Ecuador is a country located in South America, bordering Colombia and Peru. The official language is Spanish, as well as Quechua and Shuar are recognized. Ethnically mixed people are 71% and 93% are Christians. In the area of 2,56,000 sq km, the population is about 1,77,15,000.
Individual or group ownership of any media is prohibited to ensure plurality and diversity of media. Every citizen has the right to develop and retain his or her own cultural identity. Older people, pregnant women, people with disabilities, people in prisons and those suffering from catastrophic or highly complex diseases will receive priority and specialized care in the public and private health sectors. Pregnant and lactating mothers should not be discriminated against for their condition. Both sons and daughters have equal rights in the family. Government employees, at the beginning and end of their tenure, will present a financial statement containing their total assets and liabilities. Loans will not be accuried from citizens unless there is a financial capacity to repay the loan. No one's salary will be reduced due to physical disability.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.

Acknowledging the existence of so-called indigenous groups, they have been given special privileges - which are in conflict with democracy. Permission has been granted to take as many children as desired in the constitution, where the world's population is eight billion. Religious education system is approved. 

 

Constitution of Ecuador

 

Admirable Articles of Ecuador's Constitution

Article 11 (Part of it)

The exercise of rights shall be governed by the following principles:

  • 1. Rights can be exercised, promoted and enforced individually or collectively before competent authorities; these authorities shall guarantee their enforcement.
  • All persons are equal and shall enjoy the same rights, duties and opportunities.
  • No one shall be discriminated against for reasons of ethnic belonging, place of birth, age, sex, gender identity, cultural identity, civil status, language, religion, ideology, political affiliation, legal record, socio-economic condition, migratory status, sexual orientation, health status, HIV carrier, disability, physical difference or any other distinguishing feature, whether personal or collective, temporary or permanent, which might be aimed at or result in the diminishment or annulment of recognition, enjoyment or exercise of rights. All forms of discrimination are punishable by law.
  • The State shall adopt affirmative action measures that promote real equality for the benefit of the rights-bearers who are in a situation of inequality.
  • 6. All principles and rights are unalienable, obligatory, indivisible, interdependent and of equal importance.
  • 9. The State's supreme duty consists of respecting and enforcing respect for the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

 

SECTION 1. Water and food

Article 12

The human right to water is essential and cannot be waived. Water constitutes a national strategic asset for use by the public and it is unalienable, not subject to a statute of limitations, immune from seizure and essential for life.

 

Article 13

Persons and community groups have the right to safe and permanent access to healthy, sufficient and nutritional food, preferably produced locally and in keeping with their various identities and cultural traditions.

The Ecuadorian State shall promote food sovereignty.

 

Article 14

The right of the population to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment that guarantees sustainability and the good way of living (sumak kawsay), is recognized.

Environmental conservation, the protection of ecosystems, biodiversity and the integrity of the country's genetic assets, the prevention of environmental damage, and the recovery of degraded natural spaces are declared matters of public interest.

 

Article 15

The State shall promote, in the public and private sectors, the use of environmentally clean technologies and nonpolluting and low-impact alternative sources of energy. Energy sovereignty shall not be achieved to the detriment of food sovereignty nor shall it affect the right to water.

The development, production, ownership, marketing, import, transport, storage and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, internationally prohibited agrochemicals, and experimental biological technologies and agents and genetically modified organisms that are harmful to human health or mat jeopardize food sovereignty or ecosystems, as well as the introduction of nuclear residues and toxic waste into the country's territory, are forbidden.

 

Article 16

All persons, individually or collectively, have the right to:

  • 1. Free, intercultural, inclusive, diverse and participatory communication in all spheres of social interaction, by any means or form, in their own language and with their own symbols.
  • 2. Universal access to information and communication technologies.
  • 3. The creation of media and access, under equal conditions, to use of radio spectrum frequencies for the management of public, private and community radio and television stations and to free bands for the use of wireless networks.
  • 4. Access and use of all forms of visual, auditory, sensory and other communication that make it possible to include persons with disabilities.
  • 5. Become part of participation spaces as provided for by the Constitution in the field of communication.

 

Article 17 (Part of it) 

The State shall foster plurality and diversity in communication and, for this purpose, shall:

3. Not permit the oligopolistic or monopolistic ownership, whether direct or indirect, of the media and use of frequencies.

 

Article 20

The State shall guarantee the conscience clause for all persons, professional secrecy and the confidentiality of the sources of those who inform, issue their opinions through the media or other forms of communication or who work in any communication activity.

 

Article 21

Persons have the right to build and uphold their own cultural identity, to decide their belonging to one or various cultural communities, and to express these choices; the right to aesthetic freedom; the right to learn about the historical past of their cultures and to gain access to their cultural heritage; to disseminate their own cultural expressions and to have access to diverse cultural expressions.

Culture cannot be used as an excuse when infringing rights recognized in the Constitution.

 

Article 22

Persons have the right to develop their creative capacity, to the commendable and steady exercise of cultural and artistic activities, and to benefit from the protection of moral and heritage rights that pertain to them as a result of the scientific, literary or artistic productions of which they are the authors.

 

Article 23

Persons have the right to gain access to and participate in public spaces as a sphere for deliberation, cultural exchange, social cohesiveness and the promotion of equality in diversity. The right to disseminate in public spaces one's own cultural manifestations shall be exercised without any constraint other than those provided for by the law, subject to the principles of the Constitution.

 

Article 24

Persons have the right to recreation and leisure, the practice of sports and free time.

 

Article 25

Persons have the right to enjoy the benefits and applications of scientific progress and ancestral wisdom.

 

Article 26

Education is a right of persons throughout their lives and an unavoidable and mandatory duty of the State. It constitutes a priority area for public policymaking and state investment, the guarantee of equality and social inclusion and the indispensable condition for the good way of living. Persons, families and society have the right and responsibility to participate in education.

 

Article 27

Education will focus on the human being and shall guarantee holistic human development, in the framework of respect for human rights, a sustainable environment, and democracy; education shall be participatory, compulsory, intercultural, democratic, inclusive and diverse, of high quality and humane; it shall promote gender equity, justice, solidarity and peace; it shall encourage critical faculties, art and sports, individual and community initiatives, and the development of competencies and capabilities to create and work.

Education is indispensable for knowledge, exercise of rights and building a sovereign country and it is a key strategy for national development.

 

Article 35

Elderly persons, girls, children and adolescents, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, persons in prison and those who suffer from disastrous or highly complex diseases shall receive priority and specialized care in the public and private sectors. The same priority care shall be received by persons in situations of risk, victims of domestic and sexual violence, child mistreatment, natural or manmade disasters. The State shall provide special protection to persons who are doubly vulnerable.

 

SECTION 4. Pregnant women

Article 43

The State shall guarantee the rights of pregnant and breast-feeding women to:

  • 1. Not be discriminated for their pregnancy in education, social, and labor sectors.
  • 2. Free maternal healthcare services.
  • 3. Priority protection and care of their integral health and life during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
  • 4. The facilities needed for their recovery after pregnancy and during breast-feeding.

 

Article 46 (Part of it)

The State shall adopt, among others, the following measures that safeguard children and adolescents:

· 2. Special protection against any type of labor or economic exploitation. The work of children under fifteen years of age is forbidden and policies shall be implemented for the progressive elimination of child labor. Adolescent labor shall be the exception rather than the rule and cannot undermine their right to education nor can it be carried out in situations that are harmful or dangerous to their health or personal development. Their work and other activities shall be respected, recognized, and supported as long as it does not jeopardize their education and integral development.

· 5. Prevention of the use of drugs or psychotropic substances and the consumption of alcoholic beverages and other substances that are harmful to their health and development.

 

Article 61 (Part of it)

Ecuadorians benefit from the following rights:

5. To audit activities conducted by the government.

 

Article 69 (Part of it)

To protect the rights of persons who are members of a family:

6. Daughters and sons shall have the same rights, without any consideration given to kinship or adoption background.

 

Article 73

The State shall apply preventive and restrictive measures on activities that might lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems and the permanent alteration of natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that might definitively alter the nation's genetic assets is forbidden.

 

Article 76 (Part of it)

In all processes where rights and obligations of any kind are set forth, the right to due process of law shall be ensured, including the following basic guarantees:

  • 5. In the case of conflict between two laws on the same subject envisaging different punishments for a single action, the less severe of the two punishments shall be imposed, even when its enactment is subsequent to the offense. In the event of any doubt on a regulation providing for punishments, the regulation shall abide by the most favorable interpretation of its effective force for the benefit of the offender.
  • 7. The right of persons to defense shall include the following guarantees:
    • e. No one can be questioned, not even for purposes of inquiry, by the Office of the Attorney-General, by police force authority or any other authority, without the presence of a private attorney or a court appointed defense attorney, or outside the premises authorized for this purpose.

 

Article 159

The Armed Forces and the National Police Force shall be obedient and not deliberative; they shall fulfill their mission strictly subject to civilian power and the Constitution.

The authorities of the Armed Forces and the National Police Force shall be responsible for the orders that are given. Obedience of orders from their superiors shall not exonerate those who carry them out from being held liable for them.

 

Article 163 (Part of it)

The National Police Force is a state institution that is civilian, armed, technical, structured by ranks, disciplined, professional and highly specialized, whose mission is to provide for public safety and law and order, and to protect the free exercise of rights and security of persons in the national territory.

 

Article 191 (Part of it) 

The Office of the Attorney for the Defense of the People shall provide technical, timely, efficient, effective and free-of-charge legal services to support and legally advise the rights of persons in all matters and institutions.

 

Article 231

Civil servants shall present, without exception, at the beginning and end of their term of office and according to the periodicity set by law, a sworn statement regarding their net worth, which shall include both their assets and liabilities, as well as the authorization, if necessary, to lift the secrecy of their bank accounts; whoever tails to comply with this requirement shall not be sworn into office. The members of the Armed Forces and the National Police Force shall submit an additional statement of net worth, prior to being promoted and retiring.

The Office of the Comptroller General shall examine and crosscheck the statements and shall investigate those cases where illicit enrichment is alleged. The failure to submit this statement at the end of one's term of office or any unsubstantiated inconsistency between the statements shall lead to the presumption of illicit enrichment.

When there is severe evidence of cover-ups or use of fronts, the Office of the Comptroller General will be able to request similar statements from third parties linked to the person holding or having held public office.

 

Article 232

Those who have vested interests in those areas that they shall be monitoring or regulating or who represent those who have these vested interests cannot be public officials or members of the board of directors of institutions that perform state control or regulatory powers.

Public servants shall refrain from acting in those cases where their vested interests clash with those of the body or institution where they are providing their services.

 

Article 233

No public servant shall be exempt from being held accountable for his/her actions in the performance of his/her duties or for his/her omissions and shall be held liable administratively, civilly, and criminally for the management and administration of public funds, assets or resources.

Public servants and the delegates or representatives of the senior management committees of State institutions shall be subject to the sanctions established for the offenses of embezzlement, bribery, extortion and illicit enrichment. The proceedings to prosecute them and the corresponding penalties shall not be subject to any statute of limitations and, in these cases, the trials shall begin and even continue in the absence of the persons charged. These norms shall also be applicable to those who participate in these offenses even when they do not have the above-mentioned qualities.

 

Article 282

The State shall make laws for the use and access to land that must fulfill social and environmental functions. A national land fund, established by law, shall regulate the equitable access of campesinos to land.

Large estate farming and land concentration is forbidden, as is the monopolizing or privatizing of water and sources thereof.

The State shall regulate the use and management of irrigation water for food production, abiding by the principles of equity, efficiency and environmental sustainability.

 

CHAPTER 4. Economic sovereignty

SECTION 1. Economic system and economic policy

Article 283

The economic system is socially oriented and mutually supportive; it recognizes the human being as a subject and an end; it tends towards a dynamic, balanced relationship among society, State and the market, in harmony with nature; and its objective is to ensure the production and reproduction of the material and immaterial conditions that can bring about the good way of living.

The economic system shall be comprised of public, private, mixed-economy, grassroots solidarity forms of economic organization, and others as established by the Constitution. The grassroots solidarity economy shall be regulated pursuant to the law and shall include cooperative, associative and community sectors.

 

Article 284

The economic policy shall have the following objectives:

  • 1. To ensure an adequate distribution of the country's revenues and wealth.
  • 2. To encourage national production, systemic productivity and competitiveness, the accumulation of scientific and technological knowledge, strategic insertion into the world economy, and complementary productive activities within regional integration.
  • 3. To ensure food and energy sovereignty.
  • 4. To promote the incorporation of added value with maximum efficiency, within the biophysical limits of nature, and respect for life and cultures.
  • 5. To achieve a balanced development of the national territory, integration among regions, in the rural sector, and between the countryside and the city, in economic, social and cultural terms.
  • 6. To foster full employment and value all forms of work, with respect for labor rights.
  • 7. To uphold economic buoyancy, understood as the maximum sustainable level of production and employment over time.
  • 8. To foster the fair and complementary exchange of goods and services on transparent, efficient markets.
  • 9. To encourage socially and environmentally responsible consumption.

 

SECTION 2. Fiscal policy

Article 285

The fiscal policy shall have the following specific objectives:

  • 1. The financing of services, investment and public goods.
  • 2. The redistribution of revenues through appropriate transfers, taxes and subsidies.
  • 3. The creation of incentives for investment in different sectors of the economy and for the production of goods and services that are socially desirable and environmentally acceptable.

 

Article 286

At all levels of government, public finances shall be conducted in a sustainable, responsible and transparent manner, and shall strive towards economic buoyancy. Permanent outlays shall be financed by permanent revenues.

Ongoing outlays for health, education and justice shall be given priority and may, on an exceptional basis, be funded by nonpermanent revenues.

 

Article 287

Any legal norm creating an obligation financed by public resources shall establish the respective source of financing. Only institutions of public law may be financed by special charges and contributions as established by law.

 

Article 288

Public procurement shall meet criteria of efficiency, transparency, quality, and social and environmental responsibility. Priority shall be given to domestic products and services, in particular those originating in the grassroots solidarity economy and in micro, small and medium-sized production units.

 

SECTION 3. Public borrowing

Article 290

Public borrowing shall be subject to the following regulations:

  • 1. Public borrowing shall be resorted to only when fiscal revenues and resources from international cooperation are insufficient.
  • 2. Public borrowing shall be monitored to ensure that it does not affect sovereignty, rights, the good way of living and nature conservation.
  • 3. Public borrowing shall be used exclusively to finance programs and projects investing in infrastructure, or those with the financial capacity for repayment. Financing the foreign public debt may be rescheduled only if new conditions are more beneficial to Ecuador.
  • 4. Renegotiation agreements shall not contain, either tacitly or expressly, any form of anatocism or usury.
  • 5. Debts declared unlawful by the competent authority shall be challenged. In the case of declared illegality, the right to recovery shall be exercised.
  • 6. Any legal action for administrative or civil liabilities arising from the acquisition or management of the public debt shall not be subject to a statute of limitations.
  • 7. State is forbidden to take up any private debt.
  • 8. The granting of debt securities by the State shall be regulated by law.
  • 9. The Executive Branch may decide whether or not to take up debts of the decentralized autonomous governments.

 

Article 308

Financial activities are a service of public interest and may be exercised, with the prior authorization of the State, in accordance with the law. Their basic aim shall be to safeguard deposits and meet financing needs to achieve the country's development objectives. Financial activities shall perform an efficient intermediary role enabling the resources deposited to bolster domestic investment in production and socially and environmentally responsible consumption.

The State shall foster access to financial services and the democratizing of credit. Practices of collusion, anatocism and usury are forbidden.

The regulation and control of the private financial sector shall not transfer the responsibility of bank solvency, nor imply any guarantee by the State. Managers of financial institutions and those controlling the capital thereof shall be held liable for the solvency of said institutions. The freezing or arbitrary or widespread withholding of funds or deposits in public or private financial institutions is forbidden.

 

Article 314

The State shall be responsible for the provision of the public services of drinking and irrigation water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, roads, seaport and airport facilities, and others as established by law.

The State shall ensure that public services and the provision thereof observe the principles of obligation, generality, uniformity, efficiency, responsibility, universality, accessibility, regularity, continuity and quality. The State shall take steps to ensure that the prices and fees of public services are equitable, and shall establish the monitoring and regulation thereof.

 

Article 317

Nonrenewable natural resources are part of the unalienable heritage of the State and are not subject to a statute of limitations. In the management of these resources, the State shall give priority to responsibility between generations, the conservation of nature, the charging of royalties or other non-tax contributions and corporate shares; and shall minimize the negative impacts of an environmental, cultural, social and economic nature.

 

Article 318

Water is part of the country's strategic heritage for public use; it is the unalienable property of the State and is not subject to a statute of limitations. It is a vital element for nature and human existence. Any form of water privatization is forbidden.

The management of water shall be exclusively public or community-based. The public service of sanitation and the supply of drinking and irrigation water shall be provided only by legal entities of the State or communities.

The State shall bolster the management and operating of community initiatives with regard to the management of water and provision of public services, by encouraging alliances between public and community bodies for the provision of services.

The State, through the sole authority for water, shall be directly responsible for planning and managing water resources for human consumption, irrigation to guarantee food sovereignty, ecological wealth and productive activities, in this order of priority. State authorization will be required for the use of water for productive purposes by the public, private and grassroots solidarity sectors, pursuant to the law.

 

Article 326 (Part of it) 

The right to work is underpinned by the following principles:

1. The State shall promote full employment and the elimination of under-employment and unemployment.

4. Work of equal value shall be given equal pay.

 

Article 328 (Part of it) 

Every year, the State shall establish and review the basic wage set by law, and the application thereof shall be general and mandatory.

 

Article 330 (Part of it) 

Any reduction in pay for any circumstance related to the condition of a worker with a disability is forbidden.

 

Article 361

The State shall exercise leadership of the system through the national health authorities, shall be responsible for national health policymaking, and shall set standards for, regulate and monitor all health-related activities, as well as the functioning of sector entities.

 

Article 363

The State shall be responsible for:

  • 1. Drafting public policies that guarantee the promotion, prevention, healing, rehabilitation and provision of integral health care and the fostering of healthy practices in the family, at work, and in the community.
  • 2. Universalizing healthcare, permanently improving quality, and enlarging coverage.
  • 3. Building up state healthcare services, incorporating human talent, and providing physical infrastructure and equipment to public health institutions.
  • 4. Guaranteeing ancestral and alternative health practices by recognizing, respecting and promoting the use of their knowledge, medicines and instruments.
  • 5. Providing specialized care to groups requiring priority attention as provided for in the Constitution.
  • 6. Ensuring sexual and reproductive health actions and services and guaranteeing the integral healthcare and the life of women, especially during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
  • 7. Guaranteeing the availability and access to quality, safe and effective medicines, regulating their marketing, and promoting the national production and use of generic drugs that meet the epidemiological needs of the population With respect to access to medicine, public health interests shall prevail over economic and commercial interests.
  • 8. Promoting the integral development of health staff.

 

Article 365

For no reason shall public or private institutions or healthcare professionals refuse emergency care. This refusal shall be punishable by law.

 

Article 387

The following shall be responsibilities of the State:

1. To facilitate and promote incorporation into the knowledge society to achieve the objectives of the development system.

2. To promote the generation and production of knowledge, to foster scientific and technological research, and to upgrade ancestral wisdom to thus contribute to the achievement of the good way of living (sumak kawsay).

3. To ensure dissemination of and access to scientific and technological knowledge, the usufruct of discoveries and findings in the framework of what was established in the Constitution and the law.

4. To guarantee the liberty of creation and research in the framework of respect for ethics, nature, the environment, and restoration of ancestral wisdom.

5. To recognize the status of researcher in accordance with the law.

 

Article 388

The State shall allocate the resources needed for scientific research, technological development, innovation, scientific training, restoration and development of ancestral wisdom, and the dissemination of knowledge. A percentage of these resources shall be earmarked for funding projects by means of competitive finds. Organizations that receive public funding shall be subject to accountability and the respective state control.

 

SECTION 9. Risk management

Article 389

The State shall protect persons, communities and nature against the adverse impacts of natural or manmade disasters by risk prevention, disaster mitigation, restoration and improvement of social, economic and environmental conditions, for the purpose of minimizing the condition of vulnerability.

The national decentralized system for risk management is comprised of risk management units from all local, regional, and national public and private institutions. The State shall exercise leadership of the technical body established by law. It shall have the following main duties, among others:

  • 1. To identify existing and potential internal and external risks affecting the territory of Ecuador.
  • 2. To generate, democratize the access to, and disseminate information that is sufficient and timely to adequately manage risk.
  • 3. To ensure that all public and private institutions obligatorily incorporate risk management as a cross-cutting issue in their planning and management.
  • 4. To build up among the citizenry and in public and private institutions capacities to identify risks that are inherent to their respective spheres of action, to report about them, and incorporate actions aimed at reducing them.
  • 5. To articulate institutions so they will coordinate actions to prevent and mitigate risks, as well as address them, recover and improve conditions prior to the occurrence of the emergency or disaster.
  • 6. To undertake and coordinate the actions needed to reduce vulnerabilities and prevent, mitigate, tackle, and recover from possible adverse impacts stemming from disasters or emergencies on the country's territory.
  • 7. To guarantee sufficient and timely funding to ensure functioning of the System and to coordinate international cooperation aimed risk management.

 

Article 409

Soil conservation, especially its fertile layer, is a matter of public interest and national priority. A regulatory framework shall be established for its protection and sustainable use to prevent its degradation, in particular as a result of pollution, desertification, and erosion.

In areas affected by processes of degradation and desertification, the State shall develop and promote forestation, reforestation, and revegetation projects that avoid single-crop farming and preferably use native species adapted to the area.

 

Article 410

The State shall provide farmers and rural communities with support for soil conservation and restoration, as well as for the development of farming practices that protect and promote food sovereignty.

 

Article 413

The State shall promote energy efficiency, the development and use of environmentally clean and healthy practices and technologies, as well as diversified and low-impact renewable sources of energy that do not jeopardize food sovereignty, the ecological balance of the ecosystems or the right to water. 




Facts of Ecuador's Constitution

Preamble (Part of it)

We women and men, the sovereign people of Ecuador

RECOGNIZING our age-old roots, wrought by women and men from various peoples,

CELEBRATING nature, the Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), of which we are a part and which is vital to our existence,

INVOKING the name of God and recognizing our diverse forms of religion and spirituality,

 

Article 56

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations, the Afro-Ecuadorian people, the back-country people (montubios) of the inland coastal region, and communes are part of the single and indivisible Ecuadorian State.

 

Article 57

Indigenous communes, communities, peoples and nations are recognized and guaranteed, in conformity with the Constitution and human rights agreements, conventions, declarations and other international instruments, the following collective rights:

  • 1. To freely uphold, develop and strengthen their identity, feeling of belonging, ancestral traditions and forms of social organization.
  • 2. To not be the target of racism or any form of discrimination based on their origin or ethnic or cultural identity.
  • 3. To recognition, reparation and compensation for community groups affected by racism, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance and discrimination.
  • 4. To keep ownership, without subject to a statute of limitations, of their community lands, which shall be unalienable, immune from seizure and indivisible. These lands shall be exempt from paying fees or taxes.
  • 5. To keep ownership of ancestral lands and territories and to obtain free awarding of these lands.
  • 6. To participate in the use, usufruct, administration and conservation of natural renewable resources located on their lands.
  • 7. To free prior informed consultation, within a reasonable period of time, on the plans and programs for prospecting, producing and marketing nonrenewable resources located on their lands and which could have an environmental or cultural impact on them; to participate in the profits earned from these projects and to receive compensation for social, cultural and environmental damages caused to them. The consultation that must be conducted by the competent authorities shall be mandatory and in due time. If consent of the consulted community is not obtained, steps provided for by the Constitution and the law shall be taken.
  • 8. To keep and promote their practices of managing biodiversity and their natural environment. The State shall establish and implement programs with the participation of the community to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
  • 9. To keep and develop their own forms of peaceful coexistence and social organization and creating and exercising authority, in their legally recognized territories and ancestrally owned community lands.
  • 10. To create, develop, apply and practice their own legal system or common law, which cannot infringe constitutional rights, especially those of women, children and adolescents.
  • 11. To not be displaced from their ancestral lands.
  • 12. To uphold, protect and develop collective knowledge; their science, technologies and ancestral wisdom; the genetic resources that contain biological diversity and agricultural biodiversity; their medicine and traditional medical practices, with the inclusion of the right to restore, promote, and protect ritual and holy places, as well as plants, animals, minerals and ecosystems in their territories; and knowledge about the resources and properties of fauna and flora.
  • All forms of appropriation of their knowledge, innovations, and practices are forbidden.
  • 13. To uphold, restore, protect, develop and preserve their cultural and historical heritage as an indivisible part of Ecuador's heritage. The State shall provide resources for this purpose.
  • 14. To develop, strengthen, and upgrade the intercultural bilingual education system, on the basis of criteria of quality, from early stimulation to higher levels of education, in conformity with cultural diversity, for the care and preservation of identities, in keeping with their own teaching and learning methodologies.
  • A teaching career marked by dignity shall also be guaranteed. Administration of this system shall be collective and participatory, with rotation in time and space, based on community monitoring and accountability.
  • 15. To build and uphold organizations that represent them, in a context of pluralism and cultural, political, and organizational diversity. The State shall recognize and promote all forms of expression and organization.
  • 16. To participate by means of their representatives in the official organizations established by law to draw up public policies concerning them, as well as design and decide their priorities in the plans and projects of the State.
  • 17. To be consulted before the adoption of a legislative measure that might affect any of their collective rights.
  • 18. To uphold and develop contacts, ties and cooperation with other peoples, especially those that are divided by international borders.
  • 19. To promote the use of garments, symbols and emblems that identify them.
  • 20. To restrict military activities in their territories, in accordance with the law.
  • 21. That the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories, and ambitions be reflected in public education and in the media; the creation of their own media in their languages and access to the others without any discrimination.

The territories of the peoples living in voluntary isolation are an irreducible and intangible ancestral possession and all forms of extractive activities shall be forbidden there. The State shall adopt measures to guarantee their lives, enforce respect for self-determination and the will to remain in isolation and to ensure observance of their rights. The violation of these rights shall constitute a crime of ethnocide, which shall be classified as such by law.

The State shall guarantee the enforcement of these collective rights without any discrimination, in conditions of equality and equity between men and women.

 

Article 66

The following rights of persons are recognized and guaranteed:

  • 10. The right to take free, responsible and informed decisions about one's health and reproductive life and to decide how many children to have.

 

Article 171

The authorities of the indigenous communities, peoples, and nations shall perform jurisdictional duties, on the basis of their ancestral traditions and their own system of law, within their own territories, with a guarantee for the participation of, and decision-making by, women. The authorities shall apply their own standards and procedures for the settlement of internal disputes, as long as they are not contrary to the Constitution and human rights enshrined in international instruments.

The State shall guarantee that the decisions of indigenous jurisdiction are observed by public institutions and authorities. These decisions shall be subject to monitoring of their constitutionality. The law shall establish the mechanisms for coordination and cooperation between indigenous jurisdiction and regular jurisdiction.

 

Article 345 (Part of it)

Education as a public service shall be provided by means of public, mixed public and religious, and private school institutions.