On October 30, France will host a conference in Paris in support of peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes to rally global support to confront the deepening humanitarian crisis region and to give fresh momentum to ongoing mediation efforts by the United States, Qatar, and the African Union.
The conference also seeks to strengthen regional economic integration, mirroring US-led efforts to secure mineral deals in exchange for peace, and after stalled attempts in Washington and Brussels to push the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda towards cooperation.
But regional economic integration will remain a pipe dream unless mediators confront the fact that the conflict there is fueled by decades of impunity for perpetrators of serious crimes in eastern Congo.
The European Union, which has taken a step back since the US- and Qatar-led mediation efforts began, now has a chance to live up to its commitments to support justice and put accountability for serious crimes at the heart of its engagement on the Great Lakes crisis and of the conference’s vision for peace.
Despite an initial US-brokered June 27 peace agreement, Rwanda has continued to support to the M23 armed group and Congo to support the Wazalendo, a coalition of abusive armed groups, and the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu armed group formed by people who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
In September, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on eastern Congo found that all parties to the conflict in eastern Congo – including Congolese and Rwandan forces – committed serious violations and abuses that in some cases may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. This builds on extensive documentation, including by Human Rights Watch, of how armed groups, particularly the M23, have massacred civilians, committed widespread sexual violence, forcibly recruited children as well as adults, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
Millions have been displaced by the conflict, sometimes trapped between warring forces, at a time when international aid is at an all-time low due to near-complete cutbacks in US foreign assistance. Some refugees in the region told us they had to consider returning to dangerous M23-occupied areas because of the lack of aid available in refugee camps or, in the case of Burundi, because of the treatment they faced. Others recounted how M23 and Wazalendo fighters prevented civilians from fleeing to neighboring countries. After capturing the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu earlier this year, the M23 carried out a campaign of intimidation and violent repression against civilians they suspected opposed them.
During the Paris conference, governments should urgently press the M23 to allow humanitarian actors, including the UN peacekeeping force, to move freely and reopen Goma airport. Rwanda, as an occupying force in eastern Congo, is obligated to ensure the health and well-being of the population.
Regional actors such as Burundi and Uganda, overlooked by most other mediation initiatives, have not only felt the humanitarian fallout of the conflict, but have been directly involved in it. France and Togo, the African Union’s mediator for the conflict, should press governments in the region to protect civilians and help combat impunity for abuses. All governments in the region should prioritize the protection of civilians and the safe passage of those fleeing the fighting.
To prioritize justice, the conference should start with those defending it. Human rights defenders, journalists, and activists risk intimidation or prison simply for speaking out, be it at the hands of Congolese authorities or the M23. France and its partners should condemn attacks on civil society, put pressure on all parties to respect the work of human rights defenders, and commit financial and technical support to enable their work in the country and in exile.
The Paris conference should also send a strong signal that war crimes and serious human rights violations will not go unpunished. This can be done by supporting independent investigations into abuses in eastern Congo, including by fully funding and backing the urgent operationalization of the UN Commission of Inquiry, already overdue.
Countries should also provide the political and financial backing and cooperation that the International Criminal Court needs to pursue cases linked to atrocities in Congo. They should support and strengthen efforts by Congolese courts, and help establish an internationalized justice mechanism staffed by both international and Congolese experts, whose work could help fill the impunity gap.
The peace efforts under way – backed by the AU, Qatar, and the US – will only succeed if civil society and victims’ representatives have genuine seats at the table. International efforts should pair humanitarian assistance with strong, public diplomacy that presses all parties to end abuses and uphold international law. Economic integration agreements are unlikely to succeed unless efforts are made to hold abusive actors to account.
While humanitarian aid remains crucial, if the conference wants to signal a shift in the diplomatic engagement on the conflict in the Great Lakes, it must begin to bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality and promote justice for Congolese caught in the crossfire of decades of conflict.
