DRC-Human Rights

The UN joint office for human rights concerned about human rights challenges in the DRC

The UN Joint Office for Human Rights has expressed its concerns about several human rights challenges the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing.

The office has mentioned some progress but emphasized that a lot is still needed to be done and said it should be engaged with the government in order to overcome those challenges.

The situation is becoming even worse as the Democratic Republic of Congo heads towards presidential and parliamentary elections that are expected in the country in November this year, although things are still needing to be clarified since the independent National Electoral Commission has said it won’t be able to organize those elections on time.

Among the numerous human rights challenges the director of the UN joint office for human rights in the DRC, Jose Maria Aranaz has mentioned are the protection of civilians against tens of armed groups operating in the East of this country, sexual violence, illegal trafficking of minerals by local and foreign armed groups and more.

On the other side, there are some special groups that are more vulnerable and need to be given more attention as far as protection of human rights is concerned, according to their special social situation.

Those are indeed,’’ the people who deserve a better support from the society and the whole international community since they are traditionally marginalized’’, Jose Maria Aranaz said.

Meanwhile, the UN Joint office for human rights has reported a decrease in human rights abuse for last February with 332 cases comparatively to January when it documented 411 human rights violations.

Jean Noel Ba-Mweze

DRC-Unicef

At least a child out of 10 dies in the DRC before the age of five due to lack of access to clean water

The United Nations Children’s Fund has revealed that only 52% of the population has access to clean water in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The statement has come as the world celebrated on Tuesday March 23^rd, the international day of water ; UNICEF is very concerned about such a lack of access to clean water since it affects children of that country.

The situation is too serious and the most affected children are those of under 5 years old, especially those living in rural areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This year’s international day of water is celebrated under the theme ‘‘water and climate change’’ ; but really, consequences of this lack of access to clean water are worse, at least one child out of ten dies here before the age of five due to non-access to drinking water related disease.

And indeed, there is a direct link between the lack of access to clean water and child mortality ; according to UNICEF chief of communication department, Yves Willemot who revealed as well that the access to clean water can reduce the level of illnesses and mortality of children.

Only 52% of the population accessing clean water in the Democratic Republic of Congo ; ‘‘this remains too far from the sustainable development objective that aims to guarantee access to clean water and sanitation to all’’, Willemot said.

This is why UNICEF is supporting the DRC government in a program well known as healthy villages and healthy schools that is more focused on rural areas where only 30% of the population have access to drinking water.

‘‘That is a program where schools and villages are being organized in an holistic way to guarantee access to clean water and sanitation to all, the program is reaching more and more people thanks to the financial contribution of the UK government and UK aid’’.

There is a big difference between the levels in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s rural areas where only 30% of inhabitants can access clean water and in urban ones where 80% of the population have access to such a product.

JNB