Democratic Republic of Congo
Active Cases
In the post-conflict transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, human rights defenders continue to operate at extreme personal risk in an atmosphere of violence, hostility and instability. An absence of the rule of law and climate of impunity prevails. Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are severely limited. Members of human rights organizations and journalists are targeted.
The UN reports that it is difficult to determine the number of organisations in the human rights community and that the situation, the role and the capacity of human rights defenders in the country is intrinsically linked with the country’s situation, with NGO’s suffering from severe financial, technical and material constraints. The community includes organisations active in the defence of womens’ rights, indigenous rights and the fight against corruption. Human rights defenders are frequently targets of intimidation, stigmatisation, constant surveillance, travel bans, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, torture, ill-treatment in prison including refusal of access to lawyers and medical care, physical assault and death threats. Extrajudicial killings of defenders are carried out with impunity and many defenders have been forced into hiding or exile as a result of the threats against their security and the safety of their families by security forces. In July 2006, Pascal Kabungulu, Executive Secretary of Heiritiers de Justice, was shot dead but the investigation into his murder was incomplete and the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Freedom of expression is severely limited and defenders have been targeted after publicly highlighting human rights violations by electoral candidates and other officials, protesting against corruption, economic mismanagement and abusive exploitation of natural resources by the authorities and cooperating with the International Criminal Court. Freedom of assembly is also limited, with public demonstrations requiring permission from the authorities which is rarely granted.