The president is directly elected to five-year terms. The 2002 constitution restricted the president to two terms and set an age limit of 70. However, a 2015 constitutional referendum proposed by President Sassou Nguesso removed those restrictions, allowing him to run again. The referendum passed amid widespread protests and claims of fraud.

Sassou Nguesso has held power since 1979, with the exception of a five-year period in the 1990s. In March 2021, he secured his fourth presidential term since returning to power in 1997, claiming 88.4 percent of the vote. The election was marked by restrictions on assembly rights, an internet shutdown, intimidation, and a boycott by the opposition UPADS. Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas, who died of COVID-19 soon after the election, won 8 percent.

Congo’s parliament consists of a 72-seat Senate and a 151-seat National Assembly. Councilors from each department elect senators to six-year terms. National Assembly members are directly elected to five-year terms.

The 2022 legislative elections were boycotted by several opposition parties amid credible allegations that the vote would be rigged. Sassou Nguesso’s Congolese Labor Party (PCT) claimed 112 National Assembly seats, and its allies won 12. The opposition groups UPADS and Union of Humanist Democrats–YUKI (UDH-YUKI) each won 7. Opposition groups alleged that the elections were fraudulent; voter turnout was low.

In August 2023, new senators were elected by municipal and departmental councilors. The ruling PCT claimed 52 seats, its allies won 12, and independent candidates won 7. Just one member of the opposition was elected, Élisabeth Mapaha of UPADS. Pierre Ngolo, formerly the secretary general of the PCT, was reelected as the Senate’s president.

The 2015 constitutional referendum consolidated the PCT’s dominance of the political system by allowing Sassou Nguesso to run for a third term. Elections are administered by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which was established in 2016 and is widely regarded as an instrument of presidential authority.

Political groupings exist, but the government represses those not aligned with the PCT, including by persecuting their leaders. Sassou Nguesso’s two most prominent opponents in the 2016 presidential election, retired general Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa, received prison terms after the election. In 2018, Mokoko was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for threatening state security. In 2019, Okombi Salissa, who had led the opposition Initiative for Democracy in Congo coalition, was sentenced to 20 years of forced labor for the same charge.

Private campaign contributions are banned, leaving opposition parties and candidates dependent on limited public financing.

Political parties are sometimes denied registration without cause. In 2020, the government suspended a number of parties, including United for Congo (UPC), excluding them from its list of approved parties.

There is little opportunity for the opposition to gain power through elections, and opposition leaders frequently experience harassment, intimidation, and arrest. During the 2016 presidential race, opposition candidates Mokoko and Okombi Salissa were repeatedly harassed, and both were later imprisoned. In 2021, Kolélas complained of movement restrictions, and authorities cancelled some campaign events.

The Sassou Nguesso government routinely uses military and police forces to intimidate citizens. Employers discriminate on the basis of political beliefs when hiring and making other employment-related decisions.

Although there are no legal restrictions on political participation by religion, gender, sexual identity, or ethnic group, members of Sassou Nguesso’s northern Mbochi ethnic group occupy key government posts. Representatives from other regional and ethnic groups have limited ability to shape policy. The government routinely suppresses political parties that draw support from Congo’s southern regions, which have long opposed Sassou Nguesso.

Women, whose political participation is limited by societal constraints, are underrepresented in government. Women won only 25 National Assembly seats in the 2022 elections; after the August 2023 elections they held 22 Senate seats. Evelyne Tchitchelle of the PCT became the country’s first female mayor when she was elected in Pointe-Noire in 2022.

Government policy is set by President Sassou Nguesso. There is little oversight from the parliament, which is dominated by the ruling PCT and protects the executive from accountability.

Corruption is endemic, and domestic prosecutions for corruption are often politically motivated. Sassou Nguesso’s family has long been dogged by credible allegations of corruption. The president’s family and advisers control the state-run National Petroleum Company of Congo (SNPC) without meaningful oversight, and offshore companies are allegedly used to embezzle SNPC funds.

In January 2023, the French newspaper Libération reported that Orion Oil had been under investigation by French authorities since 2012. The newspaper reported that the company allegedly purchased oil from the SNPC at below-market prices, sold it at a markup on the international market, and returned the proceeds to Sassou Nguesso.

In July 2023, a coalition of Congolese NGOs filed a lawsuit against the unknown perpetrator—likely the Sassou Nguesso family—responsible for stealing $25 billion of public revenue.

Government operations are opaque. Although the constitution guarantees access to information, there is no legislation that implements this guarantee, nor is there a specific law mandating public access to official information. Public procurement procedures are not transparent. Authorities generally do not publish draft legislation or regulations.

In 2020, Global Witness reported that the SNPC held as much as $3.3 billion in undisclosed liabilities, some of which were unrelated to oil production, while dividends owed to the government had gone missing.

While the constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, the government routinely pressures, threatens, and incarcerates journalists. While there are numerous media outlets, many are owned by government allies who influence their coverage. Widespread self-censorship among journalists hinders independent reporting in practice. The government provides subsidies to state-run media but has refused to do so for some other outlets, and a number of newspapers have closed in recent years, citing financial problems.

Augias Ray Malonga, interim editor of the Sel-Piment newspaper, was arrested in Brazzaville in late December 2021 and was released in January 2022. Later that month, Congo’s media regulator suspended the publication of Sel-Piment for six months after it republished an article alleging the country’s treasurer was corrupt. Also in 2022, the media regulator suspended VOX TV for a week, accusing the private broadcaster of disseminating information that could “disturb public order.”

Although religious freedom is generally respected, pastors are reticent to make statements that could be construed as hostile to the government. In 2015, the government banned wearing a niqab, a full-face veil, in public, citing security and terrorism concerns.

Academic freedom is tenuous. Most university professors avoid discussions of or research on politically sensitive topics. In 2018, the government announced that it would ban a book, published in Paris, about widespread human rights abuses perpetrated by the military in the Pool region between 2016 and 2017.

The government surveils electronic communications of private individuals and maintains an extensive surveillance apparatus, which includes secret police and local informants. Surveillance is reportedly prevalent in public spaces in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Citizens who speak out against the government are often arrested.

The government restricts freedom of assembly. Groups must receive official authorization from local and federal authorities to hold public assemblies, and permission is routinely denied. Government forces sometimes employ violence against protesters or disperse assemblies.

Although the constitution guarantees freedom of association, NGOs must register with the Interior Ministry. Organizations that are critical of the government often encounter a more burdensome registration process. Arbitrary arrests of civil society figures have continued in recent years, contributing to a reduction in their activities. Groups that are still operating commonly curtail their reporting on human rights abuses or word criticism of authorities carefully to avoid reprisals or harassment.

Although union rights are nominally protected, laws protecting union members are not always enforced. The government has intervened in labor disputes by harassing and arresting laborers and pressuring union leaders, particularly those who are part of the country’s largest labor union, the Congolese Trade Union Confederation (CSC).

Congo’s judiciary is dominated by Sassou Nguesso’s allies, undermined by a lack of resources, and vulnerable to corruption and political influence. In 2015, the Constitutional Court’s confirmation of the results of the constitutional referendum was viewed as a rubber-stamp approval of Sassou Nguesso’s efforts to remain in power. In 2021, the Constitutional Court rejected legitimate objections to the conduct of the elections held that March.

Defendants, including the government’s political opponents, are routinely denied due process. Arbitrary arrests and detentions are constitutionally prohibited but are nevertheless common. Other fair-trial rights guaranteed by law, including the right to legal assistance for those who cannot afford it, are not always honored in practice.

Citizens in some neighborhoods are at risk of intimidation and violent crime by groups of young men known as bébés noirs. There have also been reports of arbitrary arrests and physical abuses by police attempting to curb the activities of these groups. Reports of human rights violations by security forces are generally not investigated by the government.

Employment discrimination against women persists. The government prevents refugees and other foreign workers from holding certain jobs, and refugees sometimes face harassment and arrest by authorities.

While no law specifically prohibits same-sex sexual relations between adults, LGBT+ people experience occasional police harassment.

Minority ethnic groups experience severe discrimination in employment, housing, and education. Some communities often live in substandard housing on the outskirts of villages, and occasionally are targeted in acts of violence committed by members of the majority Bantu population.

The government exhibits widespread discrimination against residents of Congo’s southern regions. They are routinely denied high-paying public-sector jobs, as well as admission to Congo’s public university. By contrast, residents of Congo’s northern regions are disproportionately appointed to key government positions and the civil service.

Although private citizens generally enjoy freedom of movement, activists and opposition leaders can face restrictions and the confiscation of their passports.

Legal protections for business and property rights can be undermined by bureaucracy, poor judicial safeguards, and corruption. The government directly or indirectly controls property in key industries such as oil, minerals, and aviation.

Violence against women, including domestic violence and rape, is widespread but rarely reported. Other than the general statutes that prohibit assault, there are no specific laws forbidding domestic violence.

Men are legally considered the head of the household, and are favored in divorce settlements. Adultery is illegal for both men and women, but women convicted of the crime face a potential prison sentence, while men face only a fine.

Congo is a source and destination country for human trafficking, and government officials have been accused of being complicit. However, the US State Department reported in its 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report that authorities have increased antitrafficking efforts by training law enforcement officials and issuing decrees aimed at reducing the vulnerability of Indigenous people to trafficking. However, the report also found that the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers during the reporting period.

According to local NGOs, members of minority ethnic groups have been conscripted into forced farm labor by members of the Bantu ethnic majority. Child labor laws are reportedly not effectively enforced.