Mr President,
Allow me to extend the gratitude of Sweden to His Excellency Wapol, Minister for Human Rights, for taking an active part in our dialogue today.
Sweden welcomes that the Congolese parliament has passed a law on sexual violence against women and girls, and remains concerned that the law has not been widely implemented. We appreciate the Minister’s assurance that measures have been taken in this regard. As many others, we recommend: (1) to end impunity for crimes of sexual violence, and establish effective mechanisms to prevent sexual violence and ensure that victims have access to appropriate health care, in line with resolutions 1325 and 1820 and the government’s international obligations at large.
We recognize the need for structural reform, in order to ensure sustainability of initiatives meant to improve the HR situation in the DRC. The Security Council has reiterated the importance of reforming the Congolese justice system. We offer the following recommendations:
(2) to continue and strengthen the efforts to eliminate impunity and ensure that all alleged perpetrators of crimes against international human rights and humanitarian law are brought to justice
(3) to take further measures to protect the rights of human rights defenders and ensure that they, and also journalists, can be active in the DRC without facing threats to their safety (4) to increase the efforts to ensure the independence of the judiciary and strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and judicial organs.
In this context, Sweden welcomes that the Minister this morning confirmed the government’s firm desire to cooperate fully with the ICC.
Furthermore, we express our concern about prison and detention facilities, freedom of expression and extra judicial killings.
Lastly, we look forward to studying the contents of the recently finished mapping exercise, and remain hopeful that it will be published shortly.
Thank you, Mr President