Human rights issue in the “Democratic Republic of Congo”

 

Current situation:

Heavy fighting is going on between the Congolese Army and M23 rebels. This war is causing a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of people are displaced—the war is influencing regional tensions. The M23 rebels have closed the capital as they are fighting there. Hundreds of thousands moved to another city, Goma, hoping to find their basic needs (food, water, and shelter). The situation may worsen when the UN withdraws its peacekeepers by the end of this year.

The human rights issues/violations:

This situation didn’t arise overnight. Decades of fighting with armed groups, violation of human rights, and gender-based violence created this massive humanitarian situation.

The Human rights violations we find more prominent are “Mass killings” happening through the armed groups fighting, inter-communal violence, giving trouble to the dissent, and terrible treatment to the detainees.

Hundreds of houses are burned down, and their property is looted. Children and the elderly are also getting killed in huge numbers.

The UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and/or UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples):

The Congo accepted 167 recommendations from 174 of the UNDRIP. Only three of the accepted recommendations are to improve Indigenous communities. Indigenous is a controversial word in Africa because it is believed that all Africans are indigenous.

Poverty is very prominent among Congo's Indigenous people (Locally, they are called Pygmy).  They don’t have any birth identity, and 65% of them don’t get any education.

Most don’t have a national ID card or birth record, so they don’t have a voter ID, so their contributions to politics are not considered. They don’t have a voice in Congo’s politics. Their lands have been taken, and knowledge of ancient medicine has been destroyed. These are clear violations of human rights.

There are more Human Rights violations against the Indigenous people. Like children are taken for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The criminal networks do these. Indigenous people work at very low wages. As they are illiterate, they had to depend on another group of people to manage their wages.