34th meeting of the 7th session of the Human Rights Council, March 20th 2008


The topics of the conference were the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Transitional Federal Republic of Somalia (TFG).

First, the question was to discuss if the mandate of the special rapporteur for the DRC, Mr. Pacéré, was to be renewed or not.
The Special Rapporteur has taken the floor, and denounced the sexual violence on women and children, the massacres, the repression, the insecurity and many other issues were raised by him. But he particularly denounced the impunity in which these awful acts happen, because the government doesn’t take care of the reports of Mr. Pacéré.
Then, the representant of the DRC took the floor to answer. He said that the government has new institutions, democratic elections, and that the country has to be treated in equality. He denounced the politisation of the issue and hopes that there will be new possibilities of mechanisms rather than the renewal of the mandate of the special rapporteur.
Then, the countries and NGO’s took the floor, to discuss these aspects. Egypt was the only country to refuse the renewal of the mandate, all the other countries accepted it, such as: Slovenia, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Canada, Russia, UK, Belgium, Algeria, USA, Norway. The NGO’s also agreed to renew the mandate, denouncing the crimes in the country.
The delegation of Sweden was more sceptical, and was wondering how to renew the mandate in a more efficient way.

Then, the question of the humanitarian situation in TFG was raised, since the discussion about Congo was finished. The country has become the TFG since the agreements of Nairobi, but it is divided between Somaliland and Puntland.
The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Alnajjar, presented his work on this country. He denounced the absence of protection of the civilians, the terrorist attacks and the murder of many journalists, and the important issue of the IDP’s. Many other issues were raised, such as the sexual violence against women and children, the arbitrary arrestations, etc.
The representant of the TFG then took the floor, and asked for more resources to secure the country again, and to resolve the problem of IDP’s. He said that a dialogue without preconditions must be established between the countries concerned. Thus he asked for the renewal of the mandate of the special rapporteur. After the speech of the NGO called “Human Rights Watch”, he also insisted on the fact that more sessions had to be held for this issue, but that unfortunately it is not interesting for the international community to do so.
Even if all the countries who took the floor agreed on the fact that the Human Rights situation in the country has deteriorated, they didn’t seem to be much enthusiastic about the work of the special rapporteur. Slovenia notingly asked the special rapporteur how to improve the Human Rights in the country, so the European Union was clearly asking for more concrete solutions by the expert.
It is interesting to note the denunciation made by Ethiopia, which said that the report fails to verify allegations made by the other countries. They clearly attacked the special rapporteur on this issue, saying that his work has nothing to do with the mandate of an independent special rapporteur.