Constitution

Paraguay 1992 Constitution (reviewed 2011)

Table of Contents

Title II. Of the Rights, of the Duties, and of the Guarantees

Chapter I. Of Life and of the Environment

Section I. Of Life

Article 4. Of the Right to Life

The right to life is inherent to the human person. Its protection is guaranteed, in general, from [its] conception. The death penalty is hereby abolished. All persons will be protected by the State in their physical and psychic integrity, as well as in their honor and their reputation. The law will regulate the freedom of persons to dispose of their own body, only for scientific or medical ends.

Article 5. Of the Torture and Other Crimes [Delitos]

No one will be submitted to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading penalties or treatments.

Genocide and torture, as well as the forced disappearance of persons, kidnapping and homicide for political reasons are imprescriptible.

Article 6. Of the Quality of Life

The quality of life shall be promoted by the State through plans and policies that recognize conditioning factors, such as extreme poverty and the impediments of disability or of age.

The State shall also promote research on the factors of population and their links with socioeconomic development, with the preservation of the environment and with the quality of life of the inhabitants.

Section II. Of the Environment

Article 7. Of the Right to a Healthy Environment

Everyone has the right to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced [equilibrado] environment.

The preservation, the conservation the re-composition and the improvement of the environment, as well as its conciliation with the complete [integral] human development, constitute priority objectives of social interest. These purposes orient the legislation and the pertinent governmental policy.

Article 8. Of Environmental Protection

The law will regulate the activities susceptible of producing [an] environmental alteration. In the same way [asimismo], it may restrict or prohibit those [activities] that it qualifies as dangerous.

The manufacture, the assembly, the importation, the commercialization, the possession or the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as the introduction of toxic waste into the country is prohibited. The law may extend this prohibition to other dangerous elements; in the same way, it may regulate the traffic of genetic resources and their technology, [as a] precaution in [precautelando] the national interests.

Ecological crime will be defined and sanctioned by the law. Any damage to the environment will result in [importará] the obligation to repair [recomponer] and to indemnify.