Constitution of the Republic of the Congo, 2015, Articles 25 and 26 (Freedom of expression; secrecy of correspondence and telecommunications)

The Constitution of the Republic of the Congo of 2015, adopted by referendum on 25 October 2015 and promulgated on 6 November 2015, contains the constitutional guarantees relevant to digital rights. Article 26 provides that the secrecy of correspondence, of telecommunications or of any other form of communication may not be violated, except in the cases and under the conditions provided for by law. Article 25 guarantees every citizen the right to express and freely disseminate opinions by speech, writing, image or any other means of communication, and guarantees freedom of information and communication, exercised in accordance with the law. The express reference in Article 26 to 'telecommunications' gives the provision a communications-technology dimension, and Article 25's protection of expression 'by any other means of communication' extends to online expression; together they form the constitutional backdrop to Law No. 27-2020 on combating cybercrime, Law No. 26-2020 on cybersecurity and Law No. 29-2019 on personal data protection. The provisions are not, however, expressly digital in the sense of referring to the internet or to personal-data processing, and there is no settled constitutional case law applying them to the digital environment. This entry is recorded in line with the Library's established practice of capturing the constitutional privacy-and-expression layer for each jurisdiction; the basis is flagged for the reviewer. Original language: French.

1. 1Article 26, inviolable secrecy of correspondence, telecommunications and any other form of communication, save as provided by law
2. 2Article 25, freedom to express and disseminate opinions by any means of communication; freedom of information and communication
3. 3Constitutional backdrop to Law 27-2020 (cybercrime), Law 26-2020 (cybersecurity) and Law 29-2019 (data protection)
4. 4'Telecommunications' reference gives a communications-technology dimension, but no express internet/data-processing language
5. 5Included per the Library's cross-jurisdiction practice (flagged for reviewer)