A/HRC/24/33 provided financial support to the hotline run by the national network of non-governmental human rights organizations, RENADHOC. 40. The Joint Human Rights Office provided support to judicial authorities in charge of investigating election-related human rights violations, and published two reports on them.30 Since the elections, the Office has conducted high-level advocacy with local, provincial and national authorities to follow up on the status of investigations and recommendations made in the reports. Impunity for election-related human rights abuses has, however, prevailed owing to the limited action taken by the authorities. G. Violations of economic, social and cultural rights and the illegal exploitation of natural resources 1. Recommendations 41. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has made various recommendations that the Government should take comprehensive measures to address the issue of illegal exploitation of natural resources and to increase transparency in its revenue collection.31 It recommended that the Government should review, without delay, all mining contracts and repeal any that are detrimental to the Congolese people; that the Government should adopt measures to control the export of minerals and impose drastic sanctions on those involved in the illicit trade of natural resources; and that it ensure that revenues derived from natural resources are used to improve basic services and infrastructure so that living conditions may be improved.32 2. Action taken by the Government and current situation 42. Throughout the period under review, many resource-rich areas, mostly in Orientale province, the Kivus and northern Katanga, bore witness to human rights violations, including forced labour linked to the illegal exploitation of such resources, allegedly committed by both armed groups and State agents. A series of attacks by armed groups were launched in March 2012, spreading terror and clearing the above-mentioned areas of their populations. As an example, human rights violations were committed against civilians, including the rape of more than 110 women and the abduction of at least 100 civilians, in the scope of attacks by Mai-Mai Simba/Lumumba33 in Mambasa territory, Orientale province. Other serious human rights violations were also committed by armed groups to facilitate the exploitation of natural resources. The Joint Human Rights Office documented a large number of cases of abduction of civilians and of forced labour by armed groups. A significant number of abductions, particularly by combatants of the Allied Democratic Forces, were reported in Beni territory, North Kivu province. Many abductees were forced to take part in such activities as timber cutting, gold mining and agricultural production for the benefit of the armed group. 43. State agents were also implicated in mineral trafficking and often used their position of power to shield themselves from accountability; for example, in September 2012, 30 31 32 33 Report of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office on human rights and fundamental freedoms during the pre-electoral period in the Democratic Republic of Congo, November 2011 (available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/ZR/Joint Human Rights Office_HRElectionsReport_en.pdf). E/C.12/COD/CO/4, para. 13. Ibid. The Mai-Mai Simba/Lumumba militia, led by a former poacher known as Captain Morgan, moved in March 2012 to the resource-rich Mambasa, where it has sought to spread terror among the civilian population and illegally exploit natural resources. 13