Article 18: Organization of Authorities

The political administrative organization of the federative Republic of Brazil comprises the Union, the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities, all being autonomous under this Constitution.

1. Brasilia is the Federal Capital.

2. The Federal Territories are part of the Union, and their creation, transformation into States, or re-integration into the State of origin are governed by a supplemental law.

3. The States may be merged into each other, subdivided, or split to be annexed to others, or form new States or Federal Territories, subject to the approval of the population directly involved, through a plebiscite, and of Congress, through a supplemental law.

4. The creation, merger, consolidation, and splitting of Municipalities shall preserve the continuity and historical cultural unity of the urban environment, shall be implemented by a State act, obeying the requirements established in a State supplemental law, and shall depend on prior consultation of the population directly involved, by means of a plebiscite.

Article 19: Forbidden to the State

The Republic, the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities are forbidden to:

I. establish religious cults or churches, subsidize them, hamper their operation or maintain with them or their representatives relations of dependency or alliance, with the exception of cooperation for the public interest, as set forth in the law;

II. refuse to certify public documents;

III. create differences between Brazilians or preferences between each other.


Article 20: Propriety of the Union

The following is property of the Union:

I. property belonging to it at present and property that may be attributed to it;

II. unoccupied government lands indispensable for defense of the frontiers, of the forts, and military constructions, of the federal access ways and for preservation of the environment, as defined by the law;

III. the lakes, rivers, and any water courses of any kind on lands owned by the Republic, or which water more than one State, serve as borders with other countries, or run into or from a foreign territory, as well as bank lands and river beaches;

IV. river and lake islands in zones bordering on other countries, sea beaches, ocean and shore islands, the latter excluding the areas referred to in Article 26 II;

V. natural resources of the continental shelf and of the exclusive economic zone;

VI. territorial waters;

VII. tide lands and those added to them;

VIII. hydraulic energy potentials;

IX. mineral resources, including those in the subsoil;

X. natural underground cavities and pre-historical and archaeological sites;

XI. lands traditionally occupied by Indians.

• Under the terms of the law, the States, Federal District, and the Municipalities, as well as the agencies of the direct administration of the Republic are assured of participation in the result of the exploitation of petroleum or natural gas, of hydric resources for the purpose of generating electric energy, and of other natural resources in their respective territory, continental shelf, territorial waters, or exclusive economic zone, or financial compensation for such exploitation.
• The strip for land with a width of up to one hundred and fifty kilometers along the land frontiers, designated as frontier strip, is considered fundamental for defense of the national territory, and the occupation and use thereof shall be regulated by law.

Article 21: Powers and Responsibilities of the Union

It is incumbent upon the Union:

I. to maintain relations with foreign States and participate in international organizations;

II. to declare war and make peace;

III. to warrant national defense;

IV. to allow, in the events set forth in a supplemental law, foreign forces to cross the national territory or remain in it temporarily;

V. to decree state of siege, state of defense, and federal intervention;

VI. to authorize and monitor the production and trade of war material;

VII. to issue currency;

VIII. to administer Brazil's foreign exchange reserves and monitor financial transactions, especially credit, foreign exchange and capitalization, as well as those of insurance and private pension plans;

IX. to prepare and carry out national and regional plans for ordaining the territory and for economic and social development;

X. to maintain the post service and national air mail;

XI. operate, directly or through authorization, concession or permission, the telecommunications services, as set forth by law, which law shall provide for the organization of the services, the establishment of a regulatory agency and other institutional issues;

XII. operate, directly or through authorization, concession or permission:

• the services of sound broadcasting and of sound and image broadcasting;
• electric services and facilities and energetic use of water courses, in cooperation with the States in the hydro energetic potentials are located;
• air and aerospace navigation and airport infrastructure;
• railway and waterway transportation services between Brazilian ports and national frontiers or beyond the State or Territory borders;
• services of interstate and international highway transportation of passengers;
• sea, river, and lake ports;

XIII. to organize and maintain the Judiciary Branch, the Attorney General's office and the Public Defender's Office of the federal District and of the Territories;

XIV. to organize and maintain the federal police, the federal highway and railway and police, as well as the civic police, the military police and the military fire brigades of the Federal District and of the Territories;

XV. to organize and maintain official statistical, geographical, geological and mapping services of national scope;

XVI. to classify, for purposes of indication, public amusements, and radio and television programs censorship being forbidden;

XVII. to grant amnesty;

XVIII. to plan and promote permanent defense against public calamities, especially droughts and floods;

XIX. to institute a national system for the management of hydric resources and define criteria for granting rights to the use thereof;

XX. to institute guidelines for city development, including housing, basic sanitation, and city transportation;

XXI. to establish principles and guidelines for the national transportation system;

XXII. to carry out maritime, air, and frontier police services;

XXIII. to operate nuclear facilities and services of any nature and exercise state monopoly over research, mining, enrichment, and reprocessing, industrialization, and trade of nuclear ore and their byproducts, complying with the following principles and conditions:

• all nuclear activity within the national territory shall be subject to approval by Congress;
• under a concession or permission, authorization may be granted for the use of radiosotopes for research and use in medicine, agriculture, industry and like activities;
• civil liability for nuclear damages does not depend on the existence of fault;

XXIV. to organize, maintain and carry out inspection of working conditions;

XXV. to establish the areas and conditions for the conduct of gold digging activities in activities in associative form.

Article 22: Legislative Exclusivity

It is incumbent exclusively upon the Union to legislate on:

I. civil, commercial, penal, procedural, electoral, agrarian, maritime, aeronautical, space, and labor law;

II. expropriation;

III. civilian and military requisitioning, in the event of imminent danger and in times of war;

IV. waters, energy, informatics, telecommunications, and radio broadcasting;

V. post service;

VI. monetary and measures system, metal certificates and guarantees;

VII. policy for credit, foreign exchange, insurance, and transfer of valuables;

VIII. foreign and interstate trade;

IX. guidelines of the national transportation policy;

X. regime of the ports and lake, river, ocean, air, and aerospace navigation;

XI. traffic and transportation;

XII. mineral deposits, mines, other mineral resources, and metallurgy;

XIII. nationality, citizenship, and naturalization;

XIV. Indian populations;

XV. emigration, immigration, entry, extradition, and expulsion of foreigners;

XVI. organization of the national employment system and conditions for practising professions;

XVII. organization of the Judiciary, of the Attorney General's Office and of the Public Defender's Office of the Federal District and of the Territories, as well as the administrative organization thereof;

XVIII. national statistical system and mapping and geology system;

XIX. systems for savings, as well as obtaining and guaranteeing public savings;

XX. consortium and raffle systems;

XXI. general organization rules, troops, war materials, guarantees, enlisting, and mobilizing military police forces and military fire brigades;

XXII. jurisdiction of the federal police and of the federal highway and railway police;

XXIII. social security;

XXIV. guideline and bases for national education;

XXV. public registries;

XXVI. nuclear activities of any nature;

XXVII. general rules for all kinds of bidding and contracting, for the direct and indirect government administration, including foundations instituted and maintained by the Government, in its different spheres, and companies under its control;

XXVIII.territorial defense, aerospace defence, maritime defence, civil defence, and national mobilization;

XXIX. commercial advertising;

• A supplemental law may authorize the States to legislate on specific questions to the matters listed in this article.

Article 23: Common Powers

It is incumbent, in common, upon the Union, the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities:

I. to ensure that the Constitution, the laws, and the democratic institutions are complied with and that public property is preserved;

II. to attend to public assistance and health, as well as to protection and guarantee of handicapped persons;

III. to protect documents, works, and other assets of historical, artistic and cultural value, monuments and remarkable natural scenery, as well as archaeological sites;

IV. to prevent works of art and other assets of historical, artistic or cultural value from being taken out of the country, destroyed and decharacterized;

V. to provide means of access to culture, to education and to science;

VI. to protect the environment and fight pollution in any of its forms;

VII. to preserve the forests, fauna, and flora;

VIII. to foment agricultural and livestock production and organize the supply of food;

IX. to promote programs for the construction of housing and the improvement of housing and basic sanitation conditions;

X. to fight the causes of poverty and the factors leading to marginal living conditions, promoting integration of the unprivileged sectors;

XI. to register, monitor, and supervise concessions of rights to research and exploit hydric and mineral resources within their territories;

XII. to establish and implement an educational policy for traffic safety.

• A supplemental law shall establish rules for cooperation between the Republic and the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities in view of balanced development and well being on a nation wide basis.

Article 24: Concurrent Legislation

It is incumbent upon the Union, the States, and the Federal District to legislate concurrently on:

I. tax, financial, penitentiary, economic, and city planning law;

II. the budget;

III. commercial registries;

IV. costs of forensic services;

V. production and consumption;

VI. forests, hunting, fishing, fauna, reservation of nature, defense of the soil and natural resources, protection of the environment, and pollution control;

VII. protection of historical, cultural, artistic and touristic monuments, including natural scenic beauties;

VIII. liability for damages to the environment, to consumers, to assets and rights of an artistic, aesthetic, historical and touristic value, including natural scenic beauties;

IX. education, culture, teaching, and sports;

X. creation, operation, and proceedings of the small claims courts;

XI. court procedure;

XII. social security, protection, and defense of health;

XIII. legal assistance and public defense;

XIV. protection and social integration of handicapped persons;

XV. protection of childhood and of youth;

XVI. organization, guarantees, rights and duties of the civil police.

• Within the scope of concurrent legislation, the jurisdiction of the Republic is limited to establishing general rules.
• The jurisdiction of the Republic to legislate under general rules does not preclude the supplementary jurisdiction of the States.
• If there is no federal law on general rules, the States exercises full legislative jurisdiction to provide for their peculiarities.
• The supervenience of a federal law over general rules suspends the effectiveness of a State law, to that extent that it is contrary thereto.

Article 25: The States of the Federation

The States are organized and governed by the Constitutions and the laws which they may adopt, with due regard for the principles of this Constitution.

1. To the States is reserved jurisdiction over the matters not forbidden to them by this Constitution.

2. The states have the power to operate, directly or by means of concession, the local services of piped gas, as provided for by law, it being forbidden to issue any provisional measure for its regulation.

3. The States may, by means of a supplemental law, institute metropolitan regions, city agglomerations, and microregions, formed by grouping neighbouring municipalities, in order to integrate the organization, planning and execution of public functions of common interest.

Article 26: Property of the States

The following are included among the property of the States:
I. superficial or underground waters, whether flowing, emerging or in reservoirs, with the exception, in the latter case, as set forth in the law, of those resulting from works carried out by the Republic;

II. areas, on ocean and coastal islands, which are under their domain, excluding those under the domain of the Republic, Municipalities, or third parties;

III. river and lake islands which do not belong to the Republic;

IV. vacant government lands not comprised among those of the Republic.

Article 27: Composition of Legislative

The number of representatives on the State Legislative Assembly is three times the representation of the State on the House of Representatives and, when the number attains thirty-six, is increased by as many Representatives as there are Federal Representatives in excess of twelve.

1. The term of the State Representatives is four years, and they are subject to the provisions of this Constitution regarding the electoral system, inviolability, immunities, compensation, loss of office, leave of absence, impairments, and enlisting into the Armed Forces.

2. The remuneration of the State Deputies is established, in each legislative term, for the subsequent one, by the Legislative Assembly, as provided by Articles 150 II, 15, III, and 153 2. I, in the proportion of seventy-five percent, at most, of the remuneration established, in legal tender, for the Federal Deputies.

3. It is incumbent upon the Legislative Assemblies to provide on their internal regulations, police and administrative services of their secretariat, and to fill the respective offices.

4. The law provides for public initiative in State legislative proceedings.

Article 28: Executive Branch

 The election of the State Governor and Vice Governor, for a term of office of four years, is held ninety days before the end of their predecessors' term of office, and they take office on January 1st of the subsequent year, observing, otherwise, the provisions of Article 77.

1. A Governor who assumes another office or function of direct or in direct government administration loses his office, except for offices taken by virtue of a public competitive examination and observing the provisions of Article 38 I, IV, and V.


Article 29: The Municipalities

Municipalities are governed by organic law, voted in two rounds, with a minimum interval of ten days between each voting, and approved by two thirds of the members of the City Council, which shall enact it, complying with the principles established in this Constitution and in the Constitution of the respective State and with the following precepts:

I. election of the Mayor, of the Vice Mayor, and of the City Councilmen, for a term of office of four years, through direct and simultaneous elections held throughout the entire country;

II. elections of the Mayor and of the Vice Mayor at least ninety days before the end of the term of office of those who are to be succeeded, subject to the provisions of Article 77 in the event of municipalities with more than two hundred thousand voters;

III. investiture of the Mayor and of the Vice Mayor on January 1st of the year subsequent to the year of election;

IV. a number of City Councilmen in proportion to the population of the Municipality, observing the following limits:

• a minimum of nine and a maximum of twenty-one in Municipalities with up to one million inhabitants;
• a minimum of thirty-three and a maximum of forty-one in Municipalities with over one million and under five million inhabitants;
• a minimum of forty-two and a maximum of fifty-five in Municipalities with over five million inhabitants;

V. compensation of the Mayor, of the Vice Mayor, and of the Councilmen established by the City Council in each legislature for the subsequent one, with due regard for the provisions of Articles 37 XI, 150 II, 153 III, and 153 2. I;

VI. the remuneration of the City Councilmen shall correspond, at the most, to seventy-five percent of the remuneration established, in legal tender, for the State Deputies, except for the provisions of Article 37 XI;

VII. the total expenditure with the remuneration of the City Councilmen may not exceed the amount of five percent of the revenue of the Municipality;

VIII. inviolability of City Councilmen for their opinions, words, and votes while in office and within the jurisdiction of the Municipality;

IX. prohibitions and incompatibilities, while in the office of City Councilmen, similar, where applicable, to the provisions of this Constitution for members of Congress and, of the Constitution of the respective State, for members of the Legislative Assembly;

X. trial of the Mayor before the Court of Appeals;

XI. organization of the legislative and supervisory functions of the City Council;

XII. cooperation of representative associations in municipal planning;

XIII. public initiative in bills of law of specific interest to the Municipality, the city or the districts, through the manifestation of at least five percent of the voters;

XIV. loss of the office of Mayor according to Article 28.1.

Article 30: Municipal of Self Government

It is incumbent upon the Municipalities:

I. to legislate on matters of local interest;

II. to supplement federal and state legislation where applicable;

III. to institute and collect the taxes coming under their jurisdiction, as well as apply their revenues, regardless of the obligation to render accounts and public trial balance sheets within the periods established by law;

IV. to create, organize, and suppress districts, with due regard for state legislation;

V. to organize and render either directly or by concession or permission, essential public services of local interest, including collective transportation;

VI. to maintain with the technical and financial cooperation of the Republic and State, pre-school education and elementary school programs;

VII. to render, with the technical and financial cooperation of the Republic and State, health services to the population;

VIII. to promote, where applicable, adequate land ordainment through planning and control of use, apportionment, and occupation of the city soil;

IX. to promote the protection of local historical cultural monuments, with due regard for federal and state legislation and supervision.

Article 31: Supervision

Supervision of the Municipality is exercised by the Municipal Legislative Branch, through outside control, and by the internal control systems of the Municipal Executive Branch, as set forth in the law.

1. Outside control of the City Council is exercised with the assistance of the Audit Courts of the State or Municipality or of the Audit Councils or Courts of the Municipalities, whenever existing.

2. The prior opinion, issued by the proper agency, on the accounts to be rendered by the Mayor annually, shall only not prevail by a decision of two thirds of the members of the City Council.

3. The accounts of the Municipalities remain each year available to any taxpayer for sixty days, for examination and evaluation, and any taxpayer may question their legitimacy according to the law.

4. The creation of new Municipal Audit Courts, Councils, or agencies is forbidden after the promulgation of this Constitution.



Article 32: The Federal District Government

The Federal District, which may not be divided into Municipalities, is governed by an organic law, voted in two rounds with a minimum interval of ten days, and approved by two thirds of the Legislative House, which enact it, complying with the principles established in this Constitution.

1. The legislative jurisdiction reserved to the States and Municipalities is attributed to the Federal District.

2. The election of the Governor and of the Vice Governor, with due regard for the provisions of Article 77, and of the District Representatives shall coincide with that of the State Governors and Representatives, for a term of office of the same duration.

3. The provisions of Article 27 apply to the District Representatives and to the Legislative Assembly.

4. A federal law shall provide for the use, by the Government of the Federal District, of the civil and military police and of the military fire brigade.


Article 33: The Territories of the Republic

The law provides for the administrative and judicial organization of the Territories.

1. The Territories may be divided into Municipalities, which shall be subject, when applicable, to the provisions of Chapter IV of this Title.

2. The accounts of the Government of a Territory are submitted to Congress, with the prior opinion of the Audit Tribunal of the Union.

3. In Federal Territories with over one hundred thousand inhabitants, besides the Governor appointed according to this Constitution, there shall be judicial bodies of first and second instances, members of the Attorney General's Office, and federal public defenders; the law shall provide for the elections of the Territory House and its decision making authority.


Article 34: Federal Intervention on States and Federal District

The Republic may not intervene in the States or in the Federal District, except to:

I. a maintain national integrity;

II. fight back a foreign invasion or invasion of one unit of the Federation in another;

III. put an end to a serious jeopardy to public order;

IV. guarantee the free exercise of any of the Branches in the units of the Federation;

V. reorganize the finances of a unit of the Federation which:

• suspends payment of a consolidated debt for more than two consecutive years, except in the event of force majeure;
• fails to deliver to the Municipalities tax revenues established in this Constitution, within the periods of time established by law;

VI. provide for the enforcement of a federal law, court order, or decision;

VII. ensure compliance with the following constitutional principles:

• republican form, representative system, and democratic regime;
• the rights of the individual;
• municipal autonomy;
• rendering of accounts of the direct and indirect government administration.

Article 35: Intervention in a Municipality

The State may not intervene in its Municipalities, and neither the Republic in the Municipalities located in a Federal Territory, unless:

I. the consolidated debt is not paid for two consecutive years, except for reasons of force majeure;

II. the proper accounts are not rendered, according to the law;

III. the minimum required amount of municipal revenues has not been applied in the maintenance and development of education;

IV. the Court of Appeals grants a petition to ensure compliance with principles indicated in the State Constitution or for enforcement of a law, court order or decision.

Article 36: Rules of Procedure

A decree of intervention shall depend:

I. in the event of Article 34 IV, on a request from the coerced or impeded Legislative or Executive, or in a requisition from the Federal Supreme Court, if the coercion is exerted against the Judiciary;

II. in the event of a court order or decision, on a requisition from the Federal Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Appeals, or the Superior Electoral Court;

III. on the Federal Supreme Court granting a petition from the Attorney General of the Republic, in the event of Article 34 VII;

IV. on the Superior Court of Appeals granting a petition from the Attorney General of the Republic, in the case of refusal to enforce a federal law.

• The decree of intervention, which shall specify the extent, the period and the conditions of enforcement and which, if applicable, shall appoint the intervenor, shall be submitted to review by Congress or the State Legislative Assembly within twenty four hours.
• If Congress or the Legislative Assembly are not in session, an extraordinary session shall be called within the same twenty four hours.
• In the events of Article 34 VI and VII, or of Article 35 VI, upon waiver of review by Congress or by the Legislative Assembly, the decree shall be limited to staying execution of the challenged act, if such measure is sufficient to restore normality.
• When the reasons for the intervention cease, the authorities removed from their offices shall return to them, unless there is a legal impediment.

Article 37: General Basis

The direct or indirect government administration of any of the Branches of the Republic of the States, of the Federal District and of the Municipalities, as well as any of their foundations, shall obey the principles of lawfulness, impersonality,morality, publicity, and also the following:

I. Public offices, positions, and functions are accessible to Brazilians who satisfy the requirements established by law;

II. investiture in a public office or position depends on prior approval in a public competitive examination of tests or of tests and titles, except for appointment to a commission office declared by law to be free for appointment and discharge;

III. the period validity of a public examination is up to two years, extendable once for a like period;

IV. during the unextendable period set forth in the public call notice, a person approved in a public competitive examination of tests or of tests and titles shall be called, with priority over new approved applicants, to assume an office or position in the career;

V. commission offices and bonafide functions are exercised preferentially, by civil servants holding a technical or professional career office, in the events and on the conditions set forth in the law;

VI. civil servants are assured of the right to free union association;

VII. the right to strike is exercised under the terms and within the limits defined in a supplemental law;

VIII. the law reserves a percentage of public offices and positions for handicapped persons and defines the criteria for hiring them;

IX. the law establishes the cases of hiring a given person for a period of time in order to attend to a temporary need of exceptional public interest;

X. general review of the compensation of government employees, without distinction of indices between civil and military servants, shall always take place on the same date;

XI. the law establishes the maximum limit and proportion between the highest and lowest compensation of government employees, observing, as maximum limits and within the sphere of respective authority, the amounts received as any kind of compensation, in legal tender, by members of Congress, Ministers of State, and Justices of the Federal Supreme Court and the corresponding offices in the States, Federal District, and Territories, and, in the Municipalities, the amounts received as compensation, in legal tender, by the Mayor;

XII. the compensation for the offices of the Legislative and of the Judiciary may not be higher than the compensation paid for the Executives;

XIII. it is forbidden to link or equalize salaries, for purposes of compensating personnel in the public service, excepting the provisions of the preceding item and of Article 39 1.;

XIV. pecuniary raises received by a government employee is not computed or accumulated, for purposes of granting subsequent raises, on the same account or on an identical basis;

XV. the salaries of civil and military servants are irreducible and their compensation shall comply with the provisions of Articles 37 XI, XII, 150 II, 153 III, and 153 2. I;

XVI. remunerated accumulation of public offices is forbidden, except, when the working hours are compatible:

• of two positions of teacher;
• of one position of teacher with another technical or scientific position;
• of two exclusively medical positions;

XVII. the accumulating prohibition extends to positions and functions and includes autonomous governments entities, public companies, mixed capital companies, and foundations maintained by the Government;

XVIII. the financial administration and its fiscal servants shall, within their spheres of authority and jurisdiction, enjoy precedence over the other administration sectors, as set forth in the law;

XIX. a public company, a mixed capital company, an autonomous government entity or a public foundation may only be organized through a specific law;

XX. the organization of subsidiaries of the entities mentioned in the preceding item requires legislative authorization in each case, as also participation by any of them in a private company;

XXI. except for the cases specified in the law, public works, services, purchases, and disposals shall be contracted by public bidding, ensuring equal conditions to all bidders, with clauses that establish payment obligations, maintaining the effective conditions of the bid, according to the law, which shall only allow requirement of technical and economic qualifications essential to secure performance of the obligations.

• The publicity of government agencies acts, programs, public works, services, and campaigns shall be of an educational, informative, or social orientation character, and may not include names, symbols, or images representing personal promotion of government authorities or employees.
• Non compliance with the provisions of items II and III results in nullity of the act and punishment of the responsible authority, according to the law.
• Complaints relating to the rendering of public services are regulated by law.
• Acts of administrative dishonesty result in suspension of political rights, loss of public office, prohibition to transfer personal property an reimbursement to the Public Treasury, in the manner and grading set forth in the law, without prejudice to the applicable criminal action.
• The law establishes the statute of limitations for unlawful acts performed by any agent, whether or not a civil servant, which cause losses to the Public Treasury, regardless of the respective claims for reimbursement.
• Public entities and private entities rendering public services are liable for the damages caused to third parties, by their agents, in such capacity, ensuring the right of recourse against the liable agent in cases of intent or fault.

Article 38: Servants and Representatives

The following provisions apply to a civil servant exercising an elective office:

I. in the case of a federal, state, or district elective office, he shall leave his office, position of function;

II. if vested in the office of Mayor, he is removed from the office, position, or function, and he may opt for the respective compensation;

III. if vested in the office of City Councilman, and if the working hours are compatible, he receives the benefits of his office, position, or function, without prejudice to compensation for the elective office, and, if there is no such compatibility, the provisions of the preceding item apply;

IV. in any case requiring leave of absence for the exercise of an elective office, his period of service is counted for all legal purposes, except for promotion by merit;

V. for purposes of social security benefits, in the case of leave of absence, the amounts are determined as if he were in activity.
Section II Civil Servants

Article 39: Civil Servants Regime

The Republic, the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities institute, within their jurisdiction, a sole juridical regime and career plans for the servants of the direct government administration, of autonomous government entities, and of public foundations.

1. The law ensures, to direct administration servants, equal salaries for offices with equal or similar duties in the same Branch or between servants of the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary Branches, except for individual advantages and those relative to work nature or location.

2. The provisions of Article 7 IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXII, XXIII, and XXX apply to the servants.

Article 40: Retirement

A civil servant goes into retirement:

I. for permanent disability, the pension being full when such disability results from a work accident, a professional disease or a serious, contagious or incurable illness, as specified by law, and being proportional in all other cases;

II. compulsorily, at seventy years of age, with a pension proportional to the period of service;

III. voluntarily:

• upon thirty-five years of service, if a man, and upon thirty years, if a woman, with full pay;
• upon thirty years of actual teaching activity, if a man, and twenty-five, if a woman, with full pay;
• upon thirty years of service, if a man, and upon twenty-five, if a woman, with pay in proportion to this period;
• at sixty-five years of age, if a man, and at sixty, if a woman, with pay proportional to the period of service.

1. A supplemental law may establish exceptions to the provisions of item II a. and c), in the case of work considered hard, unhealthy, or dangerous.

2. The law shall provide for retirement in temporary offices or positions.

3. The period of federal, state, or municipal government service is computed in full for purposes of retirement and of disengagement.

4. Retirement pension are reviewed, in the same proportion and on the same date, whenever there is a change in the compensation of servants in activity, and any benefits or advantages subsequently granted to servants in activity shall also be extended to retires, including those resulting from transformation or reclassification of the office or function from which they retired, as set forth in the law.

5. The benefit of pension for death has to correspond to the full amount of compensation or earnings of the deceased servant, up to the limit established by law, with due regard for the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

6. The retirement and pension benefits of the federal civil servants shall be financed by resources originating from the Union and from the contributions of the civil servants, under the terms of the law.

Article 41: Tenure

Servants appointed by virtue of a public examination acquire tenure after two years of actual service.

1. A tenured civil servant only loses his or her office by virtue of a final and unappealable court decision or by means of administrative proceedings in which he or she is assured of full defense.

2. If the dismissal of a tenured servant is voided by a court decision, he or she has to be reinstated and any holder of the vacancy to be taken back to the original office without the right to indemnity, placed in another office or disengaged.

3. Upon extinction of an office or declaration of its redundancy, a tenured servant shall remain on paid disengagement until his or her adequate placement in another office.


Article 42: Military Servants

Members of the Armed Forces are federal military servicemen, and those of the state troops and of the military fire brigades are military servicemen of the respective States, of Territories and of the Federal District.

1. The ranks, with the prerogatives, rights, and duties inherent to them, are ensured fully to the officers in active service, those of the reserve or in retirement, of the Armed Forces, of the state troops and of the military fire brigade of the States, Territories and Federal District, and they have exclusive rights to military titles, posts and uniforms.

2. he ranks of officers of the Armed Forces are awarded by the President of the Republic and those of officers of the state troops and military fire brigades of the States, Territories, and Federal District, by their respective Governors.

3. A member of the Armed Forces in active service is transferred to the reserve if he accepts a permanent civil public office.

4. A member of the Armed Forces in active service who accepts a temporary public office, position, or function, which is not elective, even in the indirect administration, shall be put on leave, and, as long as he remains in this situation, he may only be promoted through seniority, and his period of service shall be counted only for that promotion and for transfer to the reserve, and, after two years away from active service, whether continuous or not, he shall be retired.

5. Servicemen are forbidden to join trade unions and to strike.

6. While in actual service, a servicemen may not belong to political parties.

7. An officer of the Armed Forces only loses his post and rank if he is judged unworthy of or incompatible with the dignity of being an officer, by decision of a permanent military court, in times of peace, or of a special martial court, in times of war.

8. An officer sentenced through a final and unappealable judgement in a common or military court to imprisonment for more than two years, is submitted to the trial set forth in the preceding paragraph.

9. The provisions in Article 40 (4), (5), and 6. apply to the servicemen referred to in this article and to their pensioners.

10, The provisions of Article 40 4. and 5. apply to the servicemen referred to in this article and to their pensioners.

11. The provisions of Article 7 VIII, XII, XVII, XVIII, and XIX apply to the servicemen referred to in this article.


Article 43: Administrative Regions of the Republic

For administrative purposes, the Republic may coordinate its action in one same social and geo economic complex, seeking to achieve its development and to reduce regional differences.

1. A supplemental law provides for:

1. the conditions for the integration of developing regions;
2. the composition of the regional organizations which shall carry out, as set forth in the law, the regional plans included in the national economic and social development plans and approved together with same.

2. Regional incentives include, besides others, as set forth in the law:

1. equal tariffs, freight, insurance, and other cost and price items which are the responsibility of the Government;
2. favoured interest rates for financing of priority activities;
3. exemptions, reductions, or temporary deferment of federal taxes due by individuals or by legal entities;
4. priority in the economic and social use of rivers and dammed or damnable water masses in low income regions subject to periodical droughts.

3. In the areas referred to in Paragraph 2. IV, the Republic shall grant incentives for the recovery of arid lands and shall cooperate with small and medium sized rural owners in implementing water sources and small scale irrigation in their tracts of land.