Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Republic of Congo gained independence from French Equatorial Africa in 1960. It was a one-party Marxist–Leninist state from 1969 to 1991. Multi-party elections have been held since 1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 civil war and President Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled for 26 of the past 36 years.
In areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the human rights record has remained considerably poor [when?], and serious abuses have been committed. Unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, rape, and arbitrary arrest and detention by security forces increased during the year, and the transitional government took few actions to punish harsh people.
King Leopold II, whose rule of the Congo Free State was marked by severe atrocities, violence and major population decline.. Even before his accession to the throne of Belgium in 1865, the future king Leopold II began lobbying leading Belgian politicians to create a colonial empire in the Far East or in Africa, which would expand and enhance Belgian prestige. [2]
A desperate search for survival – women and children as young as nine years old spend hours each day digging at a cobalt mine in Kolwezi City in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The long history of violence has led to a culture of desensitization, lacking respect for international norms of human rights, and inadequate education. [9] Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly the eastern region of the country, is known as the rape capital of the world. [7]
The mapping exercise, led by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with some US$ 3 million in funding, had three objectives: [8] Conduct a mapping exercise of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003.
According to Roberto Garretón, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Congo, "The tactic [consisted] of laying siege to camps before attacking them, [...] summoning the inhabitants of predominantly Hutu towns to meetings in schools or churches, so as to massacre them; issuing appeals over the official radio stations urging all those hiding in the forests to come out for ...
The three-year M23 insurgency in Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich east has intensified in January with rebels seizing control of more territory than ever before and vowing on Friday to ...