Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The family is the basic nucleus of society. It is formed on the basis of natural or legal ties, through the free decision of a man and woman to contract matrimony or through the responsible resolve to comply with it.

The state and society guarantee the integral protection of the family. An Act shall determine the inalienable and unseizable family patrimony. The family’s honor, dignity, and intimacy are inviolable.

Family relations are based on the equality of rights and duties of the couple and on the reciprocal respect of all its members. Any form of violence in the family is considered destructive of its harmony and unity, and shall be sanctioned according to law.

The children born of matrimony or outside it, adopted or conceived naturally or with scientific assistance, have equal rights and duties. An Act shall regulate responsibility to the offspring.

The couple has the right to decide freely and responsibly the number of their children and shall support them and educate them while they are minors or non-self-supporting.

The forms of marriage, the age and qualifications to contract it, the duties and rights of the spouses, their separation and the dissolution of the marriage ties are determined by statute.

Religious marriages shall have civil effects within the limits established by statute.

The civil effects of all marriages may be terminated by divorce in accordance with civil law.

Also having civil effects are decrees of annulment of religious marriages issued by the authorities of the respective faiths within the limits established by statute.

An Act shall determine matters relating to the civil status of individuals and consequent rights and duties.

Women and men have equal rights and opportunities. Women cannot be subjected to any type of discrimination. During their periods of pregnancy and following delivery, women shall benefit from the special assistance and protection of the State and shall receive from the latter food subsidies if they should thereafter find themselves unemployed or abandoned.

The State shall support the female head of household in a special way.

The following are basic rights of children: life, physical integrity, health and social security, a balanced diet, their name and citizenship, to have a family and not be separated from it, care and love, instruction and culture, recreation, and the free expression of their opinions. They shall be protected against all forms of abandonment, physical or moral violence, sequestration, sale, sexual abuse, work or economic exploitation, and dangerous work. They shall also enjoy other rights upheld in the Constitution, the laws, and international treaties ratified by Colombia.

The family, society, and the State have the obligation to assist and protect children in order to guarantee their harmonious and integral development and the full exercise of their rights. Any individual may request from the competent authority the enforcement of these rights and the sanctioning of those who violate them.

The rights of children take precedence over the rights of others.

The adolescent is entitled to protection and integral development.

The State and society guarantee the active participation of adolescents in public and private organs that are responsible for the protection, education, and progress of the youth.

The State, society, and the family shall all participate in protecting and assisting individuals in the third age bracket and shall promote their integration into active and community life.

The State shall guarantee to them services of integral social security and food subsidies in cases of indigence.

The State shall promote a policy of planning, rehabilitation, and social integration for those who are physically, emotionally, or psychologically handicapped and who shall receive the specialized attention that they need.

Social Security is a mandatory public service which shall be delivered under the administration, coordination, and control of the State, subject to the principles of efficiency, universality, and solidarity within the limits established by statute.

All inhabitants are guaranteed the irrevocable right to Social Security.

With the participation of individuals, the state shall gradually extend the coverage of Social Security which shall include the provision of services in the form determined by statute.

Social Security may be provided by public or private entities, in accordance with the relevant statute.

It shall not be possible to assign or use the resources of the Social Security organs for different purposes.

An Act shall define the means whereby the resources earmarked for retirement benefits may retain their constant purchasing power.

The State shall guarantee the rights resulting from the Pensions Systems, its financial sustainability, it shall respect vested rights in accordance with the law and assume the payment of the pension debt for which it is responsible according to the law. The statutes which are enacted on pension matters subsequent to the entry into force of this Legislative Act have to ensure the financial sustainability of the arrangements made by them.

The discounts, reductions and seizures of pensions decreed by the applicable statute notwithstanding, for no reason may the payment of the monthly pensions recognized by statute be suspended or their value be frozen or reduced.

The provisions on infirmity and widower’s pensions notwithstanding, it is necessary to comply with the requirements concerning age, time of service, length of contribution payments or required capital and other conditions defined by an Act in order to obtain the right to a pension. The requirements for and the benefits resulting from obtaining the right to an infirmity or widower’s pension shall be established by the Acts of the General Pensions System.

In pension matters all vested rights are respected.

Pension requirements and benefits for all persons, including those related to old age pensions for high risk activities, shall be established by the Acts on the General Pensions System. No provision may be issued and no contract invoked that would run contrary to the rules thereby enacted.

For the payment of the pensions only those factors are taken into account to which the contributions made by every person are related. No pension may be lower than the existing monthly legal minimum wage. However, an Act may determine the cases in which periodical economic benefits which are lower than the minimum wage are paid to people with limited resources who do not fulfill the conditions required for the right to a pension.

After the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, there shall be no special or excepted regimes, those applicable to the public force and the President of the Republic and those defined by the paragraphs of the present article notwithstanding.

The persons whose right to a pension comes into existence after the entry into force of the present Legislative Act may not receive more than thirteen (13) monthly pension payments per year. It is understood that the pension comes into existence at the time when all requirements for obtaining it are met, even if it has not yet been [formally] recognized.

An Act shall establish speedy proceedings for the revision of pensions which have been awarded by an abuse of law or without fulfilling the requirements established by statute or by valid agreements or arbitral awards.

After July 31, 2010 no pensions may come into existence at the expense of public resources that are higher than twenty-five (25) monthly legal minimum wages.

After the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, no pension requirements that differ from those established by the Acts of the General Pensions System may be created by agreements, collective bargaining, arbitral awards or any other legal act.

The pension regime of the national, nationalized and territorial teaching staff linked to the official public education service is that which has been established for the teaching profession by the legal provisions which were in force prior to the entry into force of the Act 812 of 2003, and by Article 81 of the latter. Teachers who have joined or join the service after the entry into force of the aforementioned law shall have the right to a medium bonus (prima media) established by the Acts of the General Pensions System, in the terms of Article 81 of the Act 812 of 2003.

Vested rights, the regime applicable to the members of the public force and the President of the Republic and the provisions of the present Article notwithstanding, the special and excepted pension regimes as well as any other [pension regime] that is different from the one established in a permanent manner by the Acts on the General Pensions System shall cease to have effect on July 31 of the year 2010.

The rules concerning pension matters contained in pacts, collective bargains, arbitral awards or validly concluded agreements that are in force on the date of entry into force of this Legislative Act shall remain valid for the period initially established. In the pacts, agreements or awards that are made between the entry into force of this Legislative Act and July 31, 2010 no pension rules that are more favorable than those currently in force may be stipulated. In any case they shall cease to have effect on July 31, 2010.

The transitional regime established by Act 100 of 1993 and the other rules which develop said regime may not extend beyond July 31, 2010, except for the workers who are subject to that regime and have paid contributions for at least 750 weeks or its equivalent in times of service on the entry into force of the present Legislative Act, to whom it shall continue to apply until the year 2014.

The pension requirements and benefits for the persons covered by this regime shall be those established by Article 36 of the Act 100 of 1993 and the other rules which develop said regime.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 140 of law 100 of 1993 and of Decree 2090 of 2003, the high risk regime contemplated by said decree shall apply to the members of the National Prison and Penitentiary Guards Association, starting with the entry into force of the latter. To those who join at a later date the regime that had been in force previously for these people in view of the risks connected to their work shall apply, i.e. the provisions contained to this effect in law 32 of 1986, under which the corresponding contributions must have been paid.

Persons who receive a pension equal to or lower than three (3) monthly legal minimum wages or, if the pension comes into existence before July 31, 2011, who obtain fourteen (14) monthly pension payments per year are excepted from the provisions of section 8 of the present Article.

Public health and environmental protection are public services for which the State is responsible. All individuals are guaranteed access to services that promote, protect, and restore health.

It is the responsibility of the State to organize, direct, and regulate the provision of health services to the inhabitants and of environment protection in accordance with the principles of efficiency, universality, and solidarity; in addition, to establish policies for the provision of health services by private entities and to exercise oversight and control over them; and to establish the competences of the nation, territorial entities, and individuals, and to determine the subsidies to their tasks in the terms and conditions established by statute.

Health services shall be organized in a decentralized manner, according to care levels and with the participation of the community.

An Act shall define the terms under which basic care for all inhabitants shall be free of charge and mandatory.

Every individual has the right to have access to the integral care of his/her health and that of his/her community.

The possession and the consumption of narcotic and psychoactive drugs is prohibited, except for medical prescription. For the goals of prevention and rehabilitation an Act shall establish administrative measures and treatments of a pedagogic, prophylactic and therapeutical character for persons consuming these substances. The application of these measures and treatments requires the informed consent of the addict.

In addition, the State shall give special attention to the dependent sick or addict individual and his/her family in order to strengthen it in respect of values and principles which contribute to the prevention of behaviour affecting the comprehensive care for the health of the persons concerned and, by extension, of the community, and shall develop in a permanent manner campaigns for the prevention of consumption of drugs and narcotic substances and in favor of the rehabilitation of addicts.

Any child under a year old who may not be covered by any type of protection or Social Security shall be entitled to receive free care in all health entities that receive state subsidies. An Act shall regulate the matter.

All Colombian citizens are entitled to live in dignity. The State shall determine the conditions necessary to give effect to this right and shall promote plans for public housing, appropriate systems of long-term financing, and community plans for the execution of these housing programs.

The practice of sports, its recreational, competitive and autochthonous manifestations have the function of fully developing the human personality, and to preserve and promote better health in human beings.

Sports and recreation are part of education and constitute public social expenditure.

The right of all persons to recreation, the practice of sports and the enjoyment of their free time are recognized.

The State shall foster these activities and shall inspect, look after and control sports and recreational organizations, whose structure and property must be democratic.

The Congress shall issue a labor statute. The appropriate law shall take into account at least the following minimal fundamental principles:

Equality of opportunity for workers; minimum essential and flexible remuneration proportional to the amount and quality of work; stability in employment; irrevocability of minimum benefits established in labor regulations; options to negotiate about and reconcile uncertain and arguable rights; a situation more favorable to the worker in case of doubt in the application and interpretation of the formal bases of the law; the primacy of facts over established formalities in issues of labor relations; guarantees to social security, training, instruction, and necessary rest; special protection of women, mothers, and minor-age workers.

The State guarantees the right of suitable payment and the periodic adjustment of legal retirement benefits.

International labor agreements duly ratified are part of domestic legislation.

Statute, contracts, agreements, and labor settlements may not infringe on the freedom, human dignity, or rights of workers.

It is the obligation of the State and employers to offer training and professional and technical skills to whoever needs them. The state must promote the employment of individuals of working age and guarantee to the handicapped the right to employment appropriate to their physical condition.

The right of collective bargaining to regulate labor relations, with the exceptions provided for by statute, is guaranteed.

It is the duty of the State to promote agreement and other measures for the peaceful solution of collective labor conflicts.

The right to strike is guaranteed, except in the case of essential public services defined by the legislature.

An Act shall regulate this right.

A permanent commission composed of the government, the representatives of employers, and of workers shall promote sound labor relations, contribute to the settlement of collective labor disputes, and coordinate wage and labor policies. An Act shall regulate their makeup and functioning.

An Act may establish the incentives and means so that workers may participate in the management of enterprises.

Private property and the other rights acquired in accordance with civil laws are guaranteed and may neither be disregarded nor infringed by subsequent laws. When in the application of a law enacted for reasons of public utility or social interest a conflict between the rights of individuals and the interests recognized by the law arises, the private interest shall yield to the public or social interest.

Property has a social dimension which implies obligations. As such, an ecological dimension is inherent to it.

The State shall protect and promote associative and joint forms of property.

Expropriation may be carried out for reasons of public utility or social interest defined by the legislature, subject to a judicial decision and prior compensation. The compensation shall be determined by taking into account the interests of the community and of the individual concerned. In the cases determined by the legislator, the expropriation may take place by administrative action, subject to subsequent litigation before the administrative law courts, including with regard to the price.

In case of war and exclusively to meet its requirements, the need for expropriation may be decreed by the national government without prior indemnification.

In the said case, real estate alone may be occupied temporarily to meet the requirements of war or to assign facilities to it.

The state shall always be responsible for expropriations effected by the government on its own or through its agents.

The state shall promote access to property in accordance with the law.

When the State sells its interest in an enterprise, it shall take measures promoting the democratization of the ownership of its shares and shall offer its workers or the collective and workers’ organizations special terms to make it possible for them to accede to the said proprietary shares. An Act shall regulate the matter.

The State shall protect intellectual property for the period and using the means established by statute.

The fate of "intervivos" or testamentary donations, done in accordance with the Act on general interest purposes, may not be altered or modified by the legislature, unless the purpose of the donation should no longer be applicable. In this case, the Act shall assign the property in question to a similar purpose.

The government shall oversee the management and investment of such donations.

Property in public use, natural parks, communal lands of ethnic groups, security zones, the archaeological resources of the nation, and other property determined by statute are inalienable, imprescriptible, and not subject to seizure.

It is the duty of the State to promote the gradual access of agricultural workers to landed property in individual or associational form and to services involving education, health, housing, social security, recreation, credit, communications, the marketing of products, technical and management assistance with the purpose of improving the incomes and quality of life of the peasants.

The production of food crops shall benefit from the special protection of the State. For that purpose, priority shall be given to the integral development of agricultural, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry, and agroindustrial activities as well as to the building of physical infrastructural projects and to land improvement.

Similarly, the state shall promote research and the transfer of technology for the production of food crops and primary resources of agricultural origin with the purpose of increasing productivity.