Self-formations
Councilist Constitution

by Everyone
yesterday, today, and this day forward

Introduction

This constitution is only a theory under development; only the real free use appropriation and masses' social-historic practice of the councils and solutions they will constantly bring to the problems this reality and raised by this practice will determine the precise and effective organizational and constitutional forms which the councils will take.

Preamble

Regarding the organization of societies as theocracies as the essential source of all alienation, this constitution has for only objective to abolish all theocracies by making impossible everything which exists outside of individuals.

Title I: Constitution

Section I: Councils

Article 1: Historicity
The people always have the right to amend, reform and change their constitution. A generation cannot submit future generations to its laws; a just society is a society where the question of justice constantly remains open. See Article 30.

Article 2: Indivisibility
This constitution is indivisible and all its aspects are interdependent.

Article 3: Equality and Non-discrimination
1. All human beings are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.
2. All human beings are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this constitution.
3. Everyone is equally entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this constitution, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, incapacity, national, ethnic or social origin, birth or other status. The only possible discriminations are those given stated in articles 18, 27 and 40 relating to the exclusive rights of majority.

Article 4: Person Before the Law
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 5: Abuse of Rights
Nothing in the present constitution may be interpreted as implying for anyone any right to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognized herein or at limitation to a greater extent of these rights and freedoms.

Title II: Councilist Democracy (or generalized self-management; or direct or communal or soviet democracy)

Section I: Councils

Article 6: Abolition of Alienations
1. The councils must abolish, not recognize as legitimate, fight and prohibit all forms of private property, money, commodity exchange, wage labor, commodified work, remuneration, prostitution, bank, boss, capitalism, state, representative democracy, national sovereignty, border, division in classes, castes or orders, nobility, privilege, royalism, monarchy, aristocracy, autocracy, theocracy, plutocracy, oligarchy, hierarchy, bureaucracy, authoritarianism, fascism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, slave trade, slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor, torture , to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment , death penalty, restriction to freedom of expression, opinion and thought, restriction to the autonomous use of material means and places, sexist, racist, homophobic or religious law, state religion and drug prohibition.
2. The councils do not recognize marriage, heritage and religion as legitimate.

Article 7: Principles
1. The councils are a social organization based on gratuity, donation, direct democracy, social and individual autonomy, free cooperation and association, simultaneously individual and collective free appropriation of material means and places, autonomous management of their various activities by the communities which accomplish them and task rotation.
2. The councils tend towards the suppression of specializations, labor division, manual-intellectual and city-countryside separations and separate ideological spheres (art, philosophy, politics, morals, religion).

Article 8: Anti-theocratic Form
The councils must in no case be the dictatorship of the majority on the minority. The councils' power is above all an antitheocratic power and it is within this antitheocratic framework that its power is exerted. The councils are not the instrument of a collective property, they are the means of the appropriation of everything at individual and collective free use ends. The councils are not only the people directly deciding of everything, they are especially the people deciding to make impossible everything which exists outside of individuals.

Article 9: Anti-state Form
1. The councils are not a state, they do not exist separately or above the people, nor represent it. They are the real and direct self-government of the people, by the people and for the people.
2. All the organization and management of life's material means and places is done collectively according to the anti-hierarchical mode of the councils.

Article 10: Constitutionality of sovereignty
1. The councils must respect and make this constitution respected.
2. The councils do not recognize the councilist sovereignty of the communes which do not respect the constitution and must federate to force them, by arms if necessary, to respect this constitution.

Article 11: Exclusiveness of Sovereignty
1. No body is entitled, in any manner, to decide, legislate, organize in the councils' place or to occupy the councils' functions. 2. Only two forms of political or economic power and institutions must exist: the deliberative and legislative power of the councils and the executive power of the delegations. There cannot be any other political or economic institution.

Article 12: Federation
The councils federate via deputies or delegations.

Article 13: Vote
1. Any council's decision or legislation takes the form of a vote for or against a proposal in absolute majority of the individuals composing the council or the federation of councils which a proposal relates to.
2. Decisions or legislations can only be done by this form of proposal.
3. Voting is carried out during council meetings.

Article 14. Voting formulation
Votes are either positive or negative. Abstention or votes without opinion are considered as negative votes. The election of deputies or the vote of proposals are established in such manner to produce only negative or positive answers.

Article 15: Admissibility of Proposals
1. Communities organized in councils only vote on proposals which concern them and whose consequences they will have to endure.
2. A councils determines by its majority if a decision concerns it and thus at once if it must take it and uphold it.
3. A council must take part in a vote of a proposal which concerns it.
4. Proposals to be voted will have to be, except in cases of emergency, submitted, published and consultable at least a week before the vote.

Article 16. Quorum
The quorum is of nine-tenth of the concerned council or council federation.

Article 17. Meetings and deliberations
1. A council is divided into as many sections as are necessary in order to facilitate meetings and deliberations.
2. One after the other, each council member is a meeting delegate president; he elaborates the schedule, distributes the right to speak and speaking time and leads the meeting.
3. Councils frequently meet and can exceptionally meet on a convocation signed and approved by a number of individuals at most equal to four-hundredth of the concerned council or federated councils' effective and of not more than one hundred.

Article 18: Voting Right
All adult individuals have the right to vote and elect delegates in the councils.

Article 19: Vote Uniqueness
All individuals can take part in, attend, discuss in and make proposals to all councils but no one can vote more than once one proposal.

Article 20: Absences
A member who cannot come to a meeting makes his vote known in writing by imperatively, personally, officially, nominally and temporarily mandating another member.

Article 21: Legislation right
1. All individuals, groups of individuals, delegates or delegations can submit proposals to be voted by any council or federated councils. All the latter being in the obligation to put these proposals to vote.
2. So that a proposal can be proposed, it will be required that it be signed and approved by a number of individuals at most equal to four-hundredth of the concerned council or federated councils' effective and of not more than one hundred.

Article 22: Delegational Duty
1. All general delegation mandates are activities declared socially necessary in the general interest by one or several general councils.
2. Consequently, all individuals must, in theory, take part equally and equitably in the execution of general delegation tasks according to their capacities.
3. All use delegation mandates are activities declared socially necessary in the interest of all users by use councils.
4. Consequently, all the individuals who appropriate a material means or place attached to a use council must, in theory, take part equally and equitably in the execution of use delegation tasks according to their capacities.
5. The duty to participate in delegational tasks is not obligatory. Everyone must take part in the councils' organization and in the application of their decisions or legislations but no one can be constrained to do so.
6. Only the general councils can render general or use delegational mandates obligatory under penalty of law. A delegational mandate can be declared obligatory under penalty of law only if a significant refusal to spontaneously participate in this mandate's execution could harm social and individual autonomy.

Article 23: Responsibility and Transparency
The councils all are responsible towards one another, they must therefore be completely transparent for all individuals.

Article 24: Unproductive Expenditure
1. The councils must not decide on all the aspects their decisions' or legislations' execution. In particular, the esthetic, decorative, symbolic, formal, ludic, unproductive, superfluous, inessential and not absolutely useful, rational and necessary aspects, related to the execution of council decisions must be left to the free use of private individuals or groups of private individuals. The councils determine the extent to which they leave this free use and must repress any attempt to privately modify aspects pertaining to the councils' sole sovereignty. This free use is given with the full meaning of article 58, equally and without discrimination to all the individuals who desire to use it. When this free use relates to use council or use councils federation decisions it is undertaken within it; when it relates to general council or general council federation decisions it is undertaken in a mixed use council or mixed use council federation gathering the delegation or delegations which must carry out the decision and the individuals or free users groups; when it relates to general council or general council federation decisional exclusivenesses then it is the exclusive general use delegation which manages the private access to this free use.
2. As regards activities or aspects of activities which are more specifically esthetic, decorative, symbolic, formal, ludic, unproductive, superfluous, inessential, i.e., not absolutely related to science, science application or direct danger of health, human life or the natural environment — such as architecture, engineering, medicine, etc. — the councils cannot in any case issue certificates of competence or Titles allowing a privileged, priority or exclusive access to material means or places.
3. The council cannot give out public honors, medals, decorations, distinctions or prizes to anyone, nor institute public holidays, special days, mottos, flags, emblems, anthems, display uniforms, ceremonials, protocols or etiquette, nor organize commemorations, rites, ceremonies, marches or festivities, nor celebrate anniversaries, nor give homages or erect monuments, nor uphold artists or name official artist. These types of activities can only be undertaken by groups of individuals in their own names and under the terms of their free use appropriation right. The councils do not recognize the legitimacy with these types of activities.

Article 25: Exclusiveness of Use and General Votes
The use councils cannot take part in the votes of the general councils and vice-versa.

Section II: General Councils

Article 26: Function
1. The general councils are the organization by which the people legislate, constitutionalize, direct, organize and decide directly and without any intermediaries of everything which concerns its collective needs — food, habitat, clothing, medicine, social assistance, education, safety, justice, legislation, constitution, maintenance, cleanliness, telecommunication, transport, energy, environment protection. To carry out their decisions in these matters, they name general delegates or general delegations.
2. Their decisions must relate only to aspects which are strictly necessary, rational and useful to the satisfaction of collective needs and interests.

Article 27: Participation Right
All mankind's individuals in their majority are part of the general councils' direct democracy. The people in its entirety constitutes the federated general councils.

Article 28: Constitution
A general council is constituted geographically by the fact that its members can meet in person regularly to discuss and vote.

Article 29: Legislative and Constitutional Exclusiveness
Only the general councils have the right to legislate and constitutionalize. They cannot delegate this right to no one.

Article 30: Constitutional Legislation
A transformation, an increase, a change, a reform or a revision of the constitution are made in the form of a proposal to vote by absolute majority of all the individuals members of the totality of the existing general councils; i.e., of the people in its entirety — of humanity in its totality.

Article 31: Legislative Legitimacy
1. The legislations of legal, penal procedure, penal, electoral, civil, and civil procedure organization must, as far as possible, tend to be universal to all the councils; they are thus made in the form of a proposal to vote by absolute majority of all the individuals members of the totality of the existing general councils; i.e., of the people in his entirety.
2. Because the legislation voting procedure at such an absolutely universal suffrage can be slow, the general councils which need to urgently apply a legislation of the type described at paragraph 1 of this article, can engage the procedure explicated in Article 32.2 but must submit themselves to the universal vote, when it arrives at its term, whatever may have been the decision temporarily taken by this type of special procedure.

Article 32: Legislative Autonomy and Harmonization
1. Each general council or general council federation has full autonomy as for the elaboration of its extra constitutional laws and organization outside the limits assigned in articles 30 and 31 but has, as far as possible, the constitutional duty to harmonize its laws and its own forms of organizations with all the councils on an international level.
2. In the case of autonomous legislation, once a law is voted, the bill is published and submitted internationally to the various constitutional delegations of the federated general councils of all countries. Forty days after publication and submission, if no constitutional delegation opposes its constitutionality then the project is accepted, becomes law and is applicable. When the proposal's constitutionality is disputed the councils of the contesting constitutional delegation or delegations decide by vote of the contestation's validity. If the contestation is validated then the bill is rejected.

Article 33: Decisional and Executive Exclusivenesses
1. The general councils have exclusiveness as for the organization, the direction, the execution, the decision and all other manifestation of justice, legislation, safety — armed force and safety requirement controls — adoption management, delivery of competence and knowledge certificates especially in the fields which endanger health and human life as well as the environment — medicine, architecture, engineering, science, etc. These activities cannot be taken by any other body but general councils and exclusive general use delegations. This general use exclusiveness is in no case an exemption from article 24.1.
2. The general councils can only arrogate themselves the exclusive general use right on a limited number of places of which, in particular, prisons, courts, orphanages, military and police means, very high risk productive installations and popular control organizations.

Article 34: Control Right
All general councils or general council federations have a right of control on all councils and all delegations. For this purpose they form popular control delegations.

Article 35: Maintenance Duty
The general councils have all power as for and are responsible for good maintenance of the material means and places to which no use council is attached and which are regarded as necessary to perpetuate.

Section III: Use Councils

Article 36: Functions
1. The use councils main purpose is to render possible the free use appropriation right for all.
2. All private individuals or groups using or wanting to use one of life's material means or place — such as in particular, a means or place of production, communication, habitation, technique or nature — are part of a use council with all of this means' or place's other users. This council 's task is to organize this means' or place's use and maintenance.
3. The use of these means and places is done according to the needs, desires, individual and collective capacities and all individual's free use appropriation right.

Article 37: Maintenance Duty
The use councils have all power as for and are responsible for good maintenance and organization of the access to the specific material means and places for which they are responsible from their use by the members who compose them.

Section IV: Delegation

Article 38: Two Forms
1. Delegation takes two forms: the isolated delegate or the delegation which is a group of delegates which cooperate in a same sphere of activity. 2. All delegates or delegations are either called general or of use according to whether they are attached to general or use councils.

Article 39: Delegation Constitution
1. Two delegates or more with related mandates and common mandators form a delegation. All a delegation's members are council delegates.
2.These delegates collectively carry out the base's decisions.

Article 40: Delegation Right
All individuals in their majority are eligible as delegate.

Article 41: Nomination
1. All delegates are taken from the base, by task rotation or drawing lots validated by vote or, if necessary for reasons of competence or voluntariate, by vote alone.
2. All individuals can voluntarily present themselves to the delegation post of their choice.
3. Any individual whose activity is collectively considered as necessary in council and who agrees to accomplish the task in question is a delegate.
4. All delegates are elective.

Article 42: Executive Exclusiveness
All council decisions can only be carried out by delegates.

Article 43: Horizontality
Delegates or delegations cannot form higher degrees of delegates or delegations. There cannot be hierarchies of delegates or delegations.

Article 44: Responsibility
1. All delegates or delegations are responsible in front of all the councils and are accountable for their mandate to whoever asks them.
2. It will be required that a request for a report outside of council meetings be signed and approved by a number of individuals at most equal to four-hundredth of the effective of the questioned delegate's or delegation's council or councils and of not more than one hundred.
3. All delegates or delegations must frequently give reports to the councils which mandated them.

Article 45: Revocation
1. All delegates or delegations are constantly revocable by the majority of the council or council federation to which belong the concerned delegate, delegates or delegation and of the council or council federation to which belong the one or ones who propose the revocation.
2. A revocation request will have to be signed and approved by a number of individuals at most equal to four-hundredth of the effective of the council or councils to which belong the concerned delegate, delegates or delegation and the one or ones who propose the revocation and of not more than one hundred.

Article 46: Imperative Character of Mandate
1. All delegates or delegations are held by an imperative mandate.
2. A delegate or a delegation does not freely make decisions but carries out the decisions of a council or council federation.
3. Productive co-operation in industrial technical activities requires a direction to harmonize the individual activities which compose it. When this type of activity is also a delegational activity, all the producers are delegates, some of which fill in the role of director or coordinator. This does not mean that these particular delegates direct their delegation as they wish; they coordinate the delegational activities which they take part in according to the objectives imposed by their council and with the agreement of the other delegates of their delegation.
4. As for the modalities of their mandate's execution, delegations formulate by absolute majority proposals to be ratified or cancelled by their mandators. If the council or council federation rejects the delegate's or delegation's proposals, they elaborate other proposals on the precise aspects on which it is necessary to decide.
5. A delegate or a delegation can decide, respectively, alone or by absolute majority, of secondary, routine, technical or marginal questions, or, in emergencies, of serious questions, that its mandate did not foresee and carry out these decisions. The delegate or delegation will have to justify his decisions in front of its mandators.

Article 47: Term of the Office
A delegate's or delegation's mandate is limited in time and renewable. A mandate's maximum length of is one year.

Article 48: Despecialisation
Councilist delegations must tend, as far as possible, to suppress specialization, rigid task division and, more specifically in this division, manual-intellectual division The goal of the delegation is therefore that, by task rotation, all may accomplish the many different functions of use or general delegation.

Article 49: Formation
A delegate's task is simultaneously to accomplish the imperative mandate that he was charged with and also to take part in the training of the future delegates who will follow him at the same position. Each council or council federation defines the duration of these formation-transitions between delegates at a same position.

Article 50: Abuse of Power
1. Delegates or delegations abusing of their power must be severely punished. Delegates or delegations accomplishing decisions not voted in council abuse their power. Delegates are responsible for their acts; they cannot justify themselves by a fiction of hierarchical obedience duty.
2. During the exercise of delegate functions, are considered as abuse of power, in particular, the execution of decisions not voted in council, the order or execution of any arbitrary act or assault on individual freedom, civic rights or this constitution, statements or acts characterized by or supporting racism, xenophobia, chauvinism, nationalism, patriotism, sexism, patriarchalism, homophobia, defamation, lying, falsification, religion, pedophilia, theology, authoritarianism, state control, royalism, monarchism, autocratism, militarism, fascism, totalitarianism, bureaucratism, capitalism, anticouncillism, war, genocide, parricide, murder, torture, rape, social discrimination, prostitution, suicide, pillage, crime, illegality, castration, excision, profit, private property, money, commodity exchange, wage-labor, marriage, heritage, nepotism and use of narcotics.

Article 51: Environmental Protection
Delegational productive activity, as well as any productive activity or any free use of life's material means or places at individual or collective ends, must tend as far as possible to respect the following principles: environment protection, fabrication of biodegradable, recyclable, recycled and lasting products, means and places, use energies and materials which are renewable and of low risk for human health and life as well as the environment, material and energy saving, non-pollutive and non-toxic productive process.

Section V: General Delegation

Article 52: General Use Exclusiveness
A general delegation in right of exclusive general use on a material place or means is called an exclusive general use delegation. See article 33.

Article 53: Plurality of Offices
An exclusive general use delegation or a general delegation fortuitously and temporarily alone to occupy a place or means, for lack of free users wishing to use it, can cumulate the functions of use delegation but not those of use council which return then to the general council or general councils of which the delegation in question depends.

Article 54: Mixed Use
Wherever a general delegation is responsible of material means and places, a use council can attach itself on these same means and places except in the cases specified in article 33. This council is then called a mixed use council and its delegation is called a mixed use delegation.

Article 55: Use Priority
General delegations have priority of use on private individual or collective users.

Article 56: Constitutional Delegations
1. Constitutional delegations are a popular body of control which verify the constitutionality of councilist decisions or legislations. See article 32.
2. Constitutional delegations cannot depend of only one council or of a too small number of federated councils but must always depend of a very great number of general councils.

Section VI: Use Delegation

Article 57: Duties
Use delegates hold a current users list for the place or means to which their council is attached, plan their access in a way decided in use council or use council federation, form the new users to the place's or means' technical characteristics, conveys the products necessary to the practiced activities, do all that is necessary to their maintenance and management, apply the regulation decided by the general or use council, federate the various use councils with common activities by being links and accomplish the other tasks for which they were mandated.

Title III: Free Use Appropriation

Article 58: Free Use Appropriation Right
1. All individuals have an equal right to everything they judge necessary for themselves and which the constitution allows them to use. Desire, effective need, will to use, use and enjoyment of a material place or means by an individual, a group of individuals or a council founds the free use appropriation right. One cannot durably take possession of means or places by a vain ceremony, but by their constant use. No one can deprive an individual or a community of the right of possession of means and places which it needs, uses or produces.
2. All individuals are entitled to the free use of all of life's material means and places of which, in particular, all means or places of production, communication, habitation, technique or nature. Access to these means and places must be arranged and defended by the councils so that each individual, group of individuals and delegation can have easy, gratuitous, equal and free access for individual, collective or councilist free use ends, and without any discrimination or restriction possible of any sort.
3.1. The only possible prohibitions to free use appropriation by any individual or group of individuals, are only the cases of real and direct danger:
3.1.1. to human health or life;
3.1.2. of cruel, excessive or dangerous destruction of the natural environment;
3.1.3. of destruction of means or places without agreement of the general councils.
3.2. In these cases, the councils can decide to prevent access, but the rejected individual or individuals can appeal of this decision through justice.
4. Appropriation and responsibility for all life's material means and places is done for the use's duration of or by delegation.
5. No individual nor group of individuals can claim a free use appropriation right superior to another. The use councils manage the access to life's material means and places.

Article 59: Distribution of Social Appropriation
No form of social distribution or allotment can be established, implicitly or explicitly, as universal or timeless. Institutions of a social distribution mode — of appropriation of material means and places, of means of production and consumption and of produced goods — must be autonomous, explicit, legislative, not harm autonomy and limited in its range and time.

Title IV: Some BasicRights

Article 60: Freedom of Expression 1. All individuals can freely express themselves by all the means they desire. No one can stop them for any reason. There cannot be abuse of freedom of expression. No restriction can thus be established or tolerated. 2. Are thus allowed, in particular, to all individuals or groups of individuals plagiarism, detournement, forgery, copy, nudity, exhibition of genitals, non-procreative sexual practices; racist, xenophobic, chauvinistic, nationalist, patriotic, reactionary, conservative, sexist, machist, patriarchal, homophobic, defamatory, false, negating, religious, theological, solipsist, sophist, philosophical, metaphysical, mystical, irrational, pedophilic, homosexual, debauched, pornographic, indecent, sexual, libidinous, vulgar, obscene, macabre, bloody, immoral, blasphemous, insulting, derisive, contemptuous, egocentric, skeptical, scabrous, scatological, offensive, antihumanist, capitalist, prostate, royalist, monarchist, aristocratic, autocratic, theocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic, hierarchical, bureaucratic, authoritarian, fascist, totalitarian, militarist, anarchist, communist, anticouncilist, seditious, terrorist, insurrectional, sadien, dangerous statements, symbols, esthetics, decoration, images, communication, play, press, literature, display, painting, sculpture, theatre, clothing, architecture, photography, cinema, television, video, computer, sound production, music and other forms expressions in favor of private property, money, profit, commodity exchange, wage labor, commodified work, remuneration, prostitution, banks, bosses, representative democracy, national sovereignty, borders, division in classes, castes or orders, nobility, privileges, dictatorship, slave trade, slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor, war, genocide, parricide, murder, torture, rape, suicide, euthanasia, pillage, crime, illegality, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments, the death penalty, restrictions to freedom of expression, opinion and thought, restrictions to the autonomous use of material means and places, sexist, racist, homophobic or religious laws, state religion, religious hatred, discrimination, hostility, violence, destruction, public disorder, sacrifice, castration, excision, art, marriage, heritage, nepotism and narcotics. 3. All individuals have the right to freedom of thought and conscience which includes freedom to change one's convictions as well as to express one's convictions individually and collectively, in public or private, by teaching and practice. 4.1. The only possible limitations to freedom of expression are cases of real and direct danger: 4.1.1. for human health or life; 4.1.2. of cruel, excessive or dangerous destruction of the natural environment; 4.1.3. of destruction of material means or places without agreement of the general councils. 4.2. In these cases, the councils can decide to repress, but the repressed individuals can appeal of this decision through justice.

Article 61: Right to Assembly and Association
1. All individuals have the right to associate and assemble freely with others without any restrictions. 2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 62: Right to Freedom of Movement
All individuals have the right to freedom of movement and residence everywhere in the world.

Article 63: Right to Idleness
All individuals have the right to unlimited idleness. No one can be compelled to accomplish delegational activities or other activities. If individuals have rights which must imperatively be ensured by the councils, no individual can be compelled to fulfill the duties these rights imply. The only exceptions are articles 22, 92 and 93.

Article 64: Right to Life
All individuals have the right to life and security of person. Death cannot be inflicted by anyone intentionally except in case of self-defense where it would result of a recourse to force made absolutely necessary.

Article 65: Housing Right
1. The use of a dwelling gives an exclusive use ownership right to the individual or individuals living in this place. No one can be arbitrarily deprived of a dwelling of which he has the use. 2. Each individual or group of individuals wishing to live in a same place, has the right to a safe, convenient, protective, private, comfortable, hygienic and spacious habitat and this without any counterpart. From the place's use, the individual becomes owner or the individuals in group become joint, and responsible as long as they use it. No individual or group of individuals can be left without this type of habitat if this individual or these individuals have not expressly and freely asked to live without.

Article 66: Alimentation Right
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to a healthy, nutritive and pleasant alimentation.

Article 67: Clothing Right
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to protective and comfortable clothing.

Article 68: Right to Medical Protection
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to the best possible medical protection — physical and psychic — of their health and person.

Article 69: Right to Social Assistance
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to an effective assistance in cases in particular of invalidity, disease or old age.

Article 70: Transportation Right
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to transport by the various existing means.

Article 71: Right to Means of Communication
The councils ensure to all individuals the right, in an equal, gratuitous and easy way, to access to all the means of communication.

Article 72: Privacy Right
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.

Title V: Justice

Article 73: Exclusivity of its Exercise
Justice can be only exerted by general justice delegations.

Article 74: Protection Right
All individuals have the right to seek and to enjoy the general councils' and general safety and justice delegations' protection from persecution.

Article 75: Right to an Effective Remedy
All individuals whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy from the general councils and their justice, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by delegates acting in a councilist capacity.

Article 76: Presumption of Innocence
All individuals charged with an infringement have the right to be presumed innocent until proved responsible according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

Article 77: Non-retroactivity of the Criminal Law
No one shall be condemned of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute an infringement under law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the infringement was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of the lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby.

Article 78: Right to a Fair Trial
All individuals are entitled in full equality to a fair public and undelayed hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 79: Legality of the Losses of Liberty
1. No one shall be accused, arrested or detained other than in the cases determined by law and according to forms it has prescribed. Those who solicit, dispatch, carry out or execute arbitrary orders must be severely and easily punished.
2. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. If it is considered essential to arrest an individual, any rigor which would not be necessary to keep its person must be severely and easily repressed by law.
3. Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.
4. No one shall be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation.

Article 80: Rights of Defense
1. In the determination of any criminal charge against them, all individuals shall be entitled to the following guarantees, in full equality:
1.1. to be informed in detail in a language which they understand at time of their arrest, of the reason of their arrest and promptly of the nature and cause of the charge against them;
1.2. to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defense and to communicate with the persons of their own choosing;
1.3. to be tried without undue delay in front of a council tribunal or to be set free;
1.4. to be informed of their rights;
1.5. to be tried in their presence, and to defend themselves in person or through legal assistance assigned to them;
1.6. to examine, or have examined, the witnesses against them and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on their behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against them;
1.7. to have the assistance of an interpreter if they cannot understand or speak the language used in court;
1.8. not to be compelled to testify against themselves or to confess responsibility.
2. All individuals convicted of an infringement shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by another tribunal.

Article 81: Penalties
The competent authorities can take the following measures:
1. verbal sanctions, such as admonition, reprimand and warning;
2. conditional discharge;
3. status penalties;
4. confiscation or an expropriation order;
5. restitution to the victim;
6. suspended or deferred sentence;
7. probation and judicial supervision;
8. a community service order;
9. limitation or deprivation of the right of freedom of movement (Article 62);
10. referral to an attendance center;
11. house arrest;
12. any other mode of non-institutional treatment;
13. obligation to an educational treatment;
14. some combination of the measures listed above.

Article 82: Post-sentencing Dispositions
1. Post-sentencing dispositions include among others:
1.1. furlough and half-way houses;
1.2. educational release;
1.3. various forms of parole;
1.4. remission.
2. Any form of release from an institution to a non-custodial program shall be considered at the earliest possible stage.

Article 83: Incarceration
1. Pre-trial detention must not be the rule, it must be justified. Release can be supervised in the cases which justify it in order to ensure the untried person's appearance at the audience, at all the other procedural acts and if necessary, at the judgement's execution.
2. All restrained persons must, as far as possible, fully benefit from all the rights contained in the constitution without any other restriction but the deprivation of their right of freedom of movement (Article 62).
3. All restrained persons have the right to a correspondence and daily visits.
4. Detailed, frequent and prolonged prison visits must be easily accessible to all.
5. All judges, lawyers or delegate jurors must spend at least two days in prison, under the same conditions as a condemned person, before taking their functions.
6. Prisons must be, as far as possible, self-managed by the prisoners and the general penitentiary delegation but no prisoner will be able to carry out a function comprising disciplinary power.
7. Prisons must have different degrees of security according to the prisoners' categories. As far as possible, prisons must be opened, i.e., not to envisage physical safety measures against escapes but to rely in this respect on the prisoners' self-discipline.
8. All detained persons must have daily access to a library sufficiently equipped with instructive and entertaining books and to physical exercise installations and equipments — in open air, if the weather allows it. General penitentiary delegations must provide all prisoners with the necessary equipment to writing and, as far as possible, with the books they request.
9. All detained persons must, as far as possible, be authorized to wear their personal cloths.
10. All condemned prisoners must, as far as possible, be authorized to keep their personal belongings with them.

Article 84: Separation of the Categories
The different categories of prisoners shall be kept in separate prisons or parts of prisons taking account of their sex, age, criminal record, the legal reason for their detention and the necessities of their treatment. Thus,
1. untried prisoners are kept separate from convicted prisoners and submitted to a distinct treatment appropriate to the condition of untried prisoner;
2. untried and condemned minors are kept separate from adults;
3. persons imprisoned by reason of a civil infringement are kept separate from persons imprisoned by reason of a criminal offence.

Article 85: Prison Accommodation
1. Where sleeping accommodation is in individual cells or rooms, each prisoner must occupy by night a cell or room by himself. If for special reasons, such as temporary overcrowding, it becomes necessary for the central prison administration to make an exception to this rule, it is not desirable to have two prisoners in a cell or room.
2. Where dormitories are used, they must be occupied by prisoners carefully selected as being suitable to associate with one another in those conditions. There shall be regular supervision by night, in keeping with the nature of the institution.

Article 86: Prison Hygiene
Prisoners are provided with such toilet accommodations and articles as are necessary for health and cleanliness.

Article 87: Imprisoned Mothers
1. In women's institutions there must be special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and post-natal care and treatment. Arrangements must be made wherever practicable for children to be torn in a hospital outside the institution. If a child is born in prison, this fact must not be mentioned in the birth certificate.
2. Where nursing infants are allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision must be made for a nursery staffed by qualified persons, where the infants shall be placed when they are not in the care of their mothers.

Article 88: Prison punishments
1. Corporal punishment and punishment by placing in a dark cell are prohibited.
2. The medical officer visits daily prisoners undergoing disciplinary punishments and advises the prison's general use delegation if he considers the termination or alteration of the punishment necessary on grounds of physical or mental health.

Article 89: Prison inspection
General penitentiary inspection delegations must regularly inspect prisons and ensure that the existing laws and regulations are respected.

Article 90: Release
Before the completion of a sentence, it is necessary to ensure for the prisoner a gradual return to life in society. This aim may be achieved, depending on the case, by a pre-release regime organized in the same institution or in another appropriate institution, or by release on trial under some kind of supervision which must not be entrusted to the police but should be combined with effective social aid.

Article 91: Insane and Mentally Abnormal Prisoners
1.1. Persons who are found to be insane must not be detained in prisons and arrangements must be made to remove them to mental institutions as soon as possible.
1.2. Prisoners who suffer from other mental diseases or abnormalities shall be observed and treated in specialized institutions under medical management.
1.3. During their stay in a prison, such prisoners shall be placed under the special supervision of a medical officer.
1.4. The medical or psychiatric service of the penal institutions shall provide for the psychiatric treatment of all other prisoners who are in need of such treatment.
2. The psychiatric treatment must be continued if necessary after release and the provision of social-psychiatric after-care must be ensured.

Title VI: Education

Article 92: Principles
Education is subjected to the following principles: secularity, obligation and school self-management by students, teachers and parents of minor students.

Article 93: Obligation to Education
1. Primary and secondary education, learning of current writing and reading, of this constitution as well as all councilist laws in detail, of task rotation, of respect for the other and the natural environment, of delegation, of thorough scientific and technical knowledge, of critical capacity, of autocritique, of the faculty to call in question which knows and accepts no limits, must be compulsory for all. 2. Education is also compulsory until one's majority.

Article 94: Evaluation of Competence
General councils name delegations to evaluate competence above all in fields which directly endanger human health and life as well as the natural environment — medicine, engineering, architecture, justice, etc. — and secondarily different forms of precise knowledge. But a competence's recognition translates into a delegation only through general councilist election.

Article 95: Permanent University
The councils organize the international permanent university open to all.

Article 96: Freedom of Education Parents can choose to educate their children outside of councilist school structures but the councils must verify that the knowledge taught is at least of the same level as that given by the councils to students of the same age and that this teaching complies to the requirements proclaimed in article 92 and 93.

Title VII: Minors

Article 97: Right to Parental Relations
1. Minors are registered immediately after birth and have the right from birth to a name, to one or several legal representatives and as far as possible, the right to know and be raised by their parents. 2. Councils respect the right of the minor who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the minor's interests.

Article 98: Parental Responsibility
Parents equally or, as the case may be, members of the parents' family, another substitute — foster or adoptive — family or, if necessary, an appropriate institution, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the minor. The minor's interests must be their basic concern.

Article 99: Separation of the parents
1. The councils ensure that a minor is not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when coucilist justice, subject to judicial review, determines that such separation is necessary for the minor's interests. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the minor by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the minor's place of residence. 2. The general councils have the obligation to remove minors from parents who inflict cruel, degrading or inhuman treatments to them. 3. In any proceedings pursuant to paragraph 1 of the present article, all interested parties must be given an opportunity to participate in the proceedings and make their views known.

Article 100: Protection Against Narcotics
The councils protect minors against the use of narcotics.

Article 101: Councilist Rights
If minors cannot vote in councils, nor be elected as delegate, they can like any individual attend council meetings and deliberations, elaborate propositions to vote as well as enjoy their free use appropriation right in use councils.

Title VIII: Mental Illness

Article 102: Life in Society
Every person with a mental illness has the right to live as far as possible, in society and to fully enjoy all the rights in the constitution.

Article 103: Loss of Rights
Whenever mentally retarded persons are unable, because of the severity of their handicap, to exercise some of their rights or it should become necessary to temporarily restrict or deny a right, the procedure used for that restriction or denial of right must be based on an evaluation of the social capability of the mentally retarded person by qualified general expert delegates. This procedure exclusively depends of the general councils. This restriction or denial must be subject to periodic review and to the right of appeal.

Article 104: Determination of Mental Illness
1. A determination that a person has a mental illness must be made in accordance with internationally accepted medical standards proclaimed by the general councils on an international level.
2. Family or professional conflict, or non-conformity with moral, social, cultural or political values or religious beliefs prevailing in a person's society, must never be a determining factor in diagnosing mental illness.
3. A background of past treatment or hospitalization as a patient must not of itself justify any present or future determination of mental illness.

Article 105: Treatment
1. "Patient" means a person receiving mental health care and includes all persons who are admitted to a mental health facility.
2. Every patient has the right to be treated and cared for, as far as possible, in the community in which he or she lives.
3. Where treatment takes place in a mental health facility, a patient has the right, whenever possible, to be treated near his or her home or the home of his or her relatives or friends and has the right to return to the community as soon as possible.
4. Every patient has the right to treatment suited to his or her cultural background.
5. Every patient must be protected from harm, including unjustified medication, abuse by other patients, staff or others or other acts causing mental distress or physical discomfort.
6. Every patient has the right to be treated in the least restrictive environment and with the least restrictive or intrusive treatment.
7. The treatment and care of every patient is based on an individually prescribed plan, discussed with the patient, reviewed regularly, revised as necessary and provided by qualified general delegate staff.
8. The treatment of every patient must be directed towards preserving and enhancing personal autonomy.
9. All medication must be prescribed by a mental health practitioner authorized by law and be recorded in the patient's records.

Article 106: Consent to Treatment
1. No treatment shall be given to a patient without his or her informed consent, except as provided for in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13 and 15 below.
2. Informed consent is consent obtained freely, without threats or improper inducements, after appropriate disclosure to the patient of adequate and understandable information in a form and language understood by the patient on:
2.1. the diagnostic assessment;
2.2. the purpose, method, likely duration and expected benefit of the proposed treatment;
2.3. alternative modes of treatment, including those less intrusive; and
2.4. possible pain or discomfort, risks and side effects of the proposed treatment.
3. A patient may request the presence of a person or persons of the patient's choosing during the procedure for granting consent.
4. A patient has the right to refuse or stop treatment, except as provided for in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13 and 15 below. The consequences of refusing or stopping treatment must be explained to the patient.
5. A patient must never be invited or induced to waive the right to informed consent. If the patient should seek to do so, it shall be explained to the patient that the treatment cannot be given without informed consent.
6. Except as provided in paragraphs 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, a proposed plan of treatment may be given to a patient without a patient's informed consent if the following conditions are satisfied:
6.1. the patient is, at the relevant time, held as an involuntary patient;
6.2. a general coucilist authority, having in its possession all relevant information, including the information specified in paragraph 2 above, is satisfied that, at the relevant time, the patient lacks the capacity to give or withhold informed consent to the proposed plan of treatment or that, having regard to the patient's own safety or the safety of others, the patient unreasonably withholds such consent; and
6.3. a general councilist authority is satisfied that the proposed plan of treatment is in the best interest of the patient's health needs.
7. Paragraph 6 above does not apply to a patient with a personal representative empowered by law to consent to treatment for the patient; but, except as provided in paragraphs 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, treatment may be given to such a patient without his or her informed consent if the personal representative, having been given the information described in paragraph 2 above, consents on the patient's behalf.
8. Except as provided in paragraphs 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, treatment may also be given to any patient without the patient's informed consent if a qualified mental health practitioner authorized by law determines that it is urgently necessary in order to prevent immediate or imminent harm to the patient or to other persons. Such treatment shall not be prolonged beyond the period that is strictly necessary for this purpose.
9. Where any treatment is authorized without the patient's informed consent, every effort must nevertheless be made to inform the patient about the nature of the treatment and any possible alternatives and to involve the patient as far as practicable in the development of the treatment plan.
10. All treatment is immediately recorded in the patient's medical records, with an indication of whether involuntary or voluntary.
11. Physical restraint or involuntary seclusion of a patient must not be employed except in accordance with the procedures officially approved internationally by the federated general councils and only when it is the only means available to prevent immediate or imminent harm to the patient or others. It shall not be prolonged beyond the period which is strictly necessary for this purpose. All instances of physical restraint or involuntary seclusion, the reasons for them and their nature and extent are recorded in the patient's medical record. A patient who is restrained or secluded must be kept under humane conditions and be under the care and close and regular supervision of qualified members of the staff. A personal representative, if any and if relevant, must be given prompt notice of any physical restraint or involuntary seclusion of the patient.
12. Sterilization must never be carried out as a treatment for mental illness.
13. A major medical or surgical procedure may be carried out on a person with mental illness only where it is permitted by law, where it is considered that it would best serve the health needs of the patient and where the patient gives informed consent, except that, where the patient is unable to give informed consent, the procedure must be authorized only after independent review.
14. Psychosurgery and other intrusive and irreversible treatments for mental illness must never be carried out on a patient who is an involuntary patient in a mental health facility and they may be carried out on any other patient only where the patient has given informed consent and an independent external body has satisfied itself that there is genuine informed consent and that the treatment best serves the health needs of the patient.
15. Clinical trials and experimental treatment must never be carried out on any patient without informed consent, except that a patient who is unable to give informed consent may be admitted to a clinical trial or given experimental treatment, but only with the approval of a competent, independent general review delegation specifically constituted for this purpose.
16. In the cases specified in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 above, the patient or his or her personal representative, or any interested person, shall have the right to appeal to a judicial or other independent authority concerning any treatment given to him or her.

Article 107: Notice of Rights
1. A patient in a mental health facility must be informed as soon as possible after admission, in a form and a language which the patient understands, of all his or her rights in accordance with these articles and under coucilist law, which information must include an explanation of those rights and how to exercise them.
2. If and for so long as a patient is unable to understand such information, the rights of the patient shall be communicated to the personal representative, if any and if appropriate, and to the person or persons best able to represent the patient's interests and willing to do so.
3. A patient who has the necessary capacity has the right to nominate a person who should be informed on his or her behalf, as well as a person to represent his or her interests to the authorities of the facility.

Article 108: Admission Principles
1. Where a person needs treatment in a mental health facility, every effort must be made to avoid involuntary admission.
2. Access to a mental health facility must be administered in the same way as access to any other facility for any other illness.
3. Every patient not admitted involuntarily must have the right to leave the mental health facility at any time unless the criteria for his or her retention as an involuntary patient, as set forth in article 109, apply, and he or she shall be informed of that right.

Article 109: Involuntary Admission
1. A person may be admitted involuntarily to a mental health facility as a patient; or having already been admitted voluntarily as a patient, be retained as an involuntary patient in the mental health facility if, and only if, a general delegation of qualified mental health practitioners authorized by law for that purpose determines, in accordance with article 104, that person has a mental illness and considers:
1.1. that, because of that mental illness, there is a serious likelihood of immediate or imminent harm to that person or to other persons; or
1.2. that, in the case of a person whose mental illness is severe and whose judgement is impaired, failure to admit or retain that person is likely to lead to a serious deterioration in his or her condition or will prevent the giving of appropriate treatment that can only be given by admission to a mental health facility in accordance with the principle of the least restrictive alternative.
1.3. The involuntary admission or retention referred to in subparagraph 1.2., can only take place with the agreement of a second such general delegation of qualified mental health practitioners, independent of the first.
2. Involuntary admission or retention must initially be for a short period as specified by law for observation and preliminary treatment pending review of the admission or retention by the general review delegation. The grounds of the admission must be communicated to the patient without delay and the fact of the admission and the grounds for it shall also be communicated promptly and in detail to the general review delegation, to the patient's personal representative, if any, and, unless the patient objects, to the patient's family.
3. A mental health facility may receive involuntarily admitted patients only if the facility has been designated to do so by a competent authority prescribed by law.

Article 110: General Review Delegation
1. General review delegations formulate their decisions with the assistance of one or more qualified and independent mental health practitioners and take their advice into account.
2. The general review delegation's initial review, as required by article 109.2, of a decision to admit or retain a person as an involuntary patient must take place as soon as possible after that decision and must be conducted in accordance with simple and expeditious procedures as specified by law.
3. The general review delegation must periodically review the cases of involuntary patients at reasonable intervals as specified by law.
4. An involuntary patient may apply to the general review delegation for release or voluntary status, at reasonable intervals as specified by law.
5. At each review, the general review delegation must consider whether the criteria for involuntary admission set out in article 109.1 are still satisfied, and, if not, the patient must be discharged as an involuntary patient.
6. If at any time the mental health practitioner responsible for the case is satisfied that the conditions for the retention of a person as an involuntary patient are no longer satisfied, he or she must order the discharge of that person as such a patient.
7. A patient or his personal representative or any interested person must have the right to appeal to a higher court against a decision that the patient be admitted to, or be retained in, a mental health facility.

Article 111: Procedural Safeguards
1. The patient must be entitled to choose and appoint a counsel to represent the patient as such, including representation in any complaint procedure or appeal. If the patient does not secure such services, a counsel delegate must be made available to the patient.
2. If necessary, the services of an interpreter must be made available to the patient.
3. The patient and the patient's counsel may request and produce at any hearing an independent mental health report and any other reports and oral, written and other evidence that are relevant and admissible.
4. Copies of the patient's records and any reports and documents to be submitted must be given to the patient and to the patient's counsel, except in special cases where it is determined that a specific disclosure to the patient would cause serious harm to the patient's health or put at risk the safety of others. Any document not given to the patient must, when this can be done in confidence, be given to the patient's personal representative and counsel. When any part of a document is withheld from a patient, the patient or the patient's counsel, if any, must receive notice of the withholding and the reasons for it and must be subject to judicial review.
5. The patient and the patient's personal representative and counsel must be entitled to attend, participate and be heard personally in any hearing.
6. If the patient or the patient's personal representative or counsel requests that a particular person be present at a hearing, that person must be admitted unless it is determined that the person's presence could cause serious harm to the patient's health or put at risk the safety of others.
7. Any decision, whether the hearing or any part of it must be in public or in private and may be publicly reported, must give full consideration to the patient's own wishes, to the need to respect the privacy of the patient and of other persons and to the need to prevent serious harm to the patient's health or to avoid putting at risk the safety of others.
8. The decision arising out of the hearing and the reasons for it must be expressed in writing. Copies must be given to the patient and his or her personal representative and counsel. In deciding whether the decision must be published in whole or in part, full consideration must be given to the patient's own wishes, to the need to respect his or her privacy and that of other persons, to the public interest in the open administration of justice and to the need to prevent serious harm to the patient's health or to avoid putting at risk the safety of others.

Article 112: Access to Information
1. A patient or a former patient is entitled to have access to the information concerning the patient in his or her health and personal records maintained by a mental health facility. This right may be subject to restrictions in order to prevent serious harm to the patient's health and avoid putting at risk the safety of others. Any such information not given to the patient should, when this can be done in confidence, be given to the patient's personal representative and counsel. When any of the information is withheld from a patient, the patient or the patient's counsel, if any, must receive notice of the withholding and the reasons for it and it must be subject to judicial review.
2. Any written comments by the patient or the patient's personal representative or counsel must, on request, be inserted in the patient's file.

Article 113: Criminal Offenders
1. This article applies to persons serving sentences of imprisonment for criminal offences, or who are otherwise detained in the course of criminal proceedings or investigations against them, and who are determined to have a mental illness or who it is believed may have such an illness.
2. These articles must apply to them to the fullest extent possible, with only such limited modifications and exceptions as are necessary in the circumstances.
3. A councilist court, acting on the basis of competent and independent medical advice, can order that such persons be admitted to a mental health facility.

Article 114: Complaints
Every patient and former patient must have the right to make a complaint through procedures as specified by law.

Title IX: Animals

Article 115: Domestication
1. Any animal which is dependent on man has the right to proper maintenance and care, and to a life expectancy that conforms to its natural longevity.
2. It must under no circumstances be abandoned or killed unjustifiably.
3. All forms of breeding and uses of the animal must respect the physiology and behavior specific to the species.
4. All labor animals have the right to a reasonable limitation of the length and intensity of the work, to a restoring alimentation and to rest.

Article 116: Experimentation
1. Experiments on animals entailing physical or psychological suffering are prohibited.
2. Replacement methods must be developed and implemented systematically.

Article 117: Alimentation
When the animal is bred for alimentation, it must be fed, housed, transported and killed in a painless way which causes no apprehension.

Article 118: Bad Treatment
1. The prolonged deprivation of the freedom of wild animals, hunting and fishing practiced as a pastime, as well as any use of wild animals for reasons that are not vital, are contrary to the law.
2. Animals must not be subjected to bad treatment or to cruel act.

Article 119: Killing
1. If it is necessary to kill an animal, it must be instantaneous, painless and cause no apprehension.
2. Any act unnecessary involving the death of an animal, and any decision leading to such an act, constitute a biocide, that is to say, a crime against life.

Article 120: Genocide
1. Any act compromising the survival of a wild species and any decision leading to such an act is tantamount to genocide, that is to say, a crime against the species.
2. The massacre of wild animals, and the pollution and destruction of biotopes are acts of genocide.

Article 121: Legal Status
1. The specific legal status of animals and their rights must be recognized by law.
2. General delegations must be mandated to protect and save animals.