Print Constitution of the Republic of Moldova
Adopted 29thJuly 1994 (with amendments from July 5, 2000)
(Excerpts)
Title I: General Principles
Article 8Observance of International Law and International Treaties
(1) The Republic of Moldova pledges to respect the Charter of the United Nations and the treaties to which she is a party, to observe with her relations to other states the unanimously recognized principles and norms of international law.
(2) The coming into force of an international treaty containing provisions contrary to the Constitution shall be preceded by a revision of the latter.
Title II:Fundamental Rights, Freedoms and Duties
Chapter I: General Provisions
Article 15 Universality
The Constitution in conjunction with other laws grants the citizens of the Republic of Moldova their rights and freedoms and also lays down their duties upon them.
Article 16 Equality of Rights
(1) It is the foremost duty of the State to respect and protect the human person.
(2) All citizens of the Republic of Moldova are equal before the law and the public authorities, without any discrimination as to race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion, sex, political choice, personal property or social origin.
Article 20 Free Access to Justice
(1) Every citizen has the right to obtain effective protection from competent courts of Jurisdiction against actions infringing on his/her legitimate rights, freedoms and interests.
(2) No law may restrict the access to justice.
Article 21 Presumption of Innocence
Any person accused to have committed an offense shall be presumed innocent until found guilty on legal grounds, brought forward in a public trial in the course of which all guarantees for necessary defense will have been taken.
Article 23 The Right to Know One's Rights and Duties
(1) Every one has the right to an acknowledged legal status.
(2) The State ensures the right of everybody to know his/her rights and duties. For that purpose the State shall publish all its laws and regulations and make them accessible to everybody.
Chapter II: Fundamental Rights and FreedomsArticle 24 The Right to Life and Physical and Mental Integrity
(1) The State guarantees everybody the right to life, and to physical and mental integrity.
(2) No one may be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.
(3) Until its final prohibition, capital punishment may be applied only if it is based on a sentence passed in a court of justice, as foreseen by law.
Article 25 Individual Freedom and Personal Security
(l) Individual freedom and personal security are declared to be inviolable.
(2) Searching, detaining in custody or arresting a person shall be permitted only if based on the authority of law.
(3) The period of detention in custody may not exceed 24 hours.
(4) Persons may be arrested only under warrant issued by a magistrate for a maximum time limit of 30 days. The arrested may contest the legality of the warrant and lay a complaint before a court judge who is bound to reply by way of a motivated decision. The time limit of detention may be extended to 6 months and in exceptional cages, if approved by decision of Parliament, to 12 months.
(5) The person detained in custody or arrested shall be informed without delay of the reasons for his detention or arrest, as well as of the charges made against him/her, which may take place only in the presence of a lawyer, either chosen by the defendant or appointed ex officio.
(6) If the reasons for detention in custody or arrest have ceased to exist, the release of the person concerned must follow without delay.
Article 28 Private and Family Life
The State shall respect and protect private and family life.
Article 30 Privacy of Correspondence
The State shall ensure the privacy of letters, telegrams, other postal dispatches, of telephone conversations and of using other legal means of communication.
Article 31 Freedom of Conscience
(1) The freedom of conscience is guaranteed, and its manifestations should be in a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect.
(2) The freedom of religious worship is guaranteed and religious bodies are free to organize themselves according to their own statutes under the rule of law.
(3) In their mutual relationships religious cults are forbidden to use, express or incite to hatred or enmity.
(4) Religious cults are autonomous vis-a-vis the State and shall enjoy the latter's support, including that aimed at providing religious assistance in the army, in hospitals, prisons, homes for the elderly and orphanages.
Article 32 Freedom of Opinion and Expression
(1) All citizens are guaranteed the freedom of opinion as well as the freedom of publicly expressing their thoughts and opinions by way of word, image or any other means possible.
(2) The freedom of expression may not harm the honour, dignity or the rights of other people to have and express their own opinions or judgements.
(3) The law shall forbid and prosecute all actions aimed at denying and slandering the State or the people. Likewise shall be forbidden and prosecuted the investigations to sedition, war, aggression, ethnic, racial or religious hatred, the incitement to discrimination, territorial separatism, public violence, or other actions threatening constitutional order.
Article 35 The Right of Access to Education
(1) The right of access to education is put into effect through the compulsory comprehensive public school system, lyceal (public secondary school) and vocational education, as well as the higher education system, and other forms of instruction and training.
(2) The State will enforce under the law the right of each person to choose his/her language in which teaching will be effected.
(3) In all forms of educational institutions the study of the country's official language will be ensured.
(4) State public education is free.
(5) All educational institutions, including those that are not financed by the state, shall be established and function under the rule of law.
(6) Higher education institutions have the right to be autonomous.
(7) The access to lyceal, vocational and higher education is equally open to all and is based on personal merit.
(8) The State ensures under the law the freedom of religious education. The State ensures a lay education.
(9) The priority right of choosing an appropriate educational background for children lies with the parents.
Article 36 The Right of Health Security
(1) The right of health security is guaranteed.
(2) The State shall provide a minimum health insurance, that is free.
(3) Organic laws will establish the structure of the national health security system and the means necessary for protecting individual physical and mental health.
Article 39 The Right of Administering
(1) The citizens of the Republic of Moldova have the right of participating in the administration of public affairs, either directly or through their representatives.
(2) The access to a public office or position is guaranteed by law to all citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
Article 43 The Right of Working and of Access to Work
(1) Every person has the right to freely choose his/her work, and to benefit from equitable and satisfactory working conditions, as well as to be protected against unemployment.
(2) All employees have the right of work protection. In this respect the protective measures will bear upon work security and hygiene, working conditions for women and young people, the introduction of minimum wages across the national economy, the weekly period of rest, the paid holidays, difficult working conditions, as well as other specific situations.
(3) The length of the working week shall not exceed 40 hours.
(4) The right of collective bargaining is guaranteed, and so is the legal enforceability of collective agreements.
Article 44 Prohibition of Forced Labour
(1) Forced labour is prohibited.
(2) Not to be regarded as forced labour are the following:
a.Military-like duty or the activities designed to replace it, carried out by those who under the law are exempted from compulsory military service;
b.Work done by a convicted person under normal conditions, in custody or on conditional release;
c.Services such as required to deal with calamities or other dangers or as considered under the law to be a part of normal obligations of civilians.
Article 47 The Right of Receiving Social Assistance and Protection
(1) The State is obliged to take action aimed at ensuring that every person has a decent standard of living, whereby good health and welfare based on available food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and social services are secured for that person and his/her family.
(2) All citizens have the right to be insured against such adversities as: unemployment, disease, disability, widowhood, old age or other situations where, due to causes beyond one's control one loses the source or means of obtaining the necessities of life.
Article 48 Family
(1) The family is the natural and fundamental constituent of society and as such has the right to be protected by the State and by society.
(2) The family is founded on the freely consented marriage of husband and wife, on the spouses equality of rights and on the duty of parents to ensure their children's upbringing and education.
(3) The law shall establish under which conditions a marriage may be concluded, terminated or annulled.
(4) Children have a duty to look after their parents and help them in need.
Article 49 Protection of Family and Orphaned Children
(1) By economic and other actions the State shall support the formation and development of families, and the fulfillment of their duties.
(2) The State shall protect the motherhood, the children and the young and promote the development of the institutions required to put that protection into effect.
(3) All efforts aimed at maintaining, bringing up and educating orphaned children and those children deprived of parental care constitute the responsibility of the State and of society. The state promotes and supports charitable activities for the benefit of these children.
Article 50 Protection of Mothers, Children and Young People
(1) Mothers and children have the right of receiving special protection and care. All children, including those born out of wedlock, shall enjoy the benefits of the same social assistance.
(2) Children and young people enjoy a special form of assistance in the enforcement of their rights.
(3) The State shall grant the required allowances for children and the aid needed for the care of sick or disabled children. The law shall provide for other forms of social assistance for children and the young.
(4) Both the exploitation of minors and their misuse in activities endangering their health, moral conduct, life or normal development are forbidden.
(5) It is the duty of the public authorities to establish the conditions enabling the young people to take part freely in the social, economic, cultural and sporting life of the country.
Article 52 Right of Petitioning
(1) All citizens have the right to apply to public authority by way of petitions formulated in behalf of the applicants.
(2) Legally established organizations may petition exclusively in behalf of the associations or bodies they represent.
Article 53 Rights of Persons Aggrieved by Public Authority
(1) Any person, whose rights have been trespassed upon in any way by public authority through an administrative ruling or lack of timely legal reply to an application, is entitled to obtain acknowledgement of those rights, the cancellation of the ruling and payment of damages.
(2) The State is under patrimonial liability as foreseen by the law for any prejudice or injury caused in lawsuits through errors of the police or the judiciary.
Article 54 Restricting the Exercise of Certain Rights or Freedoms
(1) The exercise of certain rights or freedoms may be restricted only under the law and only as required in cases like: the defense of national security, of public order, health or morals, of citizens rights and freedoms, the carrying of the investigations in criminal cases, preventing the consequences of a natural calamity or of a technological disasters.
(2) The restrictions enforced must be in proportion to the situation that caused it, and may not affect the existence of that right or liberty.