Strasbourg University – October 19, 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for inviting me to speak, and I’m grateful to the NGO Inter Développement et Solidarité for organizing this event in partnership with the University of Strasbourg, the City of Strasbourg, the Alsace European Community and the Conseil Régional du Grand Est.
The opening speeches by three eminent professors set the scene for the subject that brings us together: “Justice, peace and human rights today – is it possible? Thank you for your rich contributions.
Allow me to begin my speech with a global overview of the state of the world, before focusing on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Today’s world is at a crossroads: the United Nations system set up in the aftermath of World War 2 has run out of steam, and new global governance capable of meeting the major challenges facing humanity and the planet is slow in coming into being.
Indeed, the creation of the UN system in 1945 aimed to turn one of the darkest pages in the history of mankind with the mantra: “Never again”. To this end, the community of states agreed to create a world based on respect for freedom and human dignity, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions.
A world based on friendly relations between States, multilateralism and the principle of the prohibition of the use of force, which underpins the system of collective security enshrined in the United Nations Charter. A world based on international criminal justice, the genesis of which began at Nuremberg and Tokyo, and today finds its most complete form in the International Criminal Court.
During the Cold War, the logic of rivalries and the rise of the bipolar world put these ambitions on hold, before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 heralded a new, more peaceful, multipolar world order. A new upsurge in multilateralism and greater cooperation to find solutions to problems that cannot be solved at national level were taking shape in international relations. These include the fight against poverty, climate change and environmental protection, migration management, terrorism and new forms of conflict, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.
At a time when interdependence between peoples has never been greater, the temptation to withdraw and the worrying resurgence of nationalism and populism have resurfaced since September 11, 2001, and new power relations and geopolitical cleavages are plunging humanity into destabilization and uncertainty, putting the multilateral system and its ability to prevent tensions and resolve conflicts to the test.
Indeed, the Security Council seems incapable of fulfilling its primary mission of maintaining international peace and security, as illustrated by the aggression of Ukraine by a permanent member state with veto power on the Council.
While the United Nations system should be governed by the rule of international law based on respect for the principle of accountability, the law of the strongest is imposing itself in a growing number of situations: Heads of state and government are increasingly openly flouting the basic principles of international law, violating the UN Charter, flouting international conventions on human rights and international humanitarian law, ignoring the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and invading other countries or taking their own people hostage without being held to account in the face of the paralysis of a collective security system that has become inoperative.
Moreover, the application of double standards in international relations has led to deep-seated frustrations that have often fuelled violence. This principle is closely linked to the use of the veto by the permanent members of the Security Council, who are also all nuclear powers, but deny their responsibility to protect peoples in danger when their geostrategic and economic interests are at stake.
These double standards have profoundly eroded the credibility of international and regional institutions charged with maintaining peace and security and protecting universal human rights.
Finally, democracy and the rule of law are in sharp decline across the globe. Extremist ideas are becoming commonplace in society and in the political discourse of many countries, even democratic ones. Inequalities within and between countries are growing. No nation is spared by the worrying trend towards the regression of human rights. As in every period of crisis or instability, it is women who pay the heaviest price.
It is against this backdrop that a growing number of voices, particularly from the countries of the South, are calling for reform of the United Nations.
The effectiveness of this intergovernmental institution created by states depends on the political will of its member states, which is largely lacking today to guarantee collective security and ensure responsibility for protecting human rights and civilian populations. This imperative to reform and even renovate the international system was at the heart of the debates at the 79e United Nations General Assembly, held in New York last month.
On the occasion of the “Summit for the Future”, Secretary General Antonio Guterres asserted that “we cannot shape the future of our grandchildren with a system designed for our grandparents“, urging world leaders to relaunch and strengthen multilateral collaboration to better address the existential threats and challenges of the 21st century.
At the Summit, a Compact for the Future was adopted to reform and strengthen the multilateral system, focusing on 5 priorities: sustainable development and development financing; international peace and security; science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; youth and future generations; and transforming global governance.
Two other documents were adopted at the Summit: a Global Digital Pact, which constitutes the first universal agreement on artificial intelligence and also aims to reduce digital divides, and a Declaration on Future Generations, which urges leaders to exercise long-term-oriented leadership involving the participation of young people in all decisions that concern them.
These Covenants and this Declaration are intended to be the starting point for reforms aimed at restoring confidence in institutions, which will involve reforming the Security Council and the international financial institutions, and ensuring that the revitalized multilateral system better reflects the global issues of our time, notably by promoting better representation of developing countries and ending the marginalization of Africa within international decision-making bodies.
The cross-cutting issues that animated the debates that led to the adoption of these three texts at the United Nations General Assembly are intimately linked to those of the conference that brings us together today: justice, human rights and peace.
While it’s hard to say that they can be achieved today, it must be said that these developments already represent a step forward, because in order to tackle a problem, it must first be recognized. The fact that these debates around the indispensable reforms required for a new global governance capable of meeting the challenges of humanity’s future are driving the thinking of the world’s leaders augurs well for the possibility of a new beginning.
Even if it’s obvious that there will be resistance to this reform imperative, as those in power are often reluctant to change.
It will also mean providing a better framework for private players, the business world and lobbies, whose influence on the political world is growing. One only has to look at the influence of these lobbies in Brussels or Washington to understand their ability to exert pressure on political decision-makers.
To move in the right direction, we need genuine global leadership focused on the needs of both the present and future generations, and stronger political will to translate words into action, commitments into obligations and resolutions into results!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the heart of this savage globalization, this cynical geopolitics and this era of impunity lies the DRC, a country ravaged by more than a quarter century of chronic wars of aggression for base economic motives.
Indeed, the globalized economic system is largely based on the mining resources and natural wealth that abound in the DRC. These strategic raw materials are essential to the economic growth of the great powers, and generate colossal profits for companies that pay little heed to the origin of these minerals.
The political and security instability that the Congolese people have suffered for 30 years is maintained by proxy wars in which neighboring countries, which hold a veritable license to kill from the great powers, are used to destabilize and plunder eastern Congo in order to satisfy the mining needs of multinationals and the world market at low cost, while leaving the Congolese population and our communities wounded and traumatized in a state of unacceptable poverty.
Many interests are therefore at stake in the bid to lay their hands on the Congo’s natural resources and strategic minerals, and many states and private players stand to gain from maintaining instability and organized chaos in order to plunder the country.
The umpteenth aggression by the Rwandan army since the resurgence of the M23 in November 2021, in flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, is part of this same approach.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC, Ms Bintou Keita, reported in a speech to the Security Council on September 30 that: “In North Kivu, the consolidation of the M23’s administrative control over the Masisi and Rutshuru Territories has enabled it to establish total control over coltan production“. She added: “Trade in the Rubaya region, which is said to supply over 15% of the world’s tantalum production, earns the armed group around $300,000 a month.“
Indeed, numerous UN and civil society reports have documented that control of strategic raw materials, a large proportion of the world’s reserves of which are to be found in eastern Congo, is intimately linked to the recidivist wars of aggression and occupation waged by the regimes in Kampala and Kigali since the ’90s under cover of various pseudo-rebel movements (AFDL, RCD-Goma, CNDP, M23), with dramatic consequences for Congolese society: more than 6 million dead, over 7 million displaced and countless women raped.
It is the deadliest conflict since World War 2e and one of the worst humanitarian crises of modern times, yet it is largely overlooked due to lack of media attention, political will and funding to respond to the humanitarian disaster.
This selective indignation prompted the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tetros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to express his amazement at the double standards he encounters in various hotbeds of crisis around the world, saying: “I don’t know if the world is really paying the same attention to black and white lives“. To ask the question is to answer it.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, economically advanced countries are planning the decarbonization of their economies to curb the climate crisis. The European Union has set 2035 as the target date for going “all-electric”, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that demand for minerals essential to the energy transition will triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.
Pressure on the DRC, which is the world’s leading source of cobalt, accounting for two-thirds of global supplies of the metal used in batteries, will therefore increase, and will constitute a major geostrategic challenge for the global economy in the decades to come.
While several generations of Congolese have already been sacrificed for the communication and digital revolution thanks to coltan, we cannot accept without reacting that future generations be further subjugated and annihilated so that the economically developed world can advance towards a so-called “green” energy transition, but in truth “red” with the blood of Congolese women and children!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Against this backdrop, it is urgent that the political and economic world, and citizen-consumers, overcome their indifference in order to put an end to the paradox of abundance and the Congolese tragedy.
As Pope Francis pointed out during his visit to Kinshasa in 2023: “After political colonialism, an equally enslaving ‘economic colonialism’ has been unleashed. As a result, this largely plundered country is unable to take sufficient advantage of its immense resources: we’ve reached the paradox that the fruits of its earth make it ‘foreign’ to its inhabitants.“
It is high time to change course and transform conflict minerals into minerals for peace and development. Human dignity and social justice must be placed at the center of economic interests and efforts to build healthy globalization and lasting peace in the DRC.
Yet, in the context of economic globalization, where the West no longer dominates the world, the greedy, corrupt Congolese ruling class, out of touch with the people, is selling off the country’s natural and mineral resources, mainly to China, whose economic and military clout enables it to operate in Africa as a neo-colonial force that, what’s more, doesn’t bother with narratives of “civilizing mission” or “promotion of human rights”, which had been the prerogative of the Western world for 150 years.
I would like to draw the audience’s attention to the fact that the European Union (EU), whose added value is based on the values enshrined in its founding texts, signed a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda in February 2024 to promote the development of “sustainable” and “resilient” value chains for raw materials, while concordant sources report that the war of aggression imposed by Rwanda on the DRC finds its main motivation in the pillage and international concealment of strategic materials present in Congolese soil.
This lack of coherence on the part of the European Commission with the European normative framework illustrates a loss of the EU’s fundamental values in its relations with the rest of the world, and a growing cynicism in international relations which results in human dignity being sacrificed for economic and geostrategic interests.
In addition, the responsibility of the Congolese elites, who all too often confuse their personal interests with the common good by selling off the country and erecting a system of widespread predation, must be urgently addressed if we are to put an end to the perpetuation of the Congolese drama and see the emergence at the head of the country of a respected leadership that will finally be able to forge win-win partnerships with the rest of the world.
This new paradigm will only be possible if there is growing solidarity between African countries and greater integration of the African Union.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This empowerment of the DRC’s ruling class is also essential to galvanize the political will needed to address the root causes of violence, namely the illicit exploitation and illegal export of mining resources (1) and the culture of impunity (2), which are at the heart of our advocacy efforts.
1. Illegal exploitation of and trade in natural resources
We have already mentioned that the war in the DRC is mainly economic, and is akin to a major transnational crime in which Rwanda and Uganda have been the main players for 25 years, with the complicity of multinationals and certain greedy and corrupt Congolese politicians and military.
Various reports have established that the plundering of the agricultural, forestry and mining resources present in large quantities in Eastern Congo is one of the root causes of conflict and instability. The correlation between the illegal exploitation and predation of mineral and natural resources and serious human rights violations, including the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, has been widely documented, notably in the UN Mapping Report.
To curb the war economy at the root of the suffering of communities in the east of the country, we need to put an end to the links between Congolese and foreign armed groups and mining companies, smuggling and trafficking networks and opaque cross-border supply channels.
Various initiatives have been launched to ensure reliable traceability and guarantee that mineral extraction is not linked to child labor, the sexual exploitation of women or the activities of armed groups.
These include the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Due Diligence Guide for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from High-Risk and Conflict Zones, the US Dott Franck framework law, the European Union regulation and the certification mechanism of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region.
These initiatives are a step in the right direction, but they are not enough, as they are not binding on all links in the chain, and high-level corruption is hampering the achievement of the initiatives’ objectives. What’s more, certain economic giants are not concerned by these standards, notably China, a key player in the plundering of the DRC’s resources and a country well known for processing the products that flood our markets.
Thus, efforts to promote due diligence and ensure traceability have so far failed to prevent vast quantities of minerals from being illegally exported to neighboring countries such as Rwanda and Uganda.
By way of example, a study by the NGO Global Witness shows that “only 10% of the minerals exported by Rwanda had actually been mined on its territory, the remaining 90% having been smuggled in from the DRC.” What’s more, according to the Office des Mines du Rwanda, by 2023, its mineral export revenues had increased by 43%, reaching over $1.1 billion.
These figures attest to the profound motivation behind the recent war of aggression waged by the Rwandan Defense Forces and the M23, which, thanks to the occupation of large areas of North Kivu, including the mining-rich Rubaya region, is generating a sharp rise in exports of conflict minerals from Rwanda.
As Ms. Keita pointed out to the Security Council: “The criminal laundering of the DRC’s natural resources exported clandestinely out of the country strengthens armed groups, sustains the exploitation of civilian populations, some of whom are reduced to de facto slavery, and undermines efforts to restore peace.” She rightly stressed that: “unless international sanctions are imposed on those who profit from this criminal trade, peace will remain elusive and civilians will continue to suffer.“
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If we are to put an end to instability in the DRC, it is therefore imperative to ensure complete traceability from the extraction sites in the mines of Eastern Congo to the finished product purchased by consumers worldwide.
In addition, binding control and accountability mechanisms must be put in place at national, regional and international levels to ensure supply chain transparency and accountability for social and environmental risks.
Finally, we also need to invest massively in the processing of raw materials, in order to shorten the link between the mine and the place where the ore is processed. In this way, control over the chain and its participants will be made easier, and the producing country will be able to generate real added value, making it possible to share profits upstream in the chain, enabling local communities to benefit from the dividends of the riches of the national subsoil.
Today, we need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the new communications technologies revolution of the past, to ensure that the green energy transition is fair, equitable, sustainable and conflict-free for the communities and countries from which the minerals needed to curb the climate crisis are extracted.
The road to peace will also pass through justice.
2. The imperative of justice
In the face of the obvious failure of all attempts to find political and security solutions to put an end to armed violence, we need to combat the culture of impunity that fuels the repetition of mass crimes and thus represents a serious obstacle to any attempt to find lasting peace.
Every day, crimes that defy the imagination and should deeply shock the conscience of humanity are committed in the DRC as mere news items, in a prevailing climate of indifference, contributing to the devaluation of human life and the repetition of mass atrocities.
All levels of responsibility – individual and state – must be established. Justice is the missing piece of the puzzle in the DRC, if the vicious circle of violence and impunity is to be broken. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed in the DRC for over a quarter of a century! The time has come to highlight the close interconnections between conflict prevention, transitional justice, consolidation of the rule of law and peace-building.
This is the purpose of our advocacy efforts to implement the recommendations of the Mapping Report on the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed between March 1993 and June 2003 on the territory of the DRC, published 14 years ago by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There can be no lasting peace without justice. Like all peoples, the Congolese are entitled not only to peace, which is the indispensable prerequisite for the enjoyment of all human rights, but also to justice, truth, reparations and institutional reforms aimed at ensuring that the most serious crimes are not repeated.
The use of all transitional justice mechanisms is the main recommendation of the Mapping report. Among the 617 crimes documented by this report, which can be qualified as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even constitutive elements of the crime of genocide, are not only patients murdered in their hospital beds, but also women who were buried alive after being raped and impaled, and believers who sought refuge in churches and were burned to death. These most serious crimes have no statute of limitations and must not be forgotten or go unpunished!
Faced with the scale of the crimes that have ravaged our country for decades, the Congolese justice system, too often undermined by corruption, political interference and a lack of independence, does not have the means to meet the challenges of impunity. Moreover, the international dimension of these conflicts calls for an international response from the justice system.
It is against this backdrop that the Panzi Foundation published an advocacy note in 2021 calling for the adoption of a holistic national transitional justice strategy in the DRC. This strategy should combine judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, which are complementary.
In order to break the cycle of violence and impunity, prosecution must be at the forefront of transitional justice measures. It is a prerequisite for reconciliation and the restoration of peace.
Although President Félix Tshisekedi promised in 2020 to put transitional justice on the government’s agenda, only a non-judicial mechanism, the National Reparations Fund – FONAREV – has been set up but is not yet operational and effective, which is causing much disappointment among victims.
What’s more, despite the launch of a popular consultation process on transitional justice at the instigation of the Minister of Human Rights in 2022 and the establishment of a Scientific Committee responsible for drawing up the draft national transitional justice policy in the DRC, this policy has still not been adopted to date, and we deplore the fact that the government’s action program for 2024-2028 contains only a cosmetic mention of transitional justice.
This bitter observation shows that there is no real political will on the part of the current regime to advance transitional justice in the DRC, which is highly regrettable but hardly surprising given that war criminals have traded in their uniforms to take up positions within institutions and the government.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Congolese also have a right to their own Nuremberg. That’s why, alongside the victims and survivors, we are calling for the establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for the Congo and/or specialized mixed chambers.
In addition, we insist on the urgent need to reform the security sector, and to put in place a procedure to vet the security and defense forces, as well as the intelligence services.
After decades of denial, manipulation and lies, the search for the truth is essential to establish the responsibility of state and non-state actors, prevent atrocities from being repeated, lay the foundations for a trauma-free society and promote reconciliation within Congolese society and between the countries of the Great Lakes region.
Furthermore, given the time needed to set up the international and/or hybrid criminal jurisdictions to be established, we urge the international community and the Congolese authorities to facilitate as quickly as possible the deployment of a team of investigators integrated into the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office, including experts in forensic anthropology, to proceed with the exhumation of the numerous mass graves in order to preserve and collect evidence of acts likely to constitute international crimes perpetrated in the DRC.
This exhumation process, which is a prerequisite for the prosecution and trial of the perpetrators and their sponsors as part of the transitional justice strategy to be implemented in the DRC, will enable the deceased to be given a dignified burial and the families to mourn.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To make up for the lack of initiatives and action on the part of the government, the efforts of civil society are continuing, and we welcome the publication in July 2024 of the documentary report on cases of serious crimes committed in South Kivu Province from 1994 to 2024. This research and mapping project, carried out with the support of TRIAL International in collaboration with Initiative Congolaise pour la Justice et la Paix (ICJP), aims to identify serious human rights violations that could constitute international crimes.
It also complements and updates the mapping work carried out as part of the UN Mapping project – which only covered the period from 1993 to 2003 – and is intended to serve as a model for civil society players in other provinces of the DRC.
We therefore call for this mapping initiative to be duplicated across the country, to bring out from the bottom up the imperative for national authorities to deploy the political will to implement the various mechanisms of transitional justice.
This is a prerequisite for preventing the recurrence of past and present atrocities, healing our ailing society, establishing the rule of law and raising our children in a culture of human rights and peace.
We also call on the International Criminal Court to continue its investigations and prosecutions in the DRC for acts committed after July 1er 2002, the date of entry into force of the Rome Statute, and we also encourage European states to use the principle of “universal jurisdiction” to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed in the DRC, notably those listed in the Mapping report. It’s time for France to stop parading criminals on red carpets in Paris, and for them to be confronted with a red line, that of the law.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we have seen, solutions exist and peace and justice are possible in the heart of Africa. But as long as the political will is lacking to ensure sound mineral management based on sustainable local development and the well-being of the population, and to highlight the added value of transitional justice, a corrupt so-called politico-military elite acting in collusion with destabilizing neighboring countries supported by certain powers and multinationals will continue to enrich themselves, and the overwhelming majority of our population will continue to languish in suffering and poverty.
I would also like to alert the Western world, the European Union and France to the consequences of selective indignation and variable-geometry humanism: while Africa is often presented as the continent of the future, the denial of justice and democracy is leading a new generation of Africans to increasingly reject European countries, and this latent frustration risks becoming patent if we do not create an environment conducive to development and peace.
It’s urgent to change course! Like all peoples, the Congolese nation has the right to control its resources and to live in peace, free from foreign interference.
International law and justice must apply equally everywhere. All levels of responsibility – national, regional and international – must be established, and Rwanda and Uganda must be held to account for their repeated acts of aggression and their leading roles in the plundering of natural and mineral resources and the commission of the most serious crimes in the DRC.
Only then will the countries of the Great Lakes region be able to reconcile and coexist peacefully, and the DRC be able to honor its dead with dignity, heal its wounds and build a nation free of exploitation, suffering, humiliation and injustice for future generations.
We call for a general mobilization, at national, regional and international level, in support of the martyred populations of the Congo, in order to move forward on the road to peace and justice.
Together, citizens and political leaders, civil society organizations and the media, let us build lasting peace and reject any infringement of our fundamental rights and a slide towards authoritarian and inegalitarian regimes; let us remain active and vigilant every day in building bridges, spreading the truth, working for solidarity in a spirit of brotherhood and cooperation; and let us reaffirm our faith in human dignity, equality between all and freedom for all.
Thank you very much.
Dr. Denis Mukwege