Child custody in Republic of the Congo

In the French tradition parental authority belongs to both parents, though older codes made the father head of the family. Many countries have reformed this, so check the current code.

The mother has parental authority over a child born outside marriage. The father gains it by acknowledging the child, in many countries together with the mother or by a court decision.

The unmarried father, in one line: Depends on the form of the marriage and on the community.

The court decides custody and contact by the child's interests. A young child often stays with the mother, with contact for the father.

Courts in this tradition hear a child who can understand, and take the child's views into account according to age and maturity.

Where both parents have parental responsibility, taking a child to live abroad generally needs both parents' agreement or a court's permission. Check the rules before any move.

Republic of the Congo is not in force under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, so there is no treaty route to ask for a child to be returned. Local advice is essential.

• Many families live under customary law, which varies from one community to the next and is often unwritten. In some communities a child belongs to the father's family, in others to the mother's, and the courts increasingly apply the child's best interests whatever the custom says.

Republic of the Congo belongs to the Civil law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Republic of the Congo legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Republic of the Congo? →

• JuriGlobe, University of Ottawa: world legal systems
• World Bank: Women, Business and the Law (country data on parenthood and marriage)