2º In the right to exert public functions except for the exceptions established by Law.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
3º In the right to participate in the management of the subjects public in the terms established by Law.
(*Inciso added by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 41º. - The Bolivians, men and greater women of eighteen years of age Are citizen, nobodies are their levels of instruction,
occupation or rent.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August, 1994).
I ARTICULATE 42º. - The citizenship rights are suspended:
1º. To take arms or to serve in enemy army in time military.
2º.Por fraud of public assets or fraudulent bankruptcy declared, previous ejecutoriada and condemnatory sentence to corporal pain.
3º to accept functions of foreign government, without permission of the Senate, except the positions and missions of international,
religious, university and cultural the organisms in general.
I TITLE NINTH ELECTORAL REGIME
I CAPITULATE
I THE SUFFRAGE
I ARTICULATE 219º. - The universal vote the suffrage constitutes the base of the representative democratic regime and it is based on the
universal, direct vote and equal, individual and secret, it frees and obligatory; in the public scrutiny and the system of proportional
representation.
I ARTICULATE 220º. - Capacity Is. Are electing all the greater Bolivians of eighteen years of age, anyone is their occupation and level of
training, without more requirement than their obligatory inscription in the Electoral Registry. II. In the municipal elections the foreign
citizens in the conditions will vote that the law establishes. (*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August of 1994). I
ARTICULATE 221º. - Eligibles The citizens are eligibles who reunite to the requirements settled down by the Constitution and the law.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August of 1994).
I CAPITULATE
II THE POLITICAL PARTIES
I ARTICULATE 222º. - Popular Representation The Popular Representation is exerted through the political parties, citizen groupings and
indigenous towns, in accordance with the present Constitution and the Laws. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August,
2002. Modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.)
I ARTICULATE 223º. - I. The political parties, the citizen groupings and the indigenous towns that concur to the formation of the popular
will are legal people of Public Right. (*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.) II. Their program, organization and
operation will have to be democratic and to adjust to the principles, rights and guarantees recognized by this Constitution. III. They will be
registered and they made recognize its function and position of agent before the Electoral National Court. IV. They will render public
account of the financial resources that receive from the State and will be subject to the fiscal control. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº
2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 224º. - Postulation The political parties and/or the citizen groupings and/or indigenous towns will be able to directly
postulate candidates to President, Municipal Vice-president, Senators and Deputies, Councilmen, Mayors and Agents, in equality of
conditions before the Law, fulfilling the requirements established by her. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August,
2002. Modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.)
I CAPITULATE
III THE ELECTORAL ORGANS I ARTICULATE 225º. - Electoral Organs The electoral organs are: 1º the Electoral National Court; 2º
Departmental Cortes; 3º the Electoral Courts; 4º the Juries of Mesas de Sufragios; 5º the Electoral Notaries and other civil employees who
the respective law institutes.
I ARTICULATE 226º. - Autonomy of the electoral organs. One settles down and it guarantees the autonomy, independence and
impartiality of the electoral organs.
I ARTICULATE 227º. - Composition of the electoral organs The composition as well as the jurisdiction and competition of the electoral
organs will be established by law.
FIRST
THE PERSON LIKE MEMBER OF THE STATE
I TITLE FIRST
RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES OF THE PERSON
I ARTICULATE 5º. - Prohibition of servitude and slavery
Any sort of servitude is not recognized and nobody could be forced to lend personal works without its total consent and joust repayment.
The PS could only be indispensable when therefore they establish the laws.
I ARTICULATE 6º. - Personality and legal standing
I. All human being has personality and legal standing, in accordance with the Laws. It enjoys the rights, liberties and guarantees
recognized by this Constitution, without distinction of race, sex, language, religion, political opinion or of another nature, origin, economic
or social condition, or another anyone.
II. The fundamental rights of the person are inviolable. To respect them and to protect them are to have fundamental of the State.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
III. The woman and the man are equal before the Law and gozn of such right politicians, social, economic and cultural.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
IV. The State will sanction all form of discrimination and will adopt measures of positive action to promote the effective equality between
all the people.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
V. The fundamental rights and guarantees of the person, will interpret and apply according to the Universal Declaration of Human rights
and Treaties, Conventions and International treaties ratified by Bolivia in this matter.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
(*Reforms of Article 6 introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002 were rejected by the Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of 2005 July.)
I ARTICULATE 7º. - Right Fundamental
All person has the following fundamental right:
a) To the life, the health, the security and physical and moral integrity and the free development of the personality.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
b) To the freedom of conscience, thought and religion; to freely emit and to receive ideas, opinions, beliefs and information by any means
of diffusion.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
c) To meet and to be associated for allowed and pacific aims.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
d) To the work and to dedicate itself to the commerce, the industry and to the profession, office or allowed economic activity of its
election, in conditions that do not harm the collective well-being.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
e) To a right remuneration by its work, that assures for himself and its family to him a worthy existence the human being.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
f) To receive education and to acquire culture.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
g) To teach under the supervision of the State.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
h) To enter, to remain, to journey and to leave the national territory.
i) To formulate requests individual or collectively and to obtain opportune answer.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
j) To the deprived property, individual or collective, whenever it acts a as social.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
k) To the health Public and the social security, in the form determined by this Constitution and the Laws.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
l) To the name, to the privacy and personal and familiar privacy, as well as to its image, it honors and reputation.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
m) To enjoy healthy environment, ecologically balanced and adapted for its well-being, protecting the rights of the future generations.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
n) Access to the public information.
(*Inciso added by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
(*Reforms introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002 were you reject by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 8º. - Fundamental Duties
All person has the following fundamental duties:
a) to accept and to fulfill the Constitution and the Laws of the Republic;
b) to work, according to its capacity and possibilities, in socially useful activities;
c) to acquire at least primary instruction;
d) to contribute, in proportion to its economic capacity, to the support of the services public.
e) to attend, to feed and to educate its minor children, as well as to protect and to aid its parents when they are in situation of disease,
misery or neglect;
f) to be in the military civil and that the Nation requires for its development, defense and conservation.
g) to cooperate with the organs of the State and the community in the social service and the security;
h) Of you protect and to protect the goods and interests of the collectivity.
I TITLE SEGUNDO
GUARANTEES OF THE PERSON
I ARTICULATE 9º. - Principle of jurisdictional legality
I. Nobody can be prisoner, arrested, sanctioned, nor deprived of their freedom, but in the cases and according to the forms established by
Law, requiring itself for the execution of the respective order that this one emanates of competent Judge and is written.
II. Nobody can be prisoner, but by the strictly necessary time for aims of investigation of the crime, that will not be able to exceed
twenty-four hours.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
III. The incomunicación will not be able to prevail, but in the cases of well-known gravity determined by Law, the one that will not be
able to exceed twenty-four hours.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 10º. - Halting in flagrant state
All delinquent “in fraganti” can be apprehended, even without order, by any person, for the only object of being lead before the authority
or the competent judge, that will have to take its declaration him in the maximum term from twenty-four hours.
I ARTICULATE 11º. - Principle of execution legality
The ones in charge of the prisons will not receive to anybody like prisoner, arrested or imprisoned without copying in their registry the
corresponding order. They will be able, nevertheless, to receive in the enclosure from the prison to the lead ones, with the intention of
being presented/displayed, when more within the twenty-four hours, to the competent judge.
I ARTICULATE 12º. - Prohibition of tortures
I. Is prohibited all species of tortures, coaction, exacción, threatens or any form of physical, psychological and sexual violence. It is
prohibited all form of violence in the family.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of; 6 of July, 2005.)
II. Some will not have effect the test obtained by means of torture, bad treatments, threatens, deceit or violation of the fundamental rights
and guarantees of the person, nor to obtained by virtue of information originated in a procedure or illicit means.
(*Párrafo introduced by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 13º. -
The attacks against the personal security make people in charge to their immediate authors, without it can serve as excuse the be to them
committed by superior order.
I ARTICULATE 14º. - Principle of natural Judge
Nobody can be judged by special commissions or be put under or three judges who the designated ones prior to the fact of the cause, nor
will be able to be forced to declare against itself in penal matter, or its consanguíneos relatives until the fourth degree inclusively, or its
relatives by marriage until the second, according to the civil calculation.
I ARTICULATE 15º. - Suspension of fundamental rights during the state of siege
The authorities, civil employees or agents public and the individuals that harm the rights and guarantees of the person, are subject to the
criminal action who corresponds and the civil action for the repair of the damages and caused prejudices.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 16º. - Guarantee of the state of innocence and the right to be heard in process
I. presumes the innocence of all person while its culpability in executive sentence is not declared.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
II. Nobody can be condemned to pain some, without to be heard and to be judged previously in legal process, nor will undergo it if it has
not been imposed by executive sentence and competent authority. The penal sentence must be based on a Law previous to the process
and the later Laws will be only applied when they are more favorable to the encausado one.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
III. All person has right, in equality of conditions and all judicial or administrative process:
To that one in detail communicates previously and the accusation and the test to him in his against.
To exert its own defense or being attended by a defender of its election, from the moment of the syndication like presumed contributor
author or in the commission of a crime, to the aim of the execution of the sentence and to communicate freely and in private with its
defender.
To being attended by a defender provided by the State, in case of not counting on resources to pay for it.
To being judged without illegal delays in the process.
To present/display tests, to ask for the appearance and to interrogate witnesses or experts and to exercise all necessary the procedural
acts for its defense.
To resort the condemnatory sentence before the Judge or Superior Court.
(*Párrafo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 17º. - Prohibition of the capital punishment
It does not exist the pain of infamia, nor the one of civil death. In the cases of murder, parricidio and treason to the Mother country, the
pain of thirty years of military prison will be applied, without right to I pardon. The complicity is understood by treason with the enemy
during the foreign state military.
I ARTICULATE 18. - Action of Habeas Corpus
I. All person who will believe to be illegal or illegally persecuted, prisoner, accused or prey will be able to happen, in case or by anyone to
their name, with being able profession of notary or without him, before the Superior Court of the District or before any Judge of Party, to
lesson hers, in demand of which the legal formalities keep. In the places where there will not be Judge of Party the demand will be able to
interpose before Judge Instructor.
II. The judicial authority will indicate immediately to day and hour of public hearing, arranging that the actor is lead to their presence. With
this order summons or by certificate in the office of the demanded authority will practice, order that will be obeyed without observation
nor excuses, as much by that whatever by the ones in charge of the jails or places of halting without these, once mentioned, can disobey
arguing superior order.
III. In no case the hearing will be able to be suspended. Instructed of the antecedents, the judicial authority will dictate to sentence in the
same hearing ordering the freedom, causing that repair the legal defects or putting to the plaintiff to disposition of the competent judge.
The failure will have to be executed in the act. The decision that is pronounced will elevate in revision, of office, before the Constitutional
Court, in the term of twenty-four hours, without for that reason the execution of the failure is suspended.
IV. If the demanded one after attending the hearing leaves it before listening to the sentence, this one will be notified validly in estrados. If
it will not concur, the hearing will take to effect in its revolt and, heard the exhibition of the actor or its representative, sentence will be
dictated.
V. The officials particular government or people who resist the judicial decisions, in the cases anticipated by this article, will be sent by
order of the authority that corpus knew the “habeas”, before the Judge in the Penitentiary for their juzgamiento like criminals of attack
against the constitutional guarantees.
I SAW. The judicial authority that did not come according to the arranged thing by this article will be holds to sanction with adjustment
the article 123º, attribution 3ª of this Constitution.
I ARTICULATE 19º. - Resource of Constitutional Shelter
I. Outside the resource of “habeas corpus” to that the previous article talks about, settles down the resource of shelter against the illegal
acts or the illegal omissions of the civil employees or individuals that they restrict, they suppress or they threaten to restrict or to suppress
to the rights and guarantees of the people recognized by this Constitution and the laws.
II. The shelter resource will interpose by the person who will be believed offended or by another one to her name with being able
sufficient - except for the arranged thing in article 129 of this Constitution -, before Superior Cortes in the capitals of Department or
before the Judges of Party in the provinces, transacting it to it in highly summarized form.
The Public Ministry will be able to also interpose of east office resource when it does not do it or the person cannot do it affected.
III. The authority or the demanded person will be mentioned in the form anticipated by the article previous to object of which it lends
present information and, in its case, the acted ones concerning the denounced fact, in the maximum term of forty and eight hours.
IV. The final resolution will be pronounced in public hearing immediately of received the information of the denounced one and, for want
of her, it will do it on the test base that offers the recurrent one. The judicial authority will examine the competition of the civil employee
or the acts of the individual and, finding the denunciation certain and effective, will grant the shelter asked for whenever there will not be
another means or legal resource for the close-in protection of the rights and restricted, suppressed and threatened guarantees, elevating of
office their resolution before the Constitutional Court for their revision, in the term of twenty-four hours.
V. The previous determinations of the judicial authority and the final decision that the shelter grants will be executed immediately and
without observation, being applied, in case of resistance, arranged in him the previous article.
I ARTICULATE 20º. - Inviolabilidad of correspondence and private papers
Is. Are inviolable the correspondence and papal the private ones, which could not be seized but in the cases determined by the laws and
by virtue of written order and motivated of competent authority. The private documents do not produce legal effect that will be violated or
subtracted.
II. Neither the public authority, nor person or organisms some will be able to intercept conversations and communications deprived by
means of installation that controls them or centralizes.
I ARTICULATE 21º. - Inviolabilidad of residence
All house is an asylum inviolable; at night it will not be possible to be entered her without consent of which it inhabits it and by day only
the entrance to requisition written and motivated of competent authority will be crossed, except for the case of crime “in fraganti”.
I ARTICULATE 22º. - Guarantee of the private property
I. is guaranteed the private property whenever the use that becomes of her is not detrimental to the collective interest.
II. The expropriation prevails because of public utility or when the property does not act a as social, described according to law and
previous right indemnification.
I ARTICULATE 23º. - Action of Habeas Data
I. All person who will believe to be illegal or illegally crippled to know, to object or to obtain the elimination or rectification of the data
registered by any average physicist, electronic, magnetic, computer science in archives or data banks public or deprived that affects their
fundamental right to the privacy and personal and familiar privacy, to his image, she honors and reputation recognized in this Constitution,
will be able to interpose the resource of Habeas Data before the Court Superior from the District or before any Judge of Party to election
hers.
II. If the court or competent judge declares originating the resource, will order the revelation, elimination or rectification of the personal
data whose registry was opposed.
III. The decision that is pronounced will elevate in revision, of office before the Constitutional Court, in the term of twenty-four hours,
without for that reason the execution of the failure is suspended.
IV. The resource of Habeas Data will not come to raise the secret in the matter of press.
V. The resource of Habeas Data will be transacted according to the procedure established for the Resource of Constitutional Shelter
anticipated in the Article 19º of this Constitution.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 24º. - Principle of territorialidad
The foreign companies and subjects are put under the Bolivian laws, without in no case can invoke exceptional situation nor appeal to
diplomatic claims.
I ARTICULATE 25º. -
Within fifty kilometers of the borders, the foreigners can acquire neither to have, by no title, ground nor subsoil, directly or indirectly,
individually or in society, under penalty of losing, in benefit of the State, the property acquired, except the case of national necessity
declared by express law.
I ARTICULATE 26º. - Taxes
No tax is obligatory but when it has been established according to the prescriptions of the Constitution. The harmed ones can interpose
resources before the Constitutional Court against the illegal taxes.
The municipal taxes are obligatory when in their creation have been observed the constitutional requirements.
I ARTICULATE 27º. - The taxes and other obligations owned to government also force all. Their creation, distribution and suppression
will have general character, having to determine itself in relation to an equal sacrifice of the contributors, in proportional or progressive
form, according to the cases.
I ARTICULATE 28º. - The goods of the Church, the religious orders and congregations and the institutions that exert educative work, of
attendance and charity, such enjoy and guarantees that right the pertaining ones to the individuals.
I ARTICULATE 29º. - Only the Legislative Power has faculty to alter and to modify the codes, as well as to dictate to regulations and
dispositions on judicial procedures.
Agreed with Art. - 59 Interjection 1, and Art. - 233.
I ARTICULATE 30º. - The powers public will not be able to delegate the faculties that to them this Constitution confers, nor to attribute
to the Executive authority other that those that specifically are decided to them by her.
I ARTICULATE 31º. - The acts Are null of which they usurp functions that are not incumbent on to them, as well as the acts of which
exert jurisdiction or power that does not emanate of the law.
I ARTICULATE 32º. - Nobody will be forced to do what the Constitution and the laws do not command, nor to deprive itself of which
they do not prohibit.
I ARTICULATE 33º. - The law only arranges to the successor and it does not have retroactive effect, except in social matter when it
determines it specifically, and in penal matter when it benefits the delinquent.
I ARTICULATE 34º. - Those that harm constitutional rights and guarantees have left subjects the ordinary jurisdiction.
I ARTICULATE 35º. - The declarations, rights and guarantees that this Constitution proclaims will be understood like negation of other
rights and guarantees nonenunciated that are born of the sovereignty of the town and the republican form of government.
I TITLE THIRD
NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP
I CAPITULATE I
NATIONALITY
I ARTICULATE 36º. - They are Bolivian of origin:
1º. The been born ones in the territory of the Republic, with exception of the children of foreigners who are in Bolivia to the service of
their government.
2º. Been born abroad of Bolivian father or the mother by the single fact to domicile themselves in the national territory or to register in the
consulates.
I ARTICULATE 37º. - They are Bolivian by naturalization:
1º. The Latin American Spaniards and who acquire the Bolivian nationality without for a reason or purpose to make resignation of the one
of their origin, when they exist, of reciprocity, agreements of plural nationality with its respective governments.
2º. The foreigners who being resided two years in the Republic declare their will to acquire the Bolivian nationality and obtain
naturalization paper according to law.
The dwell time will be reduced to a year being foreigners who are in the following cases:
a) That it has Bolivian spouse or children;
b) That they are dedicated regularly to the agricultural or industrial work.
c) That they exert educative, scientific or technical functions.
3º. The foreigners who to the legally required age are in the military.
4º. The foreigners who by their services to the country obtain it from the Senate.
I ARTICULATE 38º. - The Bolivians, men and women, married with foreigners, do not lose their nationality. The foreigners, men and
women married with Bolivians or Bolivians acquire the Bolivian nationality whenever they reside in the country and they show his
conformity and do not even lose in the cases of widowhood or divorce.
(*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 39º. - The Bolivian nationality is not lost to acquire foreign nationality. Who it acquires Bolivian nationality will not be
forced to resign to its nationality of origin.
(*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I CAPITULATE II
CITIZENSHIP
I ARTICULATE 40º. - The citizenship consists:
1º In concurring like voter or eligible to the formation or the exercise of the powers public.
2º In the right to exert public functions except for the exceptions established by Law.
(*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
3º In the right to participate in the management of the subjects public in the terms established by Law.
(*Inciso added by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August, 2002. The Reformation rejected by Law Nº 3089 of the 6 of July, 2005.)
I ARTICULATE 41º. - The Bolivians, men and greater women of eighteen years of age Are citizen, nobodies are their levels of instruction,
occupation or rent.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August, 1994).
I ARTICULATE 42º. - The citizenship rights are suspended:
1º. To take arms or to serve in enemy army in time military.
2º.Por fraud of public assets or fraudulent bankruptcy declared, previous ejecutoriada and condemnatory sentence to corporal pain.
3º to accept functions of foreign government, without permission of the Senate, except the positions and missions of international,
religious, university and cultural the organisms in general.
I TITLE NINTH ELECTORAL REGIME
I CAPITULATE
I THE SUFFRAGE
I ARTICULATE 219º. - The universal vote the suffrage constitutes the base of the representative democratic regime and it is based on the
universal, direct vote and equal, individual and secret, it frees and obligatory; in the public scrutiny and the system of proportional
representation.
I ARTICULATE 220º. - Capacity Is. Are electing all the greater Bolivians of eighteen years of age, anyone is their occupation and level of
training, without more requirement than their obligatory inscription in the Electoral Registry. II. In the municipal elections the foreign
citizens in the conditions will vote that the law establishes. (*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August of 1994). I
ARTICULATE 221º. - Eligibles The citizens are eligibles who reunite to the requirements settled down by the Constitution and the law.
(*Artículo modified by Law Nº 1585 of the 12 of August of 1994).
I CAPITULATE
II THE POLITICAL PARTIES
I ARTICULATE 222º. - Popular Representation The Popular Representation is exerted through the political parties, citizen groupings and
indigenous towns, in accordance with the present Constitution and the Laws. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August,
2002. Modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.)
I ARTICULATE 223º. - I. The political parties, the citizen groupings and the indigenous towns that concur to the formation of the popular
will are legal people of Public Right. (*Inciso modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.) II. Their program, organization and
operation will have to be democratic and to adjust to the principles, rights and guarantees recognized by this Constitution. III. They will be
registered and they made recognize its function and position of agent before the Electoral National Court. IV. They will render public
account of the financial resources that receive from the State and will be subject to the fiscal control. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº
2410 of the 8 of August, 2002.)
I ARTICULATE 224º. - Postulation The political parties and/or the citizen groupings and/or indigenous towns will be able to directly
postulate candidates to President, Municipal Vice-president, Senators and Deputies, Councilmen, Mayors and Agents, in equality of
conditions before the Law, fulfilling the requirements established by her. (*Artículo modified by the Law Nº 2410 of the 8 of August,
2002. Modified by Law Nº 2631 of the 20 of February, 2004.)
I CAPITULATE
III THE ELECTORAL ORGANS I ARTICULATE 225º. - Electoral Organs The electoral organs are: 1º the Electoral National Court; 2º
Departmental Cortes; 3º the Electoral Courts; 4º the Juries of Mesas de Sufragios; 5º the Electoral Notaries and other civil employees who
the respective law institutes.
I ARTICULATE 226º. - Autonomy of the electoral organs. One settles down and it guarantees the autonomy, independence and
impartiality of the electoral organs.
I ARTICULATE 227º. - Composition of the electoral organs The composition as well as the jurisdiction and competition of the electoral
organs will be established by law.
Bolivia declared its independence from Spain on 6 August, 1825, taking on the name of its liberator,
Simon Bolivar. Its first constitution was adopted on 28 October 1880 and serves as a basis of the present
constitution and put power exclusively into the European descent class, making conditions for the
majority nation population deplorable. A series of wars and military dictatorship ensured throughout the
20th century but led to the creation of a new constitution adopted 2 February 1967. Democracy began to
return in the 90's and the constitution was extensively revise in August of 1994. Additional reforms were
made in 2002, 2004 and 2005 but the current president, Evo Morales, has commissioned a Constitutional
Assembly to rewrite the Constitution that is expected come up for a public referendum in 2007. The
rights and liberties of the current constitution are enumerated in Part I and Part IX and are detailed
below, and conform with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Bolivia is a
signatory. For a full English translation of Bolivia's constitution, click here.
Simon Bolivar. Its first constitution was adopted on 28 October 1880 and serves as a basis of the present
constitution and put power exclusively into the European descent class, making conditions for the
majority nation population deplorable. A series of wars and military dictatorship ensured throughout the
20th century but led to the creation of a new constitution adopted 2 February 1967. Democracy began to
return in the 90's and the constitution was extensively revise in August of 1994. Additional reforms were
made in 2002, 2004 and 2005 but the current president, Evo Morales, has commissioned a Constitutional
Assembly to rewrite the Constitution that is expected come up for a public referendum in 2007. The
rights and liberties of the current constitution are enumerated in Part I and Part IX and are detailed
below, and conform with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Bolivia is a
signatory. For a full English translation of Bolivia's constitution, click here.