facto marriage. Women who are not in a union, not widows, not separated and not divorced constitute the spinster group. The results of the DHS survey conducted in 2013 show that more than six out of ten women aged between 15 and 49 years (64%) were in a union at the time of the survey: 46% were married and 18% were in a de facto union. A little over one out of four women were spinsters (26%). Moreover, the union of 10% of women had broken down – 8% were divorced or separated and 2% were widows. 183. All these figures show that women are in a difficult situation where marriage is concerned. Since the Government of the DRC is very much aware of the situation, it has taken a number of legislative and administrative measures to protect the rights of women, no matter their matrimonial status.  MARRIAGE AND ITS EFFECTS ON PROPERTY, NATIONALITY AND NAME (ARTICLE 6 (e) to (j)) 184. Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the DRC stipulates that private property is sacred. It guarantees the right to individual and joint property acquired in accordance with the law or customs as well as encourages and ensures the safety of private, national and foreign investments. Paragraph 3 of the same Article recommends the prohibition of the dispossession of a person of his property, except for purposes of the public good and upon payment of a prior fair consideration made under circumstances determined by law. The same law states that no one’s property may be seized unless a competent legal authority takes a decision to that effect, and no one’s property may be divested without a valid reason recognized by a court of law. 185. With regard to matrimonial regimes, the law identifies three forms (i) maintenance of separate estates; (ii) communal estate comprising only property acquired after marriage, and (iii) joint estate of husband and wife comprising all property. The registrar must explain these three types of settlements to the future spouses and warn them that if they fail to make a choice, the settlement involving communal estate comprising only property acquired after marriage will be applied to them. The settlement chosen by the future spouses is always stated on the marriage certificate. The rights and obligations under these forms of settlement and in the Constitution make no exception for anyone and concern both men and women. 186. Article 508 of the Family Code specifies that where, through the desire of the spouses, the management of property is not assigned to the husband, each of the spouses administers their property and receives income accruing therefrom. The law also authorizes women to manage and administer the effects reserved for her personal use, particularly clothes, jewels and working instruments as well as any compensation and damages to be enjoyed by her due to an accident which may have deprived her of professional earnings she is entitled to rely on. The wife manages and administers property she acquires in the discharge of a profession other than that of her husband and the savings made therefrom. 187. After the marriage, the wife may take the surname of her husband and keep it even after the end of the marriage as a result of death. However, the law also allows the wife to retain her name, although she is entitled to use her husband’s name (Article 62 of the Family Code). In this case, she affixes her husband’s name to hers. The law also allows a widow who has not remarried to continue using her husband’s name till she dies. 188. Concerning nationality, Article 10 of the Constitution of the DRC provides that it is one and exclusive. It cannot be held concurrently with another; it is either by origin or by individual acquisition. An organic law determines the conditions for recognition, acquisition or loss and recovery of Congolese nationality. The Family Code stipulates that Congolese nationality can be acquired through naturalization, option, adoption, marriage, birth and residence in the Republic of Congo. A foreigner or a stateless person who contracts a marriage with a spouse of Congolese nationality may, after a period of seven years as from the date of the marriage, acquire Congolese nationality per Decree issued after deliberations by Cabinet and upon a proposal by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, on condition that at the time the application is submitted, the union between the spouses has not ceased and that the Congolese spouse has retained his/her nationality. 41