Republic of the Congo: Human Rights

Publisher Marketing: The Republic of the Congo is a parliamentary republic in which the constitution vests most of the decision-making authority and political power in the president and his administration. Denis Sassou-N'Guesso won re-election as president in 2009 with 78 percent of the vote, but opposition candidates and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) questioned the validity of this figure and cited electoral irregularities. Legislative elections were held in July and August 2012 for 137 of the National Assembly's 139 seats. The African Union declared the elections free, fair, and credible, while at the same time citing numerous irregularities. While the country has a multi-party political system, members of the president's Congolese Labor Party (PCT) and its allies won 95 percent of the legislative seats and occupied most of the senior government positions. Security forces reported to civilian authorities. The government generally maintained effective control over the security forces; however, some members of the security forces acted independently of government authority, committed abuses, and engaged in malfeasance. Major human rights problems included beatings and torture of detainees by security forces, poor prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention. Other human rights abuses included: lack of due judicial process; arbitrary arrest; political prisoners; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association; refugee abuse; restrictions on the right of citizens to change their government peacefully; restrictions on the activities of opposition political groups; official corruption and lack of transparency; discrimination against women; sexual and gender-based violence, including domestic violence, child abuse, female genital mutilation/cutting, and forced child marriage; trafficking in persons; lack of access for persons with disabilities; discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, particularly toward indigenous persons; discrimination based on sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS status; and child labor.