A/HRC/27/42 international humanitarian law and human rights law standards10 and the Constitution, the victims’ lawyers have filed an appeal against the judgement.11 31. The Minova case underscores the persistent challenge of ensuring the accountability of military superiors, including for the misconduct of units under their command. It also highlights the limitations of the judicial institutions in prosecuting the crime of rape, as well as the lack of thorough judicial investigations into grave crimes. Many other cases of serious human rights violations have remained unpunished and/or related investigations have been marked by prolonged delays.12 32. For instance, in the Chebeya case,13 the appeal proceedings that opened in 2012 before the highest military court (Haute Cour Militaire) were suspended in May 2013, following the submission of the victims’ lawyers regarding a procedural error in the judicial notice to the accused. As required by the Constitution, the Haute Cour Militaire suspended its hearings on the appeal case, pending a decision from the Supreme Court which has exclusive jurisdiction to hear any constitutional challenges. There is no information as to when the Supreme Court will act upon the case.14 33. During the reporting period, the Government had not taken any action to establish a reliable vetting mechanism for its security forces, although various United Nations human rights mechanisms15 have consistently called for measures to ensure that human rights violators are not maintained within, or integrated into, the security forces. Consequently, individuals suspected of committing gross human rights violations remain within the armed forces, including senior officers. 34. During the universal periodic review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 29 April 2014, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights announced that a new version of the draft law on specialized chambers had been submitted to Parliament. In May 2014, the bill was sent back by Parliament on the grounds of constitutional concerns. Further to the ratification by the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 11 April 2002 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, legislation which would implement the Rome Statute into national laws remains to be adopted. Ideally, the two bills should be discussed by Parliament in a manner that ensures their complementarity and avoids the creation of legal gaps or contradictions. 10 11 12 13 14 15 See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14. See OHCHR, Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Press briefing notes on Ukraine, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of the Congo, 6 May 2014. See MONUSCO/OHCHR report, “Progress and obstacles”, paras. 36–41. Floribert Chebeya and his driver, Fidèle Bazana, were assassinated on 2 June 2010, on the outskirts of Kinshasa. On 23 June 2011, the Military Court of Kinshasa/Gombe convicted five policemen, three of them in absentia, of murder, illegal arrest and detention as well as abduction in that case, but stopped short of finding any criminal responsibility of higher-level police officers, in particular the then Commissioner-General of the Congolese National Police, General John Numbi. All parties to the proceedings, including the State, the defence and the victims appealed against the verdict of the trial court. In June 2014, acting on behalf of the families of Mr. Chebeya and Mr. Bazana, a group of NGOs led by the International Federation of Human Rights, filed a complaint in Senegal against one of the accused who had reportedly fled to that country after escaping from prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. See Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (A/HRC/WG.6/19/L.3 of 1 May 2014), para. 133.106; and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations of the combined sixth and seventh periodic reports of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (30 July 2014), para. 10 (e). 11