Colombia is a South American country. When anything is shown about
Colombia in Hollywood movies, Colombia is often portrayed as a sanctuary
for drug dealers and mafia emperors. But if you read the Colombian
Constitution, you will realize that the Colombian Constitution is at
least 20 times more beautiful than the United States Constitution.
Colombia has one of the best constitutions in the world.
It
has borders with Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Panama. It has an
area of 11,41,748 sq km and a population of about 5,03,72,000. About 88%
of Christians and the official language is Spanish.
According
to the Colombian constitution, study of constitution and political
science is mandatory in all educational institutions in the country. The
effort to make everyone in the country aware of politics is remarkable.
Social security and food subsidies are guaranteed in case of
helplessness. The highest priority is given to food security. The
quality of a product or service should be clearly stated during its
marketing. All types of monopoly are prohibited.
Members of the
legislature are not able to do any other job besides their main
responsibilities. Directly or indirectly engaging in any business with
the government is prohibited. Seats will be vacant if absent from six
plenary meetings.
Although the idea of "indigenous" is
technically wrong. All the people of the world are equal. However, in
Article 330 of the Constitution, the efforts to preserve the regional
culture and enterprise are commendable.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
The so-called indigenous peoples are constitutionally sanctioned to
establish their own justice system in their "area", which is in direct
conflict with the principle of "equal justice for all".
Admirable Articles of Colombia's Constitution
Article 2
The essential goals of the State are to serve the community, promote the general prosperity, and guarantee the effectiveness of the principles, rights, and duties stipulated by the Constitution; to facilitate participation by everyone in the decisions that affect them and in the economic, political, administrative, and cultural life of the nation; to defend national independence, maintain territorial integrity, and ensure peaceful coexistence and enforcement of a just order.
The authorities of the Republic are established in order to protect all individuals residing in Colombia, in their life, honor, property, beliefs, and other rights and freedoms, and in order to ensure the fulfillment of the social duties of the State and individuals.
Article 3
Sovereignty resides exclusively in the people from whom public power emanates. The people exercise it in direct form or through their representatives, within the limits established by the Constitution.
Article 6
Individuals are solely responsible before the authorities for violations of the Constitution and the laws. Public servants are responsible for the same violations and the omissions or ultra vires acts committed in the exercise of their functions.
Article 13 (Part of it)
All individuals are born free and equal before the law, shall receive equal protection and treatment from the authorities, and shall enjoy the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities without any discrimination on account of gender, race, national or family origin, language, religion, political opinion, or philosophy.
The State shall especially protect those individuals who on account of their economic, physical, or mental condition are in obviously vulnerable circumstances and shall sanction the abuses or ill-treatment perpetrated against them.
Article 17
Slavery, servitude, and the slave trade in all forms are prohibited.
Article 41
In all educational institutions, public or private, the study of the Constitution and civics shall be mandatory. In this way, democratic practices for the teaching of principles and values of citizen participation shall be promoted. The State shall publicize the Constitution.
Article 42 (Part of it)
The children born of matrimony or outside it, adopted or conceived naturally or with scientific assistance, have equal rights and duties. An Act shall regulate responsibility to the offspring.
Article 46 (Part of it)
The State shall guarantee to them services of integral social security and food subsidies in cases of indigence.
Article 53
The Congress shall issue a labor statute. The appropriate law shall take into account at least the following minimal fundamental principles:
Equality of opportunity for workers; minimum essential and flexible remuneration proportional to the amount and quality of work; stability in employment; irrevocability of minimum benefits established in labor regulations; options to negotiate about and reconcile uncertain and arguable rights; a situation more favorable to the worker in case of doubt in the application and interpretation of the formal bases of the law; the primacy of facts over established formalities in issues of labor relations; guarantees to social security, training, instruction, and necessary rest; special protection of women, mothers, and minor-age workers.
The State guarantees the right of suitable payment and the periodic adjustment of legal retirement benefits.
International labor agreements duly ratified are part of domestic legislation.
Statute, contracts, agreements, and labor settlements may not infringe on the freedom, human dignity, or rights of workers.
Article 65
The production of food crops shall benefit from the special protection of the State. For that purpose, priority shall be given to the integral development of agricultural, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry, and agroindustrial activities as well as to the building of physical infrastructural projects and to land improvement.
Similarly, the state shall promote research and the transfer of technology for the production of food crops and primary resources of agricultural origin with the purpose of increasing productivity.
Article 72
The nation’s cultural heritage is under the protection of the State. The archaeological heritage and other cultural resources that shaped the national identity belong to the nation and are inalienable, not subject to seizure, and are imprescriptible. An Act shall establish the mechanisms to restore control over them when they are in the hands of individuals and shall regulate the special rights that ethnic groups may enjoy when they occupy territories of archaeological wealth.
Article 75
The electromagnetic spectrum is an inalienable and imprescriptible public resource subject to the management and control of the State. Equality of opportunity is guaranteed in the access to its use within the limits determined by statute.
To guarantee genuine pluralism and competence, the state shall intervene through the mandate of an Act to avoid monopolistic practices in the use of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Article 78 (Part of it)
An Act shall regulate the control of the quality of goods and services offered and provided to the community as well as the information that must be made available to the public in their marketing.
Those who in the production and marketing of goods and services may jeopardize the health, safety, and adequate supply to consumers and users shall be held responsible in accordance with the relevant statute.
Article 95 (Part of it)
The following are duties of the individual and of the citizen:
- To respect others’ rights and not to abuse one’s own;
Article 180
Members of Congress are prohibited from engaging in the following activities:
- Holding public or private office or employment.
- Managing in their own name or that of somebody else of public authorities or individuals that administer taxes, being invested with powers with them or to conclude contracts, on their own or through an intermediary, with them. An Act shall establish the exceptions to this provision.
- Being a member of boards or executive committees of decentralized official entities of whatever level or institutions that administer taxes.
- Concluding contracts or making arrangements with individuals or private legal entities that administer, manage, or invest public funds or are contractors of the state or receive subsidies from the latter. Excepted is the acquisition of goods or services that are offered to citizens in conditions of equality.
Article 183
Members of Congress lose their seat for the following causes:
- For violating the rules on disqualifications and incompatibilities or the rules on conflict of interest.
- For their absence, in the same term of sessions, from six plenary meetings at which legislative acts, bills, or motions of censure are voted upon.
- For not taking their seat within eight (8) days following the constitution of the respective body or the date on which they were summoned to take their seat.
- For the improper payment of public funds.
- For duly proven influence trafficking.
Article 330 (Part of it)
In accordance with the Constitution and the statutes, the indigenous territories shall be governed by the councils formed and regulated according to the uses and customs of their communities and shall exercise the following functions:
- Design the policies, plans and programs of economic and social development within their territory, in accordance with the National Development Plan.
- Promote public investments in their territories and oversee their appropriate implementation.
- Oversee the conservation of natural resources.
- Coordinate the programs and projects promoted by the different communities in their territory.
- Other matters stipulated by the Constitution and statute.
Article 332
The State is the owner of the subsoil and of the natural, non-renewable resources without prejudice to the rights acquired and fulfilled in accordance with prior laws.
Article 333 (Part of it)
Free economic competition is a right of everyone, entailing responsibilities.
The enterprise, as a basis of development, has a social function that implies obligations. The state shall strengthen the joint organizations and stimulate enterprise development.
The State, mandated by an Act, shall check the impediments to or restrictions of economic freedom and shall avoid or control any abuse that individuals or enterprises may create thanks to their dominant position in the national marketplace.
An Act shall delimit the scope of economic freedom when the social interest, the environment, and the cultural patrimony of the nation demand it.
Article 334
The general management of the economy is the responsibility of the state. By mandate of an Act, the state shall intervene in the exploitation of natural resources, land use, the production, distribution, use, and consumption of goods, and in the public and private services in order to rationalize the economy with the purpose of achieving, at the national and regional level and within the framework of fiscal sustainability, the improvement of the quality of life of the inhabitants, the equitable distribution of opportunities, and the benefits of development and conservation of a healthy environment. The aforementioned framework of fiscal sustainability must function as an instrument for achieving in a progressive manner the objectives of a social State based on the rule of law. In all cases public spending for social purposes shall have priority.
In a special manner, the state shall intervene for the sake of the full employment of the human resources and to ascertain that all individuals, especially those with a low income, may have effective access to all basic goods and services. [It shall] also [intervene] to promote productivity and competitiveness and the harmonious development of the regions.
Fiscal sustainability shall provide guidance to the branches and organs of government, within their competences, in a framework of harmonious collaboration.
When a judgment has been handed down by any of the supreme judicial bodies, the General Prosecutor of the Nation or one of the government ministries may request the initiation of a Financial Impact Assessment, the holding of which shall be obligatory. The explanations of the supporters on the consequences of the judgment on the public finances shall be heard, as well as the concrete plan for its execution, and a decision shall be taken whether to modulate, modify or postpone the effects of the judgment with the objective of preventing serious disturbances to fiscal sustainability. In no case shall the essential core of a fundamental right be affected.
Article 336
No monopoly may be established except through the free play of the marketplace and to promote the public or social interest and in accordance with applicable statute.
An Act which establishes a monopoly may not be applied before those individuals, who by virtue of it must relinquish the pursuit of a legal economic activity, are fully indemnified.
The organization, administration, control, and exploitation of financial monopolies shall be subjected to a specific regime, determined by an Act of government initiative.
Revenues obtained in the exercise of the monopolies of games of chance shall be earmarked exclusively to the public health services.
Revenues obtained in the exercise of the liquor monopoly shall be earmarked on a preferential basis to the health and educational services.
Tax evasion with respect to revenues originating from financial monopolies shall be sanctioned as a crime within the limits established by statute.
The government shall sell or liquidate the monopolistic enterprises of the State and transfer to third parties the exploitation of their operation when the requirements of efficiency are not met within the limits established by statute.
Article 339
There shall be a National Development Plan consisting of a general part and a plan of investments of the national public entities. In the general part the long-term national purposes and objectives, the parameters and priorities for State action in the medium term, and the strategies and general orientations of economic, environmental and social policy to be adopted by the government shall be laid down. The public investment plan shall contain the multi-year budgets of the principal programs and national public investment projects, and the specification of the financial resources required for their execution, within a framework which ensures fiscal sustainability.
The territorial entities shall elaborate and adopt in a concerted manner between them and the National Government development plans with the purpose of ensuring the efficient use of their resources, the development of strategies in the fight against poverty and the adequate execution of the functions assigned to them by the Constitution and statute. The plans of the territorial entities shall consist of a strategic plan and a plan for short and long term investments.
Facts of Colombia's Constitution
Preamble
The people of Colombia,
In the exercise of their sovereign power, represented by their delegates to the National Constituent Assembly, invoking the protection of God, and in order to strengthen the unity of the nation and ensure to its members life, peaceful coexistence, work, justice, equality, understanding, freedom, and peace within a legal, democratic, and participatory framework that may guarantee a just political, economic, and social order and committed to promote the integration of the Latin American community, decree, authorize, and promulgate the following:
Article 192
The President of the Republic shall assume his/her office before Congress and shall take the following oath: “I swear to God and promise to the people to faithfully execute the Constitution and the laws of Colombia.”
If, for any reason, the President should be unable to assume his/her office before Congress, he/she shall do so before the Supreme Court of Justice or, failing that, before two witnesses.
Chapter V. On Special Jurisdictions
Article 246
The authorities of the indigenous [Indian] peoples may exercise their jurisdictional functions within their territorial jurisdiction in accordance with their own laws and procedures as long as these are not contrary to the Constitution and the laws of the Republic. An Act shall establish the forms of coordination of this special jurisdiction with the national judicial system.
Article 247
An Act may create justices of the peace entrusted with the equitable resolution of individual and community conflicts. It may also order that they be popularly elected.
Article 248
Only sentences handed down definitively in judicial trials qualify as a criminal record or a violation in all legal matters.
