On 28 November 2011, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) held its second presidential and parliamentary elections since the end of the Transition Period in 2006. These elections, intended to be calm, transparent and illustrative of the country’s democratic progress, took place in an atmosphere of high tension, interspersed with acts of political intolerance and violence that claimed many lives. Between the 29 November 2011 and 20 January the UNJHRO deployed an investigation team to investigate the human rights violations which had occurred in Kinshasa between 26 November and 25 December 2011. The team collected about 110 testimonies of serious human rights violations, in particular the rights to life, physical integrity, freedom and security of person perpetrated by members of security and defence forces. The team documented 33 cases of civilians killed, 83 cases of civilians being wounded and the arrest and detention of 265 people due to their proven or suspected support for the opposition. It should be noted, however, that the team encountered difficulties in accessing detention centres and hospitals, reducing its ability to collect information. The number of grave human rights violations could thus be much higher. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for the authorities of the DRC and the international community.
Date of publication: March 2012
Original language: French
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As with the previous report to the Human Rights Council, presented at the sixteenth session in March 2011 (A/HRC/13/64), this report looks at a number of past recommendations made by the High Commissioner and several human rights mechanisms and assesses the response of the Congolese Government. The High Commissioner commends the Government’s efforts to implement some of the recommendations made by her Office and by other human rights mechanisms with a view to fighting impunity, strengthening state institutions and improving the human rights situation in the country. However, she regrets that, throughout 2011, there was little improvement in the situation of the population. Her Office continues to document serious human rights violations, in particular in the east of the country.
Date of publication: 13 January 2012
Original language: English
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This report reveals a worrying number of human rights violations during the pre-electoral period in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and warns that such incidents could endanger the democratic process and lead to post-electoral violence as well. Between 1 November 2010 and 30 September 2011, the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) documented 188 human rights violations apparently linked to the electoral process. The violations most frequently infringed individuals’ freedom of expression, the right to physical integrity and the right to liberty and security of the person, as well as the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. There have also been instances of violence and disturbance of public order committed by supporters of political parties. While this report is not an exhaustive account of human rights violations and acts of violence perpetrated, violations documented include incidents such as death threats against human rights defenders for holding a press conference in which they denounced reforms; beating or arrests of civilians for merely wearing the T-shirts of opposition parties; repeated summons to the National Intelligence Agency; the reported beating of a civilian for asking an “unpatriotic” question and the arrest and ill-treatment of four individuals for discussing politics in a barbershop.
Date of publication: 9 November 2011
Original: English
Access the UNJHRO and OHCHR press release
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This report presents the findings of the investigations undertaken by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) into the mass rapes and other human rights violations committed during the attacks on 13 villages along the Kibu-Mpofi axis in Walikale territory, North Kivu, between 30 July and 2 August 2010. As a result of its investigations, the UNJHRO is able to conclude that at least 387 civilians, including 300 women, 23 men, 55 girls and 9 boys, were raped by a coalition of combatants from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the Mayi Mayi Sheka and residual elements of forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva. In addition, at least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 civilians abducted and subjected to forced labor by the assailants. The report also covers the latest developments with regard to the investigations carried out by the military judicial authorities following the violations. Finally, the report includes recommendations to ensure better protection of civilians and guarantee respect for international humanitarian and human rights law following these attacks.
Date of publication: July 2011
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As with the previous report to the Human Rights Council, presented at the thirteenth session in March 2010 (A/HRC/13/64), this report looks at a number of past recommendations made by the High Commissioner and several human rights mechanisms. In addition, it assesses the response of the Congolese Government since the last report. In the course of the universal periodic review at the thirteenth session of the Council, the Congolese Government made a commitment to implement several of these recommendations. The High Commissioner welcomes this commitment and reiterates that she stands ready to assist the Government in its efforts in this direction.
Date of publication: 10 January 2011
Original language: French
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This report by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) addresses the human rights violations committed against civilians in the villages of Bushani and Kalambahiro in Masisi territory, North Kivu, on 31 December 2010 and 1 January 2011. On the basis of the investigations undertaken into these violations, the UNJHRO is able to confirm that men in uniform identified by various sources as soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) submitted 47 women, including one minor, to sexual violence, including rape, abducted two civilians, and inflicted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment on 12 others civilians. They also looted at least 100 houses in the Bushani area and three buildings and set on fire or destroyed at least four houses. No source, however, has yet been able to identify the FARDC battalion(s) that took part in the attack, particularly as their uniforms wore no identification. The report also highlights the limited cooperation between the FARDC and the military prosecutor’s office which impeded efforts to fight impunity. This report contains recommendations to the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MONUSCO and humanitarian partners, in particular with regard to the protection of civilians in these villages, the type of assistance needed by the victims, and the measures to be taken to ensure that the alleged perpetrators of these violations are brought to justice.
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From 30 July to 2 August 2010, a coalition of forces of the Mayi Mayi Cheka and the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) as well as forces under Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, a total of at least 200 fighters, systematically attacked civilians in 13 villages along the Kibua-Mpofi road in Walikale territory, province of North Kivu. The assailants looted most of these villages, committed mass rapes of women, me and children, abducted civilians and used them to forced labour.
The UNJHRO deployed a special fact-finding team from 25 August to 2 September 2010 in order to conduct an in-depth investigation into these human rights violations. The team visited the 13 villages targeted by the perpetrators and gathered more than 300 witness statements from different sources.
This is a preliminary report of the results of the investigation conducted by the team.
See the press release from JHRO and OHCHR.
Date of publication: 24 September 2010
Original: French
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Report presented on the 13th session of the Human Rights Council
Through interaction with various parts of the United Nations human rights system, including the High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council and its special procedures, as well as the treaty bodies, numerous recommendations have been made to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet very limited progress has been made in their implementation. Consequently, the Congolese people remain insecure in enjoying even their most fundamental human rights.
As an emerging “recommendation fatigue” can be observed, the approach of this report is not to make new recommendations to the Congolese authorities, but rather to recall conclusions and recommendations made in particular by the High Commissioner and seven thematic special procedures in their previous reports to the Council, as well as by other special procedures and treaty bodies to these recommendations during the period from March to November 2009 to identify setbacks and to determine the causes for the insufficient implementation of the recommendations.
Date of publication: 28 January 2010
Original: English
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The investigation conducted by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) from November 2008 to the beginning of January 2009 into the Kiwanja killings of 5 November 2008, indicates that after the intense fighting between Mayi Mayi combatants and the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) had ended and the Mayi Mayi had retreated from Kiwanja, CNDP elements conducted targeted and reprisal killings of the villagers, mainly young men whom they suspected of being either members or collaborators of the Mayi Mayi.
Date of publication: 7 September 2009
Original language: English
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This report provides a summary of the investigative and fact finding missions conducted between May 2008 and June 2009, by teams of officers from the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)1, on human rights violations committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)2, under the command of Joseph Kony and senior officers, some of whom have had arrest warrants issued against them by the ICC.3 The report focuses on the attacks from September 2008 to June 2009 in the districts of Haut-Uélé and Bas-Uélé, Orientale province.
Date of publication: December 2009
Original language: French
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