There are two Congos in the world. It is Democratic Republic of Congo.
The eleventh largest country in the world. The population is about
10,50,44,000. The official language is French, as well as four other
recognized languages. 98% are Christians.
According to the
constitution, if someone says after committing a crime, "I did not know
the law" - there will be no benefit. Detention will never exceed 48
hours. The judgment of the court must be written and declared public.
There is such a right to movement, as well as no one can be forced to
take part in any movement. No ordinary citizen or state worker is
obliged to obey illegal instructions. There is a constitutional
guarantee of free education and food security. It is the responsibility
of every citizen to prevent anyone from seizing power illegally.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
Congo seemed somewhat fanatical nationalist, as mentioned in the
constitution's preamble.
Admirable Articles of Democratic Republic of the Congo's Constitution
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 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 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 21
All judgments are written and substantiated. They are pronounced in a public audiences.
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 (Part of it)
All persons have the right to information.
Article 26 (Part of it)
The freedom of demonstration is guaranteed.
No one may be forced to take part in a demonstration.
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 37 (Part of it)
The State guarantees the freedom of association.
This collaboration may take the form of a subsidy.
Article 39
The right to strike is recognized and guaranteed.
Article 40 (Part of it)
Each individual has the right to marry with the person of their choice, of the opposite sex, and to establish a family.
Article 43 (Part of it)
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.
Primary education is obligatory and free in the public establishments.
Article 45 (Part of it)
Education is free.
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 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.
Article 47
The right to health and to secure food supply is guaranteed.
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.
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 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 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.
