TITLE II. OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOM
SUB-TITLE I. OF THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Article 8
The human person is sacred and has the right to life.
The State has the obligation to respect it and to protect it.
Each citizen has the right to the full development [épanouissement] of his person within respect for the rights of others, of the public order, of ethics [morales] and of morals [bonne mÏurs].
The penalty of death is abolished.
Article 9
The freedom of the human person is inviolable. No one may be arbitrarily accused, arrested or detained.
Any accused is presumed innocent until his culpability has been established following a just and equitable process guaranteeing the rights of defense.
The rights of the victim are equally guaranteed.
Article 10
Save in the case of loss or of forfeiture of nationality, no Congolese citizen may be extradited, or delivered to a foreign power or organization, for whatever motive that may be.
The State has the duty to provide assistance to all Congolese citizens prosecuted before a foreign or international jurisdiction.
Article 11
All arrested persons are informed of the motif of their arrest and of their rights in a language that they comprehend.
All acts of torture, all cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments are prohibited.
The judicial power, guardian of the individual freedoms, assures the respect for this principle within the conditions established by the law.
Article 12
War crimes, crimes against humanity, [and] the crime of genocide, are punished within the conditions determined by the law. They are imprescriptible.
Article 13
Any propaganda or any incitement to ethnic hatred, to insurrection, to violence or to civil war constitutes a crime punished by the law.
Article 14
Any individual, any agent of the State, any agent of the local collectivities, any public authority who would be rendered culpable [se render coupable] of acts of torture or of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, either on his own initiative, or under instructions, is punished according to the law.
Article 15
All Congolese citizens are equal before the law and have right to the protection of the State.
None may be favored or disadvantaged by virtue of their family origin, ethnic [origin], of their social condition, of their political, religious, philosophical, or other convictions.
Article 16
The law guarantees and assures the promotion and the protection of the rights of the autochthonous Peoples.
Article 17
The woman has the same rights as the man.
The law guarantees parity and assures the promotion as well as the representativeness of women in all political, elective and administrative functions.
Article 18
Any citizen has the right, in any place, to the recognition of his juridical personality.
Article 19
Congolese citizenship is guaranteed by the law. Any Congolese has the right to change nationality or to acquire a second [one].
Article 20
The domicile is inviolable.
Search may only be ordered within the forms and the conditions specified by the law.
Article 21
The right of asylum is granted to foreign nationals [ressortisants] within the conditions determined by the law.
Article 22
Any citizen has the right to circulate freely on all of the national territory.
He has the right to freely exit the national territory and to return to it, except of this freedom is made the object of restriction by [the] judicial or administrative way [voie].
Article 23
The rights of property and of succession are guaranteed.
No one may be deprived of their property except for cause of public utility, [and] subject [moyennant] to a just and prior indemnification, within the conditions specified by the law.
Article 24
The freedoms of belief and of conscience are guaranteed.
The use of religion for political ends is prohibited.
Any manipulation, any forced recruitment [embrigadement] of conscience, any constraints [sujetions] of any nature imposed by any religious, philosophical, political and sectarian fanaticism are prohibited and punished by the law.
Article 25
Any citizen has the right to express and to freely diffuse his opinion by words [par la parole], writing, images or by any other means of communication.
The freedom of information and communication is guaranteed. It is exercised within respect for the law.
Censorship is prohibited.
The access to the sources of information is free and protected within the conditions determined by the law.
Article 26
The secrecy of correspondence, of telecommunications or of any other form of communication may not be violated, except in the cases and the conditions provided for by the law.
Article 27
The State recognizes and guarantees, within the conditions established by law, the freedoms of association, of assembly, of procession and of manifestation.
Article 28
The right to culture and to the respect for the cultural identity of each citizen is guaranteed.
The exercise of this right must not cause prejudice [porter préjudice], to the public order, or to others and to the national unity.
Article 29
The State assures the fulfillment of youth. Under this title, it guarantees notably:
- the right to education [education] and the equal access to education [enseignement] and to training [formation];
obligatory school attendance [scolarité] until the age of sixteen (16) years.
Article 30
The State recognizes to all citizens the right to work and creates the conditions which render its enjoyment effective.
Article 31
The aged persons and persons living with handicap have the right to measures of protection in relation to their physical, moral or other needs, in view of their full development [épanouissement] within the conditions determined by the law.
The State has the duty to promote the presence of the person living with [an] handicap within the national and local institutions and administrations.
Article 32
With the exception of the Magistrates and of the agents of the public force, the syndical freedoms and the right to strike within the conditions established by the law.
Article 33
No one may be compelled [astreint] to forced labor, except in the case of a penalty deprivative of liberty pronounced by a jurisdiction legally established.
No one may be submitted to slavery.
Article 34
Every person has the right to rest and to leisure, notably to a limitation of the duration of work and to periodic vacations [congés] as well as to the remuneration of the holidays within the conditions established by the law.
Article 35
Every citizen has the right to the protection of moral and material interests deriving from any scientific, literary or artistic work of which he is the author.
The sequestration, the seizure, the confiscation, the interdiction of all or [a] part of any publication, of any recording or of other means of information or of communication may only be done by virtue of a decision of justice.
Article 36
The State is the guarantor of the public health.
The State guarantees the right to create private socio-sanitary establishments [établissements socio-sanitaires] within the conditions established by the law.
Article 37
The State has the obligation to assist the family in its mission as guardian of the morality and of the values compatible with the republican order.
The rights of the mother and of the child are guaranteed.
Article 38
Marriage and family are under the protection of the law.
All the children born within marriage or outside the marriage have[,] concerning their parents[,] the same rights and duties.
They enjoy the same protection in terms of the law.
Parents have concerning their children born within the marriage or outside of marriage[,] the same obligations and the same duties.
Article 39
Every child, without discrimination, has right, on the part of his family, of society and of the State, to measures of protection that their condition requires.
Article 40
The State has the obligation to protect children and adolescents against economical or social exploitation.
Work by children of less than sixteen (16) years is prohibited.
Article 41
Every citizen has the right to a healthy, satisfying and durable environment and has the duty of defending it.
The State sees to the protection and the conservation of the environment.
Article 42
The conditions of storage, of handling, of incineration and of disposal of toxic wastes, pollutants or radioactive [materials] originating from factories and other industrial or artisan sites installed on the national territory, are established by the law.
All pollution or destruction resulting from an economical activity gives rise to compensation.
The law determines the nature of the compensatory measures and the modalities of their execution.
Article 43
The transit, the importation, the storage, landfill, [and] dumping in the continental waters and the maritime spaces under national jurisdiction, the expanding in the airspace of toxic wastes, pollutants, radioactive [matter] or of any other dangerous product, originating or not from abroad, constitute crimes punished by the law.
Article 44
Any act, any agreement, any convention, any administrative arrangement or any other act, which has as [a] consequence to deprive the Nation of all or part of its own means of existence deriving [tirés] from its natural resources or from its wealth, is considered as an crime of pillage and punished by the law.
Article 45
The acts referred to [visés] in the preceding Article, as well as attempts of them, whatever the modalities may be, if they are the act of a constituted authority, are, accordingly to the case, punished as a crime of pillage or as [an] act of breach of duty [forfaiture].
Article 46
Every citizen has the right to present requests to the appropriate organs of the State.
Article 47
Every citizen who suffers [subit] a prejudice by an act of the administration has the right to take action [agir] in justice, within the forms determined by the law.
Article 48
Every person has the right, within the respect for the law, to engage in activity [entreprendre] in the sectors of his choice.
Article 49
Any foreigners regularly established on the national territory benefits from the same rights and freedoms as nationals, within the conditions determined by the treaties and the laws, under reserve of reciprocity.
SUB-TITLE II. OF THE DUTIES
Article 50
Every citizen has the duty to comply with the Constitution, to the laws and regulations of the Republic and of fulfilling [s’acquitter] their obligations towards the State and society.
Article 51
Every citizen has the duty of respecting the rights and freedoms of the other citizens and of safeguarding the security and the public order.
They work [Ïuvre] for the promotion of tolerance and of dialogue in relations with others.
They have the obligation of preserving the national interest, the social order, the peace and the national coherence.
Every act or every manifestation of an ethnic, racist or xenophobic character is punished by the law.
Article 52
Every foreigner regularly established in the territory of the Republic of Congo is subject to the obligations enounced in Articles 50 and 51.
Article 53
The assets of the State are sacred.
The assets of the public domain are inalienable, non-transferable, imprescriptible and cannot be seized. Every citizen must respect them and protect them.
The law establishes the conditions for the alienation of public assets, in the general interest.
Article 54
Any act of sabotage, of vandalism or of embezzlement [dilapidation] of the public monies [deniers] is prohibited and reprimanded within the conditions provided for by the law.
Article 55
Every citizen, elected or appointed to a high public function, is required to declare his patrimony when taking his functions and at the cessation of them, in accordance with the law.
The law determines the functions subject to the obligation indicated above as well as the modalities of [the] declaration of patrimony.
Article 56
Every citizen elected or appointed to a public function has the duty to exercise it without discrimination.
