Democratic Republic of the Congo

Article 12
All Congolese are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection by the law.

Article 13
No Congolese person may, in matters of education or access to public functions or any other matter, be subject to any discriminatory measure, whether it results from a statute or from a measure of the executive, on the ground of his/her religion, family origin, social condition, residence, views or political convictions, or membership of a certain race, ethnicity, tribe, cultural or linguistic minority.

Article 14
The public authorities see to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and ensure the protection and promotion of their rights.

Article 15
The public authorities are responsible for the elimination of sexual violence used as an instrument in the destabilization and displacement of families.
International treaties and agreements notwithstanding, any sexual violence committed against any person with the intention to destabilize or to displace a family and to make a whole people disappear is established as a crime against humanity punishable by law.

Article 16
The individual is sacred. The State has the obligation to respect and protect him/her.
All persons have the right to life, physical integrity and to the free development of their personality, while respecting the law, public order, the rights of others and public morality.

No one may be held in slavery or in a similar condition.
No one may be subject to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.
No one may be submitted to forced or compulsory labor.

Article 17
Individual liberty is guaranteed. It is the rule, detention the exception.

Article 31
All persons have the right to respect for their private life, for the confidentiality of their correspondence, telecommunications and any other form of communication. This right may only be interfered within the cases provided for by the law.

Article 36
Work is a sacred right and duty for every Congolese.

Article 40
All individuals have the right to marry a person of their choice of the opposite sex and to create a family.
The family, the basic unit of the human community, is organized in a way which ensures its unity, stability and protection. It is placed under the protection of the public authorities.
For the parents, the care and the education to be given to children constitute a natural right and duty which they exercise under the control and with the assistance of the public authorities.

Article 42
The public authorities are obliged to protect the youth against any attack on their health, education or integral development.
Article 43
All persons have the right to a school education. It is provided by national education.

Article 46
The right to culture, freedom of intellectual and artistic creation and that of scientific and technological research are guaranteed, subject to respect for the law, public order and morality.

Article 47
The right to health and to food security 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 conditions for the exercise of these rights.

Article 49
Aged and handicapped persons have the right to special measures of protection with regard to their physical, intellectual and moral needs.

Article 53
All persons have the right to a healthy environment that is favorable to their development.

Article 61
In no case, not even when the state of siege or the state of emergency has been proclaimed in accordance with Articles 87 and 88 of this Constitution, is a derogation admissible from the following rights and fundamental principles:
– The right to life;
– The prohibition of torture and of cruel, inhumane or degrading punishment or treatment;