UN special rapporteur, organizations raise concerns about the safety of human rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Photo: M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma, January 29, 2025. The city of Goma, situated on the border with Rwanda, has a population of about 782,000 people plus an additional 500,000 displaced people. Photo by Brian Inganga/AP.
On February 17, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, highlighted: “Human rights defenders – people peacefully advocating for the human rights of others, including by documenting human rights violations – have been directly targeted by the M23 and Rwandan forces.”
Image: Mary Lawlor on Bluesky.
Three days earlier, on February 14, Front Line Defenders also noted: “Reports state that human rights defenders are facing targeted threats from both the M23 and government authorities, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detentions.”
As further noted below, concerns have also been expressed by Global Witness and Amnesty International.
Canadian soldiers withdraw from Goma, DRC
Also on February 14, CTV reported: “Canadian soldiers have been temporarily relocated from a major city [Goma] in eastern Congo amid an escalating conflict that the United Nations and locals say has displaced more than 110,000 people in recent days. [These Canadian soldiers are part of] the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) [that] was created in 2010 to protect civilians from violence and to monitor a UN arms embargo [adopted in 2003] following the Second Congo War [that took place from August 1998 to July 2003].”
Historical colonial exploitation of Congo
Elizabeth Schmidt, an emeritus professor of history at Loyola University Maryland, has explained: “Congo’s exploitation by outsiders began in the 16th century, when the territory became a major source of slaves for Brazil. Following the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 19th century, Congo was pillaged for rubber and ivory. King Leopold II of Belgium claimed Congo as his personal fiefdom and imposed a harsh labor regime that consumed five to eight million lives between 1890 and 1910…”
“Following Congo’s independence in June 1960, it became a key Cold War battleground in Africa. The West, including Belgium and the US, along with white settler states and foreign mineral companies, targeted then prime minister Patrice Lumumba, whose economic nationalism and political nonalignment threatened their interests.”
Photo: Patrice Lumumba under arrest on December 2, 1960. He was executed on January 17, 1961. Photo from Rue des Archives.
“In 1965, following a coup d’état by CIA protégé, General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, the US threw its support to the military strongman, helping him establish a sophisticated, well-equipped army that transformed Congo into a regional powerhouse.”
Professor Schmidt continues: “The withdrawal of US military support [at the conclusion of the Cold War in 1991] rendered Mobutu vulnerable to a pro-democracy movement and to rebel forces… After the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, genocide perpetrators, aided by France, fled to Congo from where they launched attacks and plotted a return to power. Rwanda and Uganda, in turn, backed rebel forces that drove Mobutu from power in 1997 and seized control of the embattled state.”
US, European policies on Rwanda
This week Professor Kristof Titeca from the University of Antwerp commented in The Conversation: “The current situation doesn’t look good for DRC president Felix Tshisekedi. The further M23 advances, the more it highlights the failure of his policies in eastern Congo and weakens his legitimacy.”
Photo: Amnesty International says: “[The international community must] increase pressure on President Tshisekedi’s government to uphold human rights…”
“Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame in the past has publicly questioned the borders between Rwanda and Congo. This narrative on ‘Greater Rwanda’ would mean extending Rwanda beyond its colonial borders. Access to resources plays a role in Rwanda’s presence in the DRC, as does (in)security.”
“While actors such as the European Union and United States have firmly condemned Rwanda, this has materialised into little action.”
Professor Titeca continues: “So far, Germany has suspended aid talks with Rwanda, and the United Kingdom has threatened to cut aid. Other than that, there has been no action… Belgium has been pushing for sanctions, while France has been taking the lead in blocking these. France’s national interests are a key reason for this: Rwandan peacekeeping troops are key in Mozambique, where a major TotalEnergies gas project – worth US$20 billion – is on hold because of an ongoing insurgency.”
Photo: The TotalEnergies LNG project in Mozambique.
Canada on Rwanda, mining in the DRC
Last month, Montreal-based author Yves Engler noted in Canadian Dimension: “In the latest phase of three decades of Rwandan-instigated insurgency, Kigali’s proxy March 23 Movement (M23) rebel force recently took control of Goma, a city of two million and the biggest in eastern Congo. Four hundred thousand people have been displaced in fighting since the start of the year and over a million during the past three years. The Canadian government has stayed silent on Rwanda’s aggression while continuing to back its leader, Paul Kagame, who presides over a brutal police state.”
Photo: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau meets Kagame in Rwanda, June 2022.
Engler adds: “In 2002, eight Canadian companies including American Mineral Fields, Banro, First Quantum, Hrambee Mining, International Panorama Resources, Kinross Gold, Melkior Resources and Tenke were implicated in a UN panel report on the ‘Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.’ The report detailed widespread abuses by Canadian and other foreign mining companies and recommended that Ottawa undertake a formal inquiry into the allegations and investigate the matter. This has never been done.”
Global Affairs Canada notes: “There are significant Canadian mining investments in the DRC. Trade relations between Canada and the DRC are modest.”
Cobalt, copper and Chinese weapons
Late last year, NPR reported: “More than 70% of the world’s cobalt, a critical metal used in electric-vehicle batteries and jet engines, comes from Congo, for example. The country is also the second-largest producer of copper. But despite the recent U.S. push to increase its footprint in critical minerals, China remains overwhelmingly dominant. Its firms own over 80 percent of Congo’s copper mines…”
In May 2024, Military Africa reported: “The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has taken delivery of three additional CH-4 Rainbow medium altitude and long endurance (MALE) drone from China. The drones will be transferred at once to the theatre of operations against the M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force in the east of the country. Three more are expected in the coming months.”
Photo: The CH-4 drone.
Last week, as explained in this media release, the European Parliament voted (443 votes in favour, 4 against, 48 abstentions) on a resolution that says: “the Commission and EU countries should also halt their military and security assistance to the Rwandan armed forces to avoid contributing directly or indirectly to abusive military operations in eastern DRC” and that also expressed concern “about the consequences of Russian interference in the conflict, as well as the increasing presence of Chinese actors in the DRC’s mining sector and in wider region and working without respect for economic and social responsibility.”
HRDs in Kenya at risk
Front Line Defenders notes: “HRDs in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at risk of killings, threats, intimidation and judicial harassment. The risks are especially acute for WHRDs and HRDs working on land and environmental rights who are often seen as a threat to economic interests.”
Amnesty International adds: “After a drawn-out process lasting seven years, the human rights defenders’ law was enacted in October [2023]. The law increased state control over the status and activities of civil society organizations and human rights defenders. It required them to register with the National Human Rights Commission, an official body, or face criminal prosecution. Those disseminating information deemed “defamatory, insulting or slanderous” risked six months to two years in prison.”
Photo: On July 19, 2023, human rights defender Obedi Karafuru was shot and killed in his house by unidentified men in a region controlled by the M23 rebels.
And in their most recent report, Global Witness documented: “In Africa, two defenders were murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one in Rwanda and one in Ghana in 2023. Between 2012 and 2023, 116 defenders were murdered in Africa, most of them park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (74).”
We continue to follow this with concern.
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