Why congo persists

While government officials and the media tend to attribute almost all attacks taking place in Beni territory to the ADF, research suggests that other armed groups and some elements of the national army may have been involved. ADF reprisal attacks and massacres of civilians have followed previous government military offensives against the armed group, which heightens civilian protection concerns.

Poor coordination between the Congolese army and the FIB have repeatedly undermined such joint operations, though. But rather than investigating Mundos, President Tshisekedi promoted him to army deputy inspector general in MONUSCO should fully respect the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy when supporting Congolese military operations and withhold all support to units or commanders who may be implicated in attacks on civilians or other serious human rights violations.

UN peacekeepers should also improve ties with local communities and ensure that protecting civilians is central to all operations. For decades, Congo has lacked both an effective demobilization framework that could disarm rebel fighters and militiamen, and reintegrate them into communities, and a vetting system that would enable authorities to identify and investigate those responsible for abuses.

Since President Tshisekedi took office in , thousands of fighters have surrendered or shown a willingness to do so, but have not been processed. As a result, those who laid down their weapons often later returned to their armed groups, and the authorities have struggled to persuade others to surrender. More than armed groups continue to operate in eastern Congo. North Kivu has 1. Over five million people are displaced across Congo, one of the largest internally displaced populations in Africa.

Following the ADF attack on Idohu, villagers fled to the town of Komanda, where camps were already housing thousands of internally displaced people. Many of the displaced there have sought shelter and safety within local communities, further taxing local schools, churches, and health centers. Judges, clerks, lawyers and professors all stood to gain. Global networks operate outside the law.

Foreign companies find benefits in dealing with a weak and unregulated state. The international community, including the UN, supports the government and gives state institutions structure and power. A strong nationalist discourse for elites and non-elites. All sectors of society from leaders to those without power constantly reaffirm loyalty to the state. Domestic rebellions. The country is vulnerable to internal uprisings, yet these violent rebellions revolve around the terms of the rebel integration in the state, rather than over the nature of the state itself.

Illegal searches, arrests, detentions, involuntary disappearances, and torture in places of detention was the grim reality of the once flourishing Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine reiterated its call to the international community to pressure Russia to release political prisoners in Crimea. They called on Russia to release all political prisoners. The continuous deterioration of human rights in eastern Ukraine - and in Crimea - was a widely shared concern among Member States.

Several speakers said they did not recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. The need to ensure the protection of victims in the occupied territories was also highlighted by one speaker, who said victims of abuse had accelerated during the COVID pandemic.

Speakers urged the implementation of the Minsk Agreement. The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. The Council will resume its work on Wednesday, 6 October at 10 a. This will be followed by an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, and an enhanced interactive dialogue on the report of the High Commissioner on the human rights situation in Sudan. The interactive dialogue on the oral presentation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Ukraine started in the morning meeting and a summary can be found here.

Ukraine reiterated its call to the international community to pressure Russia to release its political prisoners. Ukraine thanked Member States for their support of Ukraine. The Government of Ukraine would continue its faithful and effective implementation of national legislation on education and on functioning of the State language.

It would continue regular consultations with interested partners, in particular with Hungary, on the issues of education in minority languages. This interactive dialogue once again demonstrated that Russia did not shy away from exploiting the Council in its continuous attempts to legitimise its annexation of Crimea. It was doing so by engaging individuals who were implicated in gross violations of international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as human rights abuses in Crimea.

The fact that this henchman had addressed the Council as part of the national delegation of the Russian Federation seriously discredited this podium.

Speakers called on Russia to release all political prisoners. As a result, one speaker called for the full implementation of the Minsk Agreement and for Russia to stop its intimidation. Speakers regretted the treatment of Crimean Tatars and urged the Russian Federation to implement all recommendations in the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Cases of domestic violence in occupied territories were also raised as a grave concern. Speakers appealed to all parties to respect human rights. One speaker said the Russian elections held in the illegally annexed Crimea would not be recognised. The Russian Federation was urged to refrain from all forms of violence. One speaker noted the detention of 60 Crimean Tatars on 4 and 5 September and called on Russia to release these political prisoners.

Crimean men were forced into the Russian military in contravention of international law and Russia was called upon to cease such practices. In particular, the national police and security service of Ukraine could discontinue applying a wide interpretation of the concept of continuous crime in order to justify arrests without court warrants.

The ongoing reform of the national policy and security service was an opportunity to strengthen the processes of arbitrary detention, including enforced disappearances. Arbitrary detention in territory controlled by armed groups in eastern Ukraine remained of great concern. The practices of preventive arrests and administrative arrests in the self-proclaimed republic amounted to arbitrary detention and may constitute enforced disappearance. In Crimea, the Office continued to document and report on cases of arbitrary detention.

In the late afternoon of August 2 outside the village of Idohu, Ituri, alleged ADF fighters abducted and tied up 14 people who were cutting wood on the edge of the forest, and forced them to walk toward the village.

Once on the main road, the RN4, the fighters executed the 14 villagers and 2 others they encountered. Their bodies were laid in a line across the road. I heard them scream as they were all taken by the [attackers]. Three of those killed were members of my family. On August 4, alleged ADF fighters attacked Congolese army positions in the southern Tchabi area of Ituri, over kilometers from Idohu, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring others.

Government forces had two weeks earlier announced that they had dislodged the ADF from the area. While government officials and the media tend to attribute almost all attacks taking place in Beni territory to the ADF, research suggests that other armed groups and some elements of the national army may have been involved. ADF reprisal attacks and massacres of civilians have followed previous government military offensives against the armed group, which heightens civilian protection concerns.

Poor coordination between the Congolese army and the FIB have repeatedly undermined such joint operations, though.