Constitution of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (1975, rev. 2003), Articles 24 and 25 (Private life; inviolability of correspondence and telecommunications)

The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (originally 1975, substantially revised in 1990 and by Law No. 1/2003) follows the Lusophone constitutional tradition and contains comparatively detailed personal-rights guarantees. Article 24 protects the right to personal identity and to private life and intimacy; Article 25 protects the inviolability of the home and of correspondence, and provides that evidence obtained through abusive intrusion into private life, the home, correspondence or telecommunications is null. The express reference to 'telecommunications' gives Article 25 a communications-technology dimension extending to electronic communications, and these guarantees form the constitutional backdrop to Law No. 3/2016 on the protection of personal data (and Decree-Law No. 4/2017) and to the Cybercrime Law (Law No. 15/2017). The Lusophone model in comparable States (for example Cabo Verde) includes an express 'use of informatics / data protection' article; on the available text, São Tomé's Constitution protects telecommunications and correspondence but does not contain a distinct internet- or data-processing-specific clause, and there is no constitutional case law applying these articles to the digital environment. This entry is therefore recorded in line with the Library's established practice of capturing the constitutional privacy-and-expression layer for each jurisdiction; the basis and the exact article numbering are flagged for the reviewer. Original language: Portuguese.

1. 1Article 24, right to personal identity, private life and intimacy
2. 2Article 25, inviolability of the home and of correspondence; nullity of evidence obtained through abusive intrusion into private life, the home, correspondence or telecommunications
3. 3'Telecommunications' reference gives a communications-technology dimension
4. 4Constitutional backdrop to Law 3/2016 (data protection) and Law 15/2017 (cybercrime)
5. 5No distinct internet/data-processing clause on the available text; included per the Library's cross-jurisdiction practice (flagged for reviewer)