Constitution of Ecuador

Ecuador’s Constitution was approved in 2008 in a national referendum. After a decade long period of political instability, President Alfredo Palacio, the seventh President in nine years, called in 2005 for a popular consultation on the installation of a National Constituent Assembly to amend the 1998 Constitution. This attempt to amend the previous Constitution was not approved by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. However, this gave way for the following President, Rafael Correa, to establish a new constitutional framework. A Constituent Assembly was established in 2007; it drafted the current Constitution and got internal approval of it by July 2008. In September 2008, the draft constitution was approved in national referendum by a majority of 63.93%. A key feature in this Constitution’s text is its recognition of the value of nature, the Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), because we are part of nature and it is vital to our existence. The Constitution’s article 414 establishes that the State shall take a series of measures to tackle climate change, including protecting the population at risk. The article textually establishes the following: “The State shall adopt adequate and cross-cutting measures for the mitigation of climate change, by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and air pollution; it shall take measures for the conservation of the forests and vegetation; and it shall protect the population at risk”.