Article 374

The Political Constitution of Colombia may be amended by Congress, a Constituent Assembly, or by the people through a referendum.

Article 375

The government, 10 members of the Congress, 20 percent of councilor or deputies, or citizens totaling at least five percent of the electoral rolls in force, may introduce legislative Acts.

The legislative act must be approved it two ordinary and consecutive periods. Following approval in the first period by the majority of those present, the proposal will be published by the government. In the second period, approval will require the vote of the majority of the members of each chamber. In this second period only measures presented in the first period may be discussed.

Article 376

By means of a law approved by the members of both chambers, Congress may stipulate that the people decide by popular vote if a Constituent Assembly should be called with the jurisdiction, term, and members determined by that same law. An affirmative vote of the people will convoke the Assembly, when they represent at least one-third of the electoral rolls.

The Assembly must be elected by a direct vote of the citizens, which may not occur concurrently with another election. During the election, the ordinary powers of Congress to amend the Constitution are suspended during the term stipulated so that the Assembly may perform its functions. The Assembly will adopt its own by jaws.

Article 377

Constitutional amendments approved by Congress must be submitted to a referendum when they involve the rights recognized in Chapter 1 of Title II and their guarantees, the procedures of popular participation, or Congress, if such referendum is requested within the six months subsequent to the promulgation of the legislative act, by five percent of the citizens who make up the electoral rolls. The amendment is defeated by a negative vote of the majority of the voters as long as at least one-fourth of those on the electoral rolls participate in the balloting.

Article 378

Upon the initiative of the government or the citizens under the terms of Article 155, the Congress, through a law which requires the approval of the majority of the members of both chambers, may call a referendum on a bill of constitutional reform which Congress would also include in the law.

The referendum will be presented in such a manner that the voters may select from the agenda of the various items those on which they wish to vote favorably and those they, which they wish to defeat. The approval of constitutional reforms by means of a referendum requires the affirmative vote of over half the voters and the number of these must exceed one-fourth of the total number of citizens included in the electoral rolls.

Article 379

Legislative acts, the referendum, the popular consultation, or the act of convocation of the Constituent Assembly may be declared unconstitutional only when the requirements established under this title have been violated. Public measures against these acts may be taken only within one year following their promulgation with due regard to the provisions in Article 241, paragraph No. 2.

Article 380

The previous Constitution in force, as amended, is hereby repealed. This present Constitution is effective from the day of its promulgation.



Article 1

General elections of the Congress of the Republic must be called for October 27, 1991.

The Congress thus elected will have a term that concludes on July 19, 1994. The Registry Office of Civil Status will open a registration period of citizen rolls for citizenship identification cards.

Provisional Article 2

Full-fledged delegates of the Constituent Assembly or present Cabinet ministers may not be candidates in said election. Neither may functionaries of the executive branch who did not resign their position before June 14, 1991.

Provisional Article 3

Pending the installation on December 1, 1991, of the new Congress, the present Congress and its committees will take a recess and may not exercise any of their powers through their own initiative nor through convocation by the President of the Republic.

Provisional Article 4

The Congress elected on October 27, 1991, will hold ordinary sessions as follows:

From December 1 to 20, 1991, and from January 14 to June 26, 1992. Beginning on July 20, 1992, its schedule of sessions will be the one prescribed in this Constitution.

Provisional Article 5

The President of the Republic is endowed with specific extraordinary powers in order to do the following:

1. Issue the regulations that organize the Office of the General Prosecutor and the regulations of criminal procedures;
2. Regulate the right of citizens to exercise protective legal action;
3. Take the necessary administrative measures for the functioning of the Constitutional Court and the Superior Council of the Judicature;
4. Issue the general national budget to be in effect in 1992;
5. Issue temporary regulations to relieve congestion in judicial agencies.

Provisional Article 6

A Special Commission of 36 members elected using electoral quotient by the National Constituent Assembly, half of who may be delegates that will meet between July 15 and October 4, 1991, and between November 18, 1991 and the day of the installation of the new Congress, will be established. The election is to be lie Id at a session convened for this purpose on July 4, 1991. This Special Commission will have the following powers:

1. Total or partial veto power over proposed bills which the national government, in exercise of the extraordinary powers conferred on the President of the Republic by the above article and other provisions of the present Constituent Act, with the exception of those relating to appointments, may request, to be exercised by a majority of its members. The vetoed articles may not be decreed by the government;
2. Prepare proposed bills which it considers appropriate to implement the Constitution. The Special Commission may present said bills so that they may be debated and approved by the Congress of the Republic.
3. Regulate its operations. Paragraph. Should the Special Committee not approve prior to December 15, 1991, the proposed budget for fiscal year 1992, that of the previous year will apply, but the government may reduce expenditures and consequently eliminate or merge positions when the calculations of revenues of the new fiscal year make this desirable.

Provisional Article 7

The President of the Republic will designate a representative of the government before the Special Commission, who will take part in discussion and initiate actions.

Provisional Article 8

The decrees issued in exercise of the powers of martial law up to the time of the promulgation of the present Constituent Act will continue to be in effect for a maximum period of 90 days during which the national government may convert them into permanent legislation by means of a decree if the Special Commission does not veto them.

Provisional Article 9

The extraordinary powers for which no determinate period of exercise is stipulated, will expire 15 days following the definitive termination of the Special Commission's functions.

Provisional Article 10

The decrees which the government may issue in the exercise of the powers granted by the articles above will have the force of the law and verification of their constitutional validity will be the responsibility of the Constitutional Court.

Provisional Article 11

The extraordinary powers referred to in Provisional Article 6 will terminate on the day when the Congress elected on October 27, 1991, is installed.
On the same date, the Special Commission created by Provisional Article 6 will also terminate its functions.

Provisional Article 12

With the purpose of facilitating the reintegration into civilian life of the guerilla groups that are definitely involved in the peace process under the government's direction, the latter may establish, for one time only, special peace districts for elections to public bodies that will take place on October 27, 1991, or appoint directly for one time only, a number of congressmen in each chamber to represent the said groups in a process of peace and demobilization.

The number will be established by the national government on the basis of the evaluation that it makes of the circumstances and the progress of the process.

The individual senators and representatives to whom this article refers will be identified by the government and the guerrilla groups, and their appointment will be the responsibility of the President of the Republic. For the effects contemplated in this article, the government may disregard the specific disabilities and requirements necessary for one to qualify as a congressman.

Provisional Article 13

Within the three years following the entering into effect of this Constitution, the government may issue the provisions necessary to facilitate the reintegration of demobilized guerrilla groups who may be involved in a peace process under government direction; to improve the economic and social conditions of the regions where the guerrilla groups were present; and to provide organization and municipal jurisdiction to the territorial entity, including public services and the operation and integration of the collective municipal bodies in said regions.

The national government will present periodic reports to the Congress of the Republic concerning the implementation and development of this article.

Provisional Article 14

Through the legislature that is converted on December 1, 1991, the National Congress, the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Representatives will issue their respective bylaws. Should they not do so, the Council of State will issue them within the subsequent three months.

Provisional Article 15

The first election of the Vice President of the Republic will be held in the year 1994. In the meantime, to fill the absolute or temporary absence of the President of the Republic, the previous system of a designate will be retained. For that purpose, once the term of the incumbent elected in 1990 expires, the Congress in plenary session will elect a new designate for the period from 1992 to 1994.

Provisional Article 16

Except in the cases stipulated in the Constitution, the first popular election of governors will be held on October 27, 1991. The governors elected on that date will take possession of their office on January 2, 1992.

Provisional Article 17

The first popular election of governors in the departments of Amazonas, Guaviare, Guainfa, Vaup�s and Vichada will be held in 1997 at the latest. The law may set an earlier date. In the meantime, the governors of the aforementioned departments will be appointed and may be removed by the President of the Republic.

Provisional Article 18.

Until the law establishes the regime of disabilities for governors, in the elections of October 27, 1991, the following may not be elected as governor:

1. Those who at any time may have been condemned by judicial sentence to imprisonment, except for political crimes or crimes of strict liability.
2. Those who within the six months prior to the election may have exercised as public employees political, civil, administrative, or military jurisdiction or authority at the national level or in the respective department.
3. Those who are involved through marriage or kinship within the third level of consanguinity, affinity two ranks removed, or civil one rank removed, with anyone registered as a candidate for Congress of the Republic in the same election.
4. Those who within the six months prior to the election were involved it, the management of affairs or in the signing of contracts with public entities on their own behalf or on behalf of third parties. The prohibition established in paragraph No. 2 of this article does not apply to members of the National Constituent Assembly.

Provisional Article 19

The mayors, councilor, and deputies elected in 1992 will exercise their functions until December 31, 1994.


Provisional Article 20

For a period of 18 months beginning is of the entry into effect of this Constitution and taking into account the evaluation and recommendations of a commission made up of three experts in public administration or administrative law appointed by the Council of State, three members appointed by the national government, and one member representing the Colombian Federation of Municipalities, the national government will eliminate, merge, or restructure the entities of the executive branch, public institutions, industrial and commercial enterprises, and joint (public/ private) companies of national scope with the purpose of harmonizing them with the mandates of the present constitutional reform, especially regarding the redistribution of the jurisdictions and resources that it establishes.

Provisional Article 21

The legal regulations flowing from the principles stated in Article 125 of the Constitution will be issued by Congress in the year subsequent to its entering into effect.

 If in this period Congress does not issue them, the President of the Republic has the power to issue them within three months. Once the legal regulations that bear on professional matters are issued, the appointers of public servants will apply them within six months.

 Noncompliance with the terms stipulated in the clause above will constitute a misdemeanor. Pending the issue of the regulations to which this article refers, those which currently apply to the subject matter will continue to be in effect provided they do not violate the Constitution.


Provisional Article 22

Provided the law does not set another number, the first Constitutional Court will be made up of seven judges who will be elected for a period of one year as follows two by the President of the Republic; one by the Supreme Court of Justice; one by the Council of State; and one by the National Attorney General.

The judges so elected will designate the other two from lists presented by the President of the Republic. The election of the judges by the Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of State, the President of the Republic, and the National Attorney General must be done within five days following the entry of this Constitution into effect. Non-fulfillment of this duty will constitute a misdemeanor. Should the election not be held by any of the organs mentioned within the stated deadline, it will be held by the remaining duly elected judges.

Paragraph 1. The members of the Constituent Assembly are not eligible to be designated as judges of the Constitutional Court by means of this extraordinary procedure.

Paragraph 2. The disability established in Article 240 for ministers and judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State is not applicable for the immediate formation of the Constitutional Court prescribed by this article.

Provisional Article 23

The President of the Republic is vested with extraordinary powers so that within the two months following the promulgation of the Constitution, he/she will decree the court procedures and formalities for the Constitutional Court.

 At any time the Congress may repeal or modify the regulations established in this manner. Pending the issuing of the decree mentioned in the first clause, the functioning of the Constitutional Court and the procedure and expediting of the matters under its responsibility will be subject to the regulations stipulated in Decree 432 of 1969.

Provisional Article 24

Public actions of unconstitutionality filed before June 1, 1991, will continue to be heard and must be adjudicated by the Supreme Court of Justice within the deadlines stipulated in Decree 432 of 1969. Actions which may have been filed after the above-cited date must be referred to the Constitutional Court in the state in which they happen to be.

Once all the cases are decided by the Supreme Court of Justice in accordance with the first clause of the present article, its Constitutional Chamber will cease exercising its functions.

Provisional Article 25

The President of the Republic will appoint for the first and only time the members of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Superior Council of the Judicature.

The Administrative Chamber will be formed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph No. 2, Article 254, of the Constitution.

Provisional Article 26

The cases that are currently underway in the Disciplinary Tribunal will continue to be heard without interruption by the judges of that body, and the Disciplinary Chamber of the Superior Council of the Judicature will take cognizance of them once it is convened.

Provisional Article 27

The Office of the General Prosecutor will begin functioning when the special decrees organizing it and those that establish the new criminal procedures are issued, by virtue of the powers granted by the National Constituent Assembly to the President of the Republic. The respective decrees may, however, provide that jurisdiction over the various judicial instances should be assigned gradually as conditions allow, without going beyond June 30, 1992, except for the municipal criminal judges, whose introduction may be postponed for up to four years beginning with the issuing of this reform, according to the determination of the Superior Council of the Judicature and the General Prosecutor.

The current district attorneys' offices of the higher courts, criminal circuit, higher customs courts, and those of public order will be transferred to the office of the Attorney General of the Nation.

The other district attorneys' offices will be integrated into the organic structure and the personnel of the Office of the National Attorney General.

The National Attorney General will stipulate the designation, functions, and seats of these public servants and may designate those already occupying said offices, retaining their system of compensation and benefits.

The Office of the Criminal Attorney General Delegate will continue within the structure of the Office of the National Attorney General. The following will also be under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation the national directorate and sectional directorates of criminal investigation, the technical branch of the criminal police, and the criminal investigative magistrates of the ordinary courts of the public and criminal customs divisions.

The National Directorate of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice, with its sectional subdivisions, will be integrated into the Office of the Attorney General as a public institution.

Provisional Article 28

Pending the issuing of the law which will assign jurisdiction to the judicial authorities, over the actions punishable by arrest by the police authorities, the police authorities will continue to exercise their jurisdiction over these activities.

Provisional Article 29

The regulations that prohibit the reelection of the judges of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Council of State will apply only to those elections that take place after the promulgation of the present reform.

Provisional Article 30

The national government is authorized to grant pardons, commutations, or amnesties for political and similar crimes committed prior to the promulgation of the present Constituent Act to members of guerrilla groups that return to civilian life within the context of the policy of reconciliation.

To this effect, the national government will issue the appropriate regulations. This benefit may not apply to heinous crimes or to homicides committed outside of combat or to those exploiting the vulnerable state of the victims.


Provisional Article 31

One month following the installation of the Congress on October 27, 1991, the Council of State will elect the members of the National Electoral Council in proportion to the representation obtained by the parties and political movements in the Congress of the Republic. The National Electoral Council will remain in office and exercise its functions until September 1, 1994.

Provisional Article 32

Pending the formation of the National Electoral Council according to the Constitution, the composition of this organ will be expanded by four members designated by the Council of State from lists presented by the parties and political movements which are not represented in it proportionate to the results of the elections held on December 9, 1990, granting two to the majority list and one to each of the lists not represented, in descending order of the voting results. Such appointments must be made before July 15, 1991.

Provisional Article 33

The term of the present National Registrar of Civil Status will terminate on September 30, 1994. The term of the National Registrar of Civil Status to whom this Constitution refers will run from October 1, 1994.

Provisional Article 34

The President of the Republic, within no more than eight days from the promulgation of this Constitution, will designate, for a period of three years, a citizen whose function will be to prevent routinely or upon the petition of another the use of resources originating from the public treasury or from outside in the electoral campaigns held within the deadline indicated, except when the financing of the electoral campaigns is done in accordance with the Constitution or the law.

To this effect, the said citizen will have the right to request and obtain the cooperation of the Office of the National Attorney General, of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, of all the public entities which exercise control and supervisory powers, and of those organs which exercise criminal judicial police functions.

 The President of the Republic will regulate this arrangement and will provide the designated citizen all the necessary administrative and financial support.

Provisional Article 35.

The National Electoral Council will automatically recognize the legal status of those parties and political movements represented in the National Constituent Assembly which request it from the Council.


Provisional Article 36

The present Comptroller General of the Republic and National Attorney General will continue to exercise their responsibilities until such time as the Congress, elected for the constitutional period 1994-1998, arranges the new election that must be held within the first 30 days following its installation.

Provisional Article 37

The first Ombudsman will be selected by the National Attorney General from a list originating from the President of the Republic within 30 days at the most.


Provisional Article 38

The government will organize and create, within six months, a Commission of Territorial Planning entrusted with carrying out studies and formulating before the competent authorities the recommendations that it considers appropriate to modify the country's territorial divisions in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

The Commission will perform its functions during a period of three years, though the law may assign to it a permanent character. In such a case, the same law will determine the deadlines within which the Commission is to present its proposals.

Provisional Article 39

The President of the Republic will be vested with specific extraordinary powers for a period of three months in order to issue decrees with the force of law which will ensure the organization and the functioning of new departments created in the Constitution. In exercise of these powers the government may abolish the national institutions entrusted with the administration of former intendancies and police districts and assign to the territorial entities the national resources with the government deems appropriate.

Provisional Article 40

Municipalities created by the departmental assemblies prior to December 31, 1990 are valid.

Provisional Article 41

If during the two years following the date of promulgation of this Constitution, Congress does not issue the law with which articles 322, 323 and 324 refer concerning a special regime for the Capital District of Santafde Bogot, the government, on one occasion only, may issue the appropriate regulations.

Provisional Article 42
Pending the issuing by Congress of the laws referred to in Article 310 of the Constitution, the government will adopt by decree the regulations necessary to control population density of the archipelago Department of San Andrs, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, for the purposes expressed in the same article.


Provisional Article 43

In order to finance the functioning of new institutions and to attend to the obligations flowing from the constitutional reform that have not been offset by the reduction of expenditures or transfer of responsibilities, Congress may on one occasion only prescribe tax adjustments whose revenue is to be assigned exclusively to the nation.

If within a period of 18 months, starting from the beginning of the installation of Congress, the latter has not passed such tax adjustments and it is evident that the administration's efforts to make tax collection more efficient and to reduce public expenditure at the national level have been insufficient to cover the new outlays, the national government may, on one occasion only, through a decree having the force of law, make said adjustments.

Provisional Article 44

The fiscal situation for the year 1992 will not be worse, as expressed in constant pesos, than that of 1991.

Provisional Article 45

The districts and municipalities will collect as a minimum during the fiscal year of 1992 the shares of the IVA (Value Added Tax) established by Law No. 12 of 1986. Beginning in 1993, the provisions in Article 357 of the Constitution will enter into effect concerning the share of the municipalities in the nations current revenues.

However, the law will establish a gradual and progressive transition schedule beginning in 1993 for a period of three years, at the end of which the new criteria of distribution stipulated in Article 357 of the Constitution will enter into effect. During the transition period the value received by the districts and municipalities in terms of revenue sharing will in no case be inferior to the amount collected in 1992, as expressed in constant pesos.

Provisional Article 46

The national government will place into operation, for a period of five years, a solidarity and social emergency fund under the jurisdiction of the Office of the-President of the Republic. The fund will finance assistance projects for the most vulnerable sectors of the Colombian population. The fund must additionally seek resources from national and international sources.

Provisional Article 47

The law will organize for the regions affected by extreme violence a social emergency security plan for a period of three years.

Provisional Article 48

Within the three months following the installation of the Congress of the Republic, the government will present bills relative to the legal regime of public services; the determination of jurisdictions and general criteria that will regulate the provision of public domestic services as well as their financing and rate schedule; also, the schedule of participation of representatives of municipalities involved and of users in the management and funding of the state enterprises that provide the services, as well as matters relating to the protection, duties, and rights of the former and to the general policies of administration and efficiency control of the public domestic services.

If at the conclusion of the two subsequent legislatures the appropriate laws have not been issued, the President of the Republic will put the bills into effect through decrees with the force of law.

Provisional Article 49

In the first legislature following the entry into effect of this Constitution, the government will present to Congress the bills referred to in Articles 150, paragraph No. 19, letter (d), Article 189, paragraph No. 24, and Article 335, relating to financial activities, the stock exchange, insurance, and any other activities connected with the management, application, and investment of resources collected from the public.

If at the end of the two subsequent ordinary legislative sessions, Congress has not promulgated them, the President of the Republic will promulgate the bills through decrees having the force of law.

Provisional Article 50

Pending the issuance of the general provisions which the government must follow to regulate financial activities, the stock exchange, insurance, and any other activities connected with the management, application, and investment of resources collected from the public, the President of the Republic will intervene in these activities, under his own constitutional authority.

Provisional Article 51

Pending the issuance of the appropriate laws, the new executive board of the Bank of the Republic to be provisionally appointed by the President of the Republic within the month following the entry into force of this Constitution, will assume the functions which are currently performed by the Monetary Board and which will be executed as provided in the Constitution.

The law will determine the entities to which development funds administered by the Bank are transferred. In the meantime, the Bank will continue exercising this function.

 The government will present to Congress, in the month following its installation, the bill relating to the exercise of the functions of the Bank and the regulations on the basis of which the government will issue its ordinances in accordance with Article 372 of the Constitution.

Provisional Article 52

As of the entry into force of this Constitution, the National Evaluation Committee will have the status of superintendence. The national government will prescribe what is necessary for the outfitting of the said institution appropriate to its new character, without prejudice to what the government may prescribe in implementation of what is established in Provisional Article 20.

Provisional Article 53

The government will make the administrative decisions and will effect the budgetary transfers necessary to ensure the normal functioning of the Constitutional Court.


Provisional Article 54

For all constitutional and legal applications, the results of the National Population and Housing Census of October 15, 1985, will be applicable.

Provisional Article 55

Within the two years following the entry into effect of the present Constitution, Congress will issue, following a study by a special commission that the government will create for that purpose, a law which will recognize the right to collective property of the Black communities which occupy uncultivated lands in the rural zones adjoining the rivers of the Pacific Basin, in accordance with their traditional cultivation practices.

This law will apply to the area stipulated therein. In the special commission referred to in the previous clause, representatives elected by the communities involved will participate in each case. The property thus recognized will only be transferable within the limits stipulated by the law.

The same law will establish mechanisms to protect the cultural identity and the rights of these communities and to foster their economic and social development.

Paragraph 1.
The provisions in the present article may be applied to other zones of the country that have similar conditions through the same procedure and following, a study and the favorable decision of the special commission prescribed here.

Paragraph 2.
If at the conclusion of the deadline stipulated in this article the Congress has not issued the law stipulated above, the government will proceed to do so through a decree having the force of law.

Provisional Article 56

Pending the issuing of the law referred to in Article 329, the government may prescribe the necessary fiscal regulations and other matters relating to the functioning of the indigenous (Indian) territories and their coordination with the other territorial entities.

Provisional Article 57

The government will form a commission made up of representatives of the government, labor unions, economic associations, and casual workers so that within a period of 180 days from the entry into force of this Constitution, the commission may draft a proposal elaborating regulations on social security. This proposal will serve as a basis for the preparation of bills by the government that it presents on the issue to Congress.

Provisional Article 58

The national government will be authorized to ratify negotiated treaties or agreements that have been approved by at least one of the chambers of the Congress of the Republic.

Provisional Article 59

The present Constitution and the other acts promulgated by this Constituent Assembly are not subject to any kind of legal review whatever. Provisional Article The Special Commission created by Provisional Article 38 will also sit between November 1 and 30, 1991, at which date it will cease functioning.

Note:  Reference here is made to Provisional Article 38 of the Codification Commission or to number 6 of the Constitution.