Nicolas Mbiya is an activist with Lutte pour le Changement – LUCHA (Fight For Change). LUCHA is a non-violent and non-partisan youth civil society movement founded in June 2012 in Goma, the capital of North Kivu. The movement advocates for social justice and accountability in the DRC through campaigns, and encourages Congolese citizens to fight for the promotion and respect of human rights. Most recently, LUCHA has been denouncing violence perpetrated by armed groups and the Congolese security forces in the Kasai region and has been campaigning for investigations into violence.
Congolese human rights defenders are frequent targets of intimidation, judicial proceedings, stigmatisation, death threats, arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detentions, gender based violence, ill treatment in prison including refusal of access to lawyers and medical care, physical assault and in some cases torture or killing by DRC government agents or armed groups.
