Amnesty International (AI) and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) say authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations have not done enough to hold human rights violators to account one decade after the landmark UN mapping report on DR Congo was published.

Development Diaries understands that the mapping report, which was published in October 2010, documented more than 600 incidents of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed in the country between March 1993 and June 2003.

The UN commissioned the mapping project after the discovery of three mass graves in North Kivu province, eastern Congo, in 2005 and published its findings on 01 October, 2010.

The report describes serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, concluding that a majority of the documented abuses qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

‘The failure to identify and put in place adequate mechanisms to provide justice and reparations has left thousands of victims and their families helpless’, Amnesty International Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, said.

‘As a consequence, widespread impunity continues to reign in Congo and the wider region, contributing to the recurrence of killings and other serious crimes’.

The organisations urged President Felix Tshisekedi to make the fight against impunity a priority of his administration and take meaningful steps to hold those responsible for past and present human rights violations accountable.

‘The UN Mapping Report remains a powerful reminder of the crimes committed in Congo, the shocking absence of justice, and the consequences of impunity’, Senior Congo Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Thomas Fessy, said.

‘Ten years on, the Congolese authorities and international partners should take serious steps to strengthen the domestic justice system and establish an internationalised mechanism that will ensure credible and independent justice for past and present crimes’.

Source: HRW

Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection