Congo-Kinshasa: As DR Congo Polls Approach, UN Rights Chief Warns of Threats to Free Speech, Public Assembly

21 July 2016

Concluding a four-day mission to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, today commended the country's efforts to strengthen human rights but cautioned that some of these advances may be under threat, especially what he saw as repression against opposition parties in the coming elections.

While noting that important advances relating to impunity for sexual violence are in line with broader progress in the DRC since he had first visited the country, in another capacity, in 2004, he said that as crucial electoral deadlines approach, there is rising tension.

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