TITLE II. OF HUMAN RIGHTS, OF FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS AND OF THE DUTIES OF THE CITIZEN AND OF THE STATE
Chapter 1. Of Civil and Political Rights
Article 11
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. However, the enjoyment of political rights is recognized to Congolese only, save for the exceptions established by the law.
Article 12
All Congolese are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection of the laws.
Article 13
No Congolese person may, in matters of education or of access to public functions or any other matter, be subject to a discriminatory measure, that results from the law or from an act of the executive, for reason of his religion, of his family origin, of his social condition, of his residence, of his opinion or political convictions, or his belonging to a certain race, to an ethnicity, to a tribe, [or] to a cultural or linguistic minority.
Article 14
The public powers see to the elimination of any form of discrimination concerning women and assure the protection and the promotion of their rights.
They take, in all the domains, notably in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural domains, all the measures appropriate to assure the total realization and full participation of women in the development of the Nation.
They take measures to struggle against all forms of violence made against women in public and in private life.
Women have the right to an equitable representation within the national, provincial and local institutions. The State guarantees the implementation of man-woman parity in these said institutions.
The law establishes the modalities of application of these rights.
Article 15
The public powers see to the elimination of sexual violence.
Without prejudice to international treaties and agreements, any sexual violence made against any person, with the intention to destabilize, [or] to dislocate a family and to make a whole people disappear is established as a crime against humanity punishable by the law.
Article 16
The human person is sacred. The State has the obligation to respect it and to protect it.
All persons have the right to life, to physical integrity as well as to the free development of their personality, under respect for the law, of public order, of the rights of others and of public morality.
No one may be held in slavery or in an analagous condition.
No one may be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
No one may be subjected to forced or compulsory labor.
Article 17
Individual liberty is guaranteed. It is the rule[;] detention the exception.
One may only be prosecuted, arrested, detained or sentenced by virtue of a law and in the form that it specifies.
No one may be prosecuted for an act or an omission which did not constitute an infraction at the time it was committed and at the time of the prosecution.
No one may be sentenced for an act or an omission which did not constitute an infraction of the law at the time it was committed and at the time of the sentencing.
One may not be inflicted with a punishment harsher than that applicable at the time the infraction was committed.
The punishment ceases to be executed when[,] by virtue of a law subsequent to the judgment:
- it is suppressed;
- the act for which it was declared no longer has the character [of an] infraction.
In the case of reduction of the punishment by virtue of a law subsequent to the judgment, the punishment is executed in accordance with the new law.
Criminal responsibility is individual. No one may be prosecuted, arrested, detained or sentenced for an act of others.
Any person accused of an infraction of the law is presumed innocent until his culpability has been established by a definitive judgment.
Article 18
Any arrested person must be immediately informed of the reasons for his arrest and of any accusation made against him, in the language which he understands.
He must be immediately informed of his rights.
A detained person has the right to enter immediately in contact with his family or with his counsel.
Detention may not exceed forty-eight hours. At the expiration of this period, the person detained must be released or placed at the disposition of the competent judicial authority.
Any detainee must benefit from a treatment which preserves his life, his physical and mental health as well as his dignity.
Article 19
No person may be relocated or transferred against the will of the judge that the law assigns to him.
All persons have the right that their case will be heard within a reasonable time by the competent judge.
The right to defense is organized and guaranteed.
All persons have the right to defend themselves or to be assisted by a defender of their choice, at all stages of the criminal procedure, and including the police inquiry and the investigation before trial.
They may be assisted equally before the security services.
Article 20
The audiences of the courts and tribunals are public unless this publicity is judged dangerous for public order or morality. In this case, the tribunal orders closed [audiences].
Article 21
All judgments are written and substantiated. They are pronounced in a public audiences.
The right to recourse against a judgment is guaranteed to all. It is exercised within the conditions established by the law.
Article 22
All persons have the right to freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion.
All persons have the right to manifest their religion or their convictions, alone or as a group, both in public and in private, by worship, teaching, practices, the accomplishment of rites and the state of religious life, under reserve of respect for the law, for public order, for morality and for the rights of others.
The law establishes the modalities for the exercise of these freedoms.
Article 23
All persons have the right to freedom of expression.
This right implies the freedom to express their opinions or their convictions, notably by speech, print and pictures, under reserve of respect for the law, for public order and for morality.
Article 24
All persons have the right to information.
The freedom of the press, the freedom of information and of broadcasting by radio and television, the written press or any other means of communication are guaranteed, under reserve of respect for the law, for public order, for morals and for the rights of others.
The law determines the modalities of exercise of these freedoms.
The audiovisual and written media of the State are public services the access to which is guaranteed in an equitable manner to all the political and social movements. The status of the media of the State is established by the law which guarantees the objectivity, the impartiality and the pluralism of opinion in the treatment and diffusion of information.
Article 25
The freedom of meetings[,] peaceful and without arms[,] is guaranteed under reserve of respect for the law, for public order and for morality.
Article 26
The freedom of demonstration is guaranteed.
All demonstrations on public roads or in [the] open air require the organizers to inform the competent administrative authority in writing.
No one may be forced to take part in a demonstration.
The law determines the measures of application.
Article 27
All Congolese have the right to address, individually or collectively, a petition to the public authority which responds to it within three months.
No one may be made the subject of discrimination, in any form that may be, for having taken such an initiative.
Article 28
No one is required to execute a manifestly illegal order. Every individual, every State agent is relieved from the duty to obey, when an order received constitutes a manifest infringement of the respect of the rights of man and of the public freedoms and of morality.
The proof of the manifest illegality of the order is incumbent on the person who refuses to execute it.
Article 29
The domicile is inviolable. Entry or searches may only be effected in the forms and the conditions specified by the law.
Article 30
All persons who are on the national territory have the right to circulate freely in it, to establish their residence in it, to leave it and to return to it, under the conditions established by the law.
No Congolese may be expelled from the territory of the Republic, or forced into exile, or forced to live outside his habitual residence.
Article 31
All persons have the right to the respect of their private life and to the secrecy of their correspondence, of telecommunications and of any other form of communication. This right may only be infringed in the cases specified by the law.
Article 32
All foreigners who find themselves legally on the national territory enjoy the protection granted to persons and to their assets under the conditions determined by the treaties and the laws.
They are required to conform to the laws and regulations of the Republic.
Article 33
The right to asylum is recognized.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo grants, under reserve of national security, asylum on its territory to foreign nationals, prosecuted or persecuted, notably, for their opinion, their belief, their racial, tribal, ethnic, linguistic affiliation or for their action in favor of democracy and for the defense of the Rights of Man and of Peoples, in accordance with the laws and regulations in force.
It is forbidden that any person regularly in enjoyment of the rights of asylum undertake any subversive activity against their country of origin or against any other country, from the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Refugees may neither be remitted to the authority of the State where they are prosecuted nor sent back to the territory of the latter.
In no case may a person be turned over to the territory of a State in which they risk torture, [or] cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment or treatment.
The law establishes the modalities of the exercise of this right.
Chapter 2. Of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Article 34
Private property is sacred.
The State guarantees the right to individual or collective property, acquired in conformity to the law or to custom.
It encourages and sees to the security of private investments, national and foreign.
One may only be deprived of his property for reasons of public utility and in return for a just and prior indemnity conceded under the conditions established by the law.
One may only have their assets seized by virtue of a decision taken by competent judicial authority.
Article 35
The State guarantees the right to private initiative to both nationals and to foreigners.
It encourages the exercise of small commerce, of art and of artisanship by the Congolese and sees to the protection and to the promotion of national expertise and competences.
The law establishes the modalities of exercise of this right.
Article 36
Work is a sacred right and duty for each Congolese.
The State guarantees the right to work, protection against unemployment and an equitable and satisfactory remuneration, assuring the worker as well as his family of an existence in accordance with human dignity, together with all the other means of social protection, notably retirement pension[s] and life annuities.
No one may discriminated against [leser] in their work because of their origin, their sex, their opinions, their beliefs or their socio-economic condition.
All Congolese have the right and the duty to contribute through their work to the national construction and prosperity.
The law establishes the status of workers and regulates the particulars concerning the juridical regime of the professional orders and the exercise of professions which require a scholastic or academic qualification.
The internal structures and the functioning of the professional orders must be democratic.
Article 37
The State guarantees the freedom of association.
The public powers collaborate with the associations which contribute to the social, economic, intellectual, moral and spiritual development of the population and to the education of the citizens [masculine] and the citizens [feminine]
This collaboration may take the form of a subsidy.
The law establishes the modalities of the exercise of this freedom.
Article 38
The syndical right is recognized and is guaranteed.
All Congolese have the right to found trade unions or to affiliate with them freely, under the conditions established by the law.
Article 39
The right to strike is recognized and guaranteed.
It is exercised under the conditions specified by the law which can forbid it or limit its exercise in the domains of national defense and of security or for any [public] activity or public service of vital interest for the Nation.
Article 40
Each individual has the right to marry with the person of their choice, of the opposite sex, and to establish a family.
The family, the basic unit of the human community, is organized in a manner to assure its unity, its stability and its protection. It is placed under the protection of the public powers.
The care and the education to be given to the children constitute, for the parents, a natural right and a duty which they exercise under the surveillance [and] with the aid of the public powers.
The children have the duty to assist their parents.
The law establishes the rules concerning marriage and the organization of the family.
Article 41
Every person, without distinction of sex, who is not more than 18 years of age, is a minor.
All minors have the right to know the names of their father and of their mother.
They have, equally, the right to enjoy the protection of their family, of society and of the public powers.
The abandonment and maltreatment of children, notably pedophilia, sexual abuse as well as the accusation of witchcraft, are prohibited and punishable by law.
The parents have the duty to take care of their children and to assure them of their protection against any act of violence both inside and outside their home.
The public powers have the obligation to assure protection to children in a difficult situation and to bring, to justice, the authors and their accomplices of acts of violence concerning children.
All others forms of exploitation of minors are punished by the law.
Article 42
The public powers have the obligation to protect youth against any infringement of their health, of their education or of their integral development.
Article 43
All persons have the right to a scholastic education. It is provided by national education.
National education consists of public establishments and approved private establishments.
The law establishes the conditions of creation and of functioning of these establishments.
The parents have the right to choose the mode of education to be given to their children.
Primary education is obligatory and free in the public establishments.
Article 44
The eradication of illiteracy is a national duty [for] the realization of which the Government must elaborate a specific program.
Article 45
Education is free.
It is nevertheless subject to the supervision of the public powers, under the conditions established by the law.
All persons have access to establishments of national education, without discrimination of place of origin, of race, of religion, of sex, of political or philosophical opinions, of their physical, mental or sensorial state in accordance with their capacities.
The national education establishments shall assure, in cooperation with the religious authorities, to their minor pupils[,] and having parents demanding it[,] an education conforming to their religious convictions.
The public authorities have the duty to promote and to assure, through teaching, education and diffusion, the respect of the rights of man, of the fundamental freedoms and of the duties of the citizens provided by this Constitution.
The public powers have the duty to assure the diffusion and the teaching of the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, the African Charter of the Rights of Man and of Peoples, as well as all the duly ratified regional and international conventions concerning the rights of man and to international humanitarian law.
The State has the obligation to integrate the rights of the human person into all the training programs of the armed forces, of the police and of the security services.
The law determines the conditions of application of this article.
Article 46
The right to culture, to freedom of intellectual and artistic creation, and that of scientific and technological research are guaranteed, under reserve of respect for the law, for public order and for morality.
Copyrights and intellectual property [rights] are guaranteed and protected by the law.
The State takes into account, in carrying out its tasks, of the cultural diversity of the country.
It protects the national cultural patrimony and assures its promotion.
Article 47
The right to health and to [a] secure food supply is guaranteed.
The law specifies the fundamental principles and the rules of organization for public health and [a] secure food supply.
Article 48
The right to decent housing, the right of access to drinking water and to electric energy are guaranteed. The law establishes the modalities of the exercise of these rights.
Article 49
The elderly person and the handicapped person have the right to specific measures of protection concerning their physical, intellectual and moral needs.
The State has the duty to promote the presence of handicapped persons within national, provincial and local institutions.
An organic law determines the modalities of application of this right.
Chapter 3. Of Collective Rights
Article 50
The State protects the legitimate rights and interests of Congolese who are both inside and outside the country.
Under reserve of reciprocity, any foreigner who finds himself legally on the national territory enjoys the same rights and freedoms as a Congolese, the political rights excepted.
They benefit from the protection granted to persons and their assets under the conditions determined by the treaties and the laws.
They are required to conform to the laws and regulations of the Republic.
Article 51
The State has the duty to assure and to promote the peaceful and harmonious coexistence of all the ethnic groups of the country.
It assures equally the protection and the promotion of vulnerable groups and of all minorities.
It sees to their development.
Article 52
All Congolese have the right to peace and to security, both on the national as well as on the international level [plan].
No individual or group of individuals may use a part of the national territory as a base of operation for subversive or terrorist activities against the Congolese State or any other State.
Article 53
All persons have the right to a healthy environment and [one] propitious for their integral development.
They have the duty to defend it.
The State sees to the protection of the environment and the health of the population.
Article 54
The conditions for the construction of industrial plants, of facilities for storage, for the handling, the incineration and for the removal of toxic, polluting or radioactive waste produced by industrial units or workshops established on the national territory are established by the law.
Any pollution or destruction resulting from an economic activity gives rise to compensation and/or to reparation.
The law determines the nature of the compensatory measures and reparatory [measures] as well as the modalities of their execution.
Article 55
The transportation, the importation, the storage, the spilling [or] the disposal in the internal waters or maritime spaces under national jurisdiction, [or] the release into the airspace[,] of toxic, polluting or radioactive waste or of any other dangerous product, of foreign origin [provenance] or not, constitutes a crime punishable by the law.
Article 56
Any act, any agreement, any convention, any arrangement or any other act which has the consequence of depriving the Nation [or] physical or moral persons of all or part of their means of existence drawn from their natural resources or their wealth, is established, without prejudice to the international provisions on economic crimes, as the crime of pillage punishable by the law.
Article 57
The acts referred to in the preceding article as well as the attempt of them, whatever their modalities may be, if they are acts of a person invested with public authority[,] are punishable as infractions of high treason.
Article 58
All Congolese have the right to enjoy the national wealth.
The State has the duty to redistribute it equitably and to guarantee the right to development.
Article 59
All Congolese have the right to enjoy the common patrimony of humanity. The State has the duty to facilitate the enjoyment of it.
Article 60
The respect of the rights of man and of the fundamental freedoms consecrated in the Constitution is imposed on the public powers and on every person.
Article 61
In no case, even when the state of siege or the state of urgency has been proclaimed in accordance with Articles 85 and 86 of this Constitution, can there be derogation of the rights and fundamental principles enumerated as follows:
- the right to life;
- the prohibition of torture and of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments or treatment;
- the prohibition of slavery and of servitude;
- the principle of the legality of infractions and of penalties;
- the right to [a] defense and the right to recourse;
- the prohibition of imprisonment for debts;
- the freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion.
Chapter 4. Of the Duties of the Citizen
Article 62
There is no excuse of ignorance of the law.
All persons are required to respect the Constitution and to comply with the laws of the Republic.
Article 63
All Congolese have the sacred right and duty to defend the country and its territorial integrity in the face of an external threat or aggression.
Obligatory military service can be instituted under the conditions determined by the law.
All national, provincial, local and customary authorities have the duty to safeguard the unity of the Republic and the integrity of its territory, under penalty of high treason.
Article 64
All Congolese have the duty to oppose any individual or group of individuals who seize power by force or who exercise it in violation of the provisions of this Constitution.
Any attempt to overthrow the constitutional regime imprescriptibly constitutes an infraction against the Nation and the State. It is punished in accordance with the law.
Article 65
All Congolese are held to loyally fulfill their obligations concerning the State. They have, likewise, the duty to pay their taxes and duties.
Article 66
All Congolese have the duty to respect and to treat their fellow citizens without any discrimination and to maintain relations with them that permit the safeguarding, the promotion, and the strengthening of the national unity, and of reciprocal respect and tolerance.
They have, in addition, the duty to preserve and to reinforce the national solidarity, singularly when it is threatened.
Article 67
All Congolese have the duty to protect the public property, assets and interests and to respect the property of others.
