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Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person.
No one may be deprived of or have their liberty restricted, otherwise than in accordance with law.
The State shall protect human honour and dignity.
Torture or other cruel or degrading treatment of human beings is prohibited.
No one shall be subjected to inhuman or degrading punishment.
Everyone has the right to inviolability of his or her private life, home and correspondence.
Everyone residing lawfully in the territory of Latvia has the right to freely move and to choose his or her place of residence.
Everyone has the right to freely depart from Latvia.
Everyone having a Latvian passport shall be protected by the State when abroad and has the right to freely return to Latvia.
A citizen of Latvia may not be extradited to a foreign country, except in the cases provided for in international agreements ratified by the Saeima if by the extradition the basic human rights specified in the Constitution are not violated.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
The church shall be separate from the State.
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to freely receive, keep and distribute information and to express his or her views.
Censorship is prohibited.
Every citizen of Latvia has the right, as provided for by law, to participate in the work of the State and of local government, and to hold a position in the civil service.
Local governments shall be elected by Latvian citizens and citizens of the European Union who permanently reside in Latvia.
Every citizen of the European Union who permanently resides in Latvia has the right, as provided by law, to participate in the work of local governments.
The working language of local governments is the Latvian language.
Everyone has the right to form and join associations, political parties and other public organisations.
The State shall protect the freedom of previously announced peaceful meetings, street processions, and pickets.
Everyone has the right to address submissions to State or local government institutions and to receive a materially responsive reply.
Everyone has the right to receive a reply in the Latvian language.
Everyone has the right to own property.
Property shall not be used contrary to the interests of the public.
Property rights may be restricted only in accordance with law.
Expropriation of property for public purposes shall be allowed only in exceptional cases on the basis of a specific law and in return for fair compensation.
Everyone has the right to freely choose their employment and workplace according to their abilities and qualifications.
Forced labour is prohibited.
Participation in the relief of disasters and their effects, and work pursuant to a court order shall not be deemed forced labour.
Every employed person has the right to receive, for work done, commensurate remuneration which shall not be less than the minimum wage established by the State, and has the right to weekly holidays and a paid annual vacation.
Employed persons have the right to a collective labour agreement, and the right to strike.
The State shall protect the freedom of trade unions.
Everyone has the right to social security in old age, for work disability, for unemployment and in other cases as provided by law.
The State shall protect and support marriage – a union between a man and a woman, the family, the rights of parents and rights of the child.
The State shall provide special support to disabled children, children left without parental care or who have suffered from violence.
The State shall protect human health and guarantee a basic level of medical assistance for everyone.
Everyone has the right to education.
The State shall ensure that everyone may acquire primary and secondary education without charge.
Primary education shall be compulsory.
The State shall recognise the freedom of scientific research, artistic and other creative activity, and shall protect copyright and patent rights.
Persons belonging to ethnic minorities have the right to preserve and develop their language and their ethnic and cultural identity.
The State shall protect the right of everyone to live in a benevolent environment by providing information about environmental conditions and by promoting the preservation and improvement of the environment.
The rights of persons set out in Articles ninetysix, ninety seven, ninetyeight, one hundred, one hundred and two, one hundred and three, one hundred and six, and one hundred and eight of the Constitution may be subject to restrictions in circumstances provided for by law in order to protect the rights of other people, the democratic structure of the State, and public safety, welfare and morals.
On the basis of the conditions set forth in this Article, restrictions may also be imposed on the expression of religious beliefs.
J. Čakste
President of the Constitutional Assembly
R. Ivanovs
Secretary of the Constitutional Assembly
About the The Constitution of the Republic of Latvia: History and Modern Days
I
In democratic, lawful countries Constitution is one of the most significant symbols of statehood.
Along with its legal functions the Constitution also holds a symbolic meaning – it serves as evidence to the dreams of the founders of statehood and quest for the future generations.
It was no coinci dence that one of the most significant experts of the Constitutional Law of Latvia of the past century Kārlis Dišlers wrote that “democratic lawful country cannot be imagined without the constitutional law that determines the legal foundations of its political system.”
Taking into consideration the historically complicated destiny of the statehood of Latvia, the date of adopting our state constitution – the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter – the Constitution) might seem surprising to many.
The Constitution was really adopted on 15 February 1922, announced on 30 June 1922 and came into force on 7 November 1922.
After the restoration of independence Latvia deliberately decided to renew also the act of its only constitution.
The foundation of the constitutional system of this country still remains the same – the Constitution.
II
The Constitution will always be related to the statehood of Latvia, telling about the efforts of the patriots and officials of Latvia representing various centuries, and giving evidence to their success, as well as mistakes.
Thereby it can even be emphasized that a separate word has been introduced to the Latvian language to denote the constitution or the basic law, which is characteristic of the Latvian language only.
In 1869, social worker of the NeoLatvian movement Kronvaldu Atis suggested to use neologism satversme for denoting constitution.
He formed this word from the verb tvert (to hold), because “people have therefore adopted the laws, so that they had something to hold on to when necessary.”
The plans of the NeoLatvian movement included neither the awareness for the necessity of an independent state of Latvia, nor concrete action plans for achieving such goal.
But the meaning and the necessity of the name of the constitution was already clear.
Later the ideas about the statehood of Latvia and its constitution intertwined into a common destiny.
At the beginning of the last century a member of the New Stream movement Miķelis Valters saw the opportunities of saving the nation of Latvia in its independence from Russia.
And another member of the New Stream – the poet Jānis Pliekšāns (Rainis) admitted that “the meaning of Constitution – it is the main source, from which all the art and cleverness of the constitution erupts as if on its own.”
After the Fight for Freedom on 17 and 18 April 1920, the nation of Latvia elected its representatives – the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia – for the first time.
The task of the Constitutional Assembly was to develop and adopt the constitution of the new state.
As the President of the Constitutional Assembly Jānis Čakste has emphasized, “The Constitutional Assembly was elected without any limitations, its powers include the entire life of the country of Latvia, it is responsible for the task of establishing and founding our country forever and ever.
We cannot confuse the Constitutional Assembly with the parliament, because the Constitution sets limits for it.
The Constitutional Assembly has no limits at all.
It can execute all the tasks that it finds necessary or important to the country.”
The adoption and coming into force of the Constitution meant new challenges for the statehood of Latvia.
During the interwar period in Europe the initial constitutional romanticism was quickly replaced by parliamentarism crisis and the search for new ways of governing the country.
Also in Latvia the cause for all troubles was found in the Constitution.
This period in the constitutional law of Latvia is most vividly characterized in the title of the introductory article by Arveds Bergs – “Bet viņa neiet!”
(But she Remains!)
Not even two months had passed since the Constitution came into force, when one of its authors already suggested significant changes to the constitutional system.
During the Revolution of 15 May 1934, the act of the Constitution was terminated; Kārlis Ulmanis founded the authoritarian regime and also promised a reform of the Constitution.
Instead of the Constitution reform the democratic republic was replaced by an authoritarian country.
But in the summer of 1940 the U.S.S.R. occupied Latvia, unlawfully terminating the de facto statehood of Latvia.
Often enough after revolutions and constitution suspension they lose their political meaning and legal character and take the honourable place in the shelves of the historical and cultural heritage.
But the case with the Constitution was quite the opposite.
During the authoritarian regime and what is even more significant – in conditions of the Soviet occupation, the Constitution became a symbol of an independent and democratic state.
Protesting against the unlawful character of the U.S.S.R.’s actions, the envoy of Latvia in London Kārlis Zariņš on 23 July 1940 in the memorandum submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain provided inter alia that joining of Latvia to the U.S.S.R. has taken place in breach of Article 1 of the Constitution, “The nation of Latvia has heavily and bravely fought for its independence, also against the army of the Soviet Russia.
The spirit of the Fight for Freedom is still alive, and any unbiased observer would admit impossible the fact that Latvians by their free will would like to sacrifice their independence, which they fought for so hard and which they cherished so high.”
Also the national resistance movement to the soviet and fascist regime was organised on the basis of the Constitution.
The Latvian Central Council and the political forces it represented based their actions on the regulations of the Constitution.
Already later the exiled senators of the Latvian highest court institution – the Latvian Senate – by a special resolution acknowledged the Constitution as being in force and as an applicable constitution, hence, “the necessary basic element of any modern state, but especially – democratic republic – is its legal structure, which is determined by its constitutional, respectively, basic laws and which characterize it in the international field as a corresponding law subject.
These constitutional laws adopted by the freely elected Constitutional Assembly, on the basis of which Latvia throughout all its years of independence has existed as a sovereign and equal in rights state in the international life, are the Declaration of 27 May 1920 about the country of Latvia and the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia of 15 February 1922.”
These ideas were even more simplified in a newspaper published in exile: “During the existence of the Constitution it has neither been annulled, nor reformed.
Our most significant statesmen and politicians have always emphasized that the only thing we have left and around which everyone should unite, is our flag and our Constitution of 1922.
[..]
The Constitution of the democratic Republic of Latvia is still in force, it should be cherished as the most sacred treasure and only the nation itself shall have the right to amend the Constitution in a liberate, free Latvia.”
Thus it is understandable, why after the restoration of the independence also the act of Constitution was restored.
If the declaration of 4 May 1990 “On the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Latvia” still provided development of a new constitution, then the Constitutional Law of 21 August 1991 “On the National Content of the Republic of Latvia” clearly defines that the national content of the Republic of Latvia is stipulated by the Constitution.
III
The Constitutional Assembly of Latvia established a separate commission – Constitutional Committee – for the development of the Constitution project.
Fēlikss Cielēns, one of the leading deputies of the Constitutional Committee describes in his memories the conditions of forming it, “To provide the opportunity for all parties and directions to involve in the development of the Constitution, quite many members were elected to the Constitutional Committee – 26 in total.