A/HRC/19/48 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 16/35 entitled “The human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the strengthening of technical cooperation and advisory services.” In line with the High Commissioner’s two previous reports,1 this report, which covers the reporting period January to October 2011, gives an overview of the current human rights situation and the activities of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office 2 (UNJHRO) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It reiterates some of the most important recommendations made by several United Nations human rights mechanisms and assesses the progress made by the Government in implementing those recommendations.3 The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), particularly through UNJHRO, stands ready to support the Government with the implementation of these recommendations which are aimed at improving the human rights situation throughout the country. 2. During the period under review, in the run-up to the presidential and legislative elections, UNJHRO documented election-related human rights violations involving political party members, journalists and human rights defenders. Their fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly and their right to liberty and security were most affected. The violations were often committed by State security forces and intelligence agencies instrumentalized by political actors. 3. The High Commissioner is particularly concerned by the situation in the east of the country, especially in Orientale and Kivu provinces, where soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) continued to subject the local population to arbitrary executions, sexual violence, arbitrary and illegal arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment, extortion, looting and forced labour. Combatants of various armed groups also continued to commit serious human rights abuses against civilians, including murders, 1 2 3 A/HRC/13/64 and A/HRC/16/27. The Human Rights Division of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and OHCHR in the Democratic Republic of the Congo merged on 1 February 2008, creating the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) which functions according to their respective mandates. The recommendations referred to are drawn from the following documents: Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/DRC/CO/1); Report of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (January–June 2007); Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (A/HRC/7/6/Add.4); Report submitted by the Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Walter Kälin, Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/8/6/Add.3); Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/COD/CO/2); reports of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights and the activities of her Office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/10/58, A/HRC/13/64 and A/HRC/16/27); joint reports of seven United Nations experts on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/10/59, A/HRC/13/63, A/HRC/16/68); Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/14/24/Add.3); Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/COD/CO/4); recommendations in the Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (A/HRC/13/8) and in the UNJHRO report on human rights during the pre-electoral period in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 9 November 2011. In order to avoid repetition, the sources of the recommendations will not be cited again in the report. 5