Human rights and post-conflict peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo

• Published date: 01 January 2012
• Pages: 147-188
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC192855
• Author: L. Juma
• Date: 01 January 2012

HUMAN RIGHTS AND POST-

CONFLICT PEACEBUILDING

IN

THE

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

L.

Juma·

Abstract

This

article

deals

with nonnative issues that

arose

in

the

post-conflict peace-building

processes

in

the

Democratic

Republic

of

Congo

(ORC)

.

It

undertakes

an

historical

review

of

the

major

episodes

in

the

DRC

peace

process

and

highlights

how

these

episodes

yielded

to

the

establishment of

the

interim government

in

2003

and

the

enactment

of

the

current constitution.

It

mainly highlights

the

proprietan;

consequences

of

the

Lusaka

peace

Accord,

the

transformative

aspects

of

the

2005 Constitution and

the

role

that

international

organs,

especially

the

ICC,

have

played

in

consolidating

peace

in

the

DRC.

Introduction

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a

vast

central African

country

with

a

population

of

about

60

million people,

spread

over

2.3 million

square

kilometres. The

country

is

endowed

with

great

wealth

of mineral resources

and

a

huge

potential for hydro-electric

power.

And

yet

its peoples

are

perhaps

the

poorest

in the world.

Apparently,

the

glaring

and

bewildering

irony

of a

country

having

the

most

impoverished

population

and

yet

so rich in

natural

wealth,

has

not

evoked a

moral

sense of responsibility,

if

not

shame, in

those

whose

responsibility it is to

manage

the

political

affairs of this

great

nation. Since its inception, the Congolese

peoples

have

never

enjoyed

an

extended

period

of peace.

From

Leopold's annihilation of over 6 million people in

the

last century,

LLB

(Nairobi);

LLM

(Pennsylvania);

MA

(Notre Dame);

LLD

(Fort Hare);

Associate Professor of Law, Rhodes University, Republic of South Africa.

148 Human Rights & Po st-Conflict

to the

current

round

of mass

murders

in Kivu,

the

history of the

country

could certainly

be

painted

in red. Some

have

described

the

Congo

nightmare

as the

worst

since World

War

11.1

The

war

that

has

killed as

many

as 5.4 million

people

rages

up

to this day.2 A

recent

survey

estimates

that

around

45,000

people

continue to

die

every

month,

and

about

6 million

are

displaced.3

As

compared

to

other

African countries

that

have

gone

through

political transitions

such

as

South

Africa

and

Sierra Leone, the

DRC is yet to consolidate peace

and

establish

strong

institutions

that

could

safeguard

human

rights

and

uphold

the

rule

of law. The

reason for the slow pace of transformation is

undoubtedly

embedded

in the fractured

and

rather

inchoate

approaches

to

conflict resolution

and

peacebuilding. Thus, to

understand

why

the peace process, conflict resolution

mechanisms

and

post-conflict

peacebuilding

and

reconstruction efforts

have

yielded little

benefit,

one

must

go back to the history of the conflict

and

examine

the factors

that

have

ensured

its intractability. Obviously,

human

rights

and

its cross-cutting influence

on

peace

programmes

provide

a useful

starting

point

for

such

an

analysis. Thus,

based

on

the

assumption

that

the

transformative

quality

of

human

rights

puts

its

agenda

at

the forefront of

any

programme

aimed

at

establishing peace, this article

undertakes

an

historical

review

of

the major episodes in the Congo peace process

and

highlights

how

these

episodes

yielded

to the establishment of the interim

government

in 2003

and

the

enactment

of the

current

constitution.

The discussions in the article revolve

around

the efforts

made

to

1

See

gene

rally,

A. Hochschild,

King

Leopold

's

Ghost:

A

Ston1

of

Greed

and

he

roism

in

Colonial

Africa,

(1998).

2 'IRC Study Shows Congo's Neglected Crisis Leaves

5.4

Million Dead'

International

Rescu

e Committ

ee,

22

January, 2008, (Available

at

http

://

www

.theirc.org/ news/ irc-study-shoes-congos0122.html0) (Accessed 4

December, 2010).

3 See

C.

McGreal,

'War

in

Congo Kills 45,000 People Each Month'

The

Guardian,

January

23,

2008,

(Available

at

http:

//

www

.guardian.eo.uk/world/

2008

/jan/

23

/congo.international)

(Accessed 4 December,

2010)

.

LLJ

Vol.

19

No.

2 149

consolidate

peace

and

how

the

human

rights

agenda

has

influenced

the

process.

Background: The

Congolese

Peace Process

The

dearth

of United Nations response,

perhaps

accentuated

by

the

dilemma

of dealing

with

the

vested

interests of

powerful

nations

ensconced

in

the

Ugandan

and

Rwandan

imperialist

moves

in Congo,

prompted

a

rather

curious

involvement

of

African nations

through

the aegis of

the

Organization

of African

Unity (OAU), as well as the regional organization, SADC. The

pressure

to find a peaceful solution to

the

conflict

emanated

from

the

mutual

concern for protecting the

Congo's

territorial

integrity

and

its

sovereignty

.

An

argument

could

very

well be

made

that

for

a

country

like

South

Africa, the

question

of

protecting

the

Congo's

sovereignty

hinged,

not

so

much

on

the need to

protect

the

feeble

regime

of

Laurent

Kabila from its external detractors,

but

on

affirming

the

principle of territorial sovereignty as a

benchmark

for

ensuring

peaceful coexistence of

state

parties

to

the

United

Nations Charter. But as

studies

have

shown,

those

states

like

South

African

had

strategic reasons for their positions.4 For others,

the

internal

war

in

Congo

had

become a regional menace, affecting

them

in different ways. Even states

not

within

SADC,

and

not

officially in the war,

such

as

Congo

Brazzaville, Kenya

and

Tanzania,

were

feeling

the

pressure

of refugees

and

influx of arms.

The initial efforts

by

OAU

and

a

team

of African

leaders

had

culminated

in

meetings

at

Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia in 1998

and

Sirte, Libya,

in

April 1999. Both called for a cease-fire

and

deployment

of African peace

keeping

arrangements,

but

neither

of

which

were

implemented.

5 The

momentum

for peace also

arose

from

the

'hurting

stalemate'

scenario

that

the belligerents

were

4

See

L.

Juma, 'The War

in

Congo: Transnational Conflict Networks and the

Failure of Internationalism'

(2006)

10(2)

Gonzaga

journal

of

Int

e

rnational

Law

97-

162

s See

A.

Muchai 'Arms proliferation

and

the Congo War' in

J.

Clark

ed

.,

African

Stakes

of

th

e

Congo

War

, (2002), 192.