PREAMBLE
Unity, Work, Progress, Justice, Dignity, Liberty, Peace, Prosperity, and Love for the Fatherland have been since independence, notably under mono-partyism, hypothesized or retarded by totalitarianism, the confusion of authorities, nepotism, ethnocentrism, regionalism, social inequalities, and violations of fundamental rights and liberties. Intolerance and political violence have strongly grieved the country, maintained and accrued the hate and divisions between the different communities that constitute the Congolese Nation.
The coup d'etat has inscribed itself in the political history of the Congo as the only means to accede to power and to annihilate the hopes of a truly democratic life.
Consequently, We, the Congolese People, concerned to:
· create a new political order, a decentralized State where morality, law, liberty, pluralist democracy, equality, social justice, fraternity, and the general well-being rein;
· preserve the sacred character of the human person;
· assure to the individual and the family the conditions necessary for their harmonious development;
· guarantee the participation of everyone in the life of the Nation;
· preserve our unity within cultural diversity;
· promote a rational exploitation of our riches and our natural resources;
· dispose of ourselves freely and to reaffirm our independence;
· cooperate with all peoples who share our ideals of peace, liberty, justice, human solidarity, on the basis of principles of equality, reciprocal interest and mutual respect, sovereignty, and territorial integrity;
· contribute to world peace as a member of the United Nations Organization and the Organization for African Unity; and
· to strive for the creation of large sub-regional economic groupings;
order and establish for the Congo the present Constitution which enunciates the fundamental principles of the Republic, defines the rights and duties of individuals, fixes the form of Government according to the principle of separation of powers; declare as an integral part of the present Constitution the principles proclaimed and guaranteed by the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1981 African Charter of the Rights of Man and Peoples and all duly ratified pertinent international texts, relative to the Right of Man, the Charter of National Unity, and the Charter of the Rights and Liberties adopted by the Sovereign National Conference on 29 May 1991; and
proclaim:
· the duty of the State to assure the diffusion and the instruction of the Constitution, of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of the 1981 African Charter of the Rights of Man and Peoples, of the Charter of National Unity and the Charter of the Rights and Liberties adopted by the Sovereign National Conference on 29 May 1991, the right of any citizen to seat the Constitutional Counsel for the purpose of annulment of any law or any act contrary to the present Constitution;
· the obligation of all the organs of the State to apply the dispositions of the present Constitution and make them respected;
· the right and obligation of every citizen to resist by civil disobedience upon the default of other resources, no matter what enterprise to overthrow the constitutional regime, to take power by a coup d'etat or exercise in a tyrannical manner.
TITLE II. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
Article 10
1. The human person is sacred and has the right to life.
2. The State shall have the absolute obligation to respect and protect him. Every citizen shall have the right to the free development and the full flowering of his person in his psychological, intellectual, spiritual, material, and social dimensions in respect of the rights of others, public order, and good mores.
Article 11
1. The State shall assure the equality of all citizens before the law, without discrimination of origin, social or material situation, racial, ethnic and regional origin, sex, instruction, language, attitude vis-avis religion and philosophy, or place of residence. It shall respect all the rights and liberties within limits compatible with public order and good mores.
2. The State shall have the duty to strive for the elimination of any form of discrimination with regard to women and to assure the protection of their rights in all domains of private and public life such as stipulated in the international Declarations and Conventions ratified by the Congo.
3. Any act which accords privileges to nationals or limits their rights by reason of the considerations targeted in Paragraph (1) shall be punished by the penalties provided for by law.
Article 12
The liberty of the human person is inviolable. One shall be accused, arrested, or detained only in the cases determined by law and according to the forms which it prescribes. Every accused shall be presumed innocent until his guilt shall be established at the end of a procedure offering him the guaranties of a defense.
Article 13
No one shall be incarcerated except in the cases provided by law.
Article 14
Under reserve of the provisions provided by the present Constitution and for a scrupulous respect for the human person, every exceptional use of judicial power shall be banished.
Article 15
The law shall only establish penalties strictly and evidently necessary, and one shall only be punished in virtue of a law established and promulgated anterior to the infraction and equally applied.
Article 16
Any act of torture, any cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment shall be prohibited. Anyone found guilty of the acts enunciated in the present article, shall be punished according to the law.
Article 17
Any citizen may oppose the execution of an order received when it touches the rights and liberties contained in the present Constitution.
Article 18
Each citizen shall have the right to introduce a written demand to the appropriate organ of the State.
Article 19
Any citizen subjected to a prejudice by an act of the administration shall have the right to judicial recourse.
Article 20
Each citizen shall have the right in any place to the recognition of his juridical personality.
Article 21
Every Congolese shall have the right to Congolese citizenship. Neither it nor his right to change nationality shall be arbitrarily taken from him.
Article 22
1. Every citizen shall possess the right to freely circulate on the national territory.
2. He shall only be hindered by road blocks in conditions determined by law.
3. Every citizen shall have the right to freely choose his place of residence. He shall have the right to freely leave the national territory, if he is not the object of judicial proceedings, and to return thereto.
Article 23
Searches, in all forms, shall be authorized only in conditions determined by law.
Article 24
The home is inviolable. Searches shall only be ordered in the forms and conditions prescribed by law.
Article 25
Each citizen shall have the right to create a party, syndicate, associations, or to adhere to them.
Article 26
1. Freedom of belief and conscience and the freedom of either a religious or philosophical profession are inviolable.
2. The free exercise of religious sects shall be guaranteed within the limits compatible with public order and good mores.
3. No one shall be relieved from fulfilling a civic duty because of religious opinion.
Article 27
1. Every citizen shall have the right to freely express and diffuse his opinion by speech, by writing, and by image.
2. Freedom of the press and freedom of information shall be guaranteed
3. Censure shall be prohibited.
4. Access to sources of information shall be free.
5. Every citizen shall have the right to information and communication. Activities relative to these domains shall be exercised in total independence in respect of the law.
Article 28
Secrety of letters, correspondence, telecommunications, or any other form of communication shall not be violated except in the case prescribed by law.
Article 29
1. All citizens shall have the right to peacefully assemble, without previous authorization or declaration.
2. Peaceful assemblies and manifestations in the public shall be regulated.
3. Freedom to have a parade shall be guaranteed.
4. The law shall determine the conditions of its use.
Article 30
1. Property and the right to succession shall be guaranteed. Transfer and expropriation shall only be allowed under the condition of a just and prior indemnification.
2. In case of contestation, the proprietor shall be responsible for seating the competent tribunals.
Article 31
1. Work is a sacred right and duty . The State shall guarantee the freedom to work. Every citizen shall have the right to be compensated according to his work and his capacity. For the same work, a woman shall have the right to the same salary as a man.
2. Any discrimination based on race, sex, physical state, regional and ethnic origin, ideology, religion, or philosophy shall be prohibited.
3. Except for the agents of the Public Force, Congolese citizens shall possess the freedom to unionize and to strike. No one shall be submitted to forced labor, except in the case of a liberty-depriving sentence pronounced by a tribunal. No one shall be reduced to slavery.
Article 32
Every person shall have the right to enterprise in the economic sectors of his choice in respect of the laws and regulations.
Article 33
Every person shall have the right to rest and leisure notably to a legal limitation to the duration of work and periodic paid vacations as well as remuneration for holidays.
Article 34
1. The State is the guarantor of public health. Every citizen shall have the right to a level of life sufficient to assure his health, his well-being and that of his family, notably food, clothing, shelter, medical care as well as necessary social services.
2. The right to create private socio-sanitation establishments shall be guaranteed. Socio-sanitation establishments shall be submitted to the approval of the state and regulated by law
3. Aged or handicapped persons shall have the right to specific measures of protection coinciding with their physical and moral needs.
Article 35
1. Citizens shall possess a right to culture and to the respect of their cultural identity. All the communities composing the Congolese Nation shall possess the freedom to use their languages and their own culture without prejudicing those of others.
2. The State shall have the duty to safeguard and promote the national values of civilization, such spiritual materials as well as cultural traditions.
Article 36
The freedom of intellectual, artistic, scientific, and technological creation shall be guaranteed to each citizen. Intellectual property shall be protected by law. The sequestration, seizure, confiscation, interdiction, and destruction of all or part of any publication, entry, or any other manner of information and communication shall only be performed in virtue of a judicial decision.
Article 37
1. Every person shall have the right to education. All instruction shall be placed under the surveillance and control of the State. The State shall strive for equal access to education and professional instruction.
2. Public instruction shall be free. Fundamental instruction shall be obligatory.
3. Scholarship shall be obligatory until the age of sixteen years.
4. The right to create private schools shall be guaranteed. Private school shall be submitted to the approval of the State and regulated by law.
Article 38
1. The State shall have the obligation to assist the family in its mission as guardian of the morality and traditional values recognized by the community.
2. The State shall have the duty to assure the protection of the Rights of the mother and infant as stipulated in the International Declarations and Conventions.
Article 39
1. Marriage and the family shall be under the protection of the State. The law shall fix the juridical conditions of marriage and the family.
2. Legal marriage shall only be contracted before the organs of the State. It shall only be concluded with the free and clear consent of the future spouses.
Article 40
1. Parents shall have rights and responsibilities regarding their children. Children shall have rights and duties toward their parents.
2. Children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall have the same rights .
Article 41
1. Children shall only be separated from their family, which shall be responsible for their education, in virtue of the law.
2. The mother and the child shall have the right to aid and assistance of the State.
Article 42
1. Every child, without a single discrimination based on race, color, sex, language, religion, national, social or ethnic origin, fortune or birth, shall have the right, on the part of his family, society, and the State to measures of protection which stem from his condition as a minor.
2. Every child shall be declared to the Civil State after his birth within a time period fixed by law and have a name.
3. Every child shall have the right to acquire a nationality.
Article 43
1. The State shall protect all children and adolescents from economic and social exploitation.
2. Child labor of those under 16 years shall be prohibited.
Article 44
The act of employing those under 18 years of age in those occupations of a nature compromising their morality or their health putting their lives in danger or hindering their normal development shall be sanctioned by law.
Article 45
The law shall sanction insufficiencies of parents in the matter of education and the protection of their children.
Article 46
Each citizen shall have the right to a healthy, satisfactory, and enduring environment and the duty to defend it. The State shall strive for the protection and the conservation of the environment.
Article 47
1. Storing, manipulating, incinerating, and discharging toxic, polluting or radio-active wastes originating in factories and other industrial or artisan units installed on the national territory shall be regulated by law.
2. All pollution resulting from an economic activity shall give compensation for the benefit of the populations of the exploited zones.
3. The law shall determine the nature of compensatory measures and the forms of their execution.
Article 48
1. The transport, importation, storage, concealment, dumping, in the continental waters and maritime space under the national jurisdiction and including the exclusive economic zone, and dispersal in the airspace, of toxic, polluting, or radioactive wastes or any other dangerous product of a foreign origin shall constitute a crime punishable by law.
2. Any accord relative to these domains shall be prohibited.
Article 49
War crimes, political crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide shall be imprescriptible.
Article 50
The State shall guarantee the rights of minorities.
Article 51
1. The State shall accord the right of asylum on his territory to foreign exiles persecuted by reason of their action in favor of democracy, the fight for national liberation, or the fight against racism and apartheid, the freedom of scientific and cultural work, and for the defense of Human Rights and the Rights of Peoples conforming to laws and regulations in force.
2. Immigration shall be submitted to the law.
Article 52
Foreigners shall possess on the territory of the Republic of the Congo, the same rights and liberties as Congolese citizens except those enumerated in Articles 5, 6, 7, and 25, and conforming to laws and regulations in force. At all times, their right to form apolitical associations and to adhere to them shall be recognized.
Article 53
The Congolese people shall have the right to peace.
Article 54
The Congolese People shall have the inalienable imprescriptible right to possess their riches and natural resources.
Article 55
The Congolese People shall have the right to economic, cultural, and social development.
TITLE VI. PARLIAMENT
Article 104
1. It shall be in the domain of the law :
– the citizenship, the civic rights and fundamental guarantees accorded to citizens in the exercise of public liberties, the subjugations imposed, in the interest of the national defense, and public security of citizens, in their person and their goods;
– the nationality, the state and the capacity of persons, matrimonial systems, successions, and liberalities
;- the determination of crimes, misdemeanors, and contraventions of the fifth class as well as the penalties which shall be applicable to them, the organization of justice and the procedure followed before the jurisdictions and for the execution of judicial decisions, the status of the magistrate and the juridical program of the High Council of the Magistrate, ministerial offices and liberal professions;
– the base, rate, and manner of recovering impositions of every nature, borrowing and financial engagements of the State;
– the program for the minting of coinage;
– the electoral program of Parliament and Local Assemblies;
– the general status of the Public Authority;
– the right to work and programs of social security;
– nationalizations, denationalizations of enterprises, and the transfer of property of enterprises from the public sector to the private sector;
– the disposition of free and charge titles of public and private goods and of the public and private domain of the State;
– the plan for economic and social development;
– the environment and the conservation of natural resources;
– the system of ownership, of real rights, and civil and commercial obligations;
– the system of political parties and the press;
– the approval of international treaties and accords;
– the organization of the national defense;
– the administration and disposition of the domain of the State;
– the free administration of local units, their areas of competence, and their resources;
– the management of the territory;
– the mutuality, monetary system, and credit;
– the system of transport, communications, and information; and
– the penitentiary system.
2. The law shall equally determine the fundamental principles:
– of instruction,
– of health,
– of science and technology,
– of culture, arts, and sports, and-
of agriculture, husbandry, fishing, waters and forests
Article 112
1. Bills, propositions, and amendments which are not of the domain of the law are not receivable.
2. Irreceivability shall be pronounced by the President of the interested House after deliberation of the office
3. In the case of contestation on Paragraph (1), the Constitutional Council, seated by the President or the interested House, or by the Government shall decree within a period of eight days.
Article 117
1. Laws to which the Constitution gives the character of organic laws, except the budgetary act, shall be voted and modified in the following conditions:
– The bill or proposition shall only be submitted to deliberation and vote of the first House after the expiration of a period of fifteen days after its filing.
– The procedure of Article 116 shall be applicable. At all times lacking agreement between the two Houses, the text shall only be adopted by the National Assembly at its last reading by an absolute majority of its members.
– Organic laws relative to the Senate shall be passed in the same terms by both Houses.
2. Organic laws shall only be promulgated after a declaration by the Constitutional Council of their conformity to the Constitution.
Article 151
The law shall determine the rules of organization of functioning of the Constitutional Council, the procedure, and notably the periods within which contestations must be brought.