Gabon 1991 Constitution (reviewed 2011)

PRELIMINARY TITLE. OF FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS

Article 1

The Gabonese Republic recognizes and guarantees the inalienable and imprescriptible human rights, which are necessarily tied to the public powers:

1. Each citizen has the right to the free development of his or her personality, while respecting the rights of others and the public order. No one may be humiliated, mistreated or tortured, even during moments of arrest or imprisonment;
2. The liberty of consciousness, thought, opinion, expression, communication, and the free practice of religion, are guaranteed to all, limited only by a respect for the public order;
3. The liberty to come and go within the territory of the Gabonese Republic and to leave and return is guaranteed to all Gabonese citizens, limited only by a respect for the public order;
4. The rights to defense, in the case of a trial, are guaranteed to all. Preventative detention must not exceed the time period provisioned by the law;
5. The privacy of correspondence, of postal, telegraphic, telephonic and telematics communications is inalienable. A restriction on this right to privacy may not be ordered except through an application of the law, in the interest of the public order and national security;
6. Limits to the use of computing technology may be fixed by the law in the interest of preserving personhood, one’s personal and familial intimacy, and the full exercise of one’s rights;
7. Each citizen has the duty to work and the right to obtain employment. None may be discriminated against in one’s work because of his or her origins, sex, race or opinions;
8. The State, according to its means, guarantees to all, notably to children, mothers, the handicapped, aged workers and the elderly the protection of health, social security, a preserved natural environment, rest and leisure;
9. All Gabonese citizens residing temporarily or permanently abroad benefit from the protection and assistance of the state, according to conditions fixed by national law or international accord;
10. All people, as individuals or as groups, have the right to own property. None may be deprived of one’s property, if not for a public necessity, legally declared, required and under conditions of a just and prior compensation. Notwithstanding, the dispossession of abandoned buildings justified by public utility and or an insufficiency of development is regulated by the law;
11. All Gabonese have the right to freely fix his or her domicile or residence in any part of the national territory and to there exercise all activities, respecting the public order and the law;
12. The domicile is inalienable. A search of the home may only be ordered by a judge or by the other authorities designated by the law. Searches must be executed within the law’s prescriptions. Measures that may threaten or restrict the inalienability of the domicile may only be taken to address community dangers or to protect the public order against imminent menaces, notably epidemic risks or persons in immediate danger;
13. The right to form associations, political parties or groups, syndicates, companies, establishments of social interest as well as religious communities is guaranteed to all within the conditions fixed by the law; religious communities independently regulate themselves and their affairs, respecting the principles of national sovereignty, the public order and the preservation of the moral and mental integrity of the individual. Any associations, political parties or groups, syndicates, companies, establishments of social interest or religious communities performing activities contrary to the law, morality, or the goodwill of ethnic groups or communities may be prohibited according to the terms of the law.All discriminatory acts based on race, ethnicity, or religion, including all regionalist propaganda threatening interior or exterior national security or the integrity of the State is punishable by the law;
14. The family is the natural cellular base of society, and marriage is its legitimate structure. They have particular protection from the State;
15. The state has the responsibility of organizing a general population census every ten years;
16. The care given to children and their education constitute a natural right for parents and a responsibility that they exercise under the surveillance and with the aide of the State and its public collectivities. Parents have the right, under the laws of obligatory education, to choose the moral and religious education of their children. In the eyes of the State, all children have the same rights regarding assistance to their physical, intellectual, and moral development;
17. The protection of the country’s youth from exploitation and moral, intellectual and physical abandonment, is an obligation of the State and the public collectivities;
18. The State guarantees equal access to instruction, professional development and culture for children and adults;
19. It is the State’s responsibility to organize public education based on religious neutrality and, according to its means, provide it freely to the public; the awarding of diploma rests a right of the state;Nevertheless, the freedom to educate is guaranteed to all. All persons may open a kindergarten, primary, secondary, or superior school, or a university, according to the conditions fixed by the law.

    The law determines the conditions in which the State and the public collectivities may participate in the financial needs of private educational institutions, recognized for their public utility.

    In public educational institutions, religious instruction may be dispensed to students at the demand of their parents, in the conditions determined by the relevant regulations.

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    The law fixes the conditions of function of private educational establishments based upon their specialties;

20. The Nation proclaims the solidarity and equality of all before its public financial obligations. All must participate, in proportion of their resources, in the funding of public expenses. The Nations proclaim additionally the solidarity of all before expenses or debt that result from natural and national calamities.
21. Each citizen is obligated to defend their homeland, and to protect and respect the Constitution, the laws and the regulations of the Republic;
22. The defense of the Nation and the maintenance of public order are essentially assured by the forces of defense and national security.Consequentially, neither person, nor group of people may constitute themselves as a private militia or para-military group; the forces of defense and national security are at the service of the State.

    In times of peace, the armed forces of Gabon may participate in the economic and social development of the Nation;

23. No one may be arbitrarily detained; if deemed appropriate by the necessities of security and procedure, no one may be kept in police custody or temporary imprisonment if he or she presents sufficient guarantees of legal representation.All defendants are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, following a trial with the standard guarantees for their defense.

    The judicial power, guardian of individual liberty, assures the respect of these principles in the time periods fixed by the law.