Constitution of the Union of the Comoros, 2018, Article 27 (Confidentiality of correspondence, telecommunications and computer data) and freedom of expression

Article 27 of the 2018 Constitution of the Union of the Comoros is, in regional terms, a strikingly digital-specific constitutional privacy guarantee, and together with the Constitution's free-expression provisions it anchors digital rights in the Comoros. Article 27 protects the confidentiality of correspondence and of telecommunications, and, notably, extends protection to individual computer data, expressly bringing electronic communications and personal data within the constitutional guarantee. The Constitution also guarantees freedom of thought and of expression, of association and of intellectual, artistic and cultural creation among the protected liberties. For the Digital Rights collection, Article 27 satisfies the inclusion bar on the first limb in an especially clear way: it contains express telecommunications-confidentiality and computer-data language, digital-specific constitutional text of exactly the kind the inclusion bar contemplates. Inclusion does not depend on a body of decided digital constitutional cases, which are not reliably documented in the Comoros. Article 27 provides the constitutional reference point for the country's Personal Data Protection Law (2019/2021) and its cybersecurity/cybercrime law (Loi n°21-012/AU of 2021), both of which operate against this backdrop. The practical strength of the guarantee should not be overstated. The Comoros has a documented record of restrictions on press freedom and on online speech: censorship and the arrest of journalists and bloggers have been reported, and the period around the controversial 2018 constitutional referendum and the 2019 election saw heightened pressure on independent media and reports of connectivity restrictions. Constitutional enforcement runs through the Supreme Court; independent oversight of communications privacy in practice is weak. This entry is a constitutional provision recorded as an Act with its constitutional character made explicit. It is cross-referenced to the Comoros' cybercrime law. Beyond the constitutional guarantee, the data-protection law and the cybercrime law, dedicated digital-rights legislation in the Comoros is sparse, and this is reported honestly.

1. 1Article 27 protects the confidentiality of correspondence and telecommunications and extends to individual computer data, express digital-specific constitutional language
2. 2Constitution guarantees freedom of thought and expression among protected liberties
3. 3Constitutional reference point for the Personal Data Protection Law (2019/2021) and the cybersecurity/cybercrime law (Loi n°21-012/AU 2021)
4. 4Documented press-freedom restrictions; pressure on media around the 2018 referendum and 2019 election
5. 5Enforcement via the Supreme Court; weak independent oversight of communications privacy in practice
6. 6Inclusion justified on limb (a): express telecommunications-confidentiality and computer-data language