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Article 16
Every accused person or detained [person] must benefit from a treatment that preserves their
dignity, their physical and mental health and that aids their social rehabilitation
No one has the right to obstruct an accused person or detained [person] from being examined by a
doctor of their choice.
Every accused [person] has the right to be assisted by counsel at the stage of the preliminary inquiry.
Article 17
Every person arrested has the right to be immediately informed of the charges brought against them.
Article 18
Any accused [person] or suspected [person] is presumed innocent until their culpability has been
established following a process that offers them the guarantees indispensible to their defense.
The judicial power, guardian of the individual liberty, assures respect for this principle within the
conditions provided for by the law.
Article 19
Every person has the right in any matter that their cause will be heard and resolved equitably within a
reasonable time by an independent and impartial jurisdiction.
No one may be condemned for acts that did not constitute an infraction at the moment when they
were committed.
Outside of the cases provided by the law, no one may be investigated or condemned for the acts
blamed on others.
The damages resulting from an error of justice or those brought about by an abnormal functioning of
the administration of justice give rise to an indemnification at the expense of the State, in accordance
with the law.
Article 20
No one may be submitted to measures of control or of security outside of the cases provided for by
the law.
Article 21
The human person is sacred and inviolable.
No one may be submitted to torture or to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments.
No one may evade the punishment incurred by committing such violations by invoking the order of a
superior or [that] of a public authority.
Any individual, [or] any agent of the State, culpable of such acts, either on their own initiative, or on
instruction, will be punished in accordance with the law.
Any individual, [or] any agent of the State is relieved of the duty of obedience when the order
received constitutes a grave and manifest infringement of the respect of the Rights of Man and of the
public freedoms.
Togo 1992 (rev. 2007)
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