| ECUADOR Republic of Ecuador Republica del Ecuador Joined United Nations: 21 December 1945 Human Rights as assured by their constitution Updated 02 August 2012 |
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PART II
RIGHTS
Chapter One
Principles of rights
Article 10 .- Individuals, communities, nations, nationalities and groups hold and enjoy the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and
international instruments. Nature will be the subject of those rights that the Constitution recognizes.
11 .- EI exercise of rights is governed by the following principles:
1. The rights can be exercised, promote and enforce individually or collectively with the relevant authorities, these authorities will ensure
compliance.
2. All persons are equal and enjoy the same rights, duties and opportunities. No one shall be discriminated against because of ethnicity,
place of birth, age, sex, gender identity, cultural identity, marital status, language, religion, ideology, political affiliation, criminal record,
socio-economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, health status, carry HIV, disability, physical difference, nor by any other
distinction, personal or collective, temporary or permanent, which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise of rights. The law shall punish any discrimination. The State shall take affirmative action to promote equality in
favor of rights holders are in a situation of inequality.
3. The rights and guarantees established in the Constitution and international instruments on human rights will be of direct and immediate
application for and against any servant or public servant, administrative or judicial, ex officio or on request. For the exercise of rights and
constitutional guarantees require no conditions or requirements that are not established in the Constitution or the law. The rights are fully
justiciable. You can not claim lack of rule of law to justify its violation or ignorance, to dismiss the action for such acts or to deny
recognition.
4. Any rule of law may restrict the content of rights or constitutional guarantees.
5. In terms of rights and constitutional guarantees, the servants and public servants, administrative or judicial, must apply the rule and the
interpretation that best promote their actual effect.
6. All the principles and inalienable rights, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and of equal standing.
7. The recognition of the rights and guarantees established in the Constitution and international human rights instruments, does not
exclude other rights deriving from the dignity of individuals, communities, peoples and nationalities, which are necessary for its full
development.
8. The content of the rights will be developed progressively through the rules, jurisprudence and public policy. The State will create and
ensure the necessary conditions for their full recognition and exercise. Be unconstitutional any act or omission relating to fall backward,
unjustifiably impairing or nullifying the exercise of rights.
9. The highest duty of the State to respect and enforce the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The State, their delegates, assigns and
any person acting in the exercise of public authority are obliged to remedy violations of the rights of individuals by the lack or deficiency
in the provision of public services, or for acts or omissions of its officers and officials, and employees employed in the performance of
their duties. 23 The State shall exercise immediately the right of recourse against those responsible for the damage, without prejudice to
civil, criminal and administrative. The State is responsible for arbitrary arrest, judicial error, unwarranted delay or improper administration
of justice, violation of right to effective judicial protection, and violations of the principles and rules of due process. When a conviction is
amended or revoked, the State will repair to the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction and declared the
liability for acts of servants or public servants, administrative or judicial, will be repeated against them.
Chapter Two
Rights of the good life
Section One
Water and food
12 .- The human right to water is fundamental and indispensable. Water is a strategic national assets for public use, inalienable,
indefeasible, unattachable and essential for life.
Article 13 .- Individuals and communities have the right to safe and permanent access to healthy food, adequate and nutritious food,
preferably locally produced and in accordance with their different cultural identities and traditions. The Ecuadorian State shall promote
food sovereignty.
Section Two
Healthy environment
14 .- The right of people to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment that ensures sustainability and good living, sumak
kawsay. Is declared of public interest environmental preservation, conservation of ecosystems, biodiversity and genetic integrity of the
country, prevention of environmental damage and the recovery of degraded natural areas.
Article 15 .- The State shall promote, in public and private sector, the use of environmentally clean technologies and clean alternative
energy and low impact. Energy sovereignty will not be achieved at the expense of food sovereignty, or affect the right to water. It
prohibits the development, production, possession, sale, import, transport, storage and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons of
highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, agrochemicals internationally prohibited and experimental technologies and harmful biological
agents and genetically modified organisms harmful to human health or against the 25 ecosystems and food sovereignty, and the
introduction of nuclear waste and toxic waste into the country.
Section Three
Communication and Information
16 .- All persons, individually or collectively, have a right To
1. Free communication, intercultural, inclusive, diverse and participatory in all areas of social interaction, by any means and form, in their
own language and their own symbols.
2. Universal access to information and communication technologies.
3. The creation of social media, and equal access to the use of radio spectrum management for radio and television stations, public,
private and community bands and free to operate wireless networks.
4. Access to and use of all forms of visual communication, auditory, sensory and other enabling the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
5. Integrate opportunities for participation under the Constitution in the field of communication.
17 .- The State shall promote the plurality and diversity in communication, and the effect:
1. Ensure the provision, through transparent and equal, the frequencies of radio spectrum management for radio and television stations,
public, private and community, as well as access to free bands for the operation of wireless networks and forewarn that use the collective
interest prevails.
2. Facilitate the development and strengthening of public media, private and community, as well as universal access to information and
communication technologies in particular for people and communities that lack such access or have a limited basis.
3. Do not allow the oligopoly or monopoly, direct or indirect ownership of the media and the use of frequencies.
Article 18 .- All persons, individually or collectively, are entitled to:
1. Seek, receive, exchange, produce and disseminate accurate, verifiable, timely, contextual, pluralistic, without prior censorship of the
facts, events and processes of general interest, and subsequent liability.
2. Free access to information generated by public entities, private or state funds that handle or performing public functions. There will be
no withholding of information except as expressly stated in the law. In case of violation of human rights, no public body shall deny the
information.
Article 19 .- The law shall regulate the prevalence of content for informational, educational and cultural programming of the media and
encourage the creation of spaces for the dissemination of independent national production. It prohibits the broadcast of advertising that
causes violence, discrimination, racism, drug abuse, sexism, religious or political intolerance and all that which harms the rights.
20 .- The State shall guarantee the conscience clause to any person, and professional secrecy and confidentiality of the source to whom
to report, give their opinions through the media or other forms of communication, or work in any activity communication.
Section four
Culture and science
21 .- The People have the right to build and maintain their own cultural identity, to decide on their membership in one or more cultural
communities and to express these elections, to freedom aesthetic awareness of the historical memory of their cultures and access cultural
heritage; to disseminate their own cultural expressions and access to diverse cultural expressions. No culture can be invoked when
jeopardizes the rights recognized in the Constitution.
Article 22 .- The People have the right to develop their creative abilities, decent and sustained exercise of cultural and artistic activities and
to benefit from the protection of moral and economic rights allocated to them by scientific, literary or artistic authorship.
Article 23 .- Persons entitled to access and participate in the public space as field of discussion, cultural exchange, social cohesion and
promote equality in diversity. The right to disseminate in the public's own cultural expressions shall be without other limitations than those
established by law, subject to constitutional principles.
24 .- The People have the right to recreation and leisure activities, sport and leisure.
25 .- The people are entitled to enjoy the benefits and applications of scientific and ancient knowledge.
Fifth section
Education
26 .- Education is a right of the people throughout his life and an inescapable duty of the State and inexcusable. Is a priority area of public
policy and government investment, ensuring equality and social inclusion and a prerequisite for good living. Individuals, families and
society have the right and responsibility to participate in the educational process.
27 .- The education will focus on the human being and ensure their holistic development in the framework of respect for human rights,
environment and sustainable democracy is participatory, compulsory, cultural, democratic, inclusive and diverse quality and warmth;
promote gender equity, justice, solidarity and peace, encourage critical thinking, art and physical education, individual and community
initiative and the development of skills and abilities to create and work. Education is essential to understanding the exercise of rights and
the construction of a sovereign country and is a strategic area for national development.
Article 28 .- Education respond to the public interest and will serve individual and corporate interests. It will ensure universal access,
retention, mobility and exit without any discrimination and compulsory level, primary and high school diploma or its equivalent. It is the
right of all individuals and communities interact across cultures and participate in a learning society. The State shall promote intercultural
dialogue in its many dimensions. The learning will be developed and out of school. Public education will be universal and secular at all
levels, and free up the third level of higher education inclusive.
EI 29 .- The State shall guarantee the freedom of education, academic freedom in higher education and the right of people to learn in their
own language and cultural sphere. Mothers and fathers, or their representatives are free to choose for their children an education
consistent with their principles, beliefs and pedagogical choices.
Section Six
Habitat and housing
Article 31 .- The people are entitled to full enjoyment of the city and its public spaces, under the principles of sustainability, social justice,
respect for different urban cultures and balance between urban and rural. The exercise of the right to the city is based on the democratic
management of it, in social and environmental function of property and the city, and the full exercise of citizenship.
Seventh section
Health
32 .- Health is a right guaranteed by the State, whose realization is linked to the exercise of other rights, including the right to water, food,
education, physical education, labor, social security, environments that support healthy and good living. The State guarantees this right
through economic, social, cultural, educational and environmental and permanent access to timely and without exclusion programs,
actions and promotion services and comprehensive health care, sexual health and reproductive health. The provision of health services
shall be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, intercultural, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, care and bioethics,
with a focus on gender and generational.
Section eight
Labour and social security
Article 33 .- The work is a right and a social duty, and an economic, a source of personal and economic base. The State shall guarantee to
the workers the full respect for their dignity and decent living wages and fair remuneration and performance of a healthy work and freely
chosen or accepted.
Article 34 .- EI right to social security is an inalienable right of all persons, and shall be the duty and primary responsibility of the State.
Social security is governed by the principles of solidarity, binding, universality, equity, efficiency, subsidiarity, adequacy, transparency
and participation, to the attention of the individual and collective needs. The State shall ensure and be paid the full exercise of the right to
social security, which includes persons who perform unpaid work in homes for self-support activities in the field, every form of
self-employment and who are at unemployment.
Chapter Three
Rights of individuals and focus groups
35 .- The elderly, children and adolescents, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, detainees and those who are tainted by
catastrophic illness or high complexity, will receive priority attention and specialized in public and private spheres. It will focus people at
risk, victims of domestic and sexual violence, child abuse, natural disasters or man. The State shall provide special protection to people
living in a double vulnerability.
Section One
Adults and older adults
Article 36 .- The older people will receive priority attention and specialized in public and private spheres, especially in the fields of social
and economic inclusion, and protection against violence. Older adults were considered those who have reached sixty-five years of age.
37 .- The State shall guarantee to older people the following rights:
1. The free care and specialized health and free access to medicines.
2. Paid work, according to its capacity, which takes into account their limitations.
3. The universal pension.
4. Cuts in public services and private transportation services and entertainment.
5. Exemptions in the tax regime.
6. Exemption from payment for notary and registration costs, according to the law.
7. Access to housing to ensure a dignified life, with respect for its advice and consent.
38 .- The State shall establish public policies and programs of care for the elderly, which take into account the specific differences
between urban and rural areas, gender inequalities, ethnicity, culture and differences of people own , communities, peoples and
nationalities also encourage the greatest possible degree of personal autonomy and participation in defining and implementing these
policies. In particular, the State shall take measures:
1. Care centers to ensure their nutrition, health, education and day care, within a framework of comprehensive protection of rights.
Centers will be created to accommodate those unable to be cared for by their families or those without a place to reside permanently.
2. Special protection against all types of labor exploitation. The State shall implement policies to encourage participation and employment
of older persons in public and private entities to contribute their experience and develop job training programs, according to their vocation
and their aspirations.
3. Development of programs and policies to promote personal autonomy, reduce their dependence and their full social integration.
4. Care and protection against all types of violence, abuse, sexual exploitation or otherwise, or negligently causing such situations.
5. Development of programs to promote recreational activities and spiritual.
6. Preferential treatment in cases of disasters, armed conflicts and all types of emergencies.
7. Creation of special arrangements for the performance of custodial sentences. If sentenced to imprisonment, provided that no alternative
measures are applied, serve their sentence in suitable facilities for the purpose, and if detention is subject to arrest.
8. Protection, care and special assistance when they suffer chronic or degenerative diseases.
9. Adequate financial and psychological assistance to ensure their physical and mental stability. The law will sanction the abandonment of
older people by their relatives or institutions established for its protection.
Section Two
Young
39 .- The State shall guarantee the rights of girls and young people and promote their effective exercise through policies and programs,
institutions and resources to ensure and maintain permanently its participation and inclusion in all areas, particularly in the spaces of public
power. The State recognizes young women and young people as strategic actors of development of the country, and will maintain the
education, health, housing, recreation, sport, leisure, freedom of expression and association. The State shall promote their assignment on a
fair and dignified, with an emphasis on training, guaranteed access to first employment and promoting entrepreneurship skills.
Section Three
Human mobility
40 .- It recognizes individuals the right to migrate. Not be identified nor considered any human being as illegal immigration status. The
State, through appropriate institutions, develop inter alia, the following actions for the exercise of the rights of the Ecuadorian people
abroad, whatever their immigration status:
1. Provide assistance to them and their families, whether they live abroad or at home.
2. Provide care, counseling services and comprehensive protection for them to exercise their rights freely.
3. Preemptive rights when, for whatever reason, have been deprived of their liberty abroad.
4. Promote its ties with Ecuador, facilitate family reunification and encourage voluntary return.
5. Maintain the confidentiality of personal data which are on file with the institutions of Ecuador and abroad.
6. Transnational families and protect the rights of its members.
Article 41 .- It recognizes the rights of asylum and refugee status in accordance with law and international human rights instruments.
People who are in asylum or refugee status shall enjoy special protection to ensure the full exercise of their rights. The State shall respect
and ensure the principle of non-refoulement, as well as humanitarian assistance and emergency legal. Does not apply to persons seeking
asylum or refuge criminal penalties for the fact of their income or their stay in an irregular situation. The State, in exceptional
circumstances and when circumstances warrant, a group recognize refugee status in accordance with the law.
42 .- It prohibits any arbitrary displacement. Persons who have been displaced will be entitled to receive protection and humanitarian
assistance emerging from the authorities, to ensure access to food, shelter, housing and medical and health services. The girls, children,
adolescents, pregnant women, mothers with daughters or younger children, older adults and disabled people receive humanitarian
assistance and specialized preferred. All displaced persons and groups are entitled to return to their places of origin voluntarily, in safety
and dignity.
Section four
Pregnant women
Article 43 .- The State shall guarantee pregnant women and breast-feeding rights:
1. Not to be discriminated because of their pregnancy in the educational, social and labor.
2. The free services for maternal health.
3. The priority protection and care of your overall health and your life during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
4. Having the facilities necessary for recovery after pregnancy and during breastfeeding.
Fifth section
Children and adolescents
44 .- The State, society and family as a priority promote the integral development of children and adolescents, and ensure the full exercise
of their rights will be addressed early in his best interests and rights take precedence over those of others. The children and adolescents
have the right to integral development, understood as a process of growth, maturation and deployment of their intellect and their
capabilities, potentials and aspirations, in a family, school, community and social affection and security. This environment will allow the
satisfaction of their social, affective, emotional and cultural, with the support of national and local cross-sectoral policies.
Article 45 .- The children and adolescents enjoy the common rights of man, as well as those specific to their age. The State shall
recognize and guarantee of life, including the care and protection from conception. The children and adolescents have the right to physical
and mental integrity, their identity, name and citizenship to the health and nutrition, to education and culture, sport and recreation to social
security, to have a family and enjoy the family and community, social participation, respect for their freedom and dignity, to be consulted
in matters concerning them as a priority to be educated in their language and cultural contexts of their own peoples and nationalities, and
to receive information about absent parents or relatives, unless it was detrimental to their welfare. The State guarantees freedom of
expression and association, free operation of student councils and other forms of association.
46 .- The State shall, inter alia, the following measures to ensure the children and adolescents:
1. Care for children under six years, ensuring their nutrition, health, education and day care within a framework of protection of their
rights.
2. Special protection against all types of labor exploitation. It prohibits the employment of children under fifteen, and implement policies
for progressive elimination of child labor. The work of the Teenagers and adolescents will be exceptional, and may not violate their right
to education or be harmful or dangerous situations to their health or personal development. It shall respect, recognize and support their
work and other activities provided they do not conflict with their training and their overall development.
3. Preferential treatment for the full social integration of those with disabilities. The State shall guarantee their inclusion in the regular
education system and society.
4. Care and protection against all types of violence, abuse, sexual exploitation or otherwise, or against the negligence which resulted in
such situations.
5. Prevention against the use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and the consumption of alcohol and other substances harmful
to their health and development.
6. Priority attention in case of disasters, armed conflicts and all types of emergencies.
7. Protection against the influence of programs or messages disseminated through any media that promote violence, or racial or gender
discrimination. Public policies prioritize their education communication and respect for his image rights, integrity and the other specific to
their age. Limitations and penalties will be established to achieve these rights.
8. Special protection and assistance when the parent or the parent, or both, are deprived of their liberty.
9. Protection, care and special assistance when they suffer chronic or degenerative diseases.
Section Six
People with disabilities
Article 47 .- The State shall guarantee policies for prevention of disabilities and, together with society and family, seek to provide equal
opportunities for persons with disabilities and their social integration. It recognizes people with disabilities, the rights to:
1. Specialist care in public and private institutions providing health services for their specific needs, including the provision of free drugs,
particularly for those who require lifelong treatment.
2. The comprehensive rehabilitation and continuing care, which include the relevant technical assistance.
3. Cuts in public services and private transportation services and entertainment.
4. Exemptions within the tributary system.
5. Work on equal opportunities, encouraging their abilities and potential, through policies that allow their incorporation into public and
private entities.
6. Adequate housing, access to facilities and conditions necessary to meet their disability and to ensure the highest degree of autonomy in
their daily lives. Persons with disabilities who can not be met by their families during the day, or have no where to reside permanently, will
have shelters for shelter.
7. An education that develops their potential and skills for their integration and equal participation. Education will be ensured within the
regular education. The differential treatment incorporated into regular schools and special care special education. Educational institutions
meet standards of accessibility for people with disabilities and implement a system of grants to respond to economic conditions in this
group.
8. Specialized education for people with intellectual disabilities and promote their abilities through the creation of schools and special
education programs.
9. The free counseling for people with disabilities and their families, particularly in cases of intellectual disability.
10. Adequate access to all goods and services. Architectural barriers be removed.
11. Access mechanisms and alternative means of communication, including sign language for deaf people, the oral and Braille.
48 .- The State shall take for people with disabilities measures to ensure:
1. Social inclusion, through plans and coordinated government and private programs that encourage political participation, social, cultural,
educational and economic.
2. Obtaining loans and rebates or tax breaks to enable them to initiate and maintain productive activities, and obtaining scholarships at all
levels of education.
3. The development of programs and policies to promote their entertainment and relaxation.
4. Political participation that will ensure their representation, in accordance with the law.
5. The establishment of specialized programs for comprehensive care of people with severe and profound disabilities, in order to achieve
the maximum development of his personality, promoting autonomy and decreasing dependence.
6. The encouragement and support for productive projects in favor of the relatives of people with severe disabilities.
7. The guarantee of the full exercise of the rights of persons with disabilities.
PART II
RIGHTS
Chapter One
Principles of rights
Article 10 .- Individuals, communities, nations, nationalities and groups hold and enjoy the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and
international instruments. Nature will be the subject of those rights that the Constitution recognizes.
11 .- EI exercise of rights is governed by the following principles:
1. The rights can be exercised, promote and enforce individually or collectively with the relevant authorities, these authorities will ensure
compliance.
2. All persons are equal and enjoy the same rights, duties and opportunities. No one shall be discriminated against because of ethnicity,
place of birth, age, sex, gender identity, cultural identity, marital status, language, religion, ideology, political affiliation, criminal record,
socio-economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, health status, carry HIV, disability, physical difference, nor by any other
distinction, personal or collective, temporary or permanent, which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise of rights. The law shall punish any discrimination. The State shall take affirmative action to promote equality in
favor of rights holders are in a situation of inequality.
3. The rights and guarantees established in the Constitution and international instruments on human rights will be of direct and immediate
application for and against any servant or public servant, administrative or judicial, ex officio or on request. For the exercise of rights and
constitutional guarantees require no conditions or requirements that are not established in the Constitution or the law. The rights are fully
justiciable. You can not claim lack of rule of law to justify its violation or ignorance, to dismiss the action for such acts or to deny
recognition.
4. Any rule of law may restrict the content of rights or constitutional guarantees.
5. In terms of rights and constitutional guarantees, the servants and public servants, administrative or judicial, must apply the rule and the
interpretation that best promote their actual effect.
6. All the principles and inalienable rights, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and of equal standing.
7. The recognition of the rights and guarantees established in the Constitution and international human rights instruments, does not
exclude other rights deriving from the dignity of individuals, communities, peoples and nationalities, which are necessary for its full
development.
8. The content of the rights will be developed progressively through the rules, jurisprudence and public policy. The State will create and
ensure the necessary conditions for their full recognition and exercise. Be unconstitutional any act or omission relating to fall backward,
unjustifiably impairing or nullifying the exercise of rights.
9. The highest duty of the State to respect and enforce the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The State, their delegates, assigns and
any person acting in the exercise of public authority are obliged to remedy violations of the rights of individuals by the lack or deficiency
in the provision of public services, or for acts or omissions of its officers and officials, and employees employed in the performance of
their duties. 23 The State shall exercise immediately the right of recourse against those responsible for the damage, without prejudice to
civil, criminal and administrative. The State is responsible for arbitrary arrest, judicial error, unwarranted delay or improper administration
of justice, violation of right to effective judicial protection, and violations of the principles and rules of due process. When a conviction is
amended or revoked, the State will repair to the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction and declared the
liability for acts of servants or public servants, administrative or judicial, will be repeated against them.
Chapter Two
Rights of the good life
Section One
Water and food
12 .- The human right to water is fundamental and indispensable. Water is a strategic national assets for public use, inalienable,
indefeasible, unattachable and essential for life.
Article 13 .- Individuals and communities have the right to safe and permanent access to healthy food, adequate and nutritious food,
preferably locally produced and in accordance with their different cultural identities and traditions. The Ecuadorian State shall promote
food sovereignty.
Section Two
Healthy environment
14 .- The right of people to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment that ensures sustainability and good living, sumak
kawsay. Is declared of public interest environmental preservation, conservation of ecosystems, biodiversity and genetic integrity of the
country, prevention of environmental damage and the recovery of degraded natural areas.
Article 15 .- The State shall promote, in public and private sector, the use of environmentally clean technologies and clean alternative
energy and low impact. Energy sovereignty will not be achieved at the expense of food sovereignty, or affect the right to water. It
prohibits the development, production, possession, sale, import, transport, storage and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons of
highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, agrochemicals internationally prohibited and experimental technologies and harmful biological
agents and genetically modified organisms harmful to human health or against the 25 ecosystems and food sovereignty, and the
introduction of nuclear waste and toxic waste into the country.
Section Three
Communication and Information
16 .- All persons, individually or collectively, have a right To
1. Free communication, intercultural, inclusive, diverse and participatory in all areas of social interaction, by any means and form, in their
own language and their own symbols.
2. Universal access to information and communication technologies.
3. The creation of social media, and equal access to the use of radio spectrum management for radio and television stations, public,
private and community bands and free to operate wireless networks.
4. Access to and use of all forms of visual communication, auditory, sensory and other enabling the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
5. Integrate opportunities for participation under the Constitution in the field of communication.
17 .- The State shall promote the plurality and diversity in communication, and the effect:
1. Ensure the provision, through transparent and equal, the frequencies of radio spectrum management for radio and television stations,
public, private and community, as well as access to free bands for the operation of wireless networks and forewarn that use the collective
interest prevails.
2. Facilitate the development and strengthening of public media, private and community, as well as universal access to information and
communication technologies in particular for people and communities that lack such access or have a limited basis.
3. Do not allow the oligopoly or monopoly, direct or indirect ownership of the media and the use of frequencies.
Article 18 .- All persons, individually or collectively, are entitled to:
1. Seek, receive, exchange, produce and disseminate accurate, verifiable, timely, contextual, pluralistic, without prior censorship of the
facts, events and processes of general interest, and subsequent liability.
2. Free access to information generated by public entities, private or state funds that handle or performing public functions. There will be
no withholding of information except as expressly stated in the law. In case of violation of human rights, no public body shall deny the
information.
Article 19 .- The law shall regulate the prevalence of content for informational, educational and cultural programming of the media and
encourage the creation of spaces for the dissemination of independent national production. It prohibits the broadcast of advertising that
causes violence, discrimination, racism, drug abuse, sexism, religious or political intolerance and all that which harms the rights.
20 .- The State shall guarantee the conscience clause to any person, and professional secrecy and confidentiality of the source to whom
to report, give their opinions through the media or other forms of communication, or work in any activity communication.
Section four
Culture and science
21 .- The People have the right to build and maintain their own cultural identity, to decide on their membership in one or more cultural
communities and to express these elections, to freedom aesthetic awareness of the historical memory of their cultures and access cultural
heritage; to disseminate their own cultural expressions and access to diverse cultural expressions. No culture can be invoked when
jeopardizes the rights recognized in the Constitution.
Article 22 .- The People have the right to develop their creative abilities, decent and sustained exercise of cultural and artistic activities and
to benefit from the protection of moral and economic rights allocated to them by scientific, literary or artistic authorship.
Article 23 .- Persons entitled to access and participate in the public space as field of discussion, cultural exchange, social cohesion and
promote equality in diversity. The right to disseminate in the public's own cultural expressions shall be without other limitations than those
established by law, subject to constitutional principles.
24 .- The People have the right to recreation and leisure activities, sport and leisure.
25 .- The people are entitled to enjoy the benefits and applications of scientific and ancient knowledge.
Fifth section
Education
26 .- Education is a right of the people throughout his life and an inescapable duty of the State and inexcusable. Is a priority area of public
policy and government investment, ensuring equality and social inclusion and a prerequisite for good living. Individuals, families and
society have the right and responsibility to participate in the educational process.
27 .- The education will focus on the human being and ensure their holistic development in the framework of respect for human rights,
environment and sustainable democracy is participatory, compulsory, cultural, democratic, inclusive and diverse quality and warmth;
promote gender equity, justice, solidarity and peace, encourage critical thinking, art and physical education, individual and community
initiative and the development of skills and abilities to create and work. Education is essential to understanding the exercise of rights and
the construction of a sovereign country and is a strategic area for national development.
Article 28 .- Education respond to the public interest and will serve individual and corporate interests. It will ensure universal access,
retention, mobility and exit without any discrimination and compulsory level, primary and high school diploma or its equivalent. It is the
right of all individuals and communities interact across cultures and participate in a learning society. The State shall promote intercultural
dialogue in its many dimensions. The learning will be developed and out of school. Public education will be universal and secular at all
levels, and free up the third level of higher education inclusive.
EI 29 .- The State shall guarantee the freedom of education, academic freedom in higher education and the right of people to learn in their
own language and cultural sphere. Mothers and fathers, or their representatives are free to choose for their children an education
consistent with their principles, beliefs and pedagogical choices.
Section Six
Habitat and housing
Article 31 .- The people are entitled to full enjoyment of the city and its public spaces, under the principles of sustainability, social justice,
respect for different urban cultures and balance between urban and rural. The exercise of the right to the city is based on the democratic
management of it, in social and environmental function of property and the city, and the full exercise of citizenship.
Seventh section
Health
32 .- Health is a right guaranteed by the State, whose realization is linked to the exercise of other rights, including the right to water, food,
education, physical education, labor, social security, environments that support healthy and good living. The State guarantees this right
through economic, social, cultural, educational and environmental and permanent access to timely and without exclusion programs,
actions and promotion services and comprehensive health care, sexual health and reproductive health. The provision of health services
shall be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, intercultural, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, care and bioethics,
with a focus on gender and generational.
Section eight
Labour and social security
Article 33 .- The work is a right and a social duty, and an economic, a source of personal and economic base. The State shall guarantee to
the workers the full respect for their dignity and decent living wages and fair remuneration and performance of a healthy work and freely
chosen or accepted.
Article 34 .- EI right to social security is an inalienable right of all persons, and shall be the duty and primary responsibility of the State.
Social security is governed by the principles of solidarity, binding, universality, equity, efficiency, subsidiarity, adequacy, transparency
and participation, to the attention of the individual and collective needs. The State shall ensure and be paid the full exercise of the right to
social security, which includes persons who perform unpaid work in homes for self-support activities in the field, every form of
self-employment and who are at unemployment.
Chapter Three
Rights of individuals and focus groups
35 .- The elderly, children and adolescents, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, detainees and those who are tainted by
catastrophic illness or high complexity, will receive priority attention and specialized in public and private spheres. It will focus people at
risk, victims of domestic and sexual violence, child abuse, natural disasters or man. The State shall provide special protection to people
living in a double vulnerability.
Section One
Adults and older adults
Article 36 .- The older people will receive priority attention and specialized in public and private spheres, especially in the fields of social
and economic inclusion, and protection against violence. Older adults were considered those who have reached sixty-five years of age.
37 .- The State shall guarantee to older people the following rights:
1. The free care and specialized health and free access to medicines.
2. Paid work, according to its capacity, which takes into account their limitations.
3. The universal pension.
4. Cuts in public services and private transportation services and entertainment.
5. Exemptions in the tax regime.
6. Exemption from payment for notary and registration costs, according to the law.
7. Access to housing to ensure a dignified life, with respect for its advice and consent.
38 .- The State shall establish public policies and programs of care for the elderly, which take into account the specific differences
between urban and rural areas, gender inequalities, ethnicity, culture and differences of people own , communities, peoples and
nationalities also encourage the greatest possible degree of personal autonomy and participation in defining and implementing these
policies. In particular, the State shall take measures:
1. Care centers to ensure their nutrition, health, education and day care, within a framework of comprehensive protection of rights.
Centers will be created to accommodate those unable to be cared for by their families or those without a place to reside permanently.
2. Special protection against all types of labor exploitation. The State shall implement policies to encourage participation and employment
of older persons in public and private entities to contribute their experience and develop job training programs, according to their vocation
and their aspirations.
3. Development of programs and policies to promote personal autonomy, reduce their dependence and their full social integration.
4. Care and protection against all types of violence, abuse, sexual exploitation or otherwise, or negligently causing such situations.
5. Development of programs to promote recreational activities and spiritual.
6. Preferential treatment in cases of disasters, armed conflicts and all types of emergencies.
7. Creation of special arrangements for the performance of custodial sentences. If sentenced to imprisonment, provided that no alternative
measures are applied, serve their sentence in suitable facilities for the purpose, and if detention is subject to arrest.
8. Protection, care and special assistance when they suffer chronic or degenerative diseases.
9. Adequate financial and psychological assistance to ensure their physical and mental stability. The law will sanction the abandonment of
older people by their relatives or institutions established for its protection.
Section Two
Young
39 .- The State shall guarantee the rights of girls and young people and promote their effective exercise through policies and programs,
institutions and resources to ensure and maintain permanently its participation and inclusion in all areas, particularly in the spaces of public
power. The State recognizes young women and young people as strategic actors of development of the country, and will maintain the
education, health, housing, recreation, sport, leisure, freedom of expression and association. The State shall promote their assignment on a
fair and dignified, with an emphasis on training, guaranteed access to first employment and promoting entrepreneurship skills.
Section Three
Human mobility
40 .- It recognizes individuals the right to migrate. Not be identified nor considered any human being as illegal immigration status. The
State, through appropriate institutions, develop inter alia, the following actions for the exercise of the rights of the Ecuadorian people
abroad, whatever their immigration status:
1. Provide assistance to them and their families, whether they live abroad or at home.
2. Provide care, counseling services and comprehensive protection for them to exercise their rights freely.
3. Preemptive rights when, for whatever reason, have been deprived of their liberty abroad.
4. Promote its ties with Ecuador, facilitate family reunification and encourage voluntary return.
5. Maintain the confidentiality of personal data which are on file with the institutions of Ecuador and abroad.
6. Transnational families and protect the rights of its members.
Article 41 .- It recognizes the rights of asylum and refugee status in accordance with law and international human rights instruments.
People who are in asylum or refugee status shall enjoy special protection to ensure the full exercise of their rights. The State shall respect
and ensure the principle of non-refoulement, as well as humanitarian assistance and emergency legal. Does not apply to persons seeking
asylum or refuge criminal penalties for the fact of their income or their stay in an irregular situation. The State, in exceptional
circumstances and when circumstances warrant, a group recognize refugee status in accordance with the law.
42 .- It prohibits any arbitrary displacement. Persons who have been displaced will be entitled to receive protection and humanitarian
assistance emerging from the authorities, to ensure access to food, shelter, housing and medical and health services. The girls, children,
adolescents, pregnant women, mothers with daughters or younger children, older adults and disabled people receive humanitarian
assistance and specialized preferred. All displaced persons and groups are entitled to return to their places of origin voluntarily, in safety
and dignity.
Section four
Pregnant women
Article 43 .- The State shall guarantee pregnant women and breast-feeding rights:
1. Not to be discriminated because of their pregnancy in the educational, social and labor.
2. The free services for maternal health.
3. The priority protection and care of your overall health and your life during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
4. Having the facilities necessary for recovery after pregnancy and during breastfeeding.
Fifth section
Children and adolescents
44 .- The State, society and family as a priority promote the integral development of children and adolescents, and ensure the full exercise
of their rights will be addressed early in his best interests and rights take precedence over those of others. The children and adolescents
have the right to integral development, understood as a process of growth, maturation and deployment of their intellect and their
capabilities, potentials and aspirations, in a family, school, community and social affection and security. This environment will allow the
satisfaction of their social, affective, emotional and cultural, with the support of national and local cross-sectoral policies.
Article 45 .- The children and adolescents enjoy the common rights of man, as well as those specific to their age. The State shall
recognize and guarantee of life, including the care and protection from conception. The children and adolescents have the right to physical
and mental integrity, their identity, name and citizenship to the health and nutrition, to education and culture, sport and recreation to social
security, to have a family and enjoy the family and community, social participation, respect for their freedom and dignity, to be consulted
in matters concerning them as a priority to be educated in their language and cultural contexts of their own peoples and nationalities, and
to receive information about absent parents or relatives, unless it was detrimental to their welfare. The State guarantees freedom of
expression and association, free operation of student councils and other forms of association.
46 .- The State shall, inter alia, the following measures to ensure the children and adolescents:
1. Care for children under six years, ensuring their nutrition, health, education and day care within a framework of protection of their
rights.
2. Special protection against all types of labor exploitation. It prohibits the employment of children under fifteen, and implement policies
for progressive elimination of child labor. The work of the Teenagers and adolescents will be exceptional, and may not violate their right
to education or be harmful or dangerous situations to their health or personal development. It shall respect, recognize and support their
work and other activities provided they do not conflict with their training and their overall development.
3. Preferential treatment for the full social integration of those with disabilities. The State shall guarantee their inclusion in the regular
education system and society.
4. Care and protection against all types of violence, abuse, sexual exploitation or otherwise, or against the negligence which resulted in
such situations.
5. Prevention against the use of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and the consumption of alcohol and other substances harmful
to their health and development.
6. Priority attention in case of disasters, armed conflicts and all types of emergencies.
7. Protection against the influence of programs or messages disseminated through any media that promote violence, or racial or gender
discrimination. Public policies prioritize their education communication and respect for his image rights, integrity and the other specific to
their age. Limitations and penalties will be established to achieve these rights.
8. Special protection and assistance when the parent or the parent, or both, are deprived of their liberty.
9. Protection, care and special assistance when they suffer chronic or degenerative diseases.
Section Six
People with disabilities
Article 47 .- The State shall guarantee policies for prevention of disabilities and, together with society and family, seek to provide equal
opportunities for persons with disabilities and their social integration. It recognizes people with disabilities, the rights to:
1. Specialist care in public and private institutions providing health services for their specific needs, including the provision of free drugs,
particularly for those who require lifelong treatment.
2. The comprehensive rehabilitation and continuing care, which include the relevant technical assistance.
3. Cuts in public services and private transportation services and entertainment.
4. Exemptions within the tributary system.
5. Work on equal opportunities, encouraging their abilities and potential, through policies that allow their incorporation into public and
private entities.
6. Adequate housing, access to facilities and conditions necessary to meet their disability and to ensure the highest degree of autonomy in
their daily lives. Persons with disabilities who can not be met by their families during the day, or have no where to reside permanently, will
have shelters for shelter.
7. An education that develops their potential and skills for their integration and equal participation. Education will be ensured within the
regular education. The differential treatment incorporated into regular schools and special care special education. Educational institutions
meet standards of accessibility for people with disabilities and implement a system of grants to respond to economic conditions in this
group.
8. Specialized education for people with intellectual disabilities and promote their abilities through the creation of schools and special
education programs.
9. The free counseling for people with disabilities and their families, particularly in cases of intellectual disability.
10. Adequate access to all goods and services. Architectural barriers be removed.
11. Access mechanisms and alternative means of communication, including sign language for deaf people, the oral and Braille.
48 .- The State shall take for people with disabilities measures to ensure:
1. Social inclusion, through plans and coordinated government and private programs that encourage political participation, social, cultural,
educational and economic.
2. Obtaining loans and rebates or tax breaks to enable them to initiate and maintain productive activities, and obtaining scholarships at all
levels of education.
3. The development of programs and policies to promote their entertainment and relaxation.
4. Political participation that will ensure their representation, in accordance with the law.
5. The establishment of specialized programs for comprehensive care of people with severe and profound disabilities, in order to achieve
the maximum development of his personality, promoting autonomy and decreasing dependence.
6. The encouragement and support for productive projects in favor of the relatives of people with severe disabilities.
7. The guarantee of the full exercise of the rights of persons with disabilities.
On 23 September 1830, the Congress of the Republic of Ecuador enacted CONSTITUCIÓN POLÍTICA
DE LA REPÚBLICA DE ECUADOR DE 1830. On 27 June 2008 REPÚBLICA DEL ECUADOR
ASAMBLEA NACIONAL CONSTITUYENTE enacted a new Constitution. It extensively enumerates
the rights of the citizen and foreign nationals in residence in the Republic of Ecuador and fully complies
with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights are enumerated in Part II and are
detailed below. There is no full English translation yet available however, for a full text in the original
Spanish version, of Ecuador's constitution, click here.
DE LA REPÚBLICA DE ECUADOR DE 1830. On 27 June 2008 REPÚBLICA DEL ECUADOR
ASAMBLEA NACIONAL CONSTITUYENTE enacted a new Constitution. It extensively enumerates
the rights of the citizen and foreign nationals in residence in the Republic of Ecuador and fully complies
with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights are enumerated in Part II and are
detailed below. There is no full English translation yet available however, for a full text in the original
Spanish version, of Ecuador's constitution, click here.