Human Rights Council
Forty-first session
24 June–12 July 2019
Agenda items 2 and 10
Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General
Technical assistance and capacity-building
Summary
This report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 38/20 of 6 July 2018, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint a new team of international experts to support the implementation of the recommendations made by the previous team. Many changes have taken place since then, including the election of Félix Tshisekedi as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 30 December 2018, which marked the start of a transition that is still under way. In addition, Kasai has faced an influx of several hundred thousand people who have been forced to leave neighbouring Angola.
In order to resolve the crisis, the team of international experts recommends stepping up efforts to combat impunity in Kasai by introducing a more focused prosecution policy that targets specific types of offence and a particular range of groups in such a way as to encompass all the international crimes that have been committed in Kasai, the scale and gravity of which are undeniable. It is urgently necessary to strengthen national prosecution and trial capacities so as to be able to reduce the international presence. A prosecution policy of this kind would be a chance to take advantage of the window of opportunity for peace and reconciliation that remains open in Kasai. It must be combined with the urgent introduction of a policy aimed at reconciling communities, disarming and integrating members of all militia groups and reducing the military presence in Kasai, and the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism that is culturally and legally appropriate. This transitional justice mechanism must involve searching for the root causes of the conflict, establishing the truth and providing redress, identifying the reforms that are needed and creating a culture of peace, dialogue and tolerance.
Lastly, the economic and social causes of the current crisis, which has particularly affected young persons and women, require the rapid implementation of a policy for the reconstruction and development of Kasai, accompanied by the injection of specially dedicated funds.
I. Introduction
1. Starting in August 2016, the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffered a wave of bloody violence perpetrated by armed groups (the Kamuina Nsapu, Bana Mura and Écurie Mbembe militias) and members of the defence and security forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the national police, the National Intelligence Agency and the Directorate General of Migration). Several thousand people were killed, countless acts of violence were committed against civilians and entire villages were set on fire and plundered. The violence also resulted in the displacement of more than one million people, giving rise to an acute humanitarian crisis.
2. At the request of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights dispatched a team of three international experts in 2017 to determine the facts and circumstances of the alleged human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law in the Kasai region.
3. In the report that it submitted to the Council in July 2018, the team of international experts concluded that the parties involved had: (a) deliberately killed civilians, including many children; (b) committed numerous atrocities, including mutilation, rape and other forms of sexual violence; and (c) destroyed entire villages. It also concluded that some of these abuses constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as serious violations of human rights. Recognizing the urgent need to begin combating impunity for the crimes and violations committed in Kasai since 2016, while stressing the need for non-judicial measures to promote reconciliation, the team of international experts made a number of recommendations to the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
4. On 6 July 2018, noting with concern the conclusions of the team of international experts, the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner to dispatch a new team of international experts to monitor, evaluate and support the implementation by the Democratic Republic of the Congo of the recommendations made by the previous team in its report, in particular with regard to the fight against impunity and measures to promote reconciliation and transitional justice.
5. The international experts, Bacre Waly Ndiaye of Senegal (Chair) and Sheila B. Keetharuth of Mauritius (member), were appointed by the High Commissioner on 20 August 2018 and performed this monitoring and evaluation work once their secretariat had been set up, over the course of three missions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in November 2018, February and March 2019 and April 2019. They supported the competent authorities by holding thematic workshops, one on 28 February 2019 in Tshikapa, on investigation and prosecution strategies in the fight against impunity, and another on 17 and 18 April 2019 in Kananga, bringing together the stakeholders involved in the reconciliation and transitional justice process in the Kasai region. The new team of international experts was supported in the fulfilment of its mandate by a secretariat that was based in Kananga and composed of nine members, including five international members, some of whom were experts in the areas of gender and transitional justice.
6. On 19 March 2019, the two international experts participated in an enhanced interactive dialogue at the fortieth session of the Council, during which they reported on the progress of their work and shared some preliminary findings. The present report, submitted to the Council at its forty-first session, contains the conclusions and recommendations of the team of international experts.