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| Democratic Republic of the Congo |
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The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been changed and/or replaced several times. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has known a tormented history since its independence in 1960, involving a secession - one week after independence, three major coups d'état, a 32-year-long dictatorship, and up to four name and flag changes.
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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. Wikisource contains the Complete Text of the Constitution (In the original French).
New political subdivisions were brought by this constitution. The country is divided in 25 provinces, and the capital-city of Kinshasa - to take full-effect 36 months after the official installation of the newly elected President, which occurred on December 6, 2006.
The new motto of the country is : « Justice, Peace, Work ».
The constitution does not settle the debate on whether the state is federal or unitary. It does however establish a united and indivisible state. In practice however, the state will be both unitary and federal:
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.
Congolese citizenship is exclusive. Double citizenship is therefore impossible in theory. Anyone belonging to the ethnic groups whose persons and territory constituted what became the 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.
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.
Between 2003 and 2006, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was under the regime of a Transition Constitution, which was established as a result of the 2002 Global and Inclusive Agreement of Sun City, South Africa, which put an end to the bloody civil war that was raging in Congo since 1998, killing 3.5 million people, mostly from the resulting famine and disease.
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