Refugee Rights Congo, Democratic Republic of the Project #63206

Emergency fund to Refugee Human Rights Defenders

by Collective of Youth Organizations for Solidarity in DRCongo (COJESKI/DRC, Coordination of North Kivu

Project Report | Jun 13, 2024
Intervening in the situation of 17HRDs in Goma

By Kulihoshi M | Provincial Coordinator of North Kivu

Meeting with the team of HRD Protection in Goma

This project has supported 17 Human Rights Defenders in Goma in difficult situation

The situation of North Kivu is currently complicated, and many issues need to be addressed including this war, the humanitarian crisis, lack of services, massive violation of human rights, governance, corruption, justice and other human values are being sacrificed.

Human Rights Defenders remain the only available alternative to advocate to those with power in order to improve. Being in the state of emergency, the North Kivu Province is under military rule which limits the freedom of association and of expression. However this military rule has taken long and people are getting tired, in the process human rights defenders are coming up to hold public demonstrations in order to make pressure on those with power. The Mayor of Goma has generally barned all the demonstrations and has deployed security officers to deal with demonstrators, in most cases in a harsh, inhuman and degrading way.

Action taken

We have engaged with Human Rights Defenders to ensure that any demonstration is extremely peaceful, and because of this we have used various means of communication including meetings and media engagement.

During the arrest we have also visited Human Rights Defenders who are arrested and offered them some money in order to eat and get something to drink, as this is one among the first priorities of those arrested.

As far as Refugee Human Rights Defenders are concerned, we have now focal points in the following countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, Senegal, South Sudan, Moritania and Cameroon.

However this project is still lacking funds to do more.

Thanks

Engaging the Media on the situation of HRDs Goma

Defining various interventions to help HRDs

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