The Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras () was approved on 11 January 1982, published on 20 January 1982, amended by the National Congress of Honduras 26 times from 1984 to 2005,Dates of

ratification Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...

. and 10 interpretations by Congress were made from 1982 to 2005. It is Honduras' twelfth constitution since independence in 1838. Previous charters were adopted in 1839, 1848, 1865, 1873, 1880, 1894, 1906, 1924, 1936, 1957 and 1965. Th
Constitution of Honduras
gained notoriety because of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis that removed President Manuel Zelaya and saw Roberto Micheletti take his place. In 2009

Óscar Arias Óscar Arias Sánchez (; born 13 September 1940 in Heredia, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2010. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 198 ...

, then President of Costa Rica, who had been asked by the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

to help arbitrate the crisis, termed the Honduran constitution the "worst in the entire world" and an "invitation to coups."

Early history

1838–1981

Honduras broke away from the

Central American Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...

Federation in October 1838 and became an independent sovereign state. However, in the 1840s and 1850s Honduras participated in several conferences Central American Union, which did not work, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate (1846) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852). It later adopted the name of

Republic of Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean ...

. In 1847 the National Autonomous University of Honduras (public) was founded during the administration of President-elect John Lindo; it taught civil law, philosophy and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, among others. In 1860, after his defeat in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

, Trujillo came to the U.S. (former president of Nicaragua) William Walker influenced by the ambiguous

Monroe doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act ...

( "America for Americans"). After deviating from his initial goal was the Bay Islands and the Mosquito, which previously belonged to Britain, barricaded himself in the Fortress of San Fernando in Omoa and was shot in Trujillo on 12 September 1860, during the presidential General Jose Santos Guardiola, who was assassinated two years later, before the end of his term. Marco Aurelio Soto Came to power in 1876 and implemented liberal reforms in the country. These reforms of administrative, political, economic and social development, tried to spin 90 degrees to the disastrous situation lived Honduras. Soto managed to improve lines of communication and others service. Construction of sections of railroad, the telegraph system and launched an education program unprecedented in the country. Despite the progress made during the administration, Honduras again fell back on social instability by failing to have products such as coffee grounds or snuff how to build a stable economy. During the second half of the nineteenth century Honduras continued to participate in diplomatic efforts to restore political unity of Central America, and conference of The Union (1872) and Guatemala (1876). On 1 November 1898, the Greater Republic changed its name to Central America, but these were dissolved on 30 November and resumed sovereignty Honduras.

Constitution of 11 January 1982

Following several decades of military governments, a

constituent assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

prepared a new constitution, agreed on it on 11 January 1982 and published it on 20 January 1982 in the official journal "La Gaceta". Since then, the National Congress of Honduras made 26 amendments (

ratified Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inten ...

in 1984, 1986, 1987 (twice), 1988 (twice), 1990, 1991, 1995 (twice), 1996, 1998, 1999 (three times), 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (four times), 2004 (twice) and 2005 (twice) and 10 interpretations from 1982 to 2005. The 13th amendment to the Constitution was voted by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

on 30 September 1998, to make the President commander in chief of the armed forces. The amendment was ratified by Congress by a vote of 128-0 on 26 January 1999University of California at San Diego library
Latin American elections statistics 1998-2007
, retrieved 2009. and signed by President Flores. This ended 42 years of military autonomy; the military had previously been governed by a military parliament and a commander in chief from the armed forces.

Constituent assembly controversy

From 2006 to 28 June 2009

Starting in 2006''Central America report'', 4 August 2006, excerpted in University of California at San Diego libraries
Latin American election statistics
retrieved 2009. 2009-07-26. and leading to the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis and removal of Zelaya, debate occurred in Honduran society regarding the creation of a

in order to rewrite the constitution, with support from many groups. President

Manuel Zelaya José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952)Encyclopædia BritannicaManuel Zelaya/ref> is a Honduran politician who was President of Honduras from 27 January 2006 until 28 June 2009, and who since January 2022 serves as the first Fir ...

played an important role in the debate and was arrested and exiled to Costa Rica by military officers on 28 June 2009. Whether or not it is constitutionally valid to hold a constituent assembly was a controversial issue, sinc
Article 374
contains entrenched clauses regarding Articl
373
and Articl
374
itself, and Article 373 as interpreted by Decree 169/1986 defines the method of modifying the constitution: A wide range of social organisations and some political parties coordinated together as the Frente Nacional de Resistencia contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras. In response to an international mediation meeting held in San Jose in Costa Rica in relation to the removal of the President, in which Zelaya would accept to take no actions that could lead towards a constituent assembly, the FNGE declared that it "strongly upportsthe continuation of processes for

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected repr ...

, which will eventually lead to the convocation of the National Constituent Assembly and the prior definition of the criteria and requirements for the women and men who will be its members." On 28 August, in response to the nearing date of the Honduran general and presidential elections that are planned to be held on 29 November 2009, FNGE declared its concerns regarding the electoral process and again called for a "popular, participatory, inclusive, non-discriminatory and democratic" constituent assembly to be held. Following the removal of Zelaya, women's groups in Honduras, in particular Feminists in Resistance, have strongly supported the aim of holding a constituent assembly. Bertha Cáceres of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Contra el Golpe de Estado en Honduras said that a constituent assembly would be important in order to defend

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

. She stated, "For the first time we would be able to establish a precedent for the emancipation of women, to begin to break these forms of domination. The current constitution never mentions women, not once, so to establish our human rights, our reproductive, sexual, political, social, and economic rights as women would be to really confront this system of domination." On 31 August 2009, following the "XVIII National Gathering of Afro-Honduran Youth of the Organization for Ethnic and Community Development (ODECO),"

Afro-Honduran Afro-Hondurans or Black Hondurans are Hondurans of Sub-Saharan African descent. The CIA world factbook regards their population to be around 2% of the country's population, while other sources estimate the percentage of Afro-Hondurans as being 10 ...

youth leaders from several dozen different towns and cities made a declaration, of which some of the aims were the "immediate implementation of the right to plebiscite and referendum" and the convocation of a

plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

in order to organise a

that would write a new constitution. The youth leaders called for the plebiscite to be held on the "last Sunday of November of 2010" and for "clear guarantees for wider and more representative participation among all sectors of the Honduran people".

Debate about the constitutionality of the 2009 presidential ouster

The constitutionality of the removal of Zelaya from Honduras on 28 June 2009 was controversial.

Articles of the 1982 Constitution

Several articles of th
1982 Constitution
that were referred to during the crisis include the following.
Article 3
of the Constitution states that nobody has an obligation to obey a government that has taken power through armed force, that acts by such a government are egallynull, and that people have the right to insurrection in order to defend constitutional government. The Constitution forbids handing over or expatriating Hondurans to foreign countries. A Honduran citizen who has held the title of Executive can not be President or Vice President of the Republic, and the person that breaks this regulation or proposes its amendment, as well as those who assist him directly or indirectly, will cease immediately to hold their respective offices, and will be disqualified for ten years from holding any public office. Article 373 states, "The reform of the Constitution can be decreed by the National Congress, in ordinary session, by a vote of two thirds the totality of its members, and must specify the article or articles that are to be reformed, and must be ratified by an equal number of votes in the subsequent ordinary legislature." Article 374 states, "It is not possible to reform, in any case, the preceding article, the present article, the constitutional articles referring to the form of government, to the national territory, to the presidential period, the prohibition to serve again as President of the Republic, the citizen who has performed under any title in consequence of which she/he cannot be President of the Republic in the subsequent period."

References to the 1982 Constitution

In the crisis, President

was removed from the country by military force on the 28th of June after the

Supreme Court of Honduras The Supreme Court of Honduras ( es, Corte Suprema de Justicia de Honduras; CSJ) is the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court of Honduras. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in Honduras. Structure, power, and duties There are ...

had issued an order (apparently) on June 26 for his detention. The Supreme Court membership had been renewed in January 2009. Afterwards the court published
Special Communication
explaining its actions. The validity of the court's ruling has been challenged. Some have complained that the court is partisan. Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based

Council on Hemispheric Affairs The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1975. The organization can draw on a large number of interns of graduate and undergraduate students, who gain experience in diffe ...

, has described the Honduran Supreme Court as "one of the most corrupt institutions in Latin America.""Police clash with demonstrators in Honduran capital"
CNN, 29 June 2009; retrieved July 2009. The national Congress claims to have affirmed the Supreme Court's ruling by a vote of 125 to 3, in a show of hands on the day Zelaya was removed, 28 June 2009. The Unión Democrática members, however, say they were not there, and some

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

members have since said they did not vote for the motion. President Zelaya disputes that he was seeking to extend his term in office, arguing that he wanted to conduct a public opinion poll on whether a constitutional convention should be convened to consider various constitutional changes including allowing successive terms in office for the president. On the annual Central American Independence Day, 15 September 2009, the National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'état in Honduras declared that the National Resistance Front constitutes the organised expression of Hondurans' right under Article 3 of the 1982 Constitution to resist against a government imposed by armed force.

Decree PCM-M-016-2009

From 22 September 2009 to 19 October 2009, five constitutional rights were suspended in the Micheletti ''de facto'' government's Decree PCM-M-016-2009: personal liberty (Article 69),

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

(Article 72), freedom of movement (Article 81),

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

(Article 84) and

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...

. On 29 September, one day after the decree was used to shut down the television stations Channel 36 and Radio Globo, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IAHCR) "expressed its most energetic rejection" of PCM-M-016-2009 and asked for the immediate suspension of its enforcement, because according to the IACHR, it "flagrantly ontradictedthe international standards for freedom of expression".

References

External links

Constitución Vigente de Honduras
National Congress of Honduras
Honduran Constitution
with 2005 reforms,

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Political Database of the Americas {{DEFAULTSORT:Constitution Of Honduras Government of Honduras Honduras Law of Honduras 1982 in law