Constitution of the Republic of Surea

The Constitution of the Republic of Surea is its basic law. It was promulgated on July 17, 1948, and last revised in 1987.

PREAMBLE
We, the people of Surea, proud of a resplendent history and traditions dating from time immemorial, upholding the cause of the Provisional Republic of Surea Government born of the June Twenty-second Independence Movement of 1938 and the democratic ideals of the September Twenty-eighth Uprising of 1962 against injustice, having assumed the mission of democratic reform and peaceful unification of our homeland and having determined to consolidate national unity with justice, humanitarianism and brotherly love, and

To destroy all social

To elevate the quality of life for all citizens and contribute to lasting world peace and the common prosperity of mankind and thereby to ensure security, liberty and happiness for ourselves and our posterity forever, Do hereby amend, through national referendum following a resolution by the National Assembly, the Constitution, ordained and established on the Twelfth Day of July anno Domini Nineteen hundred vices and injustice, and

To afford equal opportunities to every person and provide for the fullest development of individual capabilities in all fields, including political, economic, social and cultural life by further strengthening the basic free and democratic order conducive to private initiative and public harmony, and To help each person discharge those duties and responsibilities concomitant to freedoms and rights, and forty-nine, and amended eight times subsequently.

Article 1

 * 1) The Republic of Surea shall be a democratic republic.
 * 2) The sovereignty of the Republic of Surea shall reside in the people, and all state authority shall emanate from the people.

Article 2

 * 1) Nationality in the Republic of Surea shall be prescribed by Act.
 * 2) It shall be the duty of the State to protect citizens residing abroad as prescribed by Act.

Article 3

 * 1) The territory of the Republic of Surea shall consist of the Surean archipelago and its adjacent islands.

Article 4

 * 1) The Republic of Surea shall seek unification and shall formulate and carry out a policy of peaceful unification based on the principles of freedom and democracy.

Article 5

 * 1) The Republic of Surea shall endeavor to maintain international peace and shall renounce all aggressive wars.
 * 2) The Armed Forces shall be charged with the sacred mission of national security and the defense of the land and their political neutrality shall be maintained.

Article 6

 * 1) Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and the generally recognized rules of international law shall have the same effect as the domestic laws of the Republic of Surea.
 * 2) The status of aliens shall be guaranteed as prescribed by international law and treaties.

Article 7

 * 1) All public officials shall be servants of the entire people and shall be responsible to the people.
 * 2) The status and political impartiality of public officials shall be guaranteed as prescribed by Act.

Article 8

 * 1) The establishment of political parties shall be free, and the plural party system shall be guaranteed.
 * 2) Political parties shall be democratic in their objectives, organization and activities, and shall have the necessary organizational arrangements for the people to participate in the formation of the political will.
 * 3) Political parties shall enjoy the protection of the State and may be provided with operational funds by the State under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 4) If the purposes or activities of a political party are contrary to the fundamental democratic order, the Government may bring an action against it in the Constitutional Court for its dissolution, and the political party shall be dissolved in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court.

Article 9

 * 1) The State shall strive to sustain and develop the cultural heritage and to enhance national culture.

Article 10

 * 1) All citizens shall be assured of human dignity and worth and have the right to pursue happiness. It shall be the duty of the State to confirm and guarantee the fundamental and inviolable human rights of individuals.

Article 11

 * 1) All citizens shall be equal before the law, and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic, social or cultural life on account of sex, religion or social status.
 * 2) No privileged caste shall be recognized or ever established in any form.
 * 3) The awarding of decorations or distinctions of honor in any form shall be effective only for recipients, and no privileges shall ensue therefrom.

Article 12

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy personal liberty. No person shall be arrested, detained, searched, seized or interrogated except as provided by Act. No person shall be punished, placed under preventive restrictions or subject to involuntary labor except as provided by Act and through lawful procedures.
 * 2) No citizens shall be tortured or be compelled to testify against himself in criminal cases.
 * 3) Warrants issued by a judge through due procedures upon the request of a prosecutor shall be presented in case of arrest, detention, seizure or search: Provided, That in a case where a criminal suspect is an apprehended flagrante delicto, or　where there is danger that a person suspected of committing a crime punishable by imprisonment of three years or more may escape or destroy evidence, investigative authorities may request an ex post facto warrant.
 * 4) Any person who is arrested or detained shall have the right to prompt assistance of counsel. When a criminal defendant is unable to secure counsel by his own efforts, the State shall assign counsel for the defendant as prescribed by Act.
 * 5) No person shall be arrested or detained without being informed of the reason therefor and of his right to assistance of counsel. The family, etc., as designated by Act, of a person arrested or detained shall be notified without delay of the reason for and the time and place of the arrest or detention.
 * 6) Any person who is arrested or detained, shall have the right to request the court to review the legality of the arrest or detention.
 * 7) In a case where a confession is deemed to have been made against a defendant's will due to torture, violence, intimidation, unduly prolonged arrest, deceit or etc., or in a case where a confession is the only evidence against a defendant in a formal trial, such a confession shall not be admitted as evidence of guilt, nor shall a defendant be punished by reason of such a confession.

Article 13

 * 1) No citizen shall be prosecuted for an act which does not constitute a crime under the Act in force at the time it was committed, nor shall he be placed in double jeopardy.
 * 2) No restrictions shall be imposed upon the political rights of any citizen, nor shall any person be deprived of property rights by means of retroactive legislation.
 * 3) No citizen shall suffer unfavorable treatment on account of an act not of his own doing but committed by a relative.

Article 14

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of residence and the right to move at will.

Article 15

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of occupation.

Article 16

 * 1) All citizens shall be free from intrusion into their place of residence. In case of search or seizure in a residence, a warrant issued by a judge upon request of a prosecutor shall be presented.

Article 17

 * 1) The privacy of no citizen shall be infringed.

Article 18

 * 1) The privacy of correspondence of no citizen shall be infringed.

Article 19

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of conscience.

Article 20

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of religion. (2) No state religion shall be recognized, and church and state shall be separated.

Article 21

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of speech and the press, and freedom of assembly and association.
 * 2) Licensing or censorship of speech and the press, and licensing of assembly and association shall not be recognized.
 * 3) The standards of news service and broadcast facilities and matters necessary to ensure the functions of newspapers shall be determined by Act.
 * 4) Neither speech nor the press shall violate the honor or rights of other persons nor undermine public morals or social ethics. Should speech or the press violate the honor or rights of other persons, claims may be made for the damage resulting therefrom.

Article 22

 * 1) All citizens shall enjoy freedom of learning and the arts.
 * 2) The rights of authors, inventors, scientists, engineers and artists shall be protected by Act.

Article 23

 * 1) The right of property of all citizens shall be guaranteed. The contents and limitations thereof shall be determined by Act.
 * 2) The exercise of property rights shall conform to the public welfare.
 * 3) Expropriation, use or restriction of private property from public necessity and compensation therefore shall be governed by Act: Provided, that in such a case, just compensation shall be paid.

Article 24

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to vote under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 25

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to hold public office under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 26

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to petition in writing to any governmental agency under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 2) The State shall be obligated to examine all such petitions.

Article 27

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to be tried in conformity with the Act by judges qualified under the Constitution and the Act.
 * 2) Citizens who are not on active military service or employees of the military forces shall not be tried by a court martial within the territory of the Republic of Surea, except in case of crimes as prescribed by Act involving important classified military information, sentinels, sentry posts, the supply of harmful food and beverages, prisoners of war and military articles and facilities and in the case of the proclamation of extraordinary martial law.
 * 3) All citizens shall have the right to a speedy trial. The accused shall have the right to a public trial without delay in the absence of justifiable reasons to the contrary.
 * 4) The accused shall be presumed innocent until a judgment of guilt has been pronounced.
 * 5) A victim of a crime shall be entitled to make a statement during the proceedings of the trial of the case involved as under the conditions prescribed by Act.

Article 28

 * 1) In a case where a criminal suspect or an accused person who has been placed under detention is not indicted as provided by Act or is acquitted by a court, he shall be entitled to claim just compensation from the State under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 29

 * 1) In case a person has sustained damages by an unlawful act committed by a public official in the course of official duties, he may claim just compensation from the State or public organization under the conditions as prescribed by Act. In this case, the public official concerned shall not be immune from liabilities.
 * 2) In case a person on active military service or an employee of the military forces, a police official or others as prescribed by Act sustains damages in connection with the performance of official duties such as combat action, drill and so forth, he shall not be entitled to a claim against the State or public organization on the grounds of unlawful acts committed by public officials in the course of official duties, but shall be entitled only to compensations as prescribed by Act.

Article 30

 * 1) Citizens who have suffered bodily injury or death due to criminal acts of others may receive aid from the State under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 31

 * 1) All citizens shall have an equal right to receive an education corresponding to their abilities.
 * 2) All citizens who have children to support shall be responsible at least for their elementary education and other education as provided by Act.
 * 3) Compulsory education shall be free of charge.
 * 4) Independence, professionalism and political impartiality of education and the autonomy of institutions of higher learning shall be guaranteed under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 5) The State shall promote lifelong education.
 * 6) Fundamental matters pertaining to the educational system, including in-school and lifelong education, administration, finance, and the status of teachers shall be determined by Act.

Article 32

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to work. The State shall endeavor to promote the employment of workers and to guarantee optimum wages through social and economic means and shall enforce a minimum wage system under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 2) All citizens shall have the duty to work. The State shall prescribe by Act the extent and conditions of the duty to work in conformity with democratic principles.
 * 3) Standards of working conditions shall be determined by Act in such a way as to guarantee human dignity.
 * 4) Special protection shall be accorded to working women, and they shall not be subjected to unjust discrimination in terms of employment, wages and working conditions.
 * 5) Special protection shall be accorded to working children.
 * 6) The opportunity to work shall be accorded preferentially, under the conditions as prescribed by Act, to those who have given distinguished service to the State, wounded veterans and policemen, and members of the bereaved families of military servicemen and policemen killed in action.

Article 33

 * 1) To enhance working conditions, workers shall have the right to independent association, collective bargaining and collective action.
 * 2) Only those public officials who are designated by Act, shall have the right to association, collective bargaining and collective action.
 * 3) The right to collective action of workers employed by important defense industries may be either restricted or denied under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 34

 * 1) All citizens shall be entitled to a life worthy of human beings.
 * 2) The State shall have the duty to endeavor to promote social security and welfare.
 * 3) The State shall endeavor to promote the welfare and rights of women.
 * 4) The State shall have the duty to implement policies for enhancing the welfare of senior citizens and the young.
 * 5) Citizens who are incapable of earning a livelihood due to a physical disability, disease, old age or other reasons shall be protected by the State under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 6) The State shall endeavor to prevent disasters and to protect citizens from harm therefrom.

Article 35

 * 1) All citizens shall have the right to a healthy and pleasant environment. The State and all citizens shall endeavor to protect the environment.
 * 2) The substance of the environmental right shall be determined by Act.
 * 3) The State shall endeavor to ensure comfortable housing for all citizens through housing development policies and the like.

Article 36

 * 1) Marriage and family life shall be entered into and sustained on the basis of individual dignity and equality of the sexes, and the State shall do everything in its power to achieve that goal.
 * 2) The State shall endeavor to protect mothers.
 * 3) The health of all citizens shall be protected by the State.

Article 37

 * 1) Freedoms and rights of citizens shall not be neglected on the grounds that they are not enumerated in the Constitution.
 * 2) The freedoms and rights of citizens may be restricted by Act only when necessary for national security, the maintenance of law and order or for public welfare. Even when such restriction is imposed, no essential aspect of the freedom or right shall be violated.

Article 38

 * 1) All citizens shall have the duty to pay taxes under the conditions as prescribed by Act.

Article 39

 * 1) All citizens shall have the duty of national defense under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
 * 2) No citizen shall be treated unfavorably on account of the fulfillment of his obligation of military service.