CONGO, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: Children's rights in the Special Procedures' reports

Submitted by crinadmin on

Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.

Scroll to:

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudical, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
Philip Alston
(A/HRC/14/24/Add.3 )

 Country visit: 5 October – 15 October 2009
Report published: 14 June 2010

Right to life: One witness described how his village was initially Mayi-Mayi/FDLR controlled, and was then taken over by the FARDC in the early stages of Kimia II. When the FARDC left two months later, the FDLR attacked, killing large numbers of civilians. Another witness, from Ufumandu, explained that his area had been controlled by the FDLR for years. When the FARDC came to the area, they managed to largely drive the FDLR out. However, the FDLR came back, looted, burned down homes and killed the villagers in retaliation. The witness's brother and nephew were burned inside their home. Most witnesses to such attacks lost numerous relatives, and were living in camps for internally displaced persons when I met them, too afraid to return because they did not know who was in control or how they would be treated. One 34-year-old female had fled Masisi territory after her husband and three of her children were burned to death when they tried to defend their home from an FDLR attack, following FDLR-FARDC disputes over the territory. Another 37-year-old female's husband and children were killed when the FDLR attacked her village after the FARDC had taken it over and then left it unprotected. (Paragraph 14)

Reliable estimates indicate that the LRA massacred some 800 civilians in the five- month period from September 2008 to January 2009.19 The most concentrated and deadly set of attacks were over Christmas 2008, during which the LRA attacked entire villages, in some cases beating to death over 50 civilians in one day. In Dungu and Doruma, I spoke with witnesses to these attacks, as well as civilians who had been kidnapped and former child soldiers. Witnesses watched their neighbours and family members killed with machetes and sticks. In some attacks, the LRA tricked or forced residents to gather together so that they could maximize civilian casualties. One witness with whom I spoke described an attack on 25 December 2008 in Batande village, after which he found 50 to 60 corpses in the village's church, and more bodies in the surrounding woods. He and other witnesses testified that a number of the women showed signs of having been raped before they were killed. (Paragraph 48)

Kidnapping: Over 1,300 Congolese civilians have been killed by the LRA Ugandan rebel group since September 2008. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, against whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in 2005, has committed some of the most calculated and horrific killings I have encountered during my nearly six years as Special Rapporteur. Over a 20-year period, the LRA terrorized many tens of thousands of victims; it has kidnapped children and forced them to become soldiers, hacked civilians to death or left them with mutilated limbs and faces, and it has engaged in frequent looting, pillaging and sexual violence, including sexual slavery. By some estimates, the LRA has killed over 65,000 civilians and abducted some 40,000 children. It poses a threat to civilians across the central African region. Yet regional Governments and the international community devote far too little attention to what is one of the most brutal armed groups active in the world today. Insufficient steps have been taken to protect civilians, and the various small-scale and ill-conceived military efforts launched by Governments in the region have achieved little. (Paragraph 46)

However, my investigations in Province Orientale revealed clearly that the LRA remains a serious threat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While the LRA has not repeated the massacres of Christmas 2008, it does continue to kill, rape, loot and kidnap, and the risk of further massacres remains high. In the six months before my visit, from April to September 2009, there were at least 186 recorded attacks, with 233 civilians killed, and 603 adults and 97 children kidnapped. (Paragraph 51)

Sexual violence: Sexual violence in the Congo, and especially in the Kivus, falls squarely within my mandate because it has reached such levels of brutality that women have literally been raped to death.21 Many others have died subsequently. Women and girls, including babies,22 have been gang-raped, had guns, wood, sand or glue inserted into their bodies, and had their genitals mutilated. Some pregnant women have had foetuses ripped out of their wombs by perpetrators. I received multiple accounts in the Kivus of gang rapes so vicious that women died from bleeding or from ruptured uteruses. I also received numerous accounts of severe rape-related injuries (e.g., gunshots to a woman's vagina) that resulted in death days or weeks later. Such deaths are especially likely in remote areas where victims have little or no access to health services. Those who survive are often left with debilitating physical injuries, such as fistula or displaced uterus, and deep psychological harm. (Paragraph 62)

Detention of children: Prison overcrowding is also endemic across the country. The Goma Prison was built for 150, but at the time of my visit there were 793 detainees, including 11 women and 8 children. The prison director stated that there was a permanent shortage of food. Detainees reported the complete absence of medical services, leading to frequent preventable deaths due to illnesses such as diarrhoea. They also reported significant inter-prisoner violence, and stated that, while food was received once a week from the director, the strongest prisoners took the bulk of it. Many of the prisoners had never seen a judge or prosecutor. (Paragraph 84)

Sorcery: Significant numbers of children and women are accused of being witches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and are subjected to torture, harsh beatings and other cruelty as a result. Some have been killed, or have died following cruel treatment. This violence is one outcome of a widespread social phenomenon in which vulnerable members of the community are blamed for misfortunes, such as the loss of a job or illness. According to international and local non-governmental organizations, tens of thousands of children abandoned on the streets of Kinshasa and other major cities are especially vulnerable to witchcraft accusations. Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon is most prevalent in poverty- stricken communities, which lack access to education and social services, and the victims are often individuals with physical or mental disabilities who are perceived to have "brought defects" into a family or community. (Paragraph 87)

Because of the remoteness of many communities and a level of secrecy around the practice, victim numbers are hard to ascertain. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, at least 12 accused child witches were killed in three provinces (Orientale, Maniema and Katanga) from September 2008 to early October 2009, mostly by their own family members. In Kasai Occidental, there are credible accounts of over 21 children subjected to harsh beatings and cruel treatment for alleged witchcraft. (Paragraph 88)

Churches and cults that practice exorcism play an especially pernicious role, often condoning victimization and subjecting children to "exorcisms" or "deliverance" ceremonies in which they are forcibly isolated and deprived of food and water. In one emblematic case from Province Orientale, one of the wives of a polygamous man accused her husband's young son of trying to kill her. The father took the son to be exorcised and a church deacon bound the child while the father and his wife poured boiling water on him. The wife submerged the child in water heated to over 90 degrees. He died of second degree burns. In another case in Katoko, Maniema, an 8-year-old boy died in October 2009 after a local pastor imprisoned him in a "prayer chamber" for seven days without food. (Paragraph 89)

There is almost total impunity for such killings; witnesses or family members are reluctant to report such incidents to authorities, and officials all too often turn a blind eye to preventing or investigating the violence . (Paragraph 90)

Child soldiers: The most brazen example of impunity was the role of Bosco Ntaganda as a senior commander in the Kimia II operation. Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court for enlisting and using child soldiers in Ituri in 2002 and 2003, and has been accused of command responsibility for further war crimes, including those committed during the 2008 Kiwanja massacre. Although the Minister for Defence addressed a letter to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 29 May 2009 stating that General Bosco Ntaganda was not involved in Kimia II, his current command role is widely acknowledged and not seriously disputed. Other FARDC Kimia II commanders suspected of responsibility for killings in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law include:

• Colonel Sultani Makenga (suspected involvement in massacres in Pinga and Lukweti in 2003 and 2004; the killing of children in Nyamilima in 2005; command responsibility for Buramba massacre; killings near Katwiguru, Kiseguru, Rubare)

• Colonel Innocent Zimurinda (suspected command responsibility for killings in Rutshuru; Buramba massacre; Kiwanja killings; Shalio massacre)

• Colonel Bernard Byamungu (suspected responsibility for killings in Kindu; massacres in Songwe, Route Camp Luama, Nyonga, in 2002; Kisangani massacre in 2002)

• Lieutenant Colonel Salumu Mulenda (suspected involvement in Mogwalu attack in 2002; killings in Lipri and Bambu areas) (Paragraph 105)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
Margaret Sekaggya
(A/HRC/13/22/Add.2 )

Country visit: 21 May – 3 June 2009
Report published: 25 February 2010

Threats against human rights defenders: The Special Rapporteur was recently informed of the case of Rebecca Agamile, treasurer for Solidarité Féminine pour la Paix et le Développement (SOFEPADI), an NGO which promotes and protects women's rights in Bunia (Oriental province). On 1 October 2009, a group of unidentified armed men threatened to kill and rape Ms. Agamile and her 16-year-old daughter, allegedly because of the work of SOFEPADI in cooperating with the ICC and sharing information about human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Paragraph 68)

Following decades of dictatorship, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is engaged in a political, economic and social transition. However, a conducive environment in which human rights defenders can operate has yet to fully emerge. The Special Rapporteur commends the political will of the Government to build a modern democratic society, and in particular the efforts of the Ministers for Human Rights and Gender, Family and Children, who, despite meager resources and limited political support, are trying to improve the prospects for the promotion and protection of human rights. However, these Government efforts are clearly not enough, given the magnitude of the violations suffered by human rights defenders, including women defenders, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Paragraph 91)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons
Walter Kälin

Country visit: 17 January – 23 January 2009
Press Release published: 27 January 2009

In mid-December 2008, the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda launched a joint military operation against the Lord's Resistance Army, an armed group whose leader Joseph Kony has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. "Lord's Resistance Army fighters fleeing the offensive have killed at least 500 civilians, raped women and abducted children. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been forcibly displaced," Mr. Kälin said.

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons
Walter Kälin
(A/HRC/8/6/Add.3 )

Country visit: 12 February – 22 February 2008
Report published: 16 May 2008

Violence: In most cases, people were forced to leave their homes owing to clashes between the FARDC and the various armed groups which are present in the east of the country, or following clashes between different armed groups. The widespread insecurity and violence which are prevalent in certain provinces, as a result of the abuses and violations of human rights committed against civilians, also forced many Congolese to move. The Representative has learned of cases of massacres, arbitrary executions or the looting of houses and the near-systematic holding of the population to ransom, but also very many cases of rape, sometimes committed in a systematic manner, arbitrary detention and forcible recruitment of children. According to information received from the majority of those he met, including many displaced persons, this violence is mainly caused by the armed groups and bandits located in the relevant regions of North and South Kivu and Ituri. In North and South Kivu, the violence stems mainly from clashes between the FARDC and the troops of the dissident general Nkunda, who claims to be a protector of the interests of the Tutsi communities, on the one hand, and on the other between Mai-Mai groups (self-protection militias) and the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), who are accused of harbouring in their ranks persons responsible for the genocide in Rwanda. However, the Representative has also been informed of many violations committed by the FARDC, in particular against women, which have fostered a climate of violence. (Paragraph 16)

Forcible recruitment of children: The question of the preservation of the civilian character of the displaced persons' camps and sites is also of considerable importance, in the Representative's view. He is concerned at reports of the presence of members of the FARDC and armed groups in the camps. In the MUNGUNGA I and II camps, some reports indicate that displaced persons are sometimes forced to carry soldiers' belongings and build camps for them, and that displaced children are obliged to bring them water. Cases of forcible recruitment of children and young people have also been reported. It is said that women regularly fall victim to rape and other sexual violence when they go to look for wood, for example. (Paragraph 48)

The Representative notes that the Goma statements of commitment, reiterating the principles of humanitarian law set out in Principle 13, for example, strictly forbid the recruitment of children. In this context, he encourages the parties to the conflict to respect this provision and calls on all concerned to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and urgently embark on the demobilization of children and refrain from any attempt to recruit them into armed groups. He calls on the international organizations concerned to assign priority to this issue. (Paragraph 67)

The forcible recruitment of children and the number of rapes not only cause forced displacement and pose a risk for the women and children concerned, but also constitute a major obstacle preventing displaced persons from returning home. (Paragraph 69)

The Representative points out that the armed groups have an obligation to respect international humanitarian law, in particular the fundamental distinction between combatants and civilians, and should refrain from any act prohibited by international humanitarian law, such as making use of

the civilian population as a base for their actions, recruiting children into their ranks and exposing the civilian population to the risk of reprisals. (Paragraph 75(b)i)

The Representative calls for the disarming and immediate rehabilitation of child soldiers. (Paragraph 75(b)ii)

Education: Where education is concerned, school courses have been seriously disrupted. In addition, many schools have been taken over by displaced persons. The Representative's attention was also drawn many times to the economic constraints encountered by displaced persons in this area. Even if education is officially free in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, parents are expected to contribute to teachers' salaries, and displaced persons often cannot afford such expenses. In addition, no schools have been set up in the camps so as to encourage contacts and dialogue with the host communities and present excessive marginalization of the displaced persons. However, economic difficulties and often considerations of distance mean that many displaced children living in camps have no access to education. (Paragraph 54)

Displaced Children: As in many conflicts, displaced children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffer to a greater extent from the difficulties which must be overcome by the whole of the displaced population. In addition, they are denied certain rights which are specific to children, such as the right to education. The Representative is particularly concerned at reports of the forcible recruitment of children and young people by armed groups. He himself spoke to two young teenagers he met in Bohimba camp, near Goma, who told him how members of the group led by the dissident general Nkunda had surrounded a school for the purpose of forcibly recruiting the pupils. During the attack, some of them were killed and others wounded. (Paragraph 66)

The Representative recommends that, as far as possible, humanitarian aid should be better adapted to the needs of the displaced populations, in particular by taking into account the specific food requirements of young children. Where non-food items are concerned, an additional effort should

be made, in particular by supplying tools and seeds so as to enable the displaced persons to continue farming, and by developing other activities related to early recovery. (Paragraph 75(c)iv)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Leandro Despouy
(A/HRC/8/4/Add.2 )

Country visit: 15 April – 21 April 2007
Report published: 11 April 2008

Preventative detention: Preventive detention is the rule rather than the exception in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is used in connection with far too many offences, and often the sole aim is to extract money in return for the detainee's release. The law sets an upper limit on preventive detention, but this is usually not applied. During his visits to places of detention in Kinshasa and Bunia, the Special Rapporteur was extremely concerned to note that, given the slowness of the judicial system, and in some cases the absence of any trial, men, women and children are often held in preventive detention for months or even years without being found guilty by a court of law. What is more, these persons are usually held with convicted prisoners. (Paragraph 50)

Sexual violence: The victims of serious human rights violations are often in areas under the military control of the perpetrators of those very violations, who continue to enjoy impunity. As pointed out in the reports published twice a year by the MONUC Human Rights Division, nearly all of those who commit serious human rights violations are armed men: members of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), policemen, armed bands of Rwandan Hutus or Congolese armed groups such as the Mai-Mai which hold violent sway in many rural areas. After looting houses and raping women and girls, they often threaten to return. These threats and fear prevent victims from seeking redress before the competent courts, which are often far away. Even if a victim manages to bring a case before the court, the judiciary cannot guarantee their protection. Judges themselves have admitted to the Special Rapporteur that they are afraid to go to the eastern parts of the country, much less remote areas of the provinces. Judges report having been threatened and even violently assaulted on account of their investigations. Lastly, there is no witness protection programme. Witnesses often refuse to appear before the judicial authorities as they are subjected to the same threats, which makes investigation difficult. The situation of insecurity is a major obstacle to victims' access to justice and, in general, to combating impunity, as it affects the main participants in the judicial procedure: victims, witnesses and judges. (Paragraph 63)

Child soldiers: Concurrently with the establishment of an independent and efficient judicial system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is thus essential to put in place a transitional justice mechanism specifically to try the crimes committed during the conflict. The establishment of the International Criminal Court and the opening of the preliminary hearings in the trial of former militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, charged with conscripting and enlisting child soldiers in his militias, are important steps that will make it possible to try some of the crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the International Criminal Court alone cannot try all the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the country over almost a decade, not only because its jurisdiction is limited to acts committed since the entry into force of the Rome Statute (1 July 2002), but also because it lacks sufficient resources. The Democratic Republic of the Congo must therefore set up a transitional justice mechanism to supplement the investigations and trials being conducted by the International Criminal Court. |(Paragraph 67)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Titinga Frédéric Pacéré
(A/HRC/7/25 )

Country visit: 27 November – 6 December 2007
Report published: 29 February 2008

Sexual violence: The incidence of acts of sexual violence continues to increase at an alarming rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with almost total impunity. Pregnant women, persons in detention, minors and even babies are victims of individual or gang rapes, committed, to a worrying extent, by members of the Congolese national police and FARDC. On 14 September 2007, members of the Congolese national police in Yanonge (Orientale Province), acting on orders from their commanding officer, allegedly raped eight women, including three minors aged from 11 to 14 years and one pregnant woman. (Paragraph 39)

The underrepresentation of women among judicial personnel, the predominantly patriarchal culture and the tendency for acts of violence against women to become commonplace contribute to the proliferation of these "mediations" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the detriment of the victims' basic rights. The practice is often accompanied by acts of intimidation and, sometimes, even punishment of the victim. On 4 September 2007, a young female rape victim was detained for three days at the police station in the village of Kalima (Maniema Province) for refusing to accept such an arrangement. Fearing that she would press charges, the rape suspect, a local trader, used his influence with the police to have the young girl arrested and charged with defamation. The victim was released only after giving US$ 20 to the police officers. (Paragraph 41)

According to reliable sources, many teachers and professors, who have a legal and moral obligation to educate and care for their pupils and students, abuse their authority and award marks, promotion into the next grade or diplomas with honours in exchange for sexual favours. That practice, which is taking on alarming proportions, is the subject of growing criticism on the part of certain NGOs and the media, which refer to it as "sexually-transmitted assessments". As a result, the image of the school and university system, supposedly a place for the transmission of knowledge, civic education and the spreading of moral values, has been seriously damaged. (Paragraph 49)

Child soldiers and street children: In spite of the commitments made by the parties to various conflicts, minors continue to be enlisted as combatants, in flagrant violation of international conventions and their optional protocols on protection of the rights of children. The reports of the MONUC child protection unit cite many cases of forced recruitment of minors, mostly schoolchildren in the province of North Kivu, in particular the Masisi and Rutshuru regions, in the last four months of 2008. Those mainly responsible are said to be the Congrès National pour la Defense du Peuple led by disgraced General Laurent Nkundu, and Mai-Mai groups. (Paragraph 50)

The phenomenon of street children, or "shégués", is a logical consequence of the unstable situation and economic decay in the country. When parents are unable to meet their children's needs, many children choose to live in the streets. There is a growing number of such children, living in abject poverty, with no adult supervision. The consequences in the future could be serious, as these children are often recruited to carry out reprehensible acts. (Paragraph 51)

Education: Although the right to a basic education is guaranteed by the Constitution, many children still do not have access to education. The hopes raised when the Government proposed to take full responsibility for paying the salaries of teachers, thus making primary and secondary education free of charge, vanished with the allocation of only 5 per cent of the 2008 budget to the education sector. As a result, many children of school age will continue to be denied an education for a long time to come, jeopardizing their and the country's future. (Paragraph 57)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Yakin Ertürk
(A/HRC/7/6/Add.4 )

Country visit: 16 July – 28 July 2007
Report published: 28 February 2008

Sexual violence: A number of observers also noted that the victims are increasingly young girls. The Hospital of Médecins sans Frontières in Bunia (Ituri), for example, reported that one in six patients (17 per cent) who was treated at the hospital for rape-related injuries in the first half of 2007 were younger than 12 years. The belief that HIV and AIDS can be cured by raping a virgin girl is one myth motivating the rapist. (Paragraph 16)

An analysis of the cases recorded by the Provincial Synergy in 2007 shows that 70 per cent of all rapes in South Kivu are committed by non-State groups, 16 per cent by the FARDC and PNC and 14 per cent by civilians; 13 per cent of the victims are girls younger than 18 years old. (Paragraph 18)

A number of FDLR/Rasta fighters are Rwandan nationals, some of whom are thought to be implicated in the Rwandan genocide. The sexual atrocities committed in South Kivu are indeed reminiscent of those perpetrated by Interahamwe militia during the Rwandan genocide. The atrocities are structured around rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage. They aim at the complete physical and psychological destruction of women with implications for the entire society. Women are brutally gang-raped, often in front of their families and communities. In numerous cases, men are forced at gunpoint to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters. In some cases women were shot or stabbed in their genital organs after they were raped. Women, who survived months of enslavement, told me that their tormentors had forced them to eat excrement or the human flesh of murdered relatives. (Paragraph 21)

FARDC, the FARDC Naval Forces, PNC and the Presidential Guard continue to perpetrate sexual violence. In some areas, rapes seem to be systematically employed to intimidate the local population. FARDC soldiers of the 109th Brigade based in Uvira were repeatedly accused of rape. On 22 March 2007, for instance, soldiers of the 109th Brigade reportedly raped a 13-year-old girl at Katongo (15 km south of Uvira, South Kivu). (Paragraph 25)

According to reports, individual soldiers and police also routinely extort money and other goods from the local population. Such extortion may be accompanied by rape. On 11 March 2007, for instance, an 11-year-old girl was reportedly raped by two FARDC soldiers of the 14th Integrated Brigade in the locality of Nyamukubi (95 km north of Bukavu) when her parents resisted the illegal occupation of their home by soldiers. (Paragraph 26)

Individual perpetrators are usually not held to account by their commanders, who themselves may be among the perpetrators. In July 2007, for instance, an officer of the 3rd Company of the 102nd Brigade based in Maturale (42 km north of Uvira) reportedly raped a 14-year-old girl and then attempted to settle the matter privately by giving the family of the victim US$ 50 and a goat. (Paragraph 27)

A colonel reportedly raped a 14-year old girl in Sange (95 km South of Bukavu) in 2005, when he was commander of the 110th Brigade in Uvira. Despite an arrest warrant issued against him in February 2006, he remained the commander of the First Mixed Brigade at the time of my visit. (Paragraph 28)

Data provided by various sources indicates that one in five rapes is committed by the State security forces. On 28 April 2007, for instance, FARDC Major Komboko, responsible for the FARDC training camp of Rwampara (Bunia), raped the 12-year-old daughter of another FARDC officer. He was arrested on 8 May 2007 and on 28 July he was sentenced in first instance to 10 years in prison by the Kisangani military court.7 During June 2007, MONUC documented that a woman was allegedly abducted and raped by a FARDC member of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Integrated Brigade in Rimba, Mahagi territory. On 4 June, the chief of police in Nyakunde, Ituri, allegedly arbitrarily arrested a 19-year-old woman and subsequently raped her.8 On 8 June 2007, in Alibha (22 km south of Aru), a pregnant woman was allegedly raped by a FARDC member of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Integrated Brigade, resulting in a miscarriage. Another woman was allegedly raped by a Police d'intervention rapide (PIR) agent on 16 June 2007 in Kolokoto (7 km from Mahagi port), when she went to follow up on a complaint that she had previously filed. (Paragraph 33)

In December 2006, a mob of 250 villagers in Karawa (630 km north-east of Mbandaka) reportedly attacked a police station and lynched a man held at the station whom the villagers accused of witchcraft. In response, PNC assembled about 70 police officers from other duty stations (Businga, Bobadi and Inera) and pillaged Karawa, tortured civilians and raped at least 30 women, including a pregnant woman and four minor girls. According to the latest information received, the Military Prosecutor has launched an official investigation, but no police officer has been arrested or prosecuted in relation to this case. Several have been redeployed to other duty stations in an apparent attempt to shield them from investigation and prosecution. (Paragraph 39)

In March 2006, a local mob in Lifumba Waka (515 km north-east of Mbandaka) took the local PNC Commander hostage to protest against police abuses. Policemen from Basankusu police station reportedly responded with an indiscriminate reprisal against the entire civilian population. Thirty-seven women were raped, including three minors and two pregnant women. Fifty other persons were subjected to torture or ill-treatment and 120 houses were looted. Allegedly, 2 of the 12 alleged perpetrators were in pretrial detention awaiting trial. (Paragraph 40)

In July 2005, soldiers of the 39th Brigade in Bokala attacked the civilian population, when the body of a FARDC soldier was discovered. At least 64 women were raped, including 3 minor girls. In addition, more than 1,500 persons were subjected to torture, ill-treatment and/or looting. In June 2006, 40 perpetrators were sentenced. Applying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for the first time in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Court of First Instance sentenced eight ringleaders to life imprisonment on counts of crimes against humanity. On appeal, the life sentences against three of the eight accused were confirmed. (Paragraph 45)

Right to life: One woman from Nindja Village described how she and other villagers fled their homes every night to seek protection in the bush. One day in 2005, a group of Kinyarwanda-speaking men, whom she described as "Interahamwe", tracked them down. They first executed the leader of the villagers and later the woman's brother, when he refused to rape her. The woman, her two children and about 50 others were marched off into the forest. When one of her children fell, the perpetrators forced her to kill her child. In captivity she was raped by 19 different men. On one occasion, the commander of the group forced her to fry and eat the hands and feet of her murdered sisters-in-law. At regular intervals, the militia would execute abducted women and men, after forcing them to first dig their own graves. (Paragraph 22)

The militia groups involved, claiming to fight in defence of their own ethnic group, targeted the civilian populations indiscriminately.6 Women in particular were treated as war booty and sexually abused. One Lendu woman from a village 40 km west of Bunia, whose village was attacked by Lendu militia in January 2004, described to me how her husband and four children were executed in front of her eyes. She and 30 other women of Lendu, Hema and Bira ethnic groups were abducted, sexually enslaved and subjected to additional forms of humiliation and torture. When Hema fighters from the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) attacked the Lendu militia and took control of the camp, the fighters subjected the women to the same sexual atrocities as the previous group of men had done. (Paragraph 31)

Sexual abuse by peacekeepers: In 2004, media reports alleged that MONUC peacekeepers had engaged in large-scale sexual exploitation of Congolese women and girls. An investigation conducted by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) in Bunia (Ituri District) between May and September 2004 confirmed that sexual contact between Congolese women and girls and peacekeepers occurred frequently, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money, often involving girls under the age of 18, with some as young as 13.10 The investigation revealed a "pattern of sexual exploitation", contrary to the standards set by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the Secretariat, which prohibit any solicitation of prostitution, regardless of the age or consent of the person solicited. (Paragraph 47)

Despite these positive measures, sexual exploitation and abuse within MONUC remains a serious concern. The United Nations recorded 176 allegations in 2006 in which MONUC personnel were accused of having engaged in sexual exploitation or abuse.11 While a number of these allegations may eventually prove to be unsubstantiated, reports received from Congolese non-governmental organizations, United Nations staff members and individual victims indicate that cases of sexual abuse of minor girls and solicitation for prostitution continue to occur. (Paragraph 50)

Some troop contingents still fail to address allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse with due diligence. In some instances, they even attempt to cover up cases. In February 2007, OIOS reported that it had substantiated allegations that a military contingent member of MONUC had sexually abused an under-age girl, which resulted in the birth of a child.12 OIOS also investigated similar allegations involving another girl and a member of the same military contingent; this allegation could not be substantiated because the alleged victim could not be located. In both cases the Commander of the respective military contingent had provided subsistence support to the families of the girls for more than seven months, presumably to prevent them from complaining. (Paragraph 51)

The United Nations still lacks a mechanism to provide victims of sexual exploitation and abuse with adequate compensation. At the time of my visit, victims of MONUC abuse could obtain no more than emergency assistance within current mission budgets from the United Nations.13 In addition, there are no mechanisms to ensure that fathers of babies born from relationships between MONUC personnel and Congolese women pay child support, nor are there any means to compel a father to do so. The mother would therefore have to sue for child support in the dysfunctional Congolese system, which is unrealistic even if one assumes that the United Nations would waive the father's immunity from judicial proceedings. (Paragraph 54)

I recommend to the United Nations and particularly to MONUC troop-contributing countries that they:

Amend existing norms of conduct: failure to support children fathered in areas of deployment should be considered misconduct that is harmful to the interests of the organization. (Paragraph 110)

Care and treatment of survivors of sexual violence: In some cases, the perpetrators deliberately seek to destroy the victim's genital and reproductive organs. At the Panzi Hospital, I interviewed a 10-year old girl, who had been abducted by armed men she described as "Interahamwe". The perpetrators rammed a stick into her vagina, damaging her genital organs. The Provincial Synergy in South Kivu estimates that 20 per cent of all rape victims have suffered irreparable damage to their genital organs. (Paragraph 56)

There are also thousands of babies born from rape, who are often rejected by society and sometimes even by their own mothers. Children born from rape committed by foreign armed groups are often persecuted by the local population. (Paragraph 60)

Victims of sexual violence often end up destitute and struggle for their mere survival, because they lose their family support networks. A 60-year-old woman from the village of Babuna Batuti (Ituri) told me that she was gang-raped by three militiamen in front of her whole family in 2004. The militia executed her entire family, leaving only herself and her infant grandson alive. Today, she and her grandson live on the street with the help of the local women's association SOFEPADI. Other rape victims with whom I spoke faced similar hardships, especially those who had been rejected by their families. Economic assistance to women survivors of sexual violence to re-establish their livelihoods has so far been largely neglected by the donor community. (Paragraph 61)

In the course of armed conflict, armed groups forcefully recruited thousands of women and girls as porters, cooks, etc. and many were also sexually exploited or raped. The National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (CONADER) has demobilized 101,000 militia fighters, including 2,600 women. Demobilized fighters were given a small demobilization grant, job training and equipment to begin a civilian livelihood. However, women who were associated with armed groups but did not actively take part in hostilities did not qualify for assistance. (Paragraph 62)

One girl from a village near Bunia, told me that she was 14 years old when Lendu militia of the Front nationaliste intégraliste (FNI) abducted her. For three years, she and 20 other women were kept as forced labourers in the camp and were expected to sleep with the militiamen at their behest. She was repeatedly raped, became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she returned to her community with her baby, her family rejected her. Unlike the men who abducted and exploited her, the girl did not receive any State assistance and she struggles to survive. (Paragraph 63)

Unavailability of judicial remedies: Courts routinely release alleged rapists on bail, often under dubious circumstances and in violation of applicable rules of penal procedures. MONUC estimates that 80 per cent of alleged rapists in South Kivu are released on bail and never reappear in court. Lawyers in other provinces made similar observations. In Kinshasa, for instance, I met the lawyers of a 10-year-old girl who was gang-raped by four teenagers. Police arrested the perpetrators, but the Tribunal de Paix of Assossa ordered their release without giving any reasons for its decision. The perpetrators have since disappeared. (Paragraph 74)

Detention of children with their mothers: Contrary to international standards, pretrial detainees and convicted persons are kept together. Children as old as 8 years of age are kept in prison with their mothers, without access to education, adequate medical care or food. In several localities, there are no separate sections for women or minors. (Paragraph 81)

Reintegration of violators: Lieutenant Colonel Bebimobuli Engagela, known as "Colonel 106", a former commander of a renegade FARDC faction, stands accused of at least eight cases of rape, sexual enslavement and forced recruitment of girls and women. He was reintegrated into the FARDC in March 2007 and was reportedly at a training centre in Luberisi (South Kivu) at the time of my visit. (Paragraph 91)

Discrimination against women and girls: Women also face discrimination and violence in places of work and education. Girls are often denied access to education, as families privilege boys' attendance to school. This is evidenced by the 63.1 per cent literacy rate for young women (15-24 years), which is far lower than the literacy rate of 78 per cent for men in the same age range.20 Interlocutors also pointed out that the sexual coercion of women and girls, committed by supervisors, professors and teachers, is a long-standing phenomenon that existed before the armed conflicts. (Paragraph 99)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr Titinga Frédéric Pacéré
(A/HRC/8/4/Add.2 )

Country visit: 16 August – 27 August 2005
Report published: 15 February 2006

General comments: As part of the technical and legal assistance component of his mandate, the independent expert sent a memorandum on 11 January 2006 to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo containing analyses of the human rights situation in the country and recommendations. He focused on 21 points in the areas addressed, including the massacres and human rights violations perpetrated in May 2005 in South Kivu and the suppression of the demonstrations of 30 June 2005, cases of murder and assassination, illegal exploitation of resources, the situation of children, insecurity, the elections, population displacement, the management of public demonstrations, the administration of justice, the case of children associated with the armed forces and armed groups, intercommunal strife, international justice, etc. (Paragraph 12)

Electortal difficulties: some weaknesses and shortcomings were noted, in particular:

− The late opening of a number of polling stations, in many cases on security grounds. According to several sources, only 35,000 of the 40,000 polling stations could actually be opened for polling on 18 and 19 December;

− The regrettable death toll of some 10 persons, including a pregnant woman and a 4-month-old baby, in jostling incidents at Rutshuru, in North Kivu, within the precinct of the polling station;

− The attack on a polling station official at Mbuji-Mayi in Kasaï-Oriental;

− The death of a baby being carried on its mother's back owing to crowd movements in Bukavu, South Kivu;

− The lack of observers at the polling stations in Tshela, Bas-Congo;

− The arrest in Goma on 18 December 2005 of a woman with a forged ballot paper;

− Non-participation of voters on account of lack of security in the polling in three villages in Buthue, North Kivu. (Paragraph 44)

Disarmament and reintegration: Considerable progress has been made in the disarmament and community reintegration programme: 15,607 combatants belonging to a variety of armed forces and groups, including 4,395 children, have been registered and 6,300 weapons confiscated. Coordination between by State authorities, political and judicial action and MONUC has improved. (Paragraph 58)

In October 2005, 8,000 combatants in Malemba-Nkulu, northern Katanga, including many child soldiers, voluntarily laid down their arms, saying they wished to return to civilian life. (Paragraph 61)

According to MONUC, on 28 December 2005, at least 677 children under the age of 18 were withdrawn from FARDC units and armed groups, including the Maí-Maí, in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, Kasaï-Oriental and Katanga. (Paragraph 121)

The independent expert recommends to the Government of National Unity and Transition that it should:

Oppose the continuing use of children in armed conflicts; combat and disarm militias and privately-armed groups; (Paragraph 153)

Sexual violence: There is major and growing insecurity in Kinshasa and throughout the country; not a day goes by without reports of murders, burglaries, hold-ups, armed robberies or rapes of women and girls. (Paragraph 78)

At the beginning of October 2005, in the region of Masisi (North Kivu), a 17-year-old girl was reported raped and subjected to genital mutilation by gunshot by two men in uniform. (Paragraph 102)

On 13 October 2005, in Goma, a 17-year-old student in her third year of secondary school was raped by three soldiers who were guarding the municipal police holding cell. (Paragraph 103)

On 11 October 2005, a 14-year-old girl was the victim of mass rape by seven street children from the Livulu district in the municipality of Lemba, Kinshasha. (Paragraph 105)

On 19 October 2005, MONUC reported numerous cases of rape by Congolese soldiers, some of them committed against women and girls held in pretrial detention. A case in point is that of a 14-year-old girl, who, on 11 October 2005, was raped by three policemen in Kananga (Kasaï-Occidental). She is currently in hospital in Mbuji-Mayi (Kasaï-Oriental). (Paragraph 106)

In Bokala (Equateur), on 6 November 2005, 12 women and 2 girls, aged 14 and 15 years, were raped by a group of FARDC soldiers at the CONADER centre. (Paragraph 108)

In Yahisuli (Orientale province), on 29 October 2005, 10 girls were raped by 14 policemen and 2 former soldiers. (Paragraph 109)

For instance, under its programme to combat impunity and the joint programme of prevention and handling of sexual violence against women and children, financed by Belgian Cooperation, OHCHR supports a group of lawyers from Equateur province, who have been providing legal assistance to 49 victims of sexual violence committed in December 2003, in Songo-Mboyo, located in the north of Equateur province. These legal proceedings, which have been under way in the Mbandaka military court since 4 November 2005, are the first as regards the prosecution of international crimes. (Paragraph 114)

The independent expert recommends to the Government of National Unity and Transition that it should:

Combat all the crimes that continue to be committed, particularly rape and sexual violence against women and children used as a weapon of war and arson of homes and property; (Paragraph 153)

Situation of children: The situation of children is a cause of major concern. (Paragraph 117)

On 31 December 2005, the mayor of Lubumbashi (Katanga province) issued an order prohibiting children from working in mines and established a monitoring brigade to protect children against all forms of abuse. (Paragraph 120)

There would seem to be no end to the tragic situation of children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which needs to be looked at from several angles, since children may be used in armed conflicts, abandoned on the streets, massacred, or accused of sorcery and of bringing their families bad luck. (Paragraph 122)

Street children: In October 2005, police in Kananga (Kasaï-Occidental) arrested and detained 30 street children on the pretext of vagrancy. This move gave rise to several protests by the public and by NGOs, based on the view that the problem of street children cannot be resolved by depriving them of their liberty. (Paragraph 118)

Children accused of sorcery: A father burned alive his five children in Moanda (Bas-Congo), only one of whom escaped death. He justified his conduct with a prophesy from his church according to which his children were sorcerers. Vigorous action must be taken against such manifestations of "spirituality", and against men who commit criminal acts against children, innocence and human rights. (Paragraph 119)

Right to life: During the course of 2005, OHCHR and MONUC's Human Rights Division gathered a large amount of data on massive human rights violations perpetrated throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including several violations of the right to life, such as the murder of three minors in Kahungwe (South Kivu) and a shopkeeper in Zumbe (Ituri), and the death of a woman killed by a policeman in Kananga (Kasaï-Occidental), etc. (Paragraph 79)

Detention of children: On 23 August 2005, the independent expert visited the police detention facility in Bunia, designed for around 30 detainees, but holding 130 people of all ages and condition (minors and adults, civilians and police) and at all stages of the judicial process (from police custody, to pretrial detention). (Paragraph 127)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Titinga Frédéric Pacéré
(E/CN.4/2005/120 )

Country visit: 22 August – 2 September 2004 and 9 November – 19 November 2004
Report published: 7 February 2005

Widespread violence: His observations during his second visit confirmed the independent expert's fears. In the eastern part of the country, he saw how ethnic hatred had spread, and how this was linked to the problem of repatriating foreign militias. He noted the widespread violence and insecurity affecting the population, particularly women and children. (Paragraph 13)

Resource exploitation and related violence: Those who are so eager to appropriate the resources available in the country resort to violent methods which, in a particularly depressed socio-economic environment like the one affecting the country as a whole, give rise to endless conflicts. The first to suffer from this situation are young people and children, who are manipulated, recruited and pressed into service by armed groups to satisfy various needs of a military, logistical or sexual nature. Some political parties also make use of children, manipulating them to turn them into militias of their own. The results are often tragic, as when at least 18 youngsters and street children (shegués) were slaughtered by the populace in Mbuji-Mayi, Kasai-Oriental, without the police intervening. (Paragraph 53)

Sexual violence: Women, girls and children suffer from discrimination and from all kinds of abuse, and are the main victims of the war because of the omnipresent sexual violence to which they are subjected by large numbers of men from various armed groups. They are the victims of hateful crimes that are a stain on the conscience of all humanity but that take place against a background of almost total indifference on the part of the international community. (Paragraph 56)

On the night of 21 December 2003, 119 women, including pregnant women, teenagers and little girls, were raped in Bongandanga and Songo Mboyo, in Equateur province, by soldiers of the Ninth Battalion. Some women were raped by more than 10 soldiers. In several cases, the women were raped in front of their husbands. Any woman who objected was hit and threatened with death. In Bongandanga, Boliko Yambo was killed for trying to protect his wife. The soldiers deliberately trampled on a three-month-old infant. (Paragraph 65)

The particularly barbaric and violent nature of the systematic rape of women, girls and children, and even of older women, should be stressed.4 Some women have been raped on their way to the fields and again on their way back. Soldiers hold women and girls against their will and reduce them to slavery. Some women are kept in military camps wearing nothing but panties, and are completely at the disposal of the soldiers, who rape them every day for months. The reports mention how common it is for a woman to be raped by groups of up to 20 men or in front of her family, and have to endure the most appalling acts of barbarity and torture. One woman who was held in sexual slavery for three years was raped by several soldiers on the day she gave birth to a child conceived as a result of earlier rapes. Some of the women who were raped were shot in the vagina. (Paragraph 68)

On 17 November 2004, the independent expert met the women and girls admitted to the hospital in Goma under the DOCS programme of assistance to rape victims. He heard about and saw for himself their unspeakable suffering. He met and took into his arms a four-year-old girl who had been raped by soldiers on 16 November 2004, the day before he arrived. He met a woman whose eyes had been gouged out by the men who had just raped her. He met another woman whose rapists had cut her belly open with a knife after raping her, and another who had been raped by 10 soldiers and then shot in the lower abdomen, having told her attackers beforehand that she was three months pregnant. The independent expert met other women whose stories were equally horrific. (Paragraph 69)

The consequences of rape on the victim's physical and mental state are terrible. In addition to the need for psychological assistance and treatment, the physical injuries often need complex long-term treatment. The genital system of women who have been raped is severely damaged; she may suffer from bleeding and urinary and bowel incontinence. Another consequence of rape is increased maternal mortality related to the higher risk of complications during childbirth. The fate of children conceived by rape is another major source of concern. In addition, rapes are responsible for the soaring rate of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, with predictable consequences for the country's future. All this has to be seen in the context of a health system that has collapsed in the wake of the collapse of the Congolese State, so that medical care is virtually non-existent. (Paragraph 70)

Later in this report, after reviewing other aspects of crimes against humanity and human rights violations, the independent expert will make some more specific proposals for re-establishing security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and prosecuting those responsible for such crimes. At this stage, however, he would like to put the emphasis on the duty of the Congolese State and the international community to work quickly and effectively to provide medical, psychological and social assistance to women who have been raped, as well as to their children and families, and to guarantee their physical protection as well as legal assistance in claiming their rights. He calls on the international community to provide without further delay all necessary financial assistance to support the joint initiative to combat sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and calls on the Government to provide material and financial support for the initiative. He calls for intervention to match the scale of the country's needs, in terms of finance and capacity-building, in order to make the health system operational again. (Paragraph 74)

The independent expert calls on the transitional Government and the Congolese and foreign parties involved in the conflict to act on the following recommendations:

Base the country's development on the primary objective of enhancing the status of women and allowing them to fulfil their potential as full citizens in all walks of life (political, social, economic, cultural and family). The abuse of women and children, and crimes against them, must be stopped, and all victims should receive the assistance they need to help them recover; (Paragraph 79 h)

Early marriages: Even before the war, women were legally subordinate to men. The Congolese Family Code enshrines discrimination against married women. Several of its provisions need to be amended to guarantee equality between men and women within the family. These provisions include: article 352, which sets the marriageable age for women at 15 and for men at 18, thus encouraging the practice of imposing forced marriages on young girls; article 448, under which a married woman needs her husband's permission to bring a court action; article 467, which provides for a prison sentence of between six months and one year, plus a fine, for a married woman who commits adultery (the same article punishes adultery by a husband, but in this case the acts must be of an "injurious nature"); and article 490, paragraph 2, which entrusts the management of family property to the husband. (Paragraph 57)

Legislation only reinforces a discriminatory situation which, unfortunately, is an established fact of life in Congolese society. Girls are expected to marry at a very young age, to the detriment of their education. A higher percentage of boys than of girls attend school. Family life is, moreover, very difficult for women. Women are not spared from the malnutrition or diseases that afflict the majority of the population. They also have problems specific to them: the maternal mortality rate was 990 per 100,000 women in 2000, and there are grounds for thinking that the situation has not improved since then, given the widespread collapse of health services in the country. Very few women have access to contraception such as condoms, and they find it hard to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. The independent expert was also told that domestic violence was widespread, although it is not possible to put a figure on the extent of the problem. (Paragraph 58)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ms. Iulia Motoc
(E/CN.4/2004/34)

Country visit: 29 November – 11 December 2003
Report published: 10 March 2004

Vulnerable groups: In this report, the Special Rapporteur continues to address issues relating to massive human rights violations, impunity and reconciliation, the administration of justice, refugees and displaced persons within the country, the protection of vulnerable groups (children, women, indigenous peoples, AIDS sufferers and the poor). She also addresses the following topics: transitional institutions, the lack of security for the civilian population, and the exploitation of natural resources. (Paragraph 12)

Militia attacks: In Ituri, Lendu militias attacked the locality of Katchele and four neighbouring localities on 6 October 2003, killing 65 persons and wounding 24; the victims included 42 children. The militiamen used knives, sticks, clubs and firearms. (Paragraph 26)

On 15 January 2004 more than five boats are said to have been attacked by armed individuals, identified as members of the Front de nationalistes intégrationnistes (FNI), at Dgegu, in the territory of Mahagi, then diverted and brought to Gobu, in the territory of Djugu. The attackers separated the men, women and children and then shot the men in groups of 4, 5 or 10. All the men appear to have been killed and their possessions carried off by the attackers. According to the information provided by NGOs to the Special Rapporteur, the same group allegedly abducted civilians in localities near Lake Albert on 3 and 7 January 2004. (Paragraph 27)

Detention of children: Given the state of the prisons, the standard minimum rules on the separation of male and female, minor and adult, and petty and serious offenders are not respected and, owing to the shortage of resources, detainees who are taken ill and need specialized care are not transferred to hospital in time. As a result, several detainees have died from a lack of proper medical care. Established norms, particularly rules 22 and 26 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and principle 24 of the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under any Form of Detention or Imprisonment adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988, are not respected. (Paragraph 80)

Special attention needs to be paid to the situation of women in prisons. At Bafwasende, two rapes at a police station have been reported. Two male detainees raped a 14-year-old girl who had been put in the same cell. (Paragraph 81)

Children and armed groups: In her interim report, the Special Rapporteur drew attention to the dramatic situation of children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the present report, she returns to the question of children associated with armed groups. (Paragraph 85)

Some NGOs told the Special Rapporteur that recruitment of child soldiers was continuing. A large number of child soldiers are stationed at the military camp close to Isiro/Matari airport, where child soldiers are still being recruited (Paragraph 87)

The interviews the Special Rapporteur had with child soldiers in Bunia and Kindu showed that most had suffered ill-treatment and torture. The majority of girls had been subjected to sexual violence. The children's accounts of warfare are terrifying: placed on the front lines of the fighting, they were forced to kill, rape and pillage. They saw and often took part in scenes of terrible savagery, such as cannibalism. The children that the Special Rapporteur met at Kindu, who had been recruited by the Mai-Mai, had been initiated into war using fetishist rituals that involved cannibalism. To force them into such conduct, children were subjected to severe corporal punishment, by their superiors. Adults and children were often under the influence of drugs and alcohol. (Paragraph 88)

The war stripped these children, who were already traumatized by their experiences, of their childhood. Girls became mothers to children born of their sexual enslavement; some have contracted AIDS. All the children that the Special Rapporteur met said that they wanted to go to school in an area other than the one in which they had fought. (Paragraph 89)

The Special Rapporteur believes that the Government must act quickly to implement a demobilization strategy for child soldiers. There are projects financed by the United Nations Development Programme for that purpose. It is not easy for child soldiers to go back to a normal life; many have lost their parents and some risk being rejected by their communities. Special measures are therefore needed to make it easier for child soldiers to attend school. It is worth noting that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the 25 countries that the United Nations has rated as having the lowest rates of school enrolment (more than 4.5 million children do not attend school). (Paragraph 90)

The Special Rapporteur appreciates the support the international community has lent to the creation of programmes for the rehabilitation of child soldiers, including, in particular, the programme launched by the United States Department of Labor in December 2003. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention (No. 182) concerning the Worst

Forms of Child Labour, members are called upon to assist one another in eliminating forced labour, the worst form of which is association with armed groups. (Paragraph 91)

The Special Rapporteur recommends that all parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should:

Immediately cease recruiting and using children in violation of international law and provide information on the measures taken to put an end to such practices; (Paragraph 109 e)

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo should:

Take all necessary measures to protect children; (Paragraph 110 i)

Sexual violence: During her three separate stays in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2003, the Special Rapporteur was able to meet a number of female victims of sexual violence. As mentioned in her previous reports, women have been subjected to great cruelty during rapes. Most raped women are physically mutilated. On 4 November 2003, at Kindu, a 13-year-old girl was raped by three Mai-Mai in turn and was whipped by a fourth. Those acts of brutality caused severe infections in and around the buttocks and vagina. The victim's parents wish to take legal proceedings against those responsible for this vicious attack, who claimed that they could even have killed the girl, since nothing would happen to them. In Maniema, an enclave with neither water nor electricity, the Special Rapporteur was told that there had been 1,524 cases of sexual violence between August 2001 and July 2003. The Special Rapporteur notes a strong reluctance on the part of judges to put rapists on trial and punish them. (Paragraph 93)

The Special Rapporteur is pleased that the programme on sexual violence against women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an initiative designed to prevent violence and to respond to victims' needs, is nearing fruition. She hopes that the programme budget, which is estimated at $30.3 million, will be made available soon, given the need to get the programme up and running. (Paragraph 95)

The Special Rapporteur recommends that all parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should:

Take account, during the post-conflict phase, of the specific needs of women and girl children, particularly those forced to participate in abuses by armed groups (Paragraph 109 f)

Birth registration: Minority indigenous peoples continue to be subjected to large-scale acts of discrimination of all kinds by the population. They are among the first victims of massive human rights violations. The events in Mambasa have been mentioned in previous reports. Pygmy women are raped by the Bantu, often in the presence of their own husbands. Pygmy women employed by the Bantu are treated like slaves. The Batwa are also discriminated against, indeed marginalized, by the population and have no access to education, health or housing. According to the information the Special Rapporteur received, the lack of civil registration records and the non-registration of children born to pygmies are not due to the effects of the war or to administrative incompetence, but rather to the treatment meted out to the pygmies. (Paragraph 97)

HIV and AIDS: According to the director of the national AIDS control programme, more than 60 per cent of Congolese in the 15-39 age group risk contracting the disease by 2010; infection occurs at a very early age, around 10, 11, 13 or 14 years, and the prevalence of the pandemic among persons in the 15-40 age group is 15 to 19 per cent higher than in other countries. (Paragraph 100)

Poverty: The years of conflict have left a profound mark on the country and destroyed its agricultural infrastructure. The total number of people suffering from malnutrition is 17 million, i.e. two thirds of the population. Thirty per cent suffer from severe malnutrition. The worst affected are those living in the east of the country, especially women and children. According to a survey conducted in 2003 in the equatorial zone, people there are living on less than $0.10 per person per day, 85 per cent of the population do not have access to proper food, and 80 per cent have no access to medical care. The lack of vaccination coverage is responsible for a resurgence in epidemics, while 95 per cent of the population have no access to the media. (Paragraph 107)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ms. Iulia Motoc
(E/CN.4/2003/43)

Country visit: 28 February – 10 March 2003
Report published: 15 April 2003

General comments: Pursuant to this resolution, the Special Rapporteur submitted an interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session (A/57/437). The present report is based on the information gathered during her second mission to the country (28 February-10 March 2003). In view of the extent of the human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Special Rapporteur has opted to deal with certain subjects in depth in this report, notably the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, the situation of women and child victims of sexual violence, the problem of impunity, the administration of justice, and the question of the military courts trying cases of mass violations of human rights. (Paragraph 2)

Despite the positive developments, the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains very serious. The armed conflicts are continuing, in breach of the 1999 Lusaka Agreement, the Kampala Disengagement Plan and the Harare Sub-plans, Security Council resolutions and the recent Global and All-Inclusive Agreement. Given their magnitude, the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, notably as regards the protection of civilians, the phenomenon of child soldiers and the sexual violence against women and children, may be characterized as crimes against humanity and war crimes. The atrocities committed in the east of the country have reached unprecedented levels. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic. According to information provided by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 2002, there were 20,120,000 vulnerable persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, out of a total of 50 million inhabitants of the Great Lakes region. During 2002, the number of displaced persons increased in the provinces of Kivu and Maniema and in Eastern Province, particularly in Ituri. (Paragraph 19)

On 15 January 2003, after an inquiry initiated in December 2002, MONUC reported summary or arbitrary executions, rape, torture and forced disappearances perpetrated by MLC (led by Jean-Pierre Bemba), RCD/N (led by Roger Lumbala) and certain elements of UPC in the town of Mambasa and in villages between Mambasa and Mangina and between Mambasa and Erengeti. On the basis of interviews conducted in Beni, Butembo, Mangina, Oicha and Erengeti, the reports mention 136 summary executions, 71 rapes, including rape of children, 100 forced disappearances and 96 missing children. Some of the summary executions were followed by mutilation and cannibalism. This was a planned operation, under the name of "Effacer le tableau" ("A clean slate"), and those responsible for the killings targeted Mambasa's Nande community and the Twa (pygmies). (Paragraph 27)

Child soldiers: According to the first investigations conducted by a joint team from MONUC and the OHCHR office in Bogoro, on 24 February 2003 153 cases of summary executions, mainly of Hema, were reported. According to evidence from the four UPC child soldiers interviewed by the joint mission, the assailants were armed groups of Lendu from the north, Ngiti from the south, Armée du peuple congolais (APC) troops and some 40 UPDF troops. The report of the joint MONUC-OHCHR mission concluded that civilian populations had been massacred in Bogoro and Mandro. There would appear to be an ethnic dimension to these murderous assaults. (Paragraph 28)

The phenomenon of child soldiers continues to be very disturbing. There is very little demobilization and mass recruitment is taking place in the east of the country; according to UNICEF and the NGOs, there are more than 30,000 child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2002/1299) also shows that children demobilized through the efforts of MONUC and local NGOs are recruited again by other armed groups. (Paragraph 33)

It is difficult to reintegrate child soldiers in government-controlled territory, as the great majority of them come from the east of the country. Similarly, given the overall situation of the education system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as mentioned by the Special Rapporteur in her interim report (A/57/437), and in particular parents' inability to pay teachers' fees, it is very difficult to get demobilized children into school. (Paragraph 34)

In Uvira (South Kivu), all the armed groups in the region (RCD/Goma, Mai-Mai and Banyamulenge) continue to recruit children. Children aged under 15 make up a large proportion of the Mai-Mai, ANC and UPC forces. UPC has on several occasions ordered local communities to "supply children" for the war effort. (Paragraph 35)

According to information transmitted to the Special Rapporteur, many child soldiers are abducted from their families by the various armed groups. They include young girls, who frequently serve as sex slaves for the soldiers. Many of the children are sent to the front. A large number of children were killed during the armed clashes in Uvira in January 2003. More than 40 child soldiers were killed in Ituri in clashes at Lipri and Songolo in February 2003. (Paragraph 36)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force in February 2002. The Protocol establishes a minimum age of 18 for conscription and participation in hostilities. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which entered into force on 1 July 2002, conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 in conflicts of an international or national character constitutes a war crime. The Statute also provides that children may appear before the Court as witnesses. (Paragraph 37)

Under resolution 1460 (2003), the Security Council is authorized to take appropriate steps, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, if the parties identified in the report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2002/1299) do not make progress in demobilizing children. The Special Rapporteur intends to monitor the situation of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo very closely, in view of the fact that, in the annex to his report, the Secretary-General identifies 10 parties involved in the armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who recruit or make use of child soldiers. (Paragraph 38)

The Panel of Experts refers to numerous human rights violations resulting from the illegal exploitation of natural resources, for example the very large numbers of displaced persons, malnutrition, mortality, sexual violence against women and children, and the existence of child soldiers. It also notes that military units recruit children and force them to work, and especially to extract natural resources. NGOs in South Kivu informed the Special Rapporteur of children being recruited by armed groups to work in mines. (Paragraph 59)

Girls are enlisted into armed groups, either as child soldiers or as wives of combatants, the victims of forced marriages. The cases that have been brought to the Special Rapporteur's attention amount to slavery by reason of the treatment meted out to these women, who become the private property of the soldiers. Slavery in the guise of forced marriage was condemned by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in the V. Kunarac case, as a crime against humanity. (Paragraph 66)

Continue to take steps to demobilize child soldiers, end the plundering of natural resources, administer justice, encourage freedom of association and protect human rights defenders. (Paragraph 74 c)

Discontinue forthwith the recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts; (Paragraph 75 b)

Detention of children with their mothers: The Special Rapporteur visited the prison and police cells in Kisangani, where she was able to see the poor conditions of detention resulting from overcrowding, lack of medical care and food shortages, and the particularly serious conditions for women detained with their children. She has learned from various sources of the existence of illegal places of detention in government-controlled territory, despite the Government's decision to close down all places of detention not subordinate to the courts. (Paragraph 49)

Rape: There is recurrent sexual violence against women and children in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The use of mass rape and sexual violence as weapons of war intended to destroy the structure of the family has harmed Congolese society. Often rejected by their families or infected by sexually transmissible diseases or HIV, women have nowhere to turn for help. The climate of impunity continues unabated; in the eyes of international law, violence of this sort is deemed to be a crime against humanity and a war crime. (Paragraph 63)

Many women and girls were raped following the capture of the town of Uvira by the Mai-Mai in October 2002. In November 2002, at Goma, a little girl was raped by Sengi Mupenzi, an RCD/Goma soldier. Many rapes have been committed by the Interahamwe and elements of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) in the vicinity of Katombo and north of Lake Tanganyika. In November 2002, RCD/Goma soldiers raped women and girls at Katana. In government-controlled territory, rapes took place after the Mweka mutiny in Western Kasai province. (Paragraph 64)

The level of brutality and sexual violence in Kivu is particularly horrific. NGOs informed the Special Rapporteur of cases of rape followed by mutilation of the mouth and amputation of the legs. Instances of sexual violence followed by mutilation appear to be on the increase. The victims are unable to testify. Many of the victims treated at hospitals in Goma, Bukavu, Kabiza and Nyangez are between 10 and 14 years old. Some 40 per cent of them are seropositive. (Paragraph 65)

The Special Rapporteur had the opportunity to talk with female victims of sexual violence in a rehabilitation centre established by a nun in a parish at Kisangani. These women reported that they had been raped, most since childhood. Rejected by their families, lacking the means to support themselves, pregnant or with small children, they had found refuge in this centre. (Paragraph 68)

Offer assistance with local capacity-building in the fields of administration of justice and the protection of women and children, and especially the victims of sexual violence; (Paragraph 76 c)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
Ms. Asma Jahangir
(E/CN.4/2003/3/Add.3 )

Country visit: 16 June – 22 June 2002
Report published: 4 November 2002

Death penalty: Over the last years, the Special Rapporteur has on repeated occasions also approached the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding alleged arbitrary, summary or extrajudicial use of the death penalty, including a number of cases in which minors under the age of 18 or persons accused of crimes committed when they were under the age of 18 had been sentenced to death. In October 1999, the Special Rapporteur was informed that in Bulinzi, Nwenga, government soldiers had reportedly buried alive 12 women who were allegedly accused of witchcraft and collaboration with the Mai-Mai movement. She notes that in discussions with the Minister for Human Rights during her visit to Kinshasa she received assurances that the Democratic Republic of the Congo was not going to carry out any death sentences already passed, and was in fact intent on eventually abolishing capital punishment. (Paragraph 10)

Right to life: According to the report by the official Commission of Inquiry appointed by RCD-G, seven persons were killed by members of the population heeding the call of the dissidents to attack "Rwandans": Mr. Ndayire, a Rwandan businessman, was stoned to death in front of the "Lengema" building; the bodyguard of Commander Nguizama, called "Zaïrois", was taken out of prison and shot dead and his body burned in central Kisangani; Commander Saidi was stoned and hacked to death with machetes outside the municipal building in Mangobo; a visitor, Bongungu Fili, was killed by crowds looking for RCD-G Commander "Franck" in his residence on Mamayemo Avenue; a 3-year-old child was killed in the same incident, apparently by a stray bullet; a police officer named Okito, an ethnic Hema, who was the commander of the Lumbulumbu camp, was killed in Mangobo; and a young woman called "Yalanga" was killed with machetes, apparently because of her "Rwandan appearance". Information provided by international and independent local observers identify the same victims of alleged mob killings committed during the occupation of the RTNC radio station. (Paragraph 21)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Professor Iulia Motoc
(A/57/437)
Country visit: N/A

Report published: 26 September 2002

Violence: The situation of the vulnerable individuals housed at the Institut national de sécurité sociale (INSS) site at Mont-Ngafula in Kinshasa remains worrying. There were approximately 300, including women and children, by 27 July 2002. The contact group consisting of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Apostolic Nuncio, the Ministry of Human Rights and representatives of embassies and international bodies suggested that most of those individuals be resettled in the east and west of the country. (Paragraph 21)

The situation of women and children is continually worsening owing to the ongoing conflicts and the climate of terror that the rebel groups cause to reign in the territory. Women and children are often used as human shields during attack. Cases of enforced disappearances of women are constantly on the increase. Abducted women are often victims of rape; they are subjected to the worst atrocities (see also chapter VII on gender-specific human rights violations). (Paragraph 65)

Several factors influence women's state of health, especially inadequate income, the high cost of care, poverty, insufficient information about, availability of and access to family planning methods, sexually transmissible diseases, the AIDS pandemic, the absence of health infrastructures and safe drinking water, particularly in rural areas, violence against women and the impact of armed conflict. Women and children are the section of the civilian population worst affected by the consequences of armed conflict and ethnic wars. (Paragraph 75)

Right to life: The Special Rapporteur welcomes the progress made; President Kabila has ordered a moratorium on the death penalty and article 18 of the Congolese Charter of Human Rights prohibits death sentences. Unfortunately, the Charter's legal status remains unclear. At the same time, the Special Rapporteur has received several reports of violations of the right to life: on the night of 24 June 2002, 3 boys, Tshibanda Dodo, Kazadi Muenda and Ngeleka Papy, aged 16, 15 and 17 respectively and residing in the commune of Bipemba (Mbuyi-Mayi), were shot by police officers guarding the area controlled by the Société minière de Bakwanga (MIBA). (Paragraph 36)

Rape: Right to physical and mental integrity. Allegations of violation of the right to physical integrity have been transmitted to the Special Rapporteur. On 26 October 2001, Commander Memina, national service chief, reportedly raped an eight-year- old girl, Anto Kakogui. (Paragraph 37)

During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur received reports of violations of the right to physical and psychological integrity. Cases were reported involving the rape of women and children, abductions, illegal detentions and inhuman and degrading treatment, mostly at the hands of the security forces and armed groups. On 9 August 2002, Mr. Georges Mukendi, a diamond trader, was arrested by the security services and detained on charges of debt in the Directorate-general for Internal Security punishment cell (cachot). Seven persons charged with violating State security and collaborating with the enemy were arrested on 11 July 2002 and detained in Uvira main prison. (Paragraph 50)

Violence against women is being exacerbated by armed conflict within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The massive violations of women's rights stem from the sexual violence used during the ongoing armed conflict within the country. Sexual violence has been employed as a war weapon by most of the forces taking part in the conflict. RCD fighters, Rwandan soldiers and members of the opposing forces (Mai-Mai, armed groups of Rwandan Hutu, as well as Burundian rebels from the Forces de défense de la démocratie (FDD) and the Forces nationales pour la libération (FNL)) have frequently and sometimes systematically raped women and girls during the last year. A significant number of women and girls became pregnant as a result of being raped and an unknown number of them have been infected with HIV. Human Rights Watch has termed this sexual violence against women during the armed conflict "a war within a war". (Paragraph 71)

Massive human rights violations are occurring in the territories controlled by the rebels, especially in the east of the country. The extrajudicial executions carried out by RCD/Goma are responsible for the continuing climate of terror. The failure to respect human rights is widespread. No human, civil, political, economic or social rights are observed. Incitement to ethnic hatred is helping to fuel armed conflicts accompanied by violations of humanitarian rights. The sexual violence against women and children is particularly worrying. The reprisals against the civilian population constitute serious infringements of humanitarian law. (Paragraph 79)

Discrimination in relation to marriage: Gender inequality is enshrined in the Civil Code. Article 352 of the Family Code sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 for men and 15 for women, while article 457 makes a distinction according to whether adultery is committed by a woman or a man. Women account for over half the people displaced as a result of the war; their living conditions are clearly extremely precarious. (Paragraph 47)

Child soldiers: The Special Rapporteur welcomes President Kabila's measures for the demobilization of 300 child soldiers; however, it is still very important for these children to be reintegrated into society. Widespread poverty has led to family break- ups and made it impossible for parents to care for their children. Children have suffered incalculable trauma as a result of the atrocities and violence to which they have been subjected; for some of them, the psychological damage will be lifelong. Many children suffer from diseases such as measles, malnutrition and acute pulmonary infection as a result of the war. (Paragraph 48)

In Government-controlled territory, there has been some progress in the protection of human rights in the form of measures linked to the moratorium on the death penalty, the freeing of 300 child soldiers and the lifting of restrictions on the activities of political parties. Nevertheless human rights

violations are continuing, above all in the field of the administration of justice. The Military Court is still in operation and is still trying civilians. Its statute contains provisions incompatible with human rights. The weakness of the judicial system is affecting the entrenchment of all human rights. (Paragraph 78)

All the parties to the conflict must pursue the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and must apply the provisions of the agreements which have been signed. While stressing that the chief responsibility for this process lies with the Congolese, there must also be full cooperation with Mr. Mustapha Niasse, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the inter-Congolese dialogue. At the same time, the parties must give their support to the international organizations present on the ground, particularly MONUC during the demobilization, disarmament, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration process. Incitement to ethnic hatred must cease. The norms of humanitarian law must be applied by all the parties to the conflict. Reprisals against the civilian population must stop. All

child soldiers must be demobilized and reintegrated in society. The situation of women and children must be improved. The use of sexual violence as a war weapon must be completely abandoned. (Paragraph 80)

Education: Although education is legally provided for under Framework Law No. 86-005 of 22 September 1986 on national education, boys and girls have far from equal access to education. The percentage of girls in full-time education is lower than that of boys, especially in the countryside. Inequality between the sexes is such that, in 1994/1995, in towns the difference in rates of attendance at primary level ranged from 2 to 10 per cent, while in rural areas the disparity increased to 30 to 60 per cent. (Paragraph 74)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Roberto Garretón
(E/CN.4/2001/40)

Country visit: 13 August – 25 August 2000
Report published: 1 February 2001

Arbitrary detention: Despite this positive development, between 14 and 15 October, 20 people of the same origin, including 5 children, were detained in Mbuji Mayi and taken to Kinshasa, where they are being held in buildings belonging either to the National Information Agency (ANR) or the Detection of Unpatriotic Activities Police (DEMIAP) and denied visits from lawyers, families or the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a blatant example of arbitrary detention on the grounds of ethnicity. (Paragraph 47)

Street children: The cities are swarming with thousands of street children known as shégué. While this is not a new phenomenon, it has increased as a result of the war and the loss of parents. There are cases of murder, such as the well-known case of "little Ndingari", who was killed by a police officer in the Kinshasa market for no reason at all. (Paragraph 104)

Education: The war and the resulting high cost of living have also affected children's enjoyment of the right to education, doing irreparable harm to many children. Fifteen per cent of all children in Kinshasa are malnourished, but the rate is as high as 30 per cent in rural areas. Other violations include child labour in inhumane conditions in the diamond mines. (Paragraph 105)

Secondary school students have been sent home because their parents, who have not been paid, are unable to pay school fees. (Paragraph 131)

Child soldiers: On a more positive note, Decree-Law No. 66 of 9 June 2000 on the demobilization of children and other vulnerable groups established a commission for demobilization and reintegration. (Paragraph 106)

As in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, RCD is establishing a commission for the demobilization of child soldiers. However, MONUC has noted that the level of recruitment of children is much higher in the east than in the areas under Kabila. This is the case, for example, in Nyaleke, near Beni, where Ugandan soldiers are training 10-year-old children. What is worse, Congolese children are being deported to Uganda (see para. 117 above). (Paragraph 133)

Proportionally, the Ugandan forces are more regular in the recruitment of children. (Paragraph 152)

The situation continues to worsen. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and RCD have taken steps to demobilize children, but neither MLC or the Ugandan troops have done so. (Paragraph 174)

With regard to human rights: (i) abolish the death penalty and commute death sentences; (ii) eliminate the Military Court; (iii) release all political prisoners and journalists unconditionally, guaranteeing them the fullest possible freedom of action; (iv) eliminate all forms of pressure or censorship of the press and open up the public media to the opposition; (v) cease all cooperation with the Mai-Mai and Interahamwe; (vi) speed up the demobilization of child soldiers; (vii) restore relations with other States, intergovernmental organizations, the United Nations and OAU and attend the assemblies and meetings organized by them, since none of them is an enemy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and all are trying to help it; (viii) extend the authorization for OHCHR to visit all places of detention, not only jails; (ix) implement the human rights plan of action; (x) give international human rights instruments precedence over internal law and honour the commitments made under them. (Paragraph 176 b)

To RCD and other rebel groups: (i) put an end to the climate of terror prevailing in the territories controlled by RCD factions; (ii) cease all cooperation with foreign armies; (iii) avoid any act implying the exercise of sovereignty over foreign armies (flying of flags, partition or creation of provinces, town-twinning, sale of public property, etc.); (iv) recognize the truth and refrain from giving fictitious accounts of atrocities committed by their troops and foreign allies and conduct objective investigations of allegations; (v) refrain from recruiting Congolese to attack Congolese (art. 51, fourth Geneva Convention); (vi) release political prisoners; (vii) suspend all deportations of Congolese and persons recognized as refugees in Congolese territory and demand that their foreign allies return deported Congolese to the country; (viii) solemnly undertake not to carry out the death penalty; (ix) recognize and permit the legitimate right to dissent, ceasing to interpret all acts of opposition as alleged incitement to ethnic hatred; (x) permit organizations of civil society, particularly human rights organizations, to function freely; and (xi) demobilize child soldiers, especially Congolese child soldiers recruited by Uganda. (Paragraph 177)

To foreign armies occupying Congolese territory: (i) implement the Lusaka Agreement and, in particular, Security Council resolution 1304 (2000), which demands that they should withdraw immediately and prior to the withdrawal of the forces present at the Government's invitation; (ii) accept the fact that they have lost all respect in the eyes of the Congolese people and refrain from all reprisal; (iii) permit investigations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and, in particular, of the massacres that took place on 2 August 1998; (iv) provide immediate compensation to the victims of the incidents that occurred at Kisangani and in other parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; (v) return the Congolese property that has been taken from the country since 1998; (vi) refrain from enlisting young persons into their service to fight against their own people. (Paragraph 178)

Malnutrition: The extremely serious situation throughout the country is particularly disturbing in the east: malnutrition in Kisangani reportedly affects 30 per cent of all adults and 60 per cent of children. Civil servants remain unpaid. The health care system is destroyed and families usually take turns eating. Poverty is on the rise owing to the insecurity generated by the looting by Ugandan and Rwandan soldiers. (Paragraph 130)

Rape: The best known case of an attack on women is the incident that took place at Mwenga, where 15 women were buried alive after having been burned. Other cases include the detention of feminist activists (PAIF); the rape and beating of secondary school students who were detained for insisting that their examinations were valid in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and repeated instances of rape of women detainees, particularly in "Chien méchant". Those who resist are generally beaten. Rapes by Ugandan soldiers have also been reported in Butembo, especially in Kihinga, Ruenda, Isango, Mutiri, Mukuna and Butalirya districts. (Paragraph 132)

The Interahamwe and former FAR combatants are responsible for attacks on the civilian population in Loashi, Luhinzi, Rutshuru, Kione, Ngesha, Kahuzi-Biega (nine gorilla researchers killed), Nyabiungu (seven persons killed on 13 October) and Munigi (nine persons killed on 1 November). It is common for women and girls to be raped in the villages attacked. (Paragraph 139)

Deprivation of liberty: In flagrant violation of article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, minor children of all ages who are suspected of offences are deprived of their liberty in ordinary prisons, including security services prisons (Eric Mburanumwe Haguna, 12 years old, has been held in Bureau II in Sake, North Kivu, since 14 November). (Paragraph 134)

Right to life: Any attack by members of the Interahamwe, Mai-Mai or similar groups is met with violence that is utterly disproportionate: innocent civilians having nothing to do with the conflict are massacred and the death toll is high. Mere suspicion of sympathy with the Mai-Mai provokes reprisals against the civilian population: Ngenge (November 1999), Kalehe (December 1999, 23 dead), Kilambo (February, 60 dead), Katogota (May, between 40 and 300 dead), Kamanyola, Lurbarika, Luberezi, Cidaho, Uvira, Shabunda, Lusenda-Lubumba (July, 150 dead), Lulingu (August, 300 to 700 dead, including children, women and many disabled persons) and Butembo (11 September, 24 civilians killed). (Paragraph 142)

Ugandan troops also shelled a boat in which women and children were fleeing the war, killing some 30 persons; no assistance was given to them. (Paragraph 151)

______________________________________________________________________________

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Roberto Garretón
(E/CN.4/2000/42)
Country visit: 16 February – 23 February and 27 August – 6 September 1999

Report published: 18 January 2000

Juvenile detention: The Special Rapporteur noted in February that improvements had been made in CPRK (formerly Makala prison), although conditions in the remaining prisons are appalling. However, the latest information clearly shows there has been some backsliding, with senseless measures such as not allowing families to take newspapers or water to prisoners. At Lodja prison in Kasai Oriental, two thirds of the buildings have no roofs and there is no health care. Inmates suffer from an alarming level of malnutrition and all sorts of epidemics. The Special Rapporteur also visited Kasapa prison in Lubumbashi, where three children of between 12 and 18 months of age were with their inmate mothers and were not receiving any assistance whatsoever. In Boma, Likasi, 70 per cent of the inmates suffer from malnutrition and many have dysentery and other illnesses. They are visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which provides food, and, since 8 November, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Visits to the cells of GSSP, ANR and DEMIAP are extremely rare. (Paragraph 60)

The jails, including those in the territory governed from Kinshasa, are visited by representatives of ICRC, which provides food and health care. Adult and juvenile prisoners are not separated and soldiers are incarcerated together with civilians, a fact which the latter perceive as a serious threat. The Special Rapporteur visited the central prison in Goma in February and the one in Bukavu in September (27 imprisoned soldiers were released the day before the Special Rapporteur's visit to Bukavu). While there had been a visible attempt in the first to improve on the state it had been in some years previously (the Special Rapporteur visited it in 1994, when many of the buildings literally had no roofs), the same could not be said of the second. In Goma, the Special Rapporteur also saw Bureau 2, identified as a torture centre by every source, but it was clear that on the day of his visit there were fewer prisoners than usual. (Paragraph 87)

Malnutrition: The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for 65 per cent of all tuberculosis cases in Central Africa (54,575 cases). In March, a poliomyelitis epidemic broke out in Equateur province, affecting about 100 people. In Bandundu, six people died of meningitis during a nine-day period in March. Health conditions have been seriously affected by the war. There is an alarming degree of malnutrition: there are areas where 80 per cent of the population are affected and in Kinshasa the percentage of malnourished people has risen in one year from 6.2 to 9.8 per cent. There are 100,000 more children suffering from malnutrition in the country today than there were before the war. The prices of medicines have risen considerably. Some families eat once a day or once every two or three days. (Paragraph 74)

Education: Because of the war, no measures have been taken to guarantee the exercise of this right. Many parents are not sending their children to school because they cannot afford the school fees. (Paragraph 75)

In Kisangani, schools are open only a few days a week, while others have been closed. School enrolment has declined to alarming levels and, since students cannot be reunited with their families, some have ended up by joining the army. This has led to the phenomenon of "children without papers", since studies in the RCD-controlled territory cannot be validated in Kinshasa, even though UNICEF has obtained permission to have them validated. (Paragraph 103)

Rape: Many reports confirm that rape, even of girls, still occurs in prisons and during military operations. Women seeking to leave the country are subjected to gruelling humiliation. (Paragraph 77)

Children involved in armed conflict: While the use of children in warfare is less frequent than in RCD-controlled territory, some 6,000 children are in military service. In Katanga, the Government has been recruiting youngsters, mostly Balubakat, since January, for the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) and GSSP in particular. They have been given weapons to defend the civilian population and have received some rudimentary training, with the predictable result that they have begun looting. However, recruitment is not the only way in which children's rights have been affected: the war has led many to drop out of school. In May, the Government established the National Children's Council, which involves members of the community and school representatives, among others, in monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Council works with NGOs. It is still too early to evaluate its achievements. (Paragraph 78)

One initiative that deserves the Special Rapporteur's full support is the organization by the Ministry of Human Rights of a pan-African conference on the demobilization of child soldiers, to be held in December with assistance from the Ministers of Defence, the Interior, Foreign Affairs, and Reconstruction, and with funding from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The conference will deal with such issues as disarmament, demobilization and social rehabilitation. (Paragraph 79)

The most worrying situation is that of child soldiers, whose number has not decreased. The Special Rapporteur has received reports that children aged between 9 and 13 have been recruited by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) and used as human shields and that about 300 have been recruited in Congolese territory since 22 October and sent to Kigali to be trained for war and for "ideological education". Unfortunately, RCD, citing reasons of security, is not prepared to participate in the pan-African conference on demobilization organized by Kinshasa that is due to be held in the third week of December. (Paragraph 106)

There are many street children owing to the death of their parents during the war or in the massacres that have occurred in many villages. In South Kivu, 1,324 unaccompanied children whose parents were killed in massacres in the region have been registered. At least 13 of these survivors died as a result of neglect. It was reported that there are 400 children in Kisangani in danger of dying from malnutrition and lack of medical care. (Paragraph 107)

Human rights, especially liberty of person and the freedoms of expression, opinion and association, must be restored in the two parts into which the war has divided the territory, since their enjoyment today seems more like a concession from the authorities than an enforceable right. The Congolese people does not enjoy the right to be informed. Particular attention must be paid to the situation of women and to respect for the rights of children, especially by putting an end to the recruitment of children for the armed conflict. (Paragraph 142)

The end of the recruitment of children cannot be delayed. The initiative of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to convene a pan-African conference for this purpose should be supported and, above all, this scourge should not be allowed to continue. (Paragraph 151)

Death penalty: Although the death penalty is permitted under the law, it has not been applied since the beginning of the war. According to the authorities, "in this part of the country, it was applied only by Kabila". During his two visits, the Special Rapporteur spoke with prisoners who had been sentenced to death, but he was assured that their sentences would not be carried out. In February, he met a 15-year-old youth in Goma who had been sentenced to death; the RCD official responsible for foreign affairs acceded to the Special Rapporteur's request for a commutation of the sentence. (Paragraph 81)

Health: RCD has not taken measures to ensure effective enjoyment of these rights since, as in the west, the war effort consumes all income. In addition, a lot of hospital equipment has been taken to Rwanda and Uganda and the region's wealth has also benefited those countries more than its rightful owner. According to a reliable report by a humanitarian organization, the incidence of malaria is at 1930s levels. In Kisangani, 13 per cent of the population were suffering from malnutrition and 9.3 per cent were seriously undernourished. The infant mortality rate is more than 2.2 times the rate for Africa as a whole. There are many regions where malnutrition has reached 80 per cent. An aircraft chartered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to carry out a poliomyelitis immunization campaign was unduly held up in Goma, even though it was subsequently permitted to continue. In any case, not all children were immunized, as they had been in the west. (Paragraph 101)

Articles: 
Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict
Article 6: Survival and development
Article 37: Torture and deprivation of liberty
Article 38: Armed conflicts
Article 39: Rehabilitative care
Organisation: 
Child Rights International Network

Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.