Amendments
Add an amendment: “AMENDMENT 1 - Right to Life and Protection Against Violence
§1. Right to Li…”
AMENDMENT 1 - Right to Life and Protection Against Violence
§1. Right to Life
(1) Everyone has the right to life. This right shall be protected by law from the moment of live birth. No one shall be intentionally deprived of their life, except in execution of a judicial sentence pronounced following a conviction for a crime for which the law provides this penalty - which penalty is, in any event and without exception, abolished within the territory of the Republic of Marianne, and no law may re-establish it other than through a revision of this amendment.
(2) The use of force shall not be regarded as a violation of this article when it is rendered absolutely necessary:
a) in defense of any person against unlawful violence.
b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained.
c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection. In each of these cases, the use of force must be proportionate to the threat, subsidiary to any other available measure, and subject to an accounting and effective judicial review a posteriori.
(3) The State has a positive obligation to protect the life of everyone within its jurisdiction, which includes the obligation to investigate, diligently and independently, any death potentially resulting from the use of force by a State agent or occurring in detention.
§2. Prohibition of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
(1) No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, whether physical or psychological.
(2) For the purposes of this article:
a) torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person, notably for such purposes as obtaining from them or a third person information or a confession, punishing them, intimidating them or putting pressure on them, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by a public official or any other person acting in an official capacity, or at their instigation, or with their express or tacit consent.
b) inhuman treatment means any act intentionally causing severe mental or physical suffering.
c) degrading treatment means any act that humiliates or debases a person, reveals a lack of respect for their dignity, or arouses in them feelings of fear, anguish, or inferiority capable of breaking their moral or physical resistance, regardless of any intent on the part of the author.
(3) The prohibition set forth in this article is absolute and non-derogable. It applies under all circumstances, including in times of war, exceptional public danger threatening the life of the nation, the fight against terrorism, or upon the order of a superior officer or any public authority. No exceptional circumstance whatsoever may be invoked to justify torture. An order from a superior may not be invoked as a justification. On the contrary, it constitutes an aggravating factor for the person who gives it.
(4) Expressly categorized as inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of this article, without this list being exhaustive, are: prolonged incommunicado detention, prolonged solitary confinement without strictly motivated medical or disciplinary justification and of a predetermined duration, sexual violence committed for purposes of interrogation or punishment, the intentional deprivation of food, water, sleep, or medical care, exposure to extreme temperatures, and mock execution.
(5) No statement, confession, or piece of evidence obtained through torture or inhuman or degrading treatment may be invoked as evidence in any proceedings whatsoever, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was so obtained.
(6) No one shall be expelled, returned, or extradited to a State where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in real danger of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment (principle of non-refoulement). This prohibition is absolute and admits of no exception based on the dangerousness of the person concerned or on reasons relating to national security.
§3. Prohibition of Corporal Punishment
(1) Corporal punishment is prohibited under all circumstances, whether pronounced as a criminal, disciplinary, school, administrative, military, or familial sanction.
(2) Within the meaning of this article, corporal punishment constitutes any chastisement consisting of the use of physical force intended to cause a certain degree of pain or discomfort, however slight, including punishments inflicted on children within the family, school, or institutional setting, under any educational, religious, or cultural pretext whatsoever.
(3) This prohibition does not prevent the strictly proportionate and momentary use of physical constraint necessary to prevent imminent harm to the person themselves or to others, provided that such constraint ceases as soon as the danger has disappeared and is never used for punitive purposes.
§4. Non-Regression and Strict Interpretation
(1) The level of protection guaranteed by this amendment may not be subject to any regression in any form whatsoever.
(2) Any exception to the prohibitions set forth in this amendment, provided for by its own provisions, is of strict interpretation and may not be extended by analogy, regulatory means, or judicial precedent to situations not expressly covered by it.
AMENDMENT 2 - Prohibition of Enslavement
§1. Prohibition of Slavery and Servitude
(1) Slavery in all its forms is abolished and prohibited in an absolute and non-derogable manner. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
(2) Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised, including when such exercise results from economic coercion, deception, or an abuse of vulnerability replacing direct physical coercion.
(3) Servitude is the obligation to live and work on another person's property and to render to them, for remuneration or not, certain services, without the possibility of changing one's condition.
(4) This prohibition applies regardless of the grounds invoked to justify it - customary, religious, contractual, or arising from a debt - and prevails over any agreement, including one freely consented to by the person concerned. No one can validly consent to their own reduction to slavery or servitude; any such consent is null and void and may never be asserted against the victim.
§2. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labour
(1) No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
(2) Forced or compulsory labour means any work or service exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered themselves voluntarily.
(3) Forced or compulsory labour within the meaning of this article shall not include, strictly on condition that they are regulated by law, proportionate, and subject to judicial review:
a) any work normally required of a person detained in pursuance of a regular court decision or during conditional release, excluding any work performed for the benefit of a private enterprise without fair remuneration and without the consent of the detained person.
b) any service of a military character or, in the case of conscientious objectors, service exacted in place of compulsory military service, where such exists.
c) any service exacted in cases of crises or calamities threatening the life or well-being of the community, for the period strictly necessary to cope with the crisis.
d) work or services which form part of normal civic obligations, defined exhaustively by law.
(4) Under no circumstances may these exceptions be interpreted as authorizing child labour, regardless of the context, including familial or educational.
§3. Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Unreported Employment
(1) The State has a positive obligation to prevent human trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute perpetrators, whether trafficking is carried out for purposes of sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, organ removal, forced begging, illegal adoption, or any other form of exploitation.
(2) Human trafficking means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or reception of a person, by means of the threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of authority or of a position of vulnerability, or by the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. The consent of the victim is irrelevant when any of the aforementioned means have been used.
(3) The State undertakes to penalize unreported employment and any form of economic subjection equivalent to forced exploitation, notably the confiscation of identity papers by an employer, debt bondage, and the exploitation of vulnerability linked to migratory status.
(4) Any victim of trafficking or forced labour shall be entitled to assistance, protection, a temporary residence permit independent of cooperation with judicial authorities, and full reparation, without prejudice to the criminal liability of their exploiters.
§4. Non-Regression and Strict Interpretation
(1) The level of protection guaranteed by this amendment may not be subject to any regression in any form whatsoever.
(2) Any exception to the prohibitions set forth in this amendment, provided for by its own provisions, is of strict interpretation and may not be extended by analogy, regulatory means, or judicial precedent to situations not expressly covered by it.
AMENDMENT 3 - Bodily Protection and Medical Autonomy
§1. Prohibition of Non-Consensual Bodily Interferences
(1) No one may undergo an interference with their bodily integrity without their free, prior, specific, and informed consent, except in cases strictly defined by law and subject to judicial review.
(2) The only exceptions to this principle, within strictly necessary and proportionate limits, are:
a) life-saving emergency interventions on a person unable to express their will, in the absence of known contrary advance directives and in the absence of a legal representative reachable in a timely manner, limited to what is strictly necessary to preserve life or avoid serious and immediate harm.
b) measures of momentary physical constraint strictly necessary for the safety of a person or others, under the conditions provided for in Amendment 1, §3(3).
(3) In any event, no bodily interference may be justified on cultural, customary, religious, or aesthetic grounds when performed on a person unable to validly consent, notably a minor, except when it responds to proven therapeutic necessity.
§2. Free and Informed Consent and Refusal of Treatment
(1) Every adult and capable person has the right to freely consent to any medical act concerning them and to refuse it, including when such refusal is likely to lead to their death, without such refusal being imposed upon them, nor may the healthcare professional override it.
(2) Consent is valid only if preceded by clear, fair, appropriate, and complete information regarding the person's condition, the proposed investigations and treatments, their usefulness, their potential urgency, their consequences, the frequent or serious normally foreseeable risks they entail, as well as alternative possible solutions and the foreseeable consequences in case of refusal.
(3) Consent may be withdrawn at any time, without formality, without having to justify the reason, and without such withdrawal resulting in any unfavorable consequence in access to subsequent care.
(4) Everyone has the right to draw up advance directives expressing their wishes regarding the end of life and medical acts desired or refused in the event that they should become unable to express their will. These directives are binding on the medical profession, except in vital emergencies for the time required for a full assessment of the situation, or when they appear manifestly inappropriate or non-compliant with the medical situation, in which case the decision is made within the framework of a collegial procedure whose modalities are determined by law.
(5) For minors or protected adults unable to express their will, consent shall be sought from their legal representative, in the best interests of the person concerned and, to the extent of their discernment, by seeking their own assent, which must be taken into account progressively with their age and maturity.
§3. Prohibition of Non-Consensual Human Experimentation
(1) Any experimentation, biomedical research, or clinical trial on a human being is subject to their free, specific, informed, and express consent, given in writing, revocable at any time without justification or unfavorable consequence.
(2) Experimentations conducted under the following conditions are prohibited under all circumstances and without any possible exception:
a) without the consent of the person concerned or of their duly informed legal representative.
b) on persons in a situation of particular vulnerability - detained persons, persons with mental disabilities lacking discernment, persons in a state of economic or hierarchical dependency vis-à-vis the researcher - when this vulnerability is exploited to obtain consent that is not truly free.
c) on deceased persons, without the consent they expressed during their lifetime or, failing that, that of their beneficiaries, under the conditions set by law.
(3) Any human experimentation, even if consented to, must be previously authorized by an independent ethics committee, be based on rigorous scientific justification, be subject to a prior assessment of the ratio between foreseeable risks and the expected benefit for the person or for public health, and may under no circumstances be conducted if disproportionate risks weigh on the subjects compared to the expected benefit.
(4) Violation of this paragraph entails the personal criminal liability of the researcher and of any person who knowingly authorized it, without the status of representative of the State or of a public research organization constituting a justification or a cause of irresponsibility.
§4. Non-Regression and Strict Interpretation
(1) The level of protection guaranteed by this amendment may not be subject to any regression in any form whatsoever.
(2) Any exception to the prohibitions set forth in this amendment, provided for by its own provisions, is of strict interpretation and may not be extended by analogy, regulatory means, or judicial precedent to situations not expressly covered by it.
AMENDMENT 4 - Bodily, Reproductive, and Genetic Sovereignty
§1. Inalienability of the Human Body, its Elements, and its Products
(1) The human body, its elements, and its products cannot be the subject of a property right in the patrimonial sense of the term. They are inalienable, non-transferable for valuable consideration, and incapable of appropriation.
(2) Prohibited without exception or possible derogation by contractual or regulatory means are:
a) commerce and remuneration, in any form whatsoever - direct or disguised as "compensation," "indemnification," or "expenses" exceeding the strict reimbursement of expenses actually incurred - for the donation of organs, tissues, cells, blood, gametes, or any other element or product of the human body.
b) trafficking in human organs, tissues, or cells, as well as any for-profit intermediation in donation or transplantation.
c) surrogate motherhood for financial gain (commercial surrogacy), in any form and through any intermediary whatsoever, including when the contract is concluded abroad. No surrogacy agreement, whether commercial or purportedly altruistic, may produce binding legal effect with respect to the surrogate mother, who retains at all times and until birth the right to go back on her commitment without any sanction, penalty, or action for damages being able to be asserted against her on this ground.
d) the patentability of the human body, its elements, and its products as such, including total or partial sequences of a gene, excluding technical processes of isolation or production which may, for their part, be protected under the conditions set by law.
(3) The donation of organs, tissues, cells, blood, or gametes must be voluntary, free of charge, anonymous except for exceptions provided by law in the interest of the person born from the donation, and revocable until the moment of retrieval.
(4) Any violation of this paragraph shall be punished by law and shall not confer upon its author any right or claim enforceable against the person whose body, elements, or products have been unduly used.
§2. Protection of the Human Genome
(1) The genetic heritage of the human species is protected. No one shall be discriminated against on the grounds of their genetic characteristics.
(2) Prohibited in an absolute and non-derogable manner are:
a) any intervention aimed at creating a human being genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead (human reproductive cloning).
b) any modification of the genome of human germ cells or embryos intended to be transmitted to offspring, except for derogations strictly regulated by law for research into therapeutic techniques alone, without transfer of the modified embryo for gestation purposes.
c) any genetic modification pursuing a selection purpose, understood as any organized practice aimed at the selection of persons based on genetic characteristics deemed desirable, including the selection of the sex of the unborn child, except where such selection aims to avoid the transmission of a serious sex-linked genetic disease, duly established by a multidisciplinary medical team.
d) any non-therapeutic somatic genetic modification, that is to say, not aimed at preventing, treating, or curing a disease or deficiency, notably those pursuing a goal of enhancing physical, cognitive, or aesthetic capacities ("human enhancement").
(3) Genetic tests may be performed only for medical purposes, regulated scientific research, or judicial purposes under the conditions provided by law, and only with the free and informed consent of the person concerned, previously informed of the scope and purpose of the test. Employers and insurers may not, under any circumstances, demand the disclosure of a person's genetic characteristics nor take them into account, directly or indirectly, in their decisions.
§3. Sexual and Reproductive Rights
(1) Everyone has the right to control their own body in matters of sexuality and reproduction, with respect for the autonomy and consent of others.
(2) This right includes:
a) the right to comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education based on accurate scientific data and free from any imposed moral or religious judgment, guaranteed to everyone throughout their schooling.
b) the right to contraception, in all its medically recognized forms, access to which may not be made subject to parental, spousal, or third-party authorization for any person capable of consenting according to the general rules of law, nor hindered by a waiting period, a conscience clause invoked without immediate referral to another professional, or a cost constituting an obstacle to its effectiveness.
c) the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy, guaranteed to any pregnant woman who requests it, without this right being made subject to the presentation of a motive, authorization from a third party - including the partner or the legal representative of a minor, whose information alone is sought without their opposition being able to obstruct the decision of the person concerned - a reflection period exceeding what is strictly reasonable, or procedural, financial, or geographical obstacles having the effect of rendering this right illusory.
(3) No law, regulation, or administrative practice may have as its object or effect the restriction of effective access to the rights set forth in this paragraph. Any conscience clause recognized for a healthcare professional must be exercised in compliance with the obligation, for both the healthcare establishment and the healthcare system taken as a whole, to guarantee under all circumstances and without unreasonable delay the effective access of everyone to the services mentioned in this paragraph.
§4. Non-Regression and Strict Interpretation
(1) The level of protection guaranteed by this amendment may not be subject to any regression in any form whatsoever.
(2) Any exception to the prohibitions set forth in this amendment, provided for by its own provisions, is of strict interpretation and may not be extended by analogy, regulatory means, or judicial precedent to situations not expressly covered by it.
Bodily freedoms, dignity and the protection of the human person: These amendments fundamentally protect human integrity by guaranteeing the right to life, the absolute abolition of torture and slavery, as well as bodily and medical autonomy. They also enshrine reproductive and genetic sovereignty by prohibiting any commercialization of the human body and cloning, while guaranteeing effective access to contraception and abortion. Finally, they safeguard these rights through a strict prohibition of any legislative regression or derogation during times of crisis.