Human Rights Council 37: Democratic Republic of the Congo
This UK Statement was delivered at the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council during the Interactive Dialogue on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, held 20 March 2018.
The Human Rights Council takes place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
The United Kingdom expresses its deep concern at the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Current trends are deeply worrying and point to the erosion of human rights in a country whose people have suffered for too long. Of particular concern is the analysis by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC that 60% of the 744 recorded Human Rights violations in January of this year were committed by State agents. Mr President, this shows that the Government of the DRC needs to do far more to ensure that the police, security services and in particular the armed forces operate according to the highest international standards.
The DRC has now taken up its place on this Council. It is incumbent on all Council members to set the very highest standards of human rights as an example to other nations. We call upon the government of the DRC to ensure that it lives up to its responsibilities as a member of this council.
Key to this is ensuring that elections scheduled to take place on 23 December this year are credible and constitutional. This will pave the way for the first peaceful, democratic transition of power in the independent history of the DRC. In this context we note with concern the continued shrinking of political space, including restrictions on the ability of those opposed to the government to protest peacefully and the failure to implement the St Sylvestre Accord of 31 December 2016 in full. It is imperative that the government fulfils its pledges to its people by implementing confidence building measures, including the release of political prisoners.
We would like to ask the High Commissioner for his views on what the DRC government is doing to ensure the opening up of political space to give the Congolese people faith in their electoral process and how can the international community support these efforts?