Sao Tome and Principe

Article 22. Right to personal integrity

1. The moral and physical integrity of the people is inviolable.
2. No one may be submitted to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 32. Right of relocation and immigration

1. To all citizens the right is guaranteed to freely relocate and establish themselves in any part of the national territory.
2. To all is guaranteed the right to emigrate or to leave the national territory and the right to return.

Article 35. Personal freedom and security

1. All have the right to personal freedom and to personal security.
2. No one may be deprived of freedom, except in cases provided for in the law and always by decision or with the review of the appropriate court.

Article 41. Right to work

1. All have the right to work.
2. The obligation to work is inseparable from the right to work.
3. It is incumbent upon the State to ensure equality of opportunity in the choice of profession or type of work and conditions do that access to any position, work or professional category are not blocked.
4. The right to exercise professions is guaranteed in the conditions obtaining in the law.

Article 42. Rights of workers

1. All the workers have rights:
2. To recompense for work, according to quantity, nature and quality, observing the principal of equal salary for equal work, so as to guarantee a deserved living;
3. To labor-union freedom, as a means of promoting their unity, defending their legitimate rights and protecting their interests;
4. To the organization of work in socially dignifying conditions, in order to facilitate personal accomplishment;
5. To being able to perform work in hygienic and safe conditions;
6. To a maximum limit to the work day, to weekly rest and to periodic paid holidays;

f. To strike, under terms to be regulated by law, taking into account the interests of the workers and of the National economy.

Constitution of Sao Tome and Principe 1975 (revised 1990) (PDF)

Article 154 [coercion]

1. Whoever, through violence, threatens violence, threatens a criminal complaint or discloses a fact that infringes upon honor and consideration, or threatens to commit a crime, causes others to commit an act or omission or to bear a Activity is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 200 days.

2. The attempt is punishable.

3. Coercion shall be punishable only where the use of the means to achieve the intended purpose is objectionable and is not intended to prevent suicide or the practice of a typical wrongful act.

4. The punishment for this crime does not consume that which will fit the means employed to execute.

5. If the act occurs between spouses, ascendants and descendants or adopters and adoptees, or between persons living in a situation similar to that of the spouses, the criminal procedure depends on a complaint.

Article 155 [Serious coercion]

1. When coercion is made:

A) Through the threat of crime which corresponds to a sentence of more than 3 years in prison;

B) By official, with serious abuse of his authority;

C) through a threat resulting in, as an appropriate consequence, suicide or attempted suicide of the threatened person or person to whom the harm is due;

D) The persons referred to in article 130, paragraph 2, point h) shall be sentenced to up to 3 years imprisonment.

2. In the case of points b) of the previous number, if the coercion aims to obtain money, services or anything else that is due, the arrest may amount to 5 years.

Article 158 [Kidnapping]

1. Any person who detains, arrests, holds or apprehends another person, or in any way deprives them of their liberty, shall be punished with imprisonment for up to four years.

2. The imprisonment is, however, from 2 to 10 years if deprivation of liberty:

A) Last for more than 2 days;

B) is preceded or accompanied by assault on physical integrity, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment or use of other violent means;

C) is practiced with the false pretext that the victim suffered from a psychic anomaly;

D) It is practiced by simulation of public authority, or by an official with serious abuse of authority;

E) It results in suicide, deprivation of reason or permanent incapacity for the work of the victim;

F) occur after the offended has been fraudulently attracted to a place in terms of not being able to rely on the public authority or third parties to get rid of detention;

G) It is practiced by two or more persons.

3. For the purpose of sub-paragraph b) of the preceding paragraph, deprivation of liberty with the use of other violent means is considered to be preceded or accompanied by threats with a weapon, the use of narcotics or other substances that may cancel or diminish resistance Of the victim or of the threat of inflicting an evil that constitutes a crime against the victim or the person of his family.

4. When deprivation of liberty results in the death of the victim the agent shall be punished with imprisonment from 3 to 15 years.

Article 159 [Slavery]

1. Whoever reduces another person to the state or condition of slave is punished with imprisonment of 8 to 15 years.

2. In the same sentence, anyone who sells, assigns or acquires a human person or possesses it with the intention of maintaining it in the situation described in the previous paragraph.

Article 160 [Trafficking in Persons for the Exploitation of Labor]

1. Who offers, delivers, entices, accepts, transports, lodges or welcomes persons for the purpose of work exploitation:

A) By violence, abduction or serious threat;

B) by fraudulent scheme or maneuver;

C) With abuse of authority resulting from a relationship of hierarchical, economic, work or family dependency;

D) Taking advantage of a psychic incapacity or situation of special vulnerability of the victim, or by obtaining the consent of the person who has control over the victim

shall be punished with imprisonment from 2 to 8 years.

2. In the same sentence, anyone who, through any means, entices, transports, accommodates or receives a minor, or delivers, offers or accepts, for the purpose of work exploitation.

3. In the case referred to in the previous paragraph, if the agent uses any of the means provided for in paragraph 1, or acts professionally or for profit, or if the victim is under 16 years of age, he shall be punished with a prison sentence of 3 10 years.

4. If the acts referred to above are carried out by the representatives or bodies of a legal person or equivalent, on their behalf and in the collective interest, they are the same criminally responsible, being punishable by a fine to set between 10 million and 500 million folds, And its dissolution may be decreed.

Article 161 [Marketing of persons]

1. Any person who disposes of, transfers or acquires a person by any means and for any purpose, including for the purpose of sexual exploitation or extraction of organs, shall be punished with imprisonment from 5 to 15 years.

2. Anyone who alienates, relinquishes or acquires a person dominated by compassion, despair or reason of significant social or moral value, who appreciably diminishes his or her guilt, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to five years.

3. Any person who obtains or consents to the adoption of a minor upon payment or compensation of any kind, or who, as an intermediary, induces the necessary consent to the adoption of a minor in serious breach of applicable legal norms, shall be punished with a penalty Prison term of 1 to 5 years.

4. If the acts referred to in 1, 2 and 3 are committed by the representatives or bodies of a legal person or equivalent, on their behalf and in the collective interest, they are criminally liable and punishable by a fine of between 10 million And 500 million bends, and its dissolution may be decreed.

Article 162 [Rapture]

1. Who by means of violence, threat or cunning, kidnap another person with the intention of subjecting the victim to extortion; Commit a crime against the victim's sexual freedom and self-determination; Obtain redemption or reward, or embarrass the public authority or a third party to an action or omission, or to carry on an activity, shall be punished with imprisonment from 2 to 8 years.

2. If the abduction is accompanied by any of the circumstances foreseen in number 2 of article 158, the penalty is imprisonment of 3 to 10 years.

3. If the circumstances provided for in the preceding paragraph result in the death of the victim, the sentence is from 3 to 15 years in prison.

Article 164 [Rapture of minors]

1. Any person who abducts or deprives a minor under 16 years of age with the intention of exploiting or obtaining reward for his or her delivery or with libidinous intentions or of use in prostitution shall be punished with imprisonment of 5 to 10 years.

2. If the crime is accompanied by any of the circumstances provided for in article 162, paragraph 2, the penalty is imprisonment of 8 to 15 years.

3. If the abuses referred to in the preceding paragraph result in death, the penalty is imprisonment of 10 to 20 years.

Article 172 [Trafficking in persons for the practice of prostitution]

Any person who, through violence, a serious threat, a fraud or a fraudulent maneuver, causes another person to practice in a foreign country of prostitution or sexual acts of relief, shall be punished with imprisonment from 2 to 8 years.

Article 173 [Pimping]

1. Those who, professionally or with a lucrative intention, encourage, favor or facilitate the exercise by another person of prostitution or the practice of sexual acts of relief shall be punished with imprisonment from one to five years.

2. If the agent uses violence, serious threat, arduous or fraudulent maneuver, or takes advantage of the victim's psychic incapacity, situations of abandonment or extreme economic need, he shall be punished with imprisonment from 2 to 8 years.

Article 179 [Prostitution of minors]

1. Those who, being a major, perform a sexual act of relief with a minor between 14 and 18 years, offering remuneration or other consideration, shall be punished with imprisonment up to 2 years or with a fine of up to 200 days.
2. Anyone who is a minor has intercourse, anal intercourse or oral intercourse between the ages of 14 and 18, offering compensation or other consideration, shall be punished with a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine of up to 300 days.
3. The attempt is punishable.

Article 181 [Pimping  and trafficking of minors]

1. Anyone who promotes, favors or facilitates the practice of prostitution under the age of 18 or the practice of sexual acts by the latter is punishable by a term of imprisonment of 1 to 5 years.
2. Anyone who entices, transports, accommodates or receives children under the age of 18, or provides the conditions for practicing prostitution or sexual acts in a foreign country, shall be punished by imprisonment of 2 to 8 years .

3. If the agent uses violence, serious threat, ruse, fraudulent maneuver, abuse of authority resulting from a relationship of hierarchical, economic or work dependency, acting professionally or for profit, or taking advantage of the victim's psychic incapacity, or Any other situation that constitutes a special vulnerability, or even if this is under 16 years, is punished with a prison sentence of 3 to 10 years.

Penal Code (PDF)