Congo (Republic of the)

Paragraph 114 

Article 16 of the Congolese Constitution:  

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude nor under any conditions analogous thereto.  

No one may be condemned to forced or compulsory labour except in cases provided by law.  

Article 67 of the Criminal Code: 

Any person who, by means of violence, fraud or threats, abducts or causes to be abducted, arrests or causes to be arrested arbitrarily, detains or causes to be detained another person shall be liable to a term of penal servitude of one to five years. If the person abducted, arrested or detained is subjected to physical torture, the guilty shall be liable to a term of penal servitude of five to twenty years.  

Article 68 of the Criminal Code: 

Any person who abducts or causes to be abducted, arrests or causes to be arrested, detains or causes to be detained another person for the purpose of selling him into slavery or who disposes of a person placed under his authority for the same person shall be liable to the penalties provided by law, and the distinctions established in the preceding article shall apply.  

Decree of the King-Sovereign of 1 July 1891 concerning the slave trade 

The abduction of slaves 

1. any person who abducts another by means of violence, fraud or threats for the purpose of trade or slavery shall be liable to a term of penal servitude not less than one nor more than five years and to a fine of not less than 500 nor more than 2,000 francs. 
2. The abduction of slaves effected by associations of armed men shall be punishable by death or by penal servitude for life. 

Trading in slaves 

3. Any person who engages in any slave trading transaction shall be liable to a term f penal servitude not less than six months nor more than three years and to a fine of not less than 200 nor more than 2,000 francs. 
4. Any person who knowingly and wilfully conveys or transports one or more slaves obtained by abduction or trade shall be liable to a term of penal servitude of not less than three months nor more than three years and to a fine of not less than 100 nor more than 1,000 francs. 
5. Any person who habitually carries on the activities referred to in articles 3 and 4 shall be deemed to be a slave-dealer and shall be liable to a term of penal servitude of not less than five nor more than ten years and to a fine of not less than 1,000 nor more than 5,000 francs. 

Persons having a financial interest in a slave trading undertaking 

6. Any person who knowingly and wilfully takes a financial interest in an undertaking the object of which is to carry on the slave trade or operations to procure slaves for the slave trade shall be punished as principal. 

Receivers of slaves obtained by trade 

7. Any person who knowingly and wilfully receives one or more slaves obtained by abduction or trade shall be liable to a term of penal servitude of not less than three months nor more than one year and to a fine of not less than 100 francs nor more than 500 francs, or to only one of these penalties.

Article 9:  

The freedom of the human person is inviolable. No one shall be arbitrarily accused, arrested or detained. Every defendant is presumed innocent until proved guilty 

been prepared following a procedure guaranteeing the rights of defence. Any act of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is prohibited. 

Article 24:  

The State recognizes that all citizens the right to work and must create conditions that make effective the enjoyment of this right. 

Article 26:  

No person shall be compelled to perform forced labour, except in the case of a sentence deprivation of liberty ordered by a court of law. No one shall be subjected to slavery. 

Article 174e. Sexual slavery

Shall be punished by a sentence of five to twenty years of penal servitude and a fine of two hundred thousand Congolese francs constant, to whoever exercised one or all of the powers associated with the right of ownership over a person, in particular by holding or “mposing a similar deprivation of liberty or by buying, selling, lending, bartering the said person for sexual purposes and has forced him to perform one or more acts of a sexual nature.

Article 174f. Forced marriage

Without prejudice to Article 336 of the Family Code, any person who, exercising parental or guardianship authority over a minor or adult, has given him or her in or with a view to marriage, or has forced him or her to marry, shall be punished by a sentence of between one and twelve years of penal servitude and a fine of not less than one hundred thousand constant Congolese francs. The minimum penalty provided for in paragraph 1 shall be doubled in the case of a person under 18 years of age.

[…]

Article 174i. Trafficking and exploitation of children for sexual purposes

Any act or transaction relating to trafficking or exploitation of children or any person for sexual purposes for remuneration or any benefit, shall be punishable by ten to twenty years of penal servitude

[…]

Article 174n- Child prostitution

Anyone who uses a child under the age of 18 years for sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of benefit shall be punished by penal servitude from five to twenty years and a fine of two hundred thousand Congolese francs constant.

If the offence has been committed by a person exercising parental or guardianship authority, the guilty party will also be deprived of the exercise of parental or guardianship authority in accordance with Article 319 of the Family Code

Article 334: Procuring 

The procurer is a person who: Aids, assists or protects a person who engages in prostitution; share in the return derived from the prostitution of another person or persons; recruits, trains or keeps a person of full age with a view to prostitution;, acts as an intermediary between persons engaging in prostitution or debauchery.  

Article 335 Prohibition on the Opening of Brothels 

Article 4 (Law No 6-96)

Forced or compulsory labor is absolutely prohibited. The term “forced or compulsory labor” means any labor required of an individual under threat of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. The term “forced labor” does not apply to work or service required in case of war, disaster, threat of loss, natural disaster or epidemic and generally in all circumstances likely to endanger endangering the lives of others or the circumstances normal existence of all or part Population. The term “compulsory labor” shall not apply to all work and decided executed voluntarily by community and to the direct interest of tasks for this community such as the establishment or maintenance of communication channels, sanitation and cleanliness housing, the supply of water, land development, construction purposes social, cultural or economic.

Article 257 (Law No. 6-96)

Shall be punishable by a fine 600,000 FCFA 900,000 to FCFA and if recurrence of a fine of 900,000 to 1,100,000 FCFA.

a) breaches the provisions of the authors Article 4 on the prohibition of forced labor 87 (2) on the payment of wages or alcohol alcoholic beverage, 103 except in display, 104 e 166.

b) persons who have voluntarily misrepresentation of industrial accident or occupational disease.

c) any person who by violence, threat or any other means of pressure has forced or tried to force a worker to will employ against his will or, by the same means have tried to prevent or will have prevented or fulfill the obligations imposed by his contract.

Note: sets the minimum age for employment and apprenticeships at 16 and the minimum age for hazardous work at 18

Article 1 

The Congolese courts are competent authorities to know all the facts of persons committed by a Congolese national or against a Congolese against a person residing in the Republic of Congo, or by the latter against a national Congolese or another person residing in the national territory. They are also competent when the infringement was committed by a Congolese national or against a Congolese national in territory provided that the facts complained of constitute an offense under the law of the State in which they were committed.  

Article 2 

This law applies to all forms of trafficking in persons, be they national or transnational in nature, or unrelated to organized crime.  

Article 3 

The measures set out in this law, in particular the measures relating to the identification of victims and measures to protect and promote victims’ rights are interpreted and applied to all without distinction of any kind, whether founded on it, race, religion, beliefs, age, family situation, culture, language, ethnicity, national or social origin, nationality, sex, political opinion or any other opinion, physical ability, fortune, birth, status look at immigration legislation, the past of victim of trafficking or sexual exploitation or prostitution, or any other situation. Child victims are treated without discrimination based on the above-mentioned elements, whether these elements concern their person or their parents or legal representatives. 

Article 4 

For the purposes of this Act, expressions hereinafter are defined as follows: 

“Trafficking in persons”: recruitment, transportation, transfer, accommodation or persons, by the threat of recourse or use of force or other forms of coercion, by abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of authority or a situation of vulnerability, or by the offer or acceptance of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having authority over another for the purpose of exploitation.  

“Abuse of a situation of vulnerability”: abuse any situation in which the person concerned considers that it has no choice but to submit. These situations include: 

• entry into the country illegally or without the required documents; 
• the state of pregnancy or any physical or mental illness or disability, including dependence on a psychotropic substance; 
• the reduction of the judgment capacity of the individual because of minority, illness, an infirmity or a physical challenge or mental; 
• promises or donations of sums of money or other benefits to people with authority over the person concerned; 
• precariousness in terms of survival;  

“Exploitation of the person”: 

1- Exploitation through work, which means the following practices: 

– child labor in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, the Labor Code, laws and regulations governing the work of children; 

– forced labor or services, within the meaning of definition provided by the Labor Code; 

–  Slavery, in the sense of the state or condition of a person on whom one or many of the attributes of the property right, whose sale;
– Practices analogous to slavery: servitude and serfdom. 

Servitude relating to working conditions and / or obligation to work or to provide these services, which a person cannot escape or change. 

Debt bondage is the commitment of a debtor, for the payment of a debt, to provide its own services or those of someone over whom he has authority whether the nature of those services is undetermined or whether their duration is unlimited or disproportionate, or if ultimately these services will not have of the debt in question. 

Serfdom is the situation of any person held by law, custom or agreement between individuals, to live and work on land owned by another person and provide that other person, for remuneration or free of charge, with a specific service, without the power to change that situation. 

Article 5 

Is guilty of trafficking in persons and will be punished by imprisonment, whoever, by the means of the threat recourse or the use of force or other forms of restraint, kidnapping, fraud, deception, abuse of authority or a situation of vulnerability, or by offering or accepting payments or benefits to obtain the consent of one person having authority over another, intentionally for the purpose of exploiting a person in the following act without having to be a stakeholder in each elements of this act: recruitment, transport, transfer, accommodation, reception of this person. 

When the victim of the offense is a child, the offense of trafficking in persons is established even in the absence of the means provided for in paragraph 1 of this article.  

The consent, agreement, involvement or participation of the legal representatives of the victim or any other person having authority over the victim, the commission of the offense cannot constitute a cause of exoneration of liability or a mitigating circumstance for the offender. 

Article 6 

Will be punished with hard labor for time, whoever commits the offense of trafficking in persons, provided for in Article 5 (a) of this Law, accompanied by any of the following circumstances: 

• the offense is committed against a particularly vulnerable victim, in particular a child, a pregnant woman, a person elderly, a person suffering from a challenge, physical or mental, an Aboriginal person; 
• the offense is committed against several victims; 
• the offense resulted in serious injury to the victim or a third party; 
• the offense is committed by several people;  
• the victim of the offense has been chosen by the author because of his nationality, his ethnicity, his skin color, his religion or beliefs or opinions policies; 
• drugs, drugs or weapons are used for the commission of the offense; 
• the offender is in a state of recidivism;  
• the offender is a public official in the performance of his duties or any person called upon to participate in the fight against treaty;  
• the offender is the spouse or cohabiting partner of the victim;  
• the offender is in the position of authority, responsibility or confidence in relation to the victim; 
• the victim was put in contact with the author facts through the use, for dissemination, messages to an unspecified audience, an electronic communications network. 

Article 7 

Will be punished by forced labor for life, anyone who commits the offense of human trafficking accompanied by any of the circumstances following: 

• the offense of trafficking in persons has resulted in the death of the victim or a third party, including death by suicide, or contraction by the victim of a life-threatening illness, including HIV / AIDS; 
•  the offense was committed by resorting to torture or acts of barbarism;  
• the offense was committed within the framework of activities of a criminal association. 

Article 8 

Will be punished with a fine of ten million (10,000,000) to five hundred million (500,000,000) CFA francs and one or more of the following additional penalties, any legal person convicted of the offense of trafficking in persons Article 5 paragraph 1: 

– measures excluding the profiting from a benefit or public support; 

– placement under judicial supervision; 

– the judicial measure of dissolution; 

– the temporary or definitive closure of the establishment used to commit the offense. 

Article 9 

The additional penalty of confiscation property will be applied to individuals and morals author of the offense of trafficking. 

Confiscation of property relates to: 

• movable or immovable property, what whatever the nature, having served to commit the offense or which were intended to commit it, and of which the convict is the owner;  
• the goods that are the object or the direct product or indirect offense, with the exception of property liable to restitution to the victim;  
• movable or immovable property, whatever nature, belonging to the convict, when he is not able to explain himself on the origin of these goods. 

The additional custodial sentence applies under the same conditions to all intangible rights. 

Article 13 

A victim of trafficking in persons is exempt from criminal or administrative liability and cannot be detained or detained:  

• if she has committed offenses by having been reduced by his condition of being a victim of trafficking;  
• if she has violated national immigration legislation or regulations because of her status as a victim of trafficking.  

Exemption from liability is not recognized when the offense committed is a crime under criminal law. 

The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the general defenses that the victim can invoke under the law. 

Article 14 

Will be punished by a penalty as provided by the labor code, whoever commits the offense of forced labor or services.  

Will be punished by three (3) years to five (5) years imprisonment and a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) to five million (5,000,000) CFA francs, anyone who practices, facilitates or derives a financial or material profit from the slavery of others or a similar practice.  

Will be punished by a penalty as provided by the Code of Labor Law No. 4-2010 of 10 June 2010 on the protection of the child in the Republic of the Congo and other texts relating to child labor, whoever uses child labor in violation of the provisions of labor law.  

Article 15 

Will be punished by a sentence of three (3) years to five (5) years of imprisonment and a fine of three one hundred thousand (300,000) to three million (3,000,000) CFA francs, whoever commits the offense exploitation by pornography. 

Article 16 

Will be punished with a sentence of one (1) year to three (3) years of imprisonment and a fine of two hundred thousand (200,000) to two million (2,000,000) of CFA francs, anyone who submits to the marriage forced or servile. 

Congo (Rupublic of the) Law on the Fight against Trafficking in Persons (PDF)

Article 128 

A man of less than 21 years of age and a woman of less than 18 years of age may not contract a marriage.  

Article 129 

Each of the spouses, even if under age, must personally consent to the marriage. Consent shall not be deemed valid if it was extorted by violence or was given in consequence of an error as to physical or civil identity or some other essential quality which, had the error been known, would have prevented the other spouse form contracting marriage. 

Article 37 

The right to refuse pre-marriage and marriage is recognized to every child. Is null, marriage or pre-marriage contracted by a child under duress 

Article 60 

Trafficking, sale and all forms of exploitation the child is prohibited in the Republic of Congo. 

1) Human trafficking means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child purpose of exploitation whatever the means used, that either by the threat of use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having authority over the child or absence these means and which drives the movement of child within or outside the country by one at least in the presence of people and regardless is the purpose of the child’s removal. 

2) Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation to the prostitution of others or other forms sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or the removal of organs. The consent of the child to the intended exploitation, such set out in this article shall be irrelevant regardless of the means used or the absence of recourse to any covered ways. 

3) The term sale of children, any act or transaction involving the transfer of a child, any person or group of persons to another person or another group against remuneration or other benefit 

Article 68 

Are prohibited, early jobs, the worst forms labor and other domestic activities with threaten the physical or mental health of the child. by early employment means the fact to involve children 

under sixteen years in the job in a domestic sphere, in the formal or informal sectors. 

The worst forms of child labor include: 

1. a) all forms of slavery or similar practices, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and work

forced or compulsory, including forced recruitment or compulsory for children to use in armed conflict; 

1. b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for for prostitution, production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
2. c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, including the production and drug trafficking, as defined in the

relevant international conventions; 

1. d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which they are carried out are likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

A decree issued after the National Commission Consultative Labour will prepare the list and nature of work and the categories of enterprises prohibited for children the age limit applies this prohibition. 

Article 115 

A penalty of hard labor and a fine of 1 million to 10 million CFA francs, whoever will engage in the trafficking, sale, trafficking or any Other forms of child exploitation regardless of the mobile. The criminal court may also convict the author of these facts to pay the family of research costs, repatriation and reintegration. The authors and accomplices may also be fallen their civic, civil and family 

Article 108 

The penalty for imprisonment of three months to two years and a fine of 150,000 to 1,500,000 CFA francs shall be imposed on a person who compels a child to marry or marry. If the constraint is imposed by the private supervision institution of the child, the penalties applicable are those referred to in article 127 of this law. If the constraint comes from the public institution of supervision, it will respond in accordance with the provisions in force. The initiation of public action is subject to the prior submission of a complaint on the initiative of any person having an interest. The judgment may be exempt from execution of the sentence. 

Article 3

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Paragraph 3- Forced prostitution

Anyone who induces one or more persons to perform an act or acts of a sexual nature, by force, by the threat of force or coercion or by taking advantage of the inability of such persons to give their consent freely in order to obtain a pecuniary advantage, shall be guilty of an offence punishable by law.

[…]

Paragraph 5- Sexual slavery

Shall be punished by a sentence of five to twenty years of penal servitude and a fine of two hundred thousand Congolese francs constant, to whoever exercised one or all of the powers associated with the right of ownership over a person, in particular by holding or “mposing a similar deprivation of liberty or by buying, selling, lending, bartering the said person for sexual purposes and has forced him to perform one or more acts of a sexual nature.

Paragraph 6- Forced marriage

Without prejudice to Article 336 of the Family Code, any person who, exercising parental or guardianship authority over a minor or adult, has given him or her in or with a view to marriage, or has forced him or her to marry, shall be punished by a sentence of between one and twelve years of penal servitude and a fine of not less than one hundred thousand constant Congolese francs. The minimum penalty provided for in paragraph 1 shall be doubled in the case of a person under 18 years of age.

[…]

Paragraph 10- Trafficking and exploitation of children for sexual purposes

Any act or transaction relating to trafficking or exploitation of children or any person for sexual purposes for remuneration or any benefit, shall be punishable by ten to twenty years of penal servitude

[…]

Paragraph 14- Child prostitution

Anyone who uses a child under the age of 18 years for sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of benefit shall be punished by penal servitude from five to twenty years and a fine of two hundred thousand Congolese francs constant.

If the offence has been committed by a person exercising parental or guardianship authority, the guilty party will also be deprived of the exercise of parental or guardianship authority in accordance with Article 319 of the Family Code.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE STATUTE (PDF)