constituteproject.org PDF generated: 18 Apr 2016, 15:22 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) Page 9