- 4.-No titles of nobility or hereditary distinctions shall be recognized.
Article 22: The recitation of rights and guarantees contained in
this Constitution and in international instruments concerning human
rights are not to be understood as negating others inherent to individuals, not expressly mentioned in such recitation. The absence of a law
regulating these rights shall not adversely affect the exercise thereof.
Article 23: The treaties, pacts and conventions relating human
rights which have been executed and ratified by Venezuela have a
constitutional rank, and prevail over internal legislation, insofar as
they contain provisions concerning the enjoyment and exercise of
such rights that are more favorable than those established by this
Constitution arid the laws of the Republic, and shall be immediately
and directly applied by the courts and other organs of the Public
Power.
Article 24: No legislative provision shall have retroactive effect,
except where it imposes a lesser penalty. Procedural laws shall apply
from the moment they go into effect, even to proceedings already in
progress; however, in criminal proceedings, evidence already admit
ted shall be weighed in accordance with the laws that were in effect
when the evidence was admitted, insofar as this benefits the defendant.
When there are doubts as to the rule of law that is to be applied, the most beneficial to the defendant will prevail.
Article 25: Any act on the part of the Public Power that violates or
encroaches upon the rights guaranteed by this Constitution and by law
is null and void, and the public employees* ordering or implementing
the same shall incur criminal, civil and administrative liability, as
applicable in each case, with no defense on grounds of having followed the orders of a superior.
