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QUICK FACTS: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Size: 2,345,410 square kilometers - almost one-quarter the size of the United States

Population: 65,751,512

Religions: Roman Catholic, 50 percent; Protestant; Kimbanguist; Muslim; other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs

Life expectancy: 57 years

Languages: French (official), Lingala (a lingua franca trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Kikongo, Tshiluba

Ethnic groups: more than 200 African ethnic groups, of which the majority are Bantu; the four largest tribes - Mongo, Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic) -- make up about 45 percent of the population

People living with HIV/AIDS: 1.1 million

(Source: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook 2008)

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Democratic Republic of the Congo

Following its November 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
Advancing Human Rights Through Access to Justice

In spring 2007, The Carter Center began working on various programs to help consolidate progress toward democracy following the country's first democratic elections in 40 years. The challenge of building democratic institutions would be even more challenging than organizing the 2006 election, which was considered one of the world's most difficult logistical challenges.

The Center consulted with a wide range of actors in the DRC and designed a series of initiatives to strengthen the justice sector including the judiciary, police force, and various government ministries dealing with human rights protection. Simultaneously, efforts to help bolster the capacity of civil society organizations were initiated with the support of the U.S. Department of State and government of the Netherlands. The projects included human rights training for 208 police and judges, paralegal training for 45 Congolese men and women in the prevention and legal redress of sexual and gender-based violence, assistance to the Ministry of Justice on preparation of human rights performance reports for international human rights treaty bodies, and assistance to local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) preparing independent, alternative reports to accompany those of the government to these same bodies.

One component of this program, the Carter Center's police and judges training initiative, improves the ability of these actors to carry out their jobs in accordance with Congolese and international human rights law. The Center offers training in both human rights legal frameworks as well as professional skills needed for the daily application of human rights standards, including the investigation and prosecution of crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, the rights of minors, and the right to due process for all detainees.

The Carter Center developed a set of training materials and curriculum and conducted workshops for 150 police officers and 50 magistrates during late 2007 and 2008. These trainings had an immediate impact on police and judges in terms of both their knowledge of human rights law as well as its application in their daily duties. One police officer from Kinshasa remarked: "I [recently] caught a man in his 40s at a bar fondling a minor. Before this training that scene seemed ordinary to me. But after the training, I have become sensitive to child protection, and I understood [he] was committing a serious crime. I immediately arrested him, and he is in detention now as I speak." Read more about the Carter Center's police training initiative.

The Carter Center also benefited from the support of the government of Netherlands to launch a civil society support center in Kinshasa called the Human Rights House (HRH). The HRH provides quality training and technical support to its 53 NGO partners in a range of subjects including, but not limited to: project design, financial management and fundraising, human rights violations investigation and reporting, conflict resolution and negotiation, and advocacy. Reflecting on one such training, an NGO staff member noted: "This training, above all, made me discover the importance of information in activities in the fight against violence against women. Good information allows us to place the facts that we analyze in their context. As such, we can better face the challenges of our work. The implementation of this training will without a doubt have an impact on the quality of our intervention on the ground." The Human Rights House has also served as a dialogue forum and conference center, attracting members of Congolese civil society, Congolese government officials, members of the international donor community, and the media to discuss issues surrounding international human rights treaties, the role of an independent media, and the role of the International Criminal Court. HRH has an IT center and library where civil society leaders and students can access numerous human rights publications and training modules and engage in networking with other human rights communities in DRC and other parts of Africa.

Finally, utilizing funding from the government of Belgium, the Center worked in collaboration with Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic to complete a review of 60 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, including renegotiation of contracts according to international standards, to the international community, World Bank, mining companies, and Congolese government. The 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.

The three programs described above represent the Carter Center's work in the DRC through Dec. 31, 2008. The Center is now involved in an integration and expansion of its programs in mining sector reform, justice sector reform, and civil society strengthening. In the next six months, the Center will hold trainings for 75 more police officers and 50 judges in human rights law and professional skills; assess the organizational development needs of six NGO partners and provide training for an additional 30 NGO staff members; and hold three public roundtables for Congolese civil society, DRC government officials, and members of the international community focused on sexual and gender-based violence, police and human rights, and natural resource extraction. 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 Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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).

5. 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 runoff 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 runoff 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 the 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:

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