CONSTITUTION OF MOZAMBIQUE Approved and enacted on 2 November 1990 PREAMBLE At zero hours on 25 June 1975, the Central Committee of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) solemnly proclaimed the total and complete independence of Mozambique and its establishment as the People's Republic of Mozambique. This was the culmination of a centuries long process of resistance to colonial rule. It was the unforgettable victory of the armed national liberation struggle, led by FRELIMO, which united, under the same ideals of freedom, unity, justice and progress, patriots from all levels of Mozambican society. The Constitution, as then proclaimed, recognized the determinant role of FRELIMO as the legitimate representative of the Mozambican people. Under its leadership, the process of the exercise of state power as an expression of the people's will was begun. The State that we created has made it possible for the Mozambican people to strengthen democracy and, for the first time in its history, to exercise political power and to organize and direct social and economic affairs at a national level. The experience of the operation of State institutions and the exercise of democracy by citizens has created the need for change and new definitions. After 15 years of independence, the Mozambican people, in the exercise of their inalienable right to sovereignty and determined to consolidate the nation's unity and to respect the dignity of all Mozambicans, adopts and proclaims this Constitution, which shall be the fundamental law for all political and social organization in the Republic of Mozambique. The fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution are the achievements of the Mozambican people's struggle to build a society of social justice, where the equality of citizens and the rule of law are the pillars of democracy. We, the Mozambican people, determined to strengthen our country's political order, in a spirit of responsibility and pluralism of opinion, have decided to organize society in such a way that the will of the citizens shall be the most important precept of our sovereignty. PART IBASIC PRINCIPLES CHAPTER 1THE REPUBLIC Article 1 The Republic of Mozambique is an independent, sovereign, unitary and democratic state of social justice. Article 2 1. Sovereignty is vested in the people. 2. The Mozambican people shall exercise their sovereignty in the manner provided for in the Constitution. Article 3 1. The territory of the Republic of Mozambique is unitary, indivisible and inalienable, comprising the entire land surface, territorial waters and air space delimited by the national boundaries. 2. The breadth, limits and legal order of Mozambique's territorial waters, the exclusive economic zone, the contiguous zone and seabed rights shall be fixed by law. Article 4 1