Skip to Content
Home

National law and policies on minimum ages – DRC

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Sources:

2nd report: CRC/C/COD/2, 24 July 2008
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.57, 8 August 2000
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 2nd report
170. Since the presentation of the initial report, the Government has taken initiatives aimed at ensuring education for all children. It is aware that the schooling rate at present is low, standing at 40 per cent of the total number of school-age children (statement of the Minister of Primary, Secondary and Professional Education (EPSP), 2007). In that regard, the Constitution has for the first time introduced free basic education. In article 43 (4), it provides: “Primary education shall be compulsory and free in public establishments.” It is true that making that measure effective is a challenge which the Government intends to take up by gradually increasing resources allocated to the educational sector with the support of international cooperation.
From initial report
149. Education is a right of human beings in general and of the child in particular (see inter alia the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). In the Congo this right is guaranteed by the transitional Constitution (arts. 20 and 21) and formalized in Framework Law No. 86/005 (national education) of 29 September 1986 (Journal officiel, special issue, July 1989). This law, which has not come into force in the absence of implementing measures, makes schooling compulsory for boys and girls until they have completed their fifteenth year (art.115). The States General of National Education provide for primary education to be free of charge. 
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
70. With regard to work, a distinction is made, in keeping with ILO conventions, between the worst forms of labour, from which all persons under age 18 are excluded, and light, healthy work, which may be done by children at least 16 years of age.
71. The new Labour Code, enacted by Act No. 015/2002 of 16 October 2002, includes several innovations, including the raising of the minimum age for admission to employment from 14 to 16 years. Article 6 (2) provides as follows: “Under the present Code, persons 16 years of age or older shall have the capacity to contract, subject to the following provisions: (a) A person 15 years of age shall not be retained in service except with the express permission of the Labour Inspector and that person’s parent or guardian; (b) However, the opposition of the Labour Inspector and the parent or guardian to the exception set out in subsection (a) above may be removed by the court when justified by circumstances or by fairness; (c) A person aged 15 shall be employed only in the performance of light and healthy work as provided for by a decision of the Minister in charge of labour and social protection, pursuant to article 38 of the present Code […]”.
From initial report
191. The hiring or continued employment of a person under age 14 is prohibited. A person aged between 14 and 16 may not be hired or retained except in order to perform light, healthy work. The hiring or retaining of a person aged between 14 and 16 is prohibited if not agreed to by the person exercising parental authority or guardianship over that person.
196. Given the current disastrous economic situation, where employment in the informaleconomic sector is the only answer for the majority of the population,  a number of parents tolerate, or even send their children to do, work which the latter are forbidden to perform by law. In view of this tolerance and the failure of parents, children and the labour inspectorate to report this situation, employers exploit children at their leisure. Even the State seems indifferent to the manifold  cases of violation (‘‘mine children’’ in Kasaï, the ‘‘bana lunda’’ in Bandundu, who dive or dig to considerable depths to look for diamonds).
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 2nd report
67. [...] article 352, paragraph 1, of the Family Code [...] provides that “Marriage may not be contracted by a man under age 18 or a woman under age 15.”
From initial report
88. […] majority for purposes of marriage or sexual majority at 14 years of age (Criminal Code, art. 167). […]
90. Since the age of marriage (for girls) and emancipation (for both sexes) of 15 years of age (Family Code, arts. 289 and 352) gives the parties concerned full legal capacity, the provisions of the Convention are not applied to them although they are still children. It would therefore be appropriate to raise the age of marriage for girls and of emancipation to 18 years of age, so that the protection given by the Convention  can benefit a larger child population.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
66. For the first time in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Constitution has set out a definition of the child, in article 41 (1), which provides: “A minor is any person, without regard to sex, who has not yet attained 18 years of age.” This definition strengthens the definition contained in article 219 of the Family Code, which is framed much along the same lines. The definition in the Constitution applies to all sectors where there may yet remain gray areas regarding age that need to be addressed, e.g. marriageable age or age of criminal liability. The only exception remains the minimum age for admission to employment, which responds to different concerns. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has thus made considerable headway in harmonizing its domestic laws with international instruments.
67. With regard specifically to protection of children against early marriages and sexual abuse, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has adopted Act No. 06/018 of 20 July 2006. This law amends the Penal Code provisions pertaining to statutory rape with violence and indecent assault, extending the protection of the law to all persons under age 18, whereas only children
under 14 years of age were previously covered (articles 170 and 167). This law also has an impact on the interpretation of the discriminatory provision of article 352, paragraph 1, of the Family Code, which provides that “Marriage may not be contracted by a man under age 18 or a woman under age 15.” The same holds true with regard to article ter of the Decree-Law of 6 December 1950 on juvenile delinquency, as amended by the Ordinance of 4 July 1978, which provides: “A minor within the meaning of the present decree-law shall be any child who appears to be under age 16 at the time of the event.”
72. The process of formal harmonization of all the laws which still contain provisions inconsistent with the definition of the child contained in the Constitution will be completed with the adoption of the new Code on the Protection of Children, which will amend, in particular, the provisions of the Family Code concerning children and the Decree-law of 6 December 1950.
From initial report
88. […] Majority for penal purposes is set at 16 (Decree of 6 December 1950 on juvenile delinquency as subsequently amended by Ordinance-Law No. 78/016 of 4 July 1978)
 
Sources:
2nd report: CRC/C/COD/2, 24 July 2008
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.57, 8 August 2000