Deputy High Commissioner updates Council on the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Madam Vice-President,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

The offensive launched this year by the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group in the North and South Kivu provinces has exacerbated an already dire human rights and humanitarian crisis in Eastern DRC.

Since the last update to this Council in October and despite this latest wave of violence, the UN Joint Human Rights Office has endeavored to provide technical support to the authorities to strengthen the rule of law, to advance on transitional justice and to enhance the fight against impunity.

The scale of violence and insecurity have hampered the ability of our Office fully to discharge this mandate. Nevertheless, with our assistance, trials were held that resulted in the conviction of a warlord and former militiamen for war crimes and crimes against humanity for murder, torture, rape and sexual slavery.

Let me underline with grave concern that, since the beginning of the year, the United Nations has documented 602 victims of extrajudicial and summary execution committed by all parties to the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces alone. In Ituri province in the northeast, several groups continue to kill, maim and abduct civilians.

Meanwhile, DRC forces and their allies have also attacked civilians.

Conflict-related sexual violence continues to run rampant and is being committed by all parties. Cases increased by more than 270 per cent from January to February.

Civic space has been violently stamped out in the areas occupied by the Rwandan-backed M23, and any dissent is brutally silenced.

Close to 26 million people, nearly a quarter of the population of the country, are experiencing emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity.

In total, nearly 7.8 million people are displaced in the DRC, including 3.8 million in the Kivu provinces alone.

Thousands of schools have been closed, destroyed, turned into emergency shelters or occupied by armed groups, and more than 1.6 million children in the eastern DRC are no longer in education.

Madam Vice-President,

Excellencies,

It is evident that our approach needs fundamental reassessment.

Any plans for a sustainable peace must tackle the root causes of the conflict, including the illegal exploitation of the national wealth that lies in natural resources.

The DRC authorities must also take a firm and consistent stand against corruption, impunity, and hate speech, by whomever committed.

Transitional justice processes need acceleration, including towards the finalization of inclusive national consultations.

The DRC's national policy on transitional justice – developed with the support of our Office – carries the potential for meaningful future truth and reconciliation efforts. We encourage the DRC authorities to take necessary action to adopt the policy and subsequently the law on transitional justice.

As an Office, we will continue to support this work wherever possible. This involves the provision of forensic expertise, logistical and financial resources, and support to victims and witnesses.

We are also committed to supporting the reform of the Penal Code to integrate provisions that make hate speech a full-fledged offence.

Madam Vice-President,

After almost three decades of war, and over six million deaths, it should be abundantly clear that there is no military solution to this conflict.

The people of the DRC need local, national, and regional actors to demonstrate leadership and prioritise dialogue over self-interest, over greed and over violence.

The international community must also take decisive, concrete and urgent action to facilitate a durable peace in the DRC.

States and private companies that profit from natural resources exploited under dangerous and illegal conditions must stop hiding behind complex and shadowy supply chains.

States with influence must act.

We reiterate the calls by the Security Council, the Human Rights Council and the Secretary-General for Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the DRC.

Without concrete action, this current violence may well engulf the entire region. The risks of such catastrophe are growing by the day.

Madam Vice-President,

Our Office remains committed, under its mandate, to providing support to the DRC authorities, victims and human rights defenders – including those who have been specifically targeted for their human rights work – subject to conditions on the ground allowing for effective engagement.

In the meantime, we continue to monitor and document violations and abuses, irrespective of the parties alleged to have committed them. There must be accountability for the extreme scale of suffering of civilians in the DRC.

As recently mandated by this Council, our Office has also moved quickly to set up a fact-finding mission on violations of international law committed by all parties in the Kivu provinces. We will be providing an oral update in June.

It is time for the international community to send a strong and unequivocal message to all parties that the violations and abuses, many potentially amounting to international crimes, must cease and be effectively addressed.  Only then can we lay the foundations for the sustainable peace and development which the people of the DRC have awaited for so long.

Thank you.