Honduras is a country in Central America, bordering Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua. Along with the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Fonseca, the Gulf of Honduras and the Caribbean Sea. The population of this country is approx 94,60,000 with 1,12,492 square kilometers area. 76% are Christians, of which half are Catholics, and the other half are Protestants. 16% of people do not believe in any religion. Ethnographically 90% are mestizos, meaning hybrids of whites and natives. The official language is Spanish.
The Honduran constitution is one of the best constitutions in the world. All wonderful provisions have been added to it. It clearly declared, "There are no privileged classes in Honduras". As everyone has rights, they are at the same time limited by the rights of all others, collective security, etc. No one can take the law into their own hands, or use violence to assert their rights. Prisons are institutions to provide security and social protection. These will be used to rehabilitate prisoners and train them for work. In cases where the legislators of almost all the countries of the world have only thought of protecting the interests of the employed workers, Honduras has provided for the protection of the interests of the persons employed on the basis of the contract. A judge is incapable of judging his own relatives.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
The constitution provides for the suspension of citizenship for certain reasons. This is terribly aggressive thinking. No matter how big the heinous criminal, the whole process has to be done within the system. This approach may boomerang in the future.
Admirable Articles of Honduras's Constitution
Article 59 (Part of it)
The human being is the supreme end of Society and of the State. Everyone has the obligation to respect and protect the person.
The dignity of the human being is inviolable.
Article 60
All men are born free and equal in rights. There are no privileged classes in Honduras. All Honduras are equal before the law.
All forms of discrimination on account of sex, race, class, or any other reason prejudicial to human dignity shall be punishable.
The law shall establish the crimes and penalties for violators of this provision.
Article 62
The rights of every man are limited by the rights of all others, by collective security, and by the just demands of the general welfare and democratic development.
Article 68
Every person has the right to have his physical, mental, and moral integrity respected.
No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.
Every person deprived of his liberty shall be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.
Article 70
All Hondurans have the right to do that which is not harmful to others; likewise, no one shall be obliged to do that which is not legally prescribed nor shall be prevented from doing that which the law does not prohibit.
No one may take justice into his own hands, nor exercise violence to claim his rights.
No personal service may be exacted, nor must it be rendered gratuitously, except by virtue of the law or by a sentence based on the law.
Article 87
Prisons are establishments for the security and social defense. They shall be used to bring about the rehabilitation of prisoners, and their training for work.
Article 120
Physically or mentally handicapped minors, those with abnormal behavior, orphans, and abandoned children shall be subject to special legislation for their rehabilitation, supervision, and protection as the case may be.
Article 121
Parents are under obligation to feed, assist, and educate their children during their minority, and beyond in those cases established by law.
The state shall provide special protection for minors whose parents or guardians are economically unable to do so, to provide for their care and education.
Under circumstances of equal qualifications, these needy parents and guardians shall be given preference in filling public position.
Article 123
All children shall enjoy the benefits of social security and education.
Every child shall have the right to grow and develop in good health, for which special care shall be given during the prenatal period, as much for the child as for the mother, both being entitled to food, housing, education, recreation, exercise, sport, and adequate medical services.
Article 124
Every child must be protected against every form of abandonment, cruelty and exploitation. No child shall be the object of any type of bondage.
No child shall work before reaching an adequate minimum age, nor shall he be permitted to dedicate himself to any occupation or employment that may be prejudicial to his health, education, or serve as an impediment to his physical, mental, or moral development.
The use of minors by their parents or other persons for the purpose of begging is prohibited.
The law shall establish the applicable penalties for those who violate this provision.
Article 133
Independent intellectual workers and the product of their work must be covered by protective legislation.
Article 146
It is the duty of the State to regulate, supervise and control all food products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biological products through its duly constituted agencies and institutions in accordance with law.
Article 147
The law shall regulate the production, traffic, possession, donation, use and marketing of psychotropic drugs that may be destined only for health services and scientific experimentation under the supervision of a competent authority.
Article 154
The elimination of illiteracy is a primary task of the State. It is the duty of all Hondurans to cooperate in order to achieve this objective.
Article 257
The law shall regulate the civil service and in particular conditions for entering the public administration; promotions and advancement based on merit and aptitude; job security, transfers, suspensions and guarantees; the duties of public servants and reviewability against decisions that affect them.
Article 258
Both in the central government and in any of the decentralized agencies of the State, no person may hold at the same time two or more remunerated public offices except those rendering relief in medical care or educational services.
No official, employee or public worker that receives a regular salary shall receive a per diem allowance for the provision of a service in performance of his duties.
Article 276
Citizens between the age of eighteen and thirty shall lend military service in a voluntary form in times of peace, under the form of an educative, social, humanistic and democratic system. The State has the ability to use the draft in accordance with the Law of Military Service.
In the event of an international war, all Hondurans capable of defending and rendering service to the nation shall be soldiers.
Article 303
The power to dispense justice emanates from the people and is administered free of charge on behalf of the state by independent justices and judges, subject only to the Constitution and the laws. The judicial branch consists of a Supreme Court of Justice, the Courts of Appeals, the courts, by tribunals with exclusive competence in zones of the country subject to special regimes created by the Constitution of the Republic and additional offices specified by law.
No trial shall have more than two instances, the judge or justice that has exercised jurisdiction in one of them may not hear the other, nor in the appeal of the same matter, without incurring liability.
They also may not judge in the case of spouses and relatives within the fourth degree through blood relation or the second through marriage.
Article 321
The servants of the state shall have no powers other than those expressly conferred on them by law. Any act they execute outside the law is null and void and entails liability.
Article 323
The officials are the repositories of authority, legally responsible for their official conduct, subject to the law and never above it.
No official or employee, civil or military, is required to fulfill unlawful orders or orders that entail the commission of an offense.
Article 328
The economic system of Honduras is based on the principles of efficiency in production and social justice in the distribution of wealth and national income, as well as on the harmonious coexistence of the factors of production that make it possible to dignify labor as the principal source of wealth and as a means of fulfillment of the human being.
Article 329 (Part of it)
The state promotes economic and social development, which must be subject to strategic planning. The law shall regulate the system and process of planning with the participation of the State powers, and political, economic and social organizations shall be duly represented.
In order to realize the function of promoting the economic and social development and complementing the actions of the other agents of this development, the state, with vision of medium and long terms shall in concert with Honduran society design a plan satisfying the exact objectives and the means and mechanisms to achieve them.
Plans of development of the medium and long terms shall include strategic policies and programs that guarantee the continuity of their execution from their conception and approval until their conclusion.
Article 331
The State recognizes, guarantees and promotes freedom of consumption, savings, investment, employment, initiative, commerce, industry, contract, business and any others that flow from the principles that underlie this Constitution. However, the exercise of these freedoms may not be contrary to the social interest nor harmful to morals, health, or public security.
Article 339
Monopolies, monopsonies, oligopolies, hoarding and similar practices in industrial and commercial activity are prohibited.
The temporary privileges granted to inventors, discoverers or authors as the rights of scientific, literary, artistic or commercial property, patents of invention or trademarks are not considered private monopolies.
Article 342
The issue of currency is the exclusive power of the State, which shall exercise it through the Central Bank of Honduras.
The banking, currency and credit regime shall be regulated by law.
The State, through the Central Bank of Honduras, shall be responsible for the formulation and development of the monetary, credit and exchange policy of the country, duly coordinated with the planned economic policy.
Facts of Honduras's Constitution
Preamble
We, the representatives elected by the sovereign will of the Honduran people, meeting in the National Constituent Assembly, invoking the protection of God and the example of our founding fathers, placing our faith in the restoration of the Central American union and faithfully interpreting the aspirations of the people who conferred upon us their mandate, hereby decree and sanction this Constitution so as to strengthen and perpetuate a rule of law which ensures a politically, economically and socially just society which affirms our nationality and establishes the conditions for the full realization of man as a human being, within a context of justice, liberty, security, stability, pluralism, peace, representative democracy and the common good.
Article 41
Citizenship is suspended for the following reasons:
1. By commitment to prison decreed for a felony;
2. By final conviction imposed for a crime; and
3. By judicially decreed interdiction.
Article 152
Parents have a preferential right to choose the type of education they wish to give their children.
