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Criminal responsibility is individual. No one may be prosecuted, arrested, detained
or sentenced for an act of others.
• Presumption of innocence in trials
Any person accused of an infraction of the law is presumed innocent until his
culpability has been established by a definitive judgment.
Article 18
• Trial in native language of accused
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.
• Right to pre-trial release
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.
• Human dignity
Any detainee must benefit from a treatment which preserves his life, his physical and
mental health as well as his dignity.
Article 19
No person may be relocated or transferred against the will of the judge that the law
assigns to him.
• Right to speedy trial
All persons have the right that their case will be heard within a reasonable time by
the competent judge.
• Right to counsel
The right to defense is organized and guaranteed.
• Right to counsel
All persons have the right to defend themselves or to be assisted by a defender of
their choice, at all stages of the criminal procedure, and including the police inquiry
and the investigation before trial.
They may be assisted equally before the security services.
• Right to public trial
Article 20
The audiences of the courts and tribunals are public unless this publicity is judged
dangerous for public order or morality. In this case, the tribunal orders closed
[audiences].
Article 21
• Right to public trial
All judgments are written and substantiated. They are pronounced in a public
audiences.
• Right to appeal judicial decisions
The right to recourse against a judgment is guaranteed to all. It is exercised within
the conditions established by the law.
• Freedom of religion
• Freedom of opinion/thought/conscience
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.
Congo (Democratic Republic of the) 2005 (rev. 2011)
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