Title II: On fundamental rights, guarantees and duties
Chapter I: Fundamental rights
Section I: Civil and political rights

Article 40: Right to liberty and personal security
All people have a right to liberty and personal security. Accordingly:
4. All detained people have the right to communicate immediately with their families, lawyer, or trusted people, who have the right to be informed of the location of the detained person and of the reasons for the detention;

Title V: On the Judicial Power
Chapter VI: On the Public Defense and Free Legal Assistance

Article 176: Public defense
The service of Public Defense is an organ of the system of justice equipped with administrative and functional autonomy, which has as its ends guaranteeing the effective guardianship of the fundamental right to defense in the different areas of its power. The service of Public Defense shall be offered in all the national territory attending to the criteria of lack of payment, easy access, equality, efficiency, and quality, for people charged that for whatever reason are not represented by a lawyer. The Law of Public Defense shall rule the functioning of this institution.

Article 177: Free legal assistance
The State shall be responsible for organizing programs and services of free legal assistance in favor of people who lack economic resources to obtain judicial representation of their interests, particularly for the protection of the right of victims, without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the Public Ministry in the realm of the criminal process.

Article 40: Right to liberty and personal security
All people have a right to liberty and personal security. Accordingly:

• Protection from unjustified restraint 1. No one may be sent to prison or denied his liberty without an order caused and written by the appropriate judge, except in cases of flagrante delicto;

2. Every authority that exercises measures to deprive liberty is obligated to identify himself.

3. All people, at the moment of their detention, shall be informed of their rights;

• Right to counsel 4. All detained people have the right to communicate immediately with their families, lawyer, or trusted people, who have the right to be informed of the location of the detained person and of the reasons for the detention;

• Protection from unjustified restraint 5. All people deprived of their liberty shall be submitted to the appropriate judicial authority within forty-eight hours of their detention or freed. The appropriate judicial authority shall notify the interested person, within the same time period, of the decision dictated to that effect.

6. All people deprived of their liberty without cause or without the legal formalities or outside of cases provided for by law, shall be immediately freed at his request or at that of any other person.

7. All people may be freed once the imposed penalty has been completed or an order for freedom has been given by the appropriate authority;

8. No one may be submitted to methods of coercion unless by his own making ;

9. The methods of coercion, restrictive of personal liberty, are of special character and their application should be proportional to the danger that they attempt to guard against;

• Rights of debtors 10. Physical constraint may not be established for debts that do not come from an infraction against the penal laws;

11. Every person that has a detained person under their guard is obligated to present him as soon as is required by the appropriate authority;

12. The transfer of any detained person from a prison to another location without an order written and caused by the appropriate authority is strictly prohibited;

14. No one is criminally responsible for that done by another;

• Principle of no punishment without law 15. No one can be obligated to do that which the law does not order nor kept from doing that which the law does not prohibit. The law is equal for all: it may only order that which is just and useful for the community and it may not prohibit more than what is harmful.

16. Punishments that deprive freedom and the means of security shall be oriented towards reeducation and social reinsertion of the condemned person and may not consist of forced work;

17. In the exercise of the sanctioning power established by law, the Public Administration may not impose sanctions that implicate the deprivation of liberty in a direct or subsidiary form.

Article 69: Effective judicial guardianship and due process

All persons, in the exercise of their rights and legitimate interests, have the right to obtain effective judicial guardianship, with respect to the due process that shall be formed by the minimum guarantees that are established in the following:

• Right to speedy trial 1. The right to accessible, timely, and free justice.

• Judicial independence
• Right to speedy trial 2. The right to be heard, within a reasonable period and by a competent, independent, and impartial jurisdiction, established previously by law.

• Presumption of innocence in trials 3. The right to be presumed innocent and treated accordingly, while not having been declared guilt by an irrevocable sentence.

• Right to counsel
• Right to public trial 4. The right to a public, oral, and adversarial trial, in all equality and with respect to the right of defense.

• Prohibition of double jeopardy 5. No person may be judged twice for the same charge.

• Protection from self-incrimination 6. No one may be obligated to self-incriminate.

• Protection from ex post facto laws
• Principle of no punishment without law 7. No one may be judged in any way but in accordance to the laws that preexisted the act for which they are charged, before a judge or competent tribunal, and with observance of the full scope of the customs that pertain to each case.

• Regulation of evidence collection 8. Proof that is obtained through violation of the law is null.

• Right to appeal judicial decisions


9. All sentences may be appealed in accordance with the law. The superior court may not increase the sanction imposed when the only person to make an appeal is the convicted person.

10. The norms of due process shall be applied to all kinds of judicial and administrative conduct.

Article 176: Public defense

• Right to counsel
• Protection of victim's rights

The service of Public Defense is an organ of the system of justice equipped with administrative and functional autonomy, which has as its ends guaranteeing the effective guardianship of the fundamental right to defense in the different areas of its power. The service of Public Defense shall be offered in all the national territory attending to the criteria of lack of payment, easy access, equality, efficiency, and quality, for people charged that for whatever reason are not represented by a lawyer. The Law of Public Defense shall rule the functioning of this institution.
Article 177: Free legal assistance

• Establishment of judicial council

The State shall be responsible for organizing programs and services of free legal assistance in favor of people who lack economic resources to obtain judicial representation of their interests, particularly for the protection of the right of victims, without prejudice to the powers that correspond to the Public Ministry in the realm of the criminal process.

Artículo 64.- Procedimiento de confirmación de la entrega ante la Suprema Corte de Justicia. La Suprema Corte de Justicia conocerá inmediatamente del procedimiento y la persona reclamada comparecerá ante ella sin demoras en un plazo máximo de cuarenta y ocho (48) horas a partir de su presentación ante el Ministerio Público.
Párrafo I. Los debates se llevarán a cabo y la sentencia se dictará en audiencia pública, a menos que la publicidad sea perjudicial para el buen desarrollo del procedimiento, los intereses de un tercero o la dignidad de la persona. En este caso, la Suprema Corte de Justicia, a petición del Ministerio Público, de la persona reclamada o de oficio, se pronunciará a puerta cerrada no siendo posible apelar dicha decisión.
Párrafo II. Serán oídos el Ministerio Público y la persona reclamada, esta última será asistida por su abogado/a defensor/a o su asesor/a letrado/a y, si es necesario, en presencia de un/a intérprete o traductor/a.

Artículo 70.- Celebración de audiencia. Dentro de las veinticuatro (24) horas de producido el arresto, el Ministerio Público, previa notificación a la Fiscalía de Corte Penal Internacional, realizará una audiencia en la que:
1) Intimará al detenido la designación de defensor/a de su elección, bajo apercibimiento de tenérsele por designado al/a la de oficio de turno.
2) Nombrará un/a intérprete si el/la detenido/a no se expresara en idioma español.
3) Informará que existen motivos para creer que ha cometido un crimen bajo la competencia de la Corte Penal Internacional y que se procederá a tomarle declaración.
4) Informará al/a la detenido/a que se le presume inocente mientras no se pruebe su culpabilidad y que no está obligado/a a declarar contra sí mismo/a ni a declararse culpable, pudiendo guardar silencio sin que ello vaya a tenerse en cuenta a los efectos de determinar su culpabilidad o inocencia.
5) Informará al/a la detenido/a sobre el procedimiento que se tramita y lo establecido en el Estatuto de Roma.
6) Procederá a tomarle declaración en presencia del/de la abogado/a defensor/a.

Artículo 106.- Actuación en audiencia. En la audiencia, el juez procederá a: 1) Designarle defensor/a de oficio si no estuviese presente su defensor/a.
2) Nombrar un intérprete y facilitarle las traducciones que sean necesarias para su defensa.
3) Informar a la persona de que existen motivos para creer que ha cometido un crimen de competencia de la Corte Penal Internacional y que se procederá a tomarle declaración.
4) Informar que se le presume inocente mientras no se pruebe su culpabilidad ante la Corte Penal Internacional y que no está obligada a declarar contra sí misma ni a declararse culpable, pudiendo guardar silencio sin que ello vaya a tenerse en cuenta a los efectos de determinar su culpabilidad o inocencia.
5) Interrogar a la persona en presencia de su defensor conforme lo hubiera dispuesto la Corte Penal Internacional o sus órganos.