Constitution

Paraguay 1992 Constitution (reviewed 2011)

Table of Contents

Chapter XII. Of the Constitutional Guarantees

Article 131. Of the Guarantees

The guarantees contained in this chapter are established to make effective the rights consecrated in this Constitution, [and] will be regulated by the law.

Article 132. Of Unconstitutionality

The Supreme Court of Justice has the faculty to declare the unconstitutionality of the juridical norms and of the judicial resolutions, in the manner and to the extent [alcances] established in this Constitution and in the law.

Article 133. Of Habeas Corpus

This guarantee can be interposed by the affected [persons] themselves or by the interposition of another person, without the need of power by any legitimate [fehaciente] means, and before any Judge of First Instance of the respective judicial circumscription.

Habeas Corpus may be:

  1. Preventive: by virtue of which all persons, in the imminent moment [trance] of being illegally deprived of their physical freedom, may obtain [recabar] the review [examen] of the legitimacy of the circumstances that, in their opinion [criterio], threaten their freedom, as well as an order [orden] for the ceasing of those restrictions.
  2. Reparative: by virtue of which all persons who would find themselves illegally deprived of their freedom may obtain [recabar] the rectification of the circumstances of the case. The magistrate will order the appearance [comparecencia] of the detainee, with a report [informe] from the public or private agent who made the detention, within the 24 hours of the filing of the petition. If the [agent so] required failed to do so, the judge will constitute himself at the place where the person is being held [recluida], and at that place he will make [a] judgment of merits and will provide for his immediate freedom, in the same way as if the appearance of the detainee had been complied with and the report had been filed. If legal motives that authorize the deprivation of his freedom do not exist, he will provide for it immediately; if there were a written order from a judicial authority, he will refer the prior records [antecendentes] to [the authority] who provided for the detention.
  3. Generic: by virtue of which rectification of circumstances may be requested that, not being contemplated in the two prior cases, restrict the freedom or threaten the personal security [of a person]. In the same way, this guarantee may be interposed in the cases of physical, psychological or moral violence against individuals who have been legally deprived of their freedom.

The law will regulate the various modalities of habeas corpus, which can proceed even during the state of exception. The procedure will be brief, summary and gratuitous [and] can be initiated ex officio.

Article 134. Of Amparo

All persons that for an act or an omission, manifestly illegitimate, of an authority or of a particular [person], consider themselves gravely affected, or in imminent danger to become so in rights and guarantees consecrated in this Constitution or in the law, and that due to the urgency of the case may not be remedied through the ordinary way [via], may promote amparo before the competent magistrate.

The procedure will be brief, summary, gratuitous and of popular action for the cases specified by the law.

The magistrate will have the faculty to safeguard the right or guarantee, or to immediately restore[,] the infringed juridical situation.

If it were about an electoral issue, or [an issue] relative to political organizations, the electoral justice will be competent.

Amparo may not be promoted in the processing [tramitación] of judicial causes, or against acts by judicial organs, or in the process of formation, sanction and promulgation of the laws.

The law will regulate the respective procedure. The sentences falling under Amparo may not result in finality [no causarán estado].

Article 135. Of Habeas Data

All persons may access the information and the data that about themselves, or about their assets, [that] is [obren] in official or private registries of a public character, as well as to know the use made of the same and of their end. [All persons] may request before the competent magistrate the updating, the rectification or the destruction of these, if they were wrong or illegitimately affected their rights.

Article 136. Of the Competence and of the Responsibility of the Magistrates

No judicial magistrate that would have competence may refuse to decide [entender] in the actions or recourses specified in the previous Articles; If he does so without justification, he will be prosecuted and, if it is the case, removed.

In the decisions they dictate, the judicial magistrates must also pronounce themselves on the responsibilities committed by the authorities by [obra] the illegal proceeding and, if circumstances mediate that they[,] prima facie[,] so evidence the perpetration of [a] crime, they will order the detention or suspension of the responsible [persons], as well as any precautionary [cautelar] measure that would proceed for the greater effectiveness of those responsibilities. In the same way, if they have competence, they will prepare [instruirá] the pertinent sumario [statement of facts] and they will give intervention to the Public Ministry; if they do not have [competence], they will pass on the prior records [antecendentes] to the competent magistrate for his prosecution [of the matter].