Sao Tome and Principe

Summary of Domestic Prohibition

Slavery and slave trade

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce eget nibh consequat, pellentesque velit sed.

Practices similar to slavery

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer luctus suscipit felis, sed aliquam tellus mattis in. Duis quis sodales nunc. Cras bibendum aliquet magna, id accumsan ligula convallis ac. Nullam molestie quis risus quis hendrerit. Vestibulum hendrerit felis quis enim mattis, ut varius augue.

Servitude

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam volutpat tristique arcu eu vehicula. Ut a nunc vel dui blandit aliquet. Praesent magna mauris, viverra eleifend nunc non, bibendum posuere.

Forced or compulsory labour

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean ut mauris sed nisl dapibus efficitur in nec libero. Praesent aliquet sapien nec elit sodales venenatis. Aliquam orci nisl, suscipit at sodales ut, congue non massa. Curabitur gravida nunc id est imperdiet lobortis. Mauris quis urna semper, pulvinar tellus viverra, gravida leo. Duis scelerisque nulla at.

Human trafficking

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris fringilla feugiat justo, in convallis neque euismod ut. Nam commodo justo maximus, faucibus eros id, porttitor urna. Pellentesque sit amet massa odio. Nulla facilisi. Aliquam euismod arcu sit amet molestie blandit.

Forced marriage

Provisions related to forced marriage in São Tomé and Príncipe are found in the 1977 Family Code, which addresses marriages concluded with by error, deceit or coercion at Article 45.

Consent to marriage

Although legislation in São Tomé and Príncipe does not recognise consent as a strict requirement of marriage, section 2(1) of the Family code 1977 recognises that marriage is based on voluntarily union of man and woman. Section 4 further recognises that the consent of a party or prospective party to a marriage is invalidated where the person is under the age of marital capacity or is of unsound mind.

Servile marriage

There appears to be no legislation in São Tomé and Príncipe that prohibits servile matrimonial transactions.

Marriage trafficking

There appears to be no legislation in São Tomé and Príncipe that prohibits marriage trafficking.

Minimum age for marriage

The minimum age for marriage in São Tomé and Príncipe is 18, without differentiation by gender, as set out on Article 3 of the 1977 Family Code. However, marriages below the minimum age are permitted in the presence of a justifiable cause, with the consent of parents and the authorisation of the court, as set out on Article 3 of the 1977 Family Code. Marriage of females is allowed under exceptions as early as 14. Marriage of males is allowed under exceptions as early as 16.

Region

Africa

Regional Court

Not party to a court

Legal System

Mixed

International Instruments

1926 Slavery Convention
Not Party
1953 Protocol to the Slavery Convention
Not Party
1956 Supplementary Slavery Convention
Not Party
1966 ICCPR
10 January 2017
1930 Forced Labour Convention
04 May 2005
2014 Protocol to the 1930 Forced Labour Convention
Not Party
1957 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
04 May 2005
1999 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
04 May 2005
2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
23 August 2006
1998 Rome Statute of the ICC
Not Party
1956 Supplementary Slavery Convention
Not Party
1966 ICCPR
10 January 2017
1966 Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
23 March 2017
1966 ICESCR
10 January 2017
2008 Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
Not Party
1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
Not Party
1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women
Not Party
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
14 May 1991
2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
Not Party
2011 Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communications procedure
Not Party
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
03 June 2003
1999 Optional Protocol to CEDAW
23 March 2017
1978 Convention on the Celebration and Recognition of the Validity of Marriages
Not Party
2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons
23 August 2006
1998 Rome Statute of the ICC
Not Party
1999 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
04 May 2005

International Obligations

  • Slavery
  • Servitude
  • Forced Labour
  • Human Trafficking
  • Marriage Trafficking

Regional Organisations

  • African Union
  • Regional engagement SCORE

Legislative Provisions

CONSTITUTION OF SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 1975 (REV. 1990)

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)

PENAL CODE

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)

CONSTITUTION OF SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 1975 (REV 1990)

Art 26

  1. Everyone shall have the right to form a family and to enter into matrimony in full equality.
  2. The law shall regulate the requirements and effects of marriage and of its dissolution, by death or divorce, independently of the form of its celebration.
  3. Spouses shall have equal rights and duties with respect to civil and political responsibility and to the maintenance and raising of their children.
  4. Children born out of wedlock may not, for that reason, be the object of any discrimination.
  5. Parents shall have the right and duty to raise and maintain their children.

 

Sao Tome and Principe Constitution 1975 (Rev 1990) – Constitute Project (PDF)

FAMILY CODE 1977

Article 2

  1. Marriage is the voluntarily contracted union between a man and woman, with the legal capacity to do so and with a view to
  1. Marriage will only have legal effects when it is celebrated in accordance with the rules established in this law.

Article 3

  1. Women and men over the age of 18 may freely enter into marriage 18 years old.
  2. Notwithstanding the provisions of the previous number, exceptionally and if there is justifiable cause, the parents, in the absence of it, the relatives who the country has power, and also the Court, may authorize the marriage of minors under 18, provided that the woman has already completed 14 years of age and the man has completed 16 years old.
  1. This exceptional authorization is for: a) the father and mother jointly, or the one who owns the country exclusive power; b) In the absence of parents, maternal or paternal grandparents indistinctly, preferring those who live in the same domicile with the minor; c) To adopters, when the child has been adopted; d) The guardian, if the minor is subject to guardianship; e) The court, if the curator of minors so requests or not opuser.
  2. In the latter case, one or the other interested party, or a brother or sister of the adulthood, with the consent of the curator of minors, may request the competent court to grant the authorization requested, then the Court, briefly listening to the interested parties and taking into account the interest of society and the betrothed had decided what he had for good.

Article 4

They will not be able to celebrate marriage:

a) Those who lack the mental capacity to give their consent;

b) Those who are already united by previous marriage;

c) Women under 14 and men under 16

Article 43

  1. Marriage dissolves: a) The death of one of the spouses; b) By the judicial declaration of presumption of death of one of the spouses; c) For the nullity of the marriage, it is declared in the sentence with res judicata; d) By divorce decreed by a final and unappealable sentence

Article 45

  1. Marriages celebrated are null and void: a) In violation of any of the prohibitions indicated in articles 4th and 5th; b) With an error about the people, deceit, or coercion that addict the consent; c) In violation of the validity requirements imposed by this Law.

Article 46

  1. You can ask for marriage annulments: a) Any of the spouses and the Public Prosecutor in cases indicated in points a) and c) of the previous article; b) The spouse who had endured the error, intent or coercion in the case indicated in paragraph b) of the previous article.

Article 47

  1. The action for annulment must be brought within 6 months from the date of celebration of the marriage, in the cases provided for in article 3 in b) and c) of article 45.
  2. After a period of six months has elapsed, without the action being brought, foreseen in the previous number, the wedding will be fully invited right.
  1. In the case of paragraph c) of article 4, the marriage will be validated if the minors reach the age fixed there, without having been asked for the nullity of the marriage, or if the woman has become pregnant.
  1. The marriage celebrated with any of the vices provided for in subparagraphs a) and b) of article 4 and article 5 cannot be validated and the action of annulment can be brought at any time.