: Ituri was endowed with a human rights and elections observatory on 7 October 2015. Members of the OMDHE coordinating committee were elected in Bunia at the end of a sensitization workshop organized by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office. The Observatory is made up of delegates from the civil society organizations, NGOs and political parties.

The sensitization workshop trained the different actors to do a better monitoring of the human rights during the electoral period and lead to the establishment of the OMDHE; it brought together 35 members from Human Rights NGOs and representatives of political parties based in Ituri. For two days, participants discussed topical issues such as: fundamental freedoms during the electoral period; Human Rights and Elections, Political Parties' Rights and Duties during the electoral period; Human Rights Monitoring during the pre-electoral period and monitoring of political demonstrations and rallies.



Ignace Bingi, coordinator for the observatory said "their objective is not only to accompany Human rights Organizations and political parties but also to bring the population and all the electoral actors to conduct the electoral process in a climate of trust and respectful of the Law where any escalation of tensions during the elections can be contained."

He underscored that the major challenges facing the observatory will consist in "addressing the misunderstanding likely to arise from the elections in order to bring 2 rival parties to reach a compromise for the social peace to prevail."

For now, the observatory will use its own resources to function pending the resources to be generated by advocacy.

Laurent Sam OUSSOU