Guinea-Bissau

Art 26

1. The State recognizes the formation of the family and assures its protection.
2. Children are equal before the law, independently of the civil status of the parents.
3. Spouses have equal rights and duties in terms of civil and political capacities, as well as the maintenance and education of the children.

Guinea-Bissau Constitution 1984 (Revision 1991) – Constitute Project – English (PDF)

Article 3 General definitions

(A) “trafficking in persons” means the trafficking of persons, the recruitment or reception of persons by means of threats, moral or physical coercion, kidnapping, fraud, deception, forced marriage, abuse of authority or taking advantage of The victim’s vulnerability or his or her physical or natural disability or psychic anomaly or the delivery or acceptance of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of the person having authority over the victim for the purpose of sexual exploitation, Forced marriage, extraction of human organs, labor, slavery or similar practices, as well as servitude.

(B) “Forced labor or slavery” For the purpose of forced labor or slavery, and obtaining work or services from or by means of seduction, violence, intimidation or threat, use of force, including deprivation of liberty, abuse of authority or deception.

Article 4. Human Trafficking

(1) Everyone who recruit, be supplied, transport, accommodate a person for prostitution purposes, forced labor, involuntary servitude slavery or servitude for debt and punished with the penalty of prison from 3 to 15 years.

(2) If, as a result of the facts referred to in the preceding paragraph, the victim is injured or killed, the agent is punished with a sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison.

Article 6. Adoption for illicit purposes

(1) Anyone who adopts or facilitates the adoption of persons for the purpose of involvement in prostitution, sexual exploitation and forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, shall be punished by imprisonment for 10 to 15 years.

(2) If, as a result of the acts referred to in the preceding paragraph, the victim is injured or killed, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for 15 to 20 years.

Article 1577 (Notion of marriage)

Marriage is the contract concluded between two people of different sex who they tend to legitimately constitute the family through a communion full of life.

The provision should be maintained by deleting only the word legitimately, due to the change introduced by Law No. 3/76 of 4 May, Official Bulletin No. 18

Article 1596 (Civil capacity)

Catholic marriage can only be celebrated by those who have the matrimonial capacity required by civil law.

Article 1597 (Preliminary procedure)

1. The matrimonial ability of the spouses is proven through the process preliminary publication, organized in the civil registry offices at the request of the betrothed or the respective parish priest.
2. The consent of the parent or guardian, regarding the minor child, can be given in the presence of two witnesses before the parish priest, who will raise a case report, signing it with all stakeholders.

Article 1601 (Absolute direct impediments)

These are direct impediments, preventing the marriage of the person to whom they respect with any other:

a) The age of less than sixteen or fourteen years, depending on the individual of the male or female;

b) Notorious dementia, even during lucid breaks, and the ban or disability due to psychic anomaly;

c) The previous undissolved marriage, Catholic or civil, even if the respective seat has not been drawn up in the marital status register.

a) By the principle of equality between men and women provided for in the CRGB, in conjunction with what is foreseen in articles 1 and 2 of Law no. 5/76, of 4 May, it should be considered that this paragraph limits the age nuptials at sixteen for both sexes.

B) (…)

c) Pursuant to Law No. 1/73, and the secular principle of the State enshrined in the CRGB, this subparagraph reads as follows: “the previous marriage has not been dissolved, even if the respective seat has not been drawn up in the marital status register.

Article 1612 (Opposition by parents or guardian)

1. When you have not given your consent, either the parent or guardian of the minor marital partner can file opposition to marriage under the terms prescribed in the laws of the civil registry.
2. Deducted the opposition, the marriage can only be celebrated if the court of minors judging it unjustified.

Article 1617 (Actuality of the mutual consensus)

The will of the spouses is only relevant when it is manifested in the act of wedding celebration.

Article 1618 (Acceptance of the effects of marriage)

1. The desire to marry requires acceptance of all the legal effects of the marriage, without prejudice to the legitimate stipulations of the spouses in agreement prenuptial.
2. The clauses by which the betrothed, in a convention, are considered unwritten prenuptial, at the time of the celebration of the marriage or in another act, intend to modify the effects of the marriage, or subject it to condition, term or preexistence of some fact.

Article 1619 (Personal character of the mutual consensus)

The will to marry is strictly personal in relation to each of the spouses.

Article 1624 (Causes justifying non-approval)

1. The marriage cannot be approved:

a) If the requirements required by law are not met, or if they have not been complied with the formalities prescribed for the celebration of urgent marriage and for the realization of the respective provisional registration;

b) If there are serious indications that these requirements are assumed or false, or formalities;

c) If there is any impediment, direct;

d) If the marriage has been considered as Catholic by the ecclesiastical authorities astics and, as such, to be transcribed.

2. If the marriage is not approved, the provisional seat will be canceled.

3. From the order that refuses approval, the spouses or their heirs can, as well as the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to appeal to the court in order to be declared marriage validity.

Article 1631 (Causes of annulment)

Marriage is voidable:

a) Contracted with any direct impediment;

b) Celebrated, on the part of one or both of the spouses, with a lack of will or with the will vitiated by error or coercion;

c) celebrated without the presence of witnesses required by law.

Article 1633 (Validation of marriage)

1. Annulment is considered to have been resolved and the marriage is valid from the moment of celebration, if before the final decision is rendered unappealable any of the following facts:

a) The marriage of a non-nubile minor is confirmed by the latter, before the official civil registry and two witnesses, after reaching the age of majority or being emancipated;

b) Confirm the marriage of the banned or disabled due to psychic anomaly by him, under the terms of the preceding paragraph, after lifting the interdiction or disability or, in the case of notorious dementia, after having the insane person check judicially their state of sanity;

c) The first wedding of the bigamus be declared null or annulled;

d) It is the absence of witnesses due to circumstances that are amenable, such as recognized by the Minister of Justice, as long as there are no doubts about the celebration of the act.

2. Article 287 (2) does not apply to marriage

Article 1634 (Presumption of will)

The declaration of will, in the act of celebration, constitutes a presumption not only that the spouses wanted to contract marriage, but that their will is not vitiated by mistake or coercion.

Article 1635 (Nullability due to unwillingness)

Marriage is voidable due to unwillingness:

a) When the spouse, at the time of the celebration, was not aware of the act who practiced, due to accidental incapacity or another cause;

b) When the spouse was in error about the physical identity of the other contractor;

c) When the declaration of will has been extorted by physical coercion;

d) When it has been simulated

Article 1638 (Moral coercion)

1. Marriage celebrated under moral coercion is void, as long as it is serious the evil with which the spouse is illegally threatened, and the fear of his consummation
2. The illicit threat is equated with the fact that someone, knowingly and illegally, extort from the spouse the declaration of the will by promising to free him from a fortuitous or caused by someone else.

Article 1640 (Annulment based on unwillingness)

1. Cancellation by simulation may be required by persons harmed by the marriage, but not by spouses.
2. In the remaining cases of unwillingness, the action for annulment can only be proposed by the spouse whose will was lacking; but their relatives, like in a straight line, heirs or adopters, if the author dies pending the cause.

Article 1641 (Annulment founded on vices of the will)

The action for annulment based on vices of the will can only be brought by the spouse who has been the victim of error or coercion; but their actions can continue relatives, legitimate kin in the straight line, heirs or adopters, if the author dies in the pending the cause.

Article 1642 (Annulment based on lack of witnesses)

The action for annulment for lack of witnesses can only be brought by the Ministry Public

Article 1644 (Annulment based on unwillingness)

The action for annulment due to the unwillingness of one or both spouses can only be established within the three years following the celebration of the marriage or, if the marriage was ignored by the applicant, within the six months following the date on which he knowledge.

Article 1645 (Annulment founded on vices of the will)

The action for annulment based on defects in the will lapsed, if not instituted within the six months following the cessation of the addiction

Article 1649 (Marriage of minors)

1. The minor who marries without having asked for the consent of his parents or guardian, to do so, or without waiting for a favorable decision from the court in the case of opposition, to be considered minor as regards the administration of assets that he takes to the couple or that subsequently come to you by free title, until the age of majority or emancipation but from the income from those goods the necessary food will be arbitrated to your state.
2. The assets taken away from the minor’s administration are administered by the parents, guardian or legal administrator, and in no case may they be handed over to the administration of the another spouse during the age of consort; moreover, they do not respond, nor before or after the dissolution of the marriage, for debts contracted by one or both spouses in the same period.

3. The approval of the marriage by the parent or guardian ends the sanctions prescribed in background numbers