Implementation in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) became party to the Rome Statute on April 11, 2002. Since then, the Ministry of Justice and the Permanent Law reform Commission have drafted implementing legislation following a number of expert meetings supported by Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, and the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC).
Human Rights First participated in two seminars on the implementation of the Rome Statute in the DRC, in Kinshasa on October 21-23, 2002 and in Lubumbashi on October 24-26, 2002.

These seminars were organized by the Ministry of Justice of DRC, in collaboration with Human Rights First, HRW, the CICC and the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO-a Congolese NGO) thanks to the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie and the Millenium Foundation.

These two seminars enabled Congolese experts (governement, lawyers, judges, law professors and NGOs) to review draft ICC implementing legislation in collaboration with the international experts. The participants included prominent experts at the national level such as the Minister of Justice, His Excellency Ngele Masudi, as well as, M. Yenyi Olungu, Deputy General Prosecutor (“premier Avocat Général de la République”), Zénon Mukongo, first counsellor at the Permanent Mission of DRC to the UN and Professor Luzolo, President of the Permanent Congolese Law Reform Commission. International experts included Philippe Kirsch, now President of the ICC, and M. Diallo, Deputy Director of the Criminal Affairs Division of the Ministry of Justice of Senegal as well as representatives from international NGOs: Human Rights First, HRW and the CICC.

The outcome was a draft law which was was presented publicly by the government of DRC during the 10th and final session of the Preparatory Commission for the ICC at the UN in New York in July 2002. Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch issued joint comments on this first draft legislation in August 2002 and recommended that a number of provisions be amended. These comments were welcomed by the government and by Congolese NGOs and served as background documents for the second series of seminars which took place in October 2002.

The draft law was forwarded to the Permanent Law Reform Commission of the DRC. The Commission modified the text before submitting it to the then Minister of Justice. Human Rights First has issued comments, jointly with Human Rights Watch, on the draft, stressing remaining concerns and suggesting alternative language, in particular with regard to the death penalty and cooperation procedures. It is now for the Minister of Justice in the current transitional government to take the legislation forward.

Backgrounder on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo