Ecuador 2008 Constitution (reviewed 2021)

TITLE VII. THE GOOD WAY OF LIVING SYSTEM

CHAPTER 1. Inclusion and equity

Article 340

The national system of social inclusion and equity is an articulated and coordinated set of systems, institutions, policies, norms, programs and services that ensure the exercise, guarantee, and enforceability of the rights enshrined in the Constitution and the achievement of the objectives of the development plan

The system shall be coordinated with the National Development Plan and with the national decentralized system of participatory planning; it shall be guided by the principles of universality, equality, equity, progressivity, interculturalism, solidarity and nondiscrimination; and it shall function on the basis of the criteria of quality, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, responsibility and participation.

The system is comprised of the sectors of education, health, social security, risk management, physical education and sports, habitat and housing, culture, information and communication, the enjoyment of leisure, science and technology, population, human security and transportation.

Article 341

The State shall create the conditions for the integral protection of its inhabitants throughout their lives, conditions that shall ensure the rights and principles enshrined in the Constitution, in particular that of equality in diversity and nondiscrimination and shall give priority to actions for those groups who require special consideration because of the persistence of inequalities, exclusion, discrimination or violence or by virtue of their age, health, or disabilities.

Integral protection shall function by means of specialized systems in accordance with the law. The specialized systems shall be guided by their specific principles and by those of the national system of social inclusion and equity.

The national decentralized system for the integral protection of the rights of children and adolescents shall be in charge of ensuring the exercise of the rights of children and adolescents. They shall be part of the system of public, private and community institutions.

Article 342

The State shall allocate, as a priority and equitably, enough timely and permanent resources for the system’s functioning and management.

SECTION 1. Education

Article 343

The national education system shall be aimed at developing the population’s individual and collective capabilities and potential, enabling learning and the generation and use of knowledge, techniques, wisdom, arts and culture. The system shall have as its core focus the learning subject and shall function flexibly and dynamically, with an inclusive, efficient and effective approach.

The national education system shall incorporate an intercultural vision in line with the country’s geographical, cultural, and linguistic diversity and respect for the rights of the communities, peoples and nations.

Article 344

The national education system shall be comprised of the institutions, programs, policies, resources and players of the education process, as well as actions at the initial, basic, and secondary levels of education and shall be articulated with the higher education system.

The State shall exercise leadership of the system through the national education authority, which shall draw up the national policy for education, it shall also regulate and monitor activities involving education, as well as the functioning of the system’s entities.

Article 345

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

In the schools, social services and psychological support shall be provided free of charge, in the framework of the system of inclusion and social equity.

Article 346

There shall be one autonomous public institution for comprehensive internal and external evaluation aimed at promoting the quality of education.

Article 347

The following shall be the responsibility of the State:

1. To strengthen public education and co-education; ensure permanent improvement of quality, the enlargement of coverage, physical facilities and the equipment needed for public schooling institutions.
2. To guarantee that schools shall be democratic spaces for the exercise of rights and peaceful coexistence. Schools shall be opportunities for the early detection of special requirements.
3. To guarantee formal and nonformal modalities of education.
4. To ensure that all education institutions provide education in citizenship, sexuality and the environment, using a rights-based approach.
5. To guarantee respect for the psycho-evolutionary development of children and adolescents, in the entire education process.
6. To eliminate all forms of violence in the education system and to safeguard the bodily, psychological and sexual integrity of students.
7. To eliminate pure, functional and digital illiteracy and to support post-literacy processes and continuous education for adults and overcoming education lags.
8. To incorporate information and communication technologies in the education process and promote the linkage between teaching and productive and social activities.
9. To guarantee the intercultural bilingual education system, where the main language for educating shall be the language of the respective nation and Spanish as the language for intercultural relations, under the guidance of the State’s public policies and with total respect for the rights of communities, peoples and nations.
10. To ensure that the teaching of at least one ancestral language be progressively included in the curriculum.
11. To guarantee the active participation of students, families and teachers in education processes.
12. To guarantee, on the basis of the principles of social, territorial and regional equity, that all persons shall have access to public education.

Article 348

Public education shall be free of charge and the State shall fund it on a timely, regular and sufficient basis. The distribution of resources earmarked for education shall be governed by the criteria of social, demographic, and territorial equity, among others.

The State shall fund special education and shall be able to financially support mixed public and religious education, arts and crafts, and community education, as long as they abide by the principles of an education that is free of charge, mandatory and ensuring equality of opportunities, are held accountable for the results of education and the management of public resources, and are duly qualified in accordance with the law. Educational institutions that receive public funding shall be non-profit entities.

The failure to transfer resources in accordance with the above-mentioned conditions shall by punished by the dismissal of the authority and public servants who were remiss in their obligation.

Article 349

The State shall guarantee, for the teaching staff, at all levels and modalities, job security, modernization, ongoing training, and teaching and academic improvement, as well as fair pay, in accordance with their professional development, performance and academic merits. The law shall regulate the teacher career stream and salary and promotion scale; it shall set up a national performance evaluation system and a salary policies at all levels. Policies for teacher promotion, mobility, and rotation shall be established.

Article 350

The higher education system shall be aimed at academic and professional training with a scientific and humanist vision; scientific and technological research; innovation, promotion, development and dissemination of wisdom and cultures; building solutions for the country’s problems with respect to the objectives of the development system.

Article 351

The higher education system shall be articulated with the national education system and the National Development Plan; the law shall establish mechanisms to coordinate the higher education system with the Executive Branch. This system shall be governed by the principles of responsible autonomy, joint governance, equality of opportunities, quality, relevance, integrality, self-determination to engender thinking and knowledge, in the framework of a dialogue between different forms of knowledge, universal thinking, and global scientific and technological production.

Article 352

The higher education system shall be comprised of universities and polytechnic schools, advanced vocational, technological and teaching institutions; and conservatories of music and arts, duly accredited and evaluated.

These institutions, whether public or private, are not-for-profit.

Article 353

The higher education system shall be governed by:

1. A public internal planning, regulation and coordination body of the system and the relationship between their various players with Executive Branch.
2. A public technical body and accreditation and quality assurance of the institutions, career streams, and programs which cannot be comprised of representatives of the institutions that are the target of the regulation.

Article 354

Both public and private universities and polytechnic schools shall be established by law, after a binding favorable report of the body in charge of planning, regulation and coordination of the system, which will be based on prior favorable and mandatory reports of the institutions responsible for quality assurance and the national planning body.

Advanced technological, vocational and teaching institutes and conservatories shall be created by resolution issued by the body in charge of planning, regulating and coordinating the system, after a prior favorable report of the system’s quality assurance institution and the national planning body.

The creation and funding of new public study institutes and university career streams shall be subject to the requirements of national development.

The body in charge of planning, regulating, and coordinating the system and the body in charge of accreditation and quality assurance can suspend, in accordance with the law, universities, polytechnic schools, higher education, technological, and teaching institutes and conservatories, as well as request the repeal of those that are created by law.

Article 355

The State shall recognize the academic, administrative, financial and organizational autonomy of universities and polytechnic schools, in accordance with the objectives of the development structure and the principles set forth in the Constitution.

Universities and polytechnic schools are recognized the right to autonomy, exercised and understood as matter of solidarity and responsibility. This autonomy guarantees the exercise of academic freedom and the right to search for the truth, without restrictions; self-governance and management in conformity with the principles of rotation of power, transparency, and political rights; and the production of science, technology, culture and art.

Their premises are inviolable and they cannot be broken into and searched except in those cases and terms applicable to the domicile of a person The guarantee of internal law and order shall be the area of competence and responsibility of their authorities. When protection of the forces of law and order is required, the supreme authority of the institution shall request the relevant assistance.

Autonomy does not exonerate the system’s institutions from being audited, social responsibility, accountability and participation in national planning.

The Executive Branch shall not be able to deprive them of their revenues or budget allocations, or delay transfers to any institution of the system, or shut them down or restructure them either totally or partially.

Article 356

Higher public education shall be free of charge up to the third level [post-secondary undergraduate schooling].

Admittance to public institutions of higher education shall be regulated by means of a credit equivalency and admission system, as defined by law.

Free tuition shall be linked to the academic responsibility of the students.

Regardless of their public or private character, equality of opportunities with respect to access, permanence, passing and graduation shall be guaranteed, except for the charging of tuition in private education.

The collection of tuition and registration fees in advanced private education shall benefit from mechanisms such as scholarships, loans, admission quotas and others that make it possible to ensure social integration and equity in all its many dimensions.

Article 357

The State shall guarantee the funding of public institutions of higher education. Public universities and polytechnic schools can create supplementary sources of revenue to improve their academic capabilities, invest in research and granting scholarships and bans, which shall not entail any cost or charge for those who attend third-level education [post-secondary undergraduate schooling]. The distribution of these resources shall be based essentially on quality and other criteria set by law.

The law shall regulate technical advisory services, consulting services and those that involve alternative sources of income for universities and polytechnic schools, whether public or private.

SECTION 2. Health

Article 358

The national health system shall be aimed at ensuring the development, protection, and recovery of capacities and potential for a healthy and integral life, both individual and collective, and shall recognize social and cultural diversity. The system shall be governed by the general principles of the national system of social inclusion and equity and by those of bioethics, adequacy and interculturalism, with a gender and generation approach.

Article 359

The national health system shall be comprised of institutions, programs, policies, resources, actions, and players in health; it shall encompass all the dimensions of the right to health; it shall guarantee the promotion, prevention, recovery and rehabilitation of all levels; and it shall encourage public participation and social monitoring.

Article 360

The system shall guarantee, through the institutions that comprise it, the promotion of family and community health, prevention and integral care, on the basis of primary healthcare; it shall articulate various levels of care; and it shall promote complementariness with ancestral and alternative medicines.

The comprehensive public healthcare network shall be part of the national health system and shall be comprised of the coordinated set of state institutions, social security and other suppliers that belong to the State on the basis of legal, operational and complementary ties.

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 362

Healthcare as a public service shall be provided through state, private, autonomous, and community institutions, as well as those that practice alternative and complementary ancestral medicine. Healthcare services shall be safe, of a high quality, and humane and they shall guarantee informed consent, access to information, and confidentiality of the information of patients.

Public state health services shall be universal and free of charge at all levels of care and shall include necessary procedures of diagnosis, treatment, medicines and rehabilitation.

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 364

Addictions are a public health problem. The State shall be responsible for developing coordination programs for information about, prevention and control of the use of alcohol, tobacco, and narcotic and psychotropic substances, as well as providing treatment and rehabilitation to occasional, habitual and problematic users. In no case shall their criminalization or infringement of their rights be allowed.

The State shall control and regulate advertising for alcohol and tobacco.

Article 365

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

Article 366

Public funding for health shall be timely, regular and sufficient and must come from ongoing sources of the General Budget of the State. Government resources shall be distributed on the basis of population criteria and health needs.

The State shall fund state health institutions and shall be able to financially support autonomous and private institutions as long as they are not for profit, guarantee services free of charge, comply with public policies, and ensure quality, security, and respect for rights. These institutions shall be subject to State monitoring and regulation.

SECTION 3. Social security

Article 367

The social security system is public and universal, it cannot be privatized and it shall meet the contingent needs of the population. The protection of contingencies shall be made effective through mandatory universal insurance and its special regimes.

The system shall be guided by the principles of the national system for social inclusion and equity and by those of obligation, adequacy, integration, solidarity, and subsidiarity.

Article 368

The social security system shall be comprised of public institutions, norms, policies, resources, social security services and provisions, and shall function on the basis of criteria of sustainability, efficiency, swiftness, and transparency. The State shall set standards for, regulate and control activities related to social security.

Article 369

Mandatory universal insurance shall cover the contingencies of illness, maternity, paternity, labor hazards, termination of employment, unemployment, old age, invalidity, disability, death and those provide for by the law. Health services for the contingencies of illness and maternity shall be provided through the public integral health network.

Mandatory universal insurance shall be extended to the entire urban and rural population, regardless of their labor status. Healthcare services for persons who carry out unpaid domestic chores and care-giving activities shall be funded by inputs and contributions from the State. The law shall determine the corresponding mechanism.

The creation of new services shall be duly funded.

Article 370

The Ecuadorian Social Security Institute, which is an autonomous entity regulated by law, shall be responsible for the provision of the contingencies of the mandatory universal insurance to its affiliates.

The national police force and the armed forces shall be able to benefit from a special social security system, in accordance with the law; their social security entities shall become part of the comprehensive public health network and the social security system.

The State guarantees the payment of retirement pensions for the members of the Armed Forces and National Police Force.

Article 371

Social security services shall be funded with the contributions of insured persons who are employed and their respective employers; with the contributions of independent insured persons; with the voluntary contributions of Ecuadorians domiciled abroad; and with quotas and contributions made by the State.

State resources earmarked for mandatory university insurance shall appear every year in the General Budget of the State and shall be transferred on time.

Social security cash entitlements shall not be subject to termination, seizure or withholding, except in the cases of alimony payments due by law or obligations incurred for the benefit of the insuring institution and they shall be tax-exempt.

Article 372

The funds and reserves of mandatory universal insurance shall be their own resources and separate from those of the public treasure and shall be used to adequately achieve the goals for which the insurance was created and its functions. No State institution will be able to intervene or dispose of its funds and reserves or to undermine its assets.

Pension public funds and their investments shall be channeled through a financial institution owned by the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute; their management shall be subject to the principles of security, solvency, efficiency, profitability, and control by the competent body.

Article 373

Rural worker social security, which is part of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute, shall consist of a special system for mandatory universal insurance to protect the rural population and persons earning their livelihood from traditional fishing; it shall be funded with the mutually supportive contribution of insured persons and employers of the national social security system, with the differentiated contribution by heads of protected households and the treasury allocations that guarantee their consolidation and development. Insurance shall provide health benefits and protection against contingencies of invalidity, disability, old age and death

Public and private insurance, without exception, shall contribute to funding the rural worker social security through the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute.

Article 374

The State shall encourage Ecuadorians domiciled abroad to voluntarily affiliate themselves to the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute and shall ensure the provision of contingencies. The funding of these services shall benefit from the contribution of voluntarily affiliated persons domiciled abroad.

SECTION 4. Habitat and housing

Article 375

The State, at all levels of government, shall guarantee the right to habitat and decent housing, for which purpose it shall:

1. Produce the information that is necessary to draw up strategies and programs that understand the ties between housing, services, public space and transportation, equipment and management of urban land.
2. Keep a national geo-referenced integrated cadastre of habitat and housing.
3. Draft, implement and evaluate policies, plans and programs for habitat and universal access to housing, on the basis of the principles of universality, equity, and interculturalism, with a risk management approach.
4. Improve precarious housing, provide shelters, public spaces and green areas and promote rent under a special system.
5. Develop plans and programs to fund housing of social interest, through government banks and grassroots credit institutions, with emphasis on persons with limited financial resources and women heads of household.
6. Guarantee the uninterrupted provision of public clean water services and electricity to schools and public hospitals.
7. Ensure that all persons have the right to enter into housing rental contracts at a fair price and without abuse.
8. Guarantee and protect public access to the beaches of the sea and banks of rivers, lakes, and ponds and the existence of perpendicular access ways.

The State shall exercise leadership for the planning, regulation, control, funding and policymaking for habitat and housing.

Article 376

To enforce the right to housing, habitat and environmental conservation, the municipalities will be able to expropriate, reserve, and control areas for future development in accordance with the law. Obtaining benefits from speculative land use practices, in particular by changing the use from rural to urban or public to private is forbidden.

SECTION 5. Culture

Article 377

The national system for culture is aimed at building national identity; protecting and promoting the diversity of cultural manifestations; encouraging the freedom of artistic creation and the production, dissemination, distribution and enjoyment of cultural goods and services; and safeguarding social memory and cultural heritage. The full exercise of cultural rights is guaranteed.

Article 378

The national system for culture shall be comprised of all the institutions of the cultural sector that receive public funding and of the groups and persons who are voluntarily linked to the system.

The cultural entities that receive public funding shall be subject to control and accountability.

The State shall exercise leadership of the system through the competent body, with respect to the freedom of creation and expression, interculturalism and diversity, it shall be responsible for the management and promotion of culture, as well as the drafting and implementation of national policy in this field.

Article 379

The following are part of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage that is relevant for the memory and identity of persons and groups and the target of safeguard by the State, among others:

1. Languages, forms of expression, oral tradition and diverse cultural manifestations and creations, including those of a ritual, festive or productive nature.
2. Urban buildings, spaces, and sectors, monuments, natural sites, trails, gardens or landscapes that constitute milestones for the identity of peoples or that have historical, artistic, archeological, ethnographic or paleontological value.
3. Documents, objects, collections, archives, libraries, and museums that have historical, artistic, archeological, ethnographic or paleontological value.
4. Artistic, scientific and technological creations.

The cultural heritage assets of the State shall be unalienable, immune from seizure, and not subject to a statute of limitations. The State shall have priority right over the acquisition of cultural heritage assets and shall guarantee their protection. Any damage shall be punishable by law.

Article 380

The following shall be responsibilities of the State:

1. To safeguard, by means of permanent policies, the identification, protection, defense, preservation, restoration, dissemination and growth of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, historical, artistic, linguistic and archeological wealth, the collective memory and the set of values and manifestations that constitute the plurinational, pluricultural, and multiethnic identity of Ecuador.
2. To promote the restitution and restoration of heritage assets that were plundered, lost or degraded and to ensure authorized copyright registration of mass media printed matter, audiovisual materials and electronic contents.
3. To ensure that the circuits of distribution, public exhibition and mass dissemination do not condition or restrict the independence of creators, or the access of the public to national independent cultural and artistic creation.
4. To establish policies and implement forms of teaching for the development of the artistic and creative vocation of persons of all ages, with priority given to children and adolescents.
5. To support the practice of artistic professions.
6. To establish incentives and stimuli for persons, institutions, companies and media to promote, support, develop, and fund cultural activities.
7. To guarantee diversity in the supply of culture and to promote the national production of cultural assets, as well as their mass dissemination.
8. To guarantee sufficient and timely funding for the implementation of cultural policy.

SECTION 6. Physical education and leisure

Article 381

The State shall protect, promote and coordinate physical exercise, including sports, physical education and recreation, as an activity that contributes to health, the formation and integral development of persons; it shall promote massive access to sports and sports activities at the educational, neighborhood and parish level; it shall sponsor the preparation and participation of sportspersons in national and international competitions, including the Olympic Games and Para-Olympic Games; and it shall foster the participation of persons with disabilities.

The State shall guarantee the resources and infrastructure needed for these activities. The resources shall be subject to state control, accountability and must be distributed equitably.

Article 382

The autonomy of sports organizations and the administration of sports arenas and other facilities aimed at the practice of sports is recognized, in accordance with the law.

Article 383

The right of persons and communities to free time, the expansion of physical, social and environmental conditions for its enjoyment, and the promotion of activities for leisure, rest, and development of the personality is guaranteed.

SECTION 7. Media

Article 384

Communication as a public service shall be provided through public, private and community media entities.

The media system shall ensure the exercise of the rights of communication, information and freedom of expression, and shall strengthen public participation.

The system shall be comprised of public institutions and players, policies and the regulatory framework; and private players, citizens, and communities that voluntarily wish to be part of it. The State shall draft public policy for communication, with unrestricted respect for the freedom of expression and the rights of communication enshrined in the Constitution and international human rights instruments. The law shall define its organization, functioning, and forms of public participation.

SECTION 8. Science, technology, innovation and ancestral wisdom

Article 385

The national system of science, technology, innovation and ancestral wisdom, in the framework of respect for the environment, nature, life, cultures and sovereignty, shall have as its end purpose the following:

1. To generate, adapt, and disseminate scientific and technological knowledge.
2. To restore, strengthen and upgrade ancestral wisdom.
3. To develop technologies and innovations that promote national production, raise efficiency and productivity, improve the quality of life and contribution to the achievement of the good way of living.

Article 386

The system shall be comprised of programs, policies, resources, actions and shall incorporate State institutions, universities and polytechnic schools, public and private research institutes, public and private enterprise, nongovernmental organizations and natural persons or legal entities, to the extent that they undertake activities of research, technological development, innovation and those linked to ancestral wisdom.

The State, through the competent body, shall coordinate the system and set goals and policies, in conformity with the National Development Plan and with the participation of the players comprising it.

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 390

Risks shall be managed on the basis of the principle of subsidiary decentralization, which shall imply the direct responsibility of the institutions in their geographical area. When their capacities for risk management are insufficient, the institutions with the broadest territorial scope and greatest technical and financial capacity shall provide the support needed with respect to their authority in the territory and without relieving them of their responsibility.

SECTION 10. Population and human mobility

Article 391

The State shall draft and implement demographic policies that contribute to balanced territorial and inter-generational development and guarantee protection of the environment and security of the population, in the framework of respect for self-determination of persons and diversity.

Article 392

The State shall safeguard the rights of persons with respect to human mobility and shall exercise leadership of migration policy through the competent body, in coordination with the different levels of government. The State shall design, adopt, implement, and evaluate policies, plans, programs, and projects and shall coordinate the action of its bodies with that of other States and civil society organizations that work on human mobility at the national and international levels.

SECTION 11. Human safety

Article 393

The State shall guarantee human safety by means of integrated policies and actions to ensure the peaceful coexistence of persons, to promote a culture of peace and to prevent forms of violence and discrimination and the perpetration of offenses and crimes. The planning and application of these policies shall be entrusted to specialized bodies at the different levels of government.

SECTION 12. Transportation

Article 394

The State shall guarantee the freedom of overland, air, sea, and river transport within the country’s territory, without privileges of any kind. The promotion of mass public transportation and the adoption of a policy for differentiated transportation rates shall be a priority. The State shall regulate overland, air, and water transportation and airport and seaport activities.

CHAPTER 2. Biodiversity and natural resources

SECTION 1. Nature and the environment

Article 395

The Constitution recognizes the following environmental principles:

1. The State shall guarantee a sustainable model of development, one mat is environmentally balanced and respectful of cultural diversity, conserves biodiversity and the natural regeneration capacity of ecosystems, and ensures meeting the needs of present and future generations.
2. Environmental management policies shall be applied cutting across all sectors and dimensions and shall be mandatorily enforced by the State at all of its levels and by all natural persons or legal entities in the country’s territory.
3. The State shall guarantee the active and permanent participation of affected persons, communities, peoples and nations in the planning, implementation and monitoring of all activities exerting environmental impacts.
4. In the event of doubt about the scope of legal provisions for environmental issues, it is the most favorable interpretation of their effective force for the protection of nature that shall prevail.

Article 396

The State shall adopt timely policies and measures to avoid adverse environmental impacts where there is certainty about the damage. In the case of doubt about the environmental impact stemming from a deed or omission, although there is no scientific evidence of the damage, the State shall adopt effective and timely measures of protection.

Responsibility for environmental damage is objective. All damage to the environment, in addition to the respective penalties, shall also entail the obligation of integrally restoring the ecosystems and compensating the affected persons and communities. Each one of the players in the processes of production, distribution, marketing and use of goods or services shall accept direct responsibility for preventing any environmental impact, for mitigating and repairing the damages caused, and for maintaining an ongoing environmental monitoring system.

The legal proceedings to prosecute and punish those responsible for environmental damages shall not be subject to any statute of limitations.

Article 397

In case of environmental damages, the State shall act immediately and with a subsidiary approach to guarantee the health and restoration of ecosystems. In addition to the corresponding sanction, the State shall file against the operator of the activity that produced the damage proceedings for the obligations entailing integral reparation, under the conditions and on the basis of the procedures provided for by law. The responsibility shall also pertain to the public servants responsible for carrying out environmental monitoring. To guarantee the individual and collective right to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, the State pledges:

1. To permit any natural person or legal entity, human community or group, to file legal proceedings and resort to judicial and administrative bodies without detriment to their direct interest, to obtain from them effective custody in environmental matters, including the possibility of requesting precautionary measures that would make it possible to end the threat or the environmental damage that is the object of the litigation. The burden of proof regarding the absence of potential or real danger shall lie with the operator of the activity or the defendant.
2. To establish effective mechanisms to prevent and control environmental pollution, restore degraded natural spaces, and to provide for the sustainable management of natural resources
3. To regulate the production, import, distribution, use, and final disposal of materials that are toxic and hazardous to persons or the environment.
4. To ensure the intangibility of protected natural areas, so as to guarantee the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of the ecological functions of the ecosystems. The State shall be in charge of management and administration of protected natural areas.
5. To establish a national prevention, risk management and natural disaster system based on the principles of immediateness, efficiency, precaution, responsibility and solidarity.

Article 398

All state decision or authorization that could affect the environment shall be consulted with the community, which shall be informed fully and on a timely basis. The consulting subject shall be the State. The law shall regulate prior consultation, public participation, time-limits, the subject consulted and the appraisal and objection criteria used with regard to the activity that is being submitted to consultation.

The State shall take into consideration the opinion of the community on the basis of the criteria provided for by law and international human rights instruments.

If the above-mentioned consultation process leads to majority opposition by the respective community, the decision whether to implement or not the project shall be adopted by a resolution that is duly substantiated by the corresponding higher administrative body in accordance with the law.

Article 399

The full exercise of state guardianship over the environment and joint responsibility of the citizenry for its conservation shall be articulated by means of a decentralized national environmental management system, which shall be in charge of defending the environment and nature.

SECTION 2. Biodiversity

Article 400

The State shall exercise sovereignty over biodiversity, whose administration and management shall be conducted on the basis of responsibility between generations.

The conservation of biodiversity and all of its components are declared to be of public interest, especially agricultural and wildlife biodiversity and the country’s genetic assets.

Article 401

Ecuador is declared free of transgenic crops and seeds. Exceptionally, only in the interest of the nation as duly substantiated by the President of the Republic and adopted by the National Assembly, can genetically modified seeds and crops be introduced into country. The State shall regulate, using stringent standards of biosecurity, the use and development of modern biotechnology and its products, as well as their experimentation, use and marketing. The application of risky or experimental biotechnologies is forbidden.

Article 402

The granting of rights, including intellectual property rights, to byproducts or synthetics obtained from collective knowledge associated with national biodiversity is forbidden.

Article 403

The State shall not make commitments to cooperation agreements or accords that include clauses that undermine the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity, human health, collective rights and rights of nature.

SECTION 3. Natural assets and ecosystems

Article 404

The unique and priceless natural assets of Ecuador include, among others, the physical, biological and geological formations whose value from the environmental, scientific, cultural or landscape standpoint requires protection, conservation, recovery and promotion Their management shall be subject to the principles and guarantees enshrined in the Constitution and shall be conducted in accordance with land use planning and ecological zoning, in compliance with the law.

Article 405

The national system of protected areas shall guarantee the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecological functions.

The system shall be comprised of state, decentralized autonomous, community and private subsystems, and it shall be directed and regulated by the State. The State shall allocate the financial resources needed to ensure the system’s financial sustainability and shall foster the participation of the communities, peoples, and nations who have their ancestral dwelling places in the protected areas in their administration and management.

Foreign natural persons or legal entities will not be able to acquire any land deeds or concessions in areas of national security or protected areas, in accordance with the law.

Article 406

The State shall regulate the conservation, management and sustainable use, recovery, and boundaries for the domain of fragile and threatened ecosystems, including among others, high Andean moorlands, wetlands, cloud forests, dry and wet tropical forests and mangroves, marine ecosystems and seashore ecosystems.

Article 407

Activities for the extraction of nonrenewable natural resources are forbidden in protected areas and in areas declared intangible assets, including forestry production Exceptionally, these resources can be tapped at the substantiated request of the President of the Republic and after a declaration of national interest issued by the National Assembly, which can, if it deems it advisable, convene a referendum.

All types of metal mining are prohibited in any of its phases in protected areas, urban centers and intangible areas.

SECTION 4. Natural resources

Article 408

Nonrenewable natural resources and, in general, products coming from the ground, mineral and petroleum deposits, substances whose nature is different from that of the soil, including those that are located in areas covered by territorial sea waters and maritime zones, as well as biodiversity and its genetic assets and the radio spectrum, are the unalienable property of the State, immune from seizure and not subject to a statute of limitations. These assets can only be produced in strict compliance with the environmental principles set forth in the Constitution.

The State shall participate in profits earned from the tapping of these resources, in an amount that is no less than the profits earned by the company producing them.

The State shall guarantee that the mechanisms for producing, consuming and using natural resources and energy conserve and restore the cycles of nature and make it possible to have living conditions marked by dignity.

SECTION 5. Soil

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.

SECTION 6. Water

Article 411

The State shall guarantee the conservation, recovery and integral management of water resources, watersheds and ecological flows associated with the water cycle. AH activities that can affect the quality and amount of water and the equilibrium of ecosystems shall be regulated, especially in water replenishment sources and zones.

The sustainability of ecosystems and human consumption shall be priorities in water use and development.

Article 412

The authority in charge of managing water shall be responsible for its planning, regulation, and control This authority shall cooperate and coordinate with the authority in charge of environmental management to guarantee water management based on an ecosystemic approach.

SECTION 7. Biosphere, urban ecology, and alternative sources of energy

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.

Article 414

The State shall adopt adequate and cross-cutting measures for the mitigation of climate change, by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and air pollution; it shall take measures for the conservation of the forests and vegetation; and it shall protect the population at risk.

Article 415

The central State and decentralized autonomous governments shall adopt integral and participatory policies for urban development and land use planning that make it possible to regulate urban growth, manage urban fauna, and promote the establishment of green areas. Decentralized autonomous governments shall develop programs for the rational use of water, the reduction of recycling and the adequate treatment of solid and fluid waste. Non-motorized overland transportation shall be promoted and facilitated, especially with establishment of bike lanes.