The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the basic law governing the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. The Constitution has been changed and/or replaced several times since its independence in 1960.

Current Constitution

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is now under the regime of the constitution which was approved in a referendum by the Congolese people, and promulgated on February 18, 2006 by President Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...

. Wikisource

Wikisource

Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...

 contains the Complete Text of the Constitution (In the original French).

General provisions

New political subdivisions were brought by this constitution. The country is divided in 25 provinces

Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

There are currently ten provinces and one city-province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:* An Ituri Interim Administration also exists in the Ituri region of Orientale province- Proposed provinces :...

, and the capital-city of Kinshasa

Kinshasa

Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....

 - to take full-effect 36 months after the official installation of the newly elected President, which occurred on December 6, 2006.

See also

• Constitution
  Constitution
  A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
  
  
• Constitutional law
  Constitutional law
  Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
  
  
• Constitutional economics
  Constitutional economics
  Constitutional economics is a research program in economics and constitutionalism that has been described as extending beyond the definition of 'the economic analysis of constitutional law' in explaining the choice "of alternative sets of legal-institutional-constitutional rules that constrain the...
  
  
• Constitutionalism
  Constitutionalism
  Constitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law"....
  
  

The new motto of the country is : « Justice, Peace, Work ».

Political pluralism

Creating and belonging to a political party is a civil and political right for all Congolese people. Political parties must obey the law on political parties, respect public order and operate in accordance with "good mors". Parties receive subsidies from the government for their electoral campaign. Having a one-party-system is expressly unconstitutional.

Nationality and citizenship

Congolese citizenship is exclusive. Double citizenship is therefore impossible in theory. Anyone belonging to the ethnic groups whose persons and territory constituted what became Congo (currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo), at independence is a Congolese national.

Any Congolese national who has not lost his/her political rights, by virtue of a court decision, or by virtue of the law, is a Congolese citizen.

Rights and duties

Civil, political, economic, social, cultural and collective rights, as well as the duties of all citizens, are defined in Title III of the constitution - the unofficial bill of rights and duties. Title III also states that ignorance of the law is not a valid defense in court, or anywhere.

The new constitution limits marriage, in article 40, as the right to « marry the person of one's choice, of the opposite sex, and to create a family » ; thus, it forbids same sex marriage.

Past Constitutions

The country's first, provisional, constitution was the fundamental law of 1960, which was based on the Constitution of Belgium

Constitution of Belgium

The Constitution of Belgium dates back to 1831. Since then Belgium has been a parliamentary monarchy that applies the principles of ministerial responsibility for the government policy and the Trias Politica. The Constitution established Belgium as a centralised unitary state...

 and established a parliamentary republic. A new constitution, dated August 1, 1964, strengthened the powers of the presidency, enhanced still further by the June 24, 1967 charter. This was amended in August 1974, revised on February 15, 1978, and amended on July 5, 1990. A transitional constitution was then promulgated in April 1994. A Constitutional Act was promulgated in May 1997; draft constitution was proposed but not finalized in March 1998. From April 2, 2003, the country was under a Transition Constitution, which was established as a result of the 2002 Global and Inclusive Agreement of Sun City, South Africa that ended the Second Congo War

Second Congo War

The Second Congo War, also known as Coltan War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power; however, hostilities continue to this...

. This document was in effect until the current constitution came into force on February 18, 2006.