United Nations Human Rights Council
58th Regular Session
Agenda Item 10
Oral statement of the International Commission of Jurists in the General Debate on Item 10
1 April 2025
Mr. President,
The International Commission of Jurists shares the great concerns expressed by States and the High Commissioner about the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The situation in the east of the DRC is deteriorating rapidly, resulting in serious human rights violations and abuses by Rwanda-backed M23 forces, government forces and other armed groups, including summary executions and conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence.
The ICJ welcomes the Council’s attention on this situation and the creation of investigative mandates at its recent special session. While there is a real need for capacity-building and technical assistance, including for judicial authorities, to address past violations and abuses, the current resurgence of hostilities calls for a robust independent international mechanism tasked with collecting and preserving evidence of atrocity crimes and for the collaboration of the Congolese authorities and all States involved or able to assist. The ICJ therefore calls on States to ensure that the future FFM be guaranteed adequate resources.
In that regard, the ICJ denounces the failure of too many States to pay their dues to the UN so that initiatives they mandate can be operationalized. The radical and in some cases abrupt, unpredictable and arbitrary cuts in funding that UN institutions and civil society have experienced in the last months have had a massive effect on the capacity to carry out critical human rights work.
The ICJ also calls attention to the drastic impact of the United States administration’s recent decision to freeze or reduce foreign aid in support of international cooperation, as it relates to the technical assistance and capacity building needs of a number of country situations. The US’s decision leaves many individuals and communities in dire circumstances, left without assistance they had been promised in contravention of principles regarding international cooperation and assistance. In the absence of the significant aid previously provided and promised by the US, the ICJ calls on UN Member States to make all reasonable efforts to help to fill the gap left in international cooperation and assistance efforts.
Thank you.
Statement delivered by: Sandra EPAL-RATJEN, International Advocacy Director
For more information, contact: Sandra EPAL-RATJEN, Email: Sandra.epal@icj.org
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