Nicaragua

Article 72

Marriage and stable de facto unions are protected by the State; they rest on the voluntary agreement between a man and a woman, and may be dissolved by mutual consent or by the shall of one of the parties. The law shall regulate this matter.

Article 73

Family relations rest on the respect, solidarity and absolute equality of rights and responsibilities between the man and woman.

Parents must attend to the maintenance of the home and the integral development of children through joint efforts, with equal rights and responsibilities. Children are, as well, obligated to respect and assist their parents. These duties and rights shall be fulfilled in accordance with the legislation on this matter.

Nicaragua Constitution 1987 (Amendments 2014) – Enligh (PDF)

Article 182. Trafficking in persons 

It commits the offense of trafficking in persons, who organizes, finances, directs, promotes, promotes, promotes, induces, facilitates or who executes direct or indirect recruitment, invites, recruits, contracts, transports, transfers, watches, delivers, receives, retains , Conceals, welcomes or lodges any person for any purpose of prostitution, sexual exploitation, procuring, child pornography, forced marriage or forced marriage or forced marriage, forced labor, forced labor or services, child labor, slavery or practices Illicit extraction of human organs, tissues, cells or fluids or any of its components, unlawful clinical or pharmacological biomedical experimentation, participation in organized criminal activities, use of minors in criminal activities, begging or adoption For such purposes to be exercised within or outside the national territory.

The penalty of ten to fifteen years of imprisonment and a thousand days fine, cancellation of commercial license, final closure of the premises and the confiscation of the movable and immovable assets used and the economic and financial resources obtained.

In no case will the consent of the victim exempt or diminish the criminal responsibility of persons who commit the commission of the crime of trafficking in persons.

Article 182B. Aggravating the crime of trafficking in persons

1. The penalty shall be imposed from sixteen to eighteen years and a fine of one thousand days in the following cases:

1) When the offense of trafficking in persons is committed by means of threats, intimidation, kidnapping, blackmail, use of force or other forms of coercion; Y

2) When the perpetrator or participant commits the crime in the exercise of power or in a situation of vulnerability of the victim, when he resorts to fraud, deception, offer of work or any benefit, or the granting or receipt of payments Or benefits to obtain the consent of one person, having authority over another.

2. The penalty shall be imposed from nineteen to twenty years and a fine of one thousand days in cases in which:

1) The victim is a person, girl, child, adolescent or older than sixty years of age; Or is a person from the indigenous or Afro-descendant peoples, a person with a disability, or is committed by a relative, guardian or guardian, responsible for or in charge of education, custody, spiritual guidance,

Leader or religious leader or who permanently shares the victim’s home, or a relationship of trust;

(2) Whoever subtracts, offers, delivers, transfers, sells, accepts, acquires or owns, to a child or adolescent, altering or not affiliation, mediation or non-payment, reward or benefit, for any In the crime of trafficking in persons;

3) When the victims in the same act are two or more persons;

4) When the exploitation purposes are two or more of those foreseen in this crime;

(5) When, as a result of the crime of trafficking in persons, the life of the victim is endangered, or the victim is seriously injured, in physical or psychological health, or has acquired a serious or incurable illness, or becomes pregnant or Forced to perform abortion;

6) When the victim is forced or induced to use drugs or results in an addiction condition;

7) When the person who committed or participated in the crime of trafficking in persons has been convicted of committing the same offense abroad; Y

8) When the author or participant of the crime is a servant or public servant or works for international organizations or non-governmental organizations whose purpose is related to the topic of care or protection of children, adolescents and women.

If two or more of the circumstances provided for in this article are met, the maximum penalty shall apply.

If the exploitation purpose has been reached by the same person, the corresponding competition will be applied in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Nicaragua.

Persons who have been convicted of committing the crime of trafficking in persons shall be punished for special disqualification for the same period of the sentence for the exercise of the profession, activity or trade related to the conduct.

Article 182C. Provisions common to the crime of procuring and trafficking in persons

Whoever knows that a person is in a situation of sexual exploitation, procuring or dealing with persons, having sexual relations or performing lewd or erotic acts with the victim, shall be punished with the aggravated penalty in one third of the corresponding sexual

Art. 218.– Anyone who contracts a second or subsequent marriage without the previous one being legitimately dissolved, it will be punished with imprisonment from 1 to 5 years.

Art. 219.– The same penalty of the previous article will be suffered by the person who deceives a person by simulating the celebration of a true marriage, and whoever contracts it knowingly has an absolute impediment according to the law. If the impediment is relative, the penalty will be a fine of one hundred to five hundred cordobas.

Art. 220.- The official who authorizes a marriage prohibited by law or for which there is any absolute impediment known or reported in the file, will suffer the penalty of absolute disqualification for a term of 1 to 3 years and a fine of five hundred to one thousand córdobas. if the impediment is relative, the penalty will be a fine of one hundred to five hundred cordobas.

Article 315. Discrimination, servitude, exploitation

Anyone who discriminates on the basis of birth, nationality, political affiliation, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender, religion, opinion, position, economic, disability, physical condition or any other social condition shall be punished by imprisonment of six Months to one year and ninety to one hundred and fifty days fine.

Any person who subjects, reduces or maintains another person in slavery or conditions similar to slavery, forced or compulsory labor, bonded labor, or any other situation contrary to human dignity, in employment, shall be punished by imprisonment of five to eight years.

A sentence of imprisonment of five to eight years and a fine of 150 to 300 days shall be imposed on those who traffick persons for the purpose of subjecting them to activities of labor exploitation, as well as forced recruitment to participate in armed conflicts.

The penalty for the offenses indicated in the preceding paragraphs shall be increased by up to half the maximum limit of the offense in question, when committed:

A) To the detriment of children; or

B) By violence or intimidation.

If both circumstances are present, the penalty shall be increased to three quarters of the maximum limit of the respective offense.

Any person who employs a person under eighteen years of age who is not authorized by law for the purpose of labor exploitation shall be punished with a penalty of two to four years’ imprisonment.

Nicaragua Penal Code

Art. 53 Definition of marriage

Marriage is the voluntary union between a man and a woman constituted by the free and mutual consent of the contracting parties with legal aptitude for it, in order to make and share a life in common and build a family based on solidarity and mutual respect. Marriage will supply all the legal effects from its conclusion and must be registered in the Civil Status Registry of the People, in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

Art. 54 Age for marriage

They are legally eligible to marry, the man and the woman who have turned eighteen year old.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the legal representatives of adolescents may grant authorization to marry adolescents between the ages of sixteen and eighteen year old.

If there is a conflict regarding the aforementioned authorization, it will be resolved in court, for which it will be heard the opinion of the interested parties, the National Family Procurator’s Office and the Ministry of the Family, Adolescence and Childhood.

Art. 55 Rights and obligations of marriage

Marriage grants equal rights and obligations for the contracting man and woman

Art. 56 Marital impediments

Marital impediments are those facts or circumstances that in some way limit the exercise capacity of people interested in getting married.

The impediments to marrying are: absolute, relative and prohibitive.

Absolute impediments apply to people in general and relative and prohibitive ones, are they establish in attention to the legal position that they occupy with respect to another person.

Art. 57 Absolute impediments

They will not be able to contract marriage or declare the stable de facto union:

a) Children and adolescents under sixteen years of age;

b) With a third person, those who are in a stable de facto union, duly recognized and the people united by marriage bond;

c) He who lacks the mental capacity that makes it impossible to express unequivocally, his will to give your consent;

d) Ascendants and descendants and other collateral relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity; Y

e) People convicted of the authorship and participation of the crime of intentional homicide of one of the spouses and intends to enter into a stable de facto marriage or union declared with him or the spouse survivor.

Art. 58 Relative impediments

They may not marry:

a) Those who are temporarily not in full exercise of their reason at the time the marriage;

b) When the will is manifested with error in the person, due to fear or intimidation, violence or fraud; Y

c) Adolescents under eighteen and over sixteen years of age, who do not count with the authorization of the legal representative.

Art. 59 Prohibitive impediment

It is a prohibitive impediment, that of the guardian, tutor or any of their descendants with the ward, while the final accounts of the guardianship are not duly canceled.

Art. 60 Effects of the celebration of marriage under impediment

The marriage contracted through the existence of absolute impediment will be declared void at the request of part or even ex officio by judicial authority, at any time after its celebration; the celebrated through the existence of any relative or prohibitive impediment will be voidable, at the request of a party interested

Art. 61 Validity of the marriage celebrated under relative or prohibitive impediment

The marriage celebrated under relative or prohibitive impediment will be valid without it being required to do so express declaration, due to the fact that the contracting parties voluntarily remain united after of a month of having knowledge of the vice or ceasing the facts that motivated it.

Art. 149 General provision

The marriage may be null or void, depending on the grounds that concur in it. It will be null, when any of the absolute impediments concur, and voidable when it is celebrated with concurrence of relative or prohibitive impediments. In any case, it must be requested before a competent judge and it will be processed in accordance with the common special process established by this Code.

Art. 150 Nullity of marriage due to absolute impediment

The nullity of the marriage for any of the absolute impediments can be requested by any person who shows interest in it, by the National Family Procurator, or declare ex officio by competent judicial authority. In the same way, it will proceed in the case of nullity from the marriage celebrated before persons who are not authorized to celebrate it or without the presence of two suitable witnesses.

The marriage celebrated with these impediments is not valid and the action for annulment may exercise in any weather.

Art. 151 Annulment of the marriage due to relative impediment

The nullity of the marriage celebrated before the existence of any of the relative impediments

indicated in this Code, it may not be declared ex officio, nor allege more than by the person or persons that will be said below, or by their heirs or legal representatives.

a) By the contracting party victim of violence, intimidation or serious fear.

b) By any of the spouses or by the father or mother of the incapacitated person, for not being temporarily in full exercise of his reason at the time of celebrating the marriage

Art. 158 Sanctions for authorized persons and witnesses

For all the cases consigned in this Code relative to matrimonial impediments; the contracting parties and persons authorizing the marriage, as well as witnesses who have committed false testimony will be subject to the penalties established in the Penal Code.