International Peacemaking and Human Rights Programs - Democratic Republic of Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Following its Nov. 2006 election observation mission, The Carter Center remained in the DRC to join with Congolese civil society in the protection of human rights.

Waging Peace

Protecting Human Rights

In spring 2007, The Carter Center began work on a justice sector and NGO capacity building project. The project includes human rights training for police and judges, assistance to the Ministry of Justice on preparation of performance reports for international treaty bodies, and assistance to local NGOs preparing independent, alternative reports to accompany those of the government.

The Carter Center's police training initiative complement professional police trainings by focusing specifically on human rights principles and the domestic and international human rights obligations required of police officers. A set of training materials and curriculum is being developed and workshops will be held in December 2007 and February 2008. The workshops will help enable judges to be better prepared to address human rights violations in cases that come before them. Both lawyers training to be judges and current judges continuing their education will benefit from an annotated 300-page training manual the Center has written, which contains analysis of important court cases over the previous year.

In addition to these activities, The Carter Center has launched an NGO resource center in Kinshasa called Human Rights House, which provides support and networking resources to local human rights NGOs through both technical and organizational training workshops and material support. Workshops will cover such topics as treaty reporting, advocacy, and organizational management and strategic planning. The Carter Center has identified more than 30 NGOs that will join as members and participate in the activities and management of the Human Rights House.

The Center worked in collaboration with Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic to complete a review of mining contracts in the DRC at the invitation of the Congolese government and in collaboration with Congolese civil society organizations. A November 2007 report detailed the problems found during the review and included the Carter Center's recommendations for next steps to the international community, World Bank, mining companies, and Congolese government. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the most mineral-rich nations on earth, yet its citizens have seen little benefit from these resources due to corruption and faulty contracts between mining companies and the government.

First Report: The Carter Center Review of DRC Mining Contracts - Update and Recommendations (PDF)

Monitoring Elections

The Carter Center was invited to observe the Democratic Republic of the Congo's 2006 elections by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), and staff from Atlanta visited the DRC on two occasions in 2004 to make preparations and meet with a range of political participants.

In March 2006, the Center established a small office in Kinshasa with a team of representatives to manage the overall election observation program. Several long-term election observers arrived in late April to monitor electoral preparations and the campaign period. The LTOs also monitored and verified incidents of violence, intimidation, or human rights violations as well as other security concerns. The LTOs were mobile in order to cover a wide geographical area and effectively provide advance information for a larger number of short-term observers. After the elections, the LTOs and others monitored postelection processes.

Shortly before the elections, the LTOs were joined by a larger delegation that focused primarily on the conduct of polling and counting of ballots. The 58-member international delegation was co-led by former Prime Minister of Canada Joe Clark and Dr. John Stremlau, Carter Center associate executive director for peace programs.

Partnership between The Carter Center and Congolese participants was a key element of election observation plans. The Center worked with other domestic and international observation groups to coordinate deployment plans and share information about the election process. This exchange of information improved the dialogue among organizations and domestic and international contributors.

Voting on July 30 was calm and orderly throughout most of the DRC—a major milestone for the democratic process and the Congolese people were quite rightly proud of this achievement. High voter turnout was another indication of the strong desire on the part of the population to finally choose its own leaders. In the vast majority of cases, polling station staff took their responsibilities very seriously and worked diligently, throughout the night and in difficult conditions, to complete the counting process.

The challenges were enormous and the deadlines very tight for these first democratic elections, and everyone involved in making them happen – CEI; the United Nations (MONUC); the international community; and Congolese parties, organizations, and individuals – can share in a genuine sense of accomplishment.

Nevertheless, The Carter Center noted a number of important procedural flaws that weakened the transparency of the process and recommended that they be addressed prior to the second round in order to avoid more serious problems and to ensure acceptance of the results. These included:

Unclear and last-minute changes to the number and location of polling stations and to the official voter lists made it impossible for political parties and observers to verify with confidence that all polling stations were in fact open to scrutiny, or to disprove allegations of fictitious stations.
Unclear and last-minute decisions regarding the location of lists of omitted voters ("listes des omis") were impossible to verify, and were unevenly communicated and applied, a situation that potentially undermined the integrity of important safeguards on voter eligibility.
Last-minute changes to the criteria for voting by "derogation" made implementation and monitoring difficult and inconsistent, and may have opened loopholes for potential ineligible voters.
Ineffective communication of procedural decisions made after the beginning of training (despite CEI assurances that such communication was still feasible) resulted in important decisions being applied unequally or not at all (raising the possibility of manipulation, as neither staff nor observers could be sure of correct procedures).
Despite the well-known controversy regarding the number of extra ballots printed, important polling station procedures to inventory and account for all ballot papers were not implemented (and ultimately made moot by severe problems with material collection), suggesting a serious weakness in either the procedure or the training.

No candidate won a 50 percent plus one majority of the vote, so a run-off election was scheduled between the top two candidates. Current president Joseph Kabila received 45 percent of the July vote with Jean-Pierre Bemba in second place with 20 percent.

The Carter Center sent a 45-member international delegation to observe the DRC's presidential run-off elections, which was again co-led by former Prime Minister of Canada Joe Clark and Dr. John Stremlau, associate executive director of peace programs at The Carter Center.

On Oct. 29, the majority of Congolese voters participated in a runoff election that in most parts of the country was extremely orderly and peaceful. The administration of these elections was very well executed, bearing testimony to the accumulated experience of the many thousands of election workers over three democratic exercises held in less than a year.

The delegation noted that instances of disruption or attempted manipulation of the electoral process, while serious in a few cases, appeared isolated and unlikely to affect the overall success of the vote. Polling stations were very well organized and electoral workers carried out their responsibilities competently and professionally.

Electoral administration procedures were revised appropriately by the CEI since the previous round, and while the new measures were not always fully implemented, voting and counting operations were significantly improved.

Campaigning for the second round was not vigorous, and there were a number of instances where hate language was used and violence occurred. The media, including the public broadcaster RTNC, unfortunately did not honor their responsibilities to provide neutral information to the public.
On Nov. 28, 2006, Jean-Pierre Bemba accepted defeat after his legal challenge to the election result was thrown out by the DRC's Supreme Court. The former rebel leader had received 42 percent of the runoff votes compared to Joseph Kabila's 58 percent.

The Carter Center conducts its election observation in accordance with the Declaration of Principles of International Election Observation and Code of Conduct adopted at the United Nations in 2005. As such, our interest is in the integrity of the process and not in the outcome of the election.

Support for this project has been provided by the UK Department for International Development, the government of Belgium, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Mediating Conflict

Following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the presidents of Uganda and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) asked President Carter to facilitate a meeting between themselves and the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania - countries collectively known as the Great Lakes region of Africa - to negotiate a regional initiative to combat the climate of genocide, repatriate 1.7 million Rwandan refugees, and curb violence in the region.

President Carter was joined in this effort by former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere, former Mali President Amadou Touré, and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu. After summits in Cairo and Tunis in March 1996, the presidents agreed to:

Prevent cross-border raids into any country
Halt arms flow to rebel groups
Remove people stirring fears that it is unsafe to return to Rwanda from refugee camps
Return military equipment to its country of origin, including Rwandan equipment held in Zaire
Turn over individuals indicted for genocide crimes to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and
Allow some 300 human rights observers in Rwanda to work with returning refugees.

However, despite these important commitments and strenuous efforts to implement them, there was little support from the international community, and most refugees finally returned to Rwanda only when full-scale violence broke out in Zaire.

Read more about the Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program.

Updated December 2007

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