A/HRC/42/32 A. Human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of elections 8. In its concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Human Rights Committee called on the Government to respect the right of every citizen to participate in public affairs and to take all necessary measures to increase women’s participation in public life (CCPR/C/COD/CO/4, paras. 16 and 48). It also recommended measures to ensure that any restrictions on the exercise of freedom of expression comply with the strict conditions set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to guarantee the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and to prevent and eliminate all forms of excessive use of force by police and security officers (paras. 42 and 44). 9. In its concluding observations on the second periodic report of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Committee against Torture urged the Government to close all unofficial places of detention and to revise its legislative framework and practise to ensure that all arrests and detentions, including those for which officers of the National Intelligence Agency are responsible, are subject to oversight by the judicial authorities (CAT/C/COD/CO/2, para. 15). It also called for the release of all persons detained for having defended their opinions or demonstrated peacefully (para. 29). 1. Current situation and action taken by the Government 10. The period under review was marked by the holding of presidential and national and provincial legislative elections on 30 December 2018, preceded by an official campaign period which ran from 22 November to 21 December 2018. The Independent National Electoral Commission announced partial and provisional results on 10 January 2019, which were confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 20 January 2019. Only one woman ran for president. The percentage of women candidates was 11 per cent for the national legislative elections and less than 10 per cent for the provincial legislative elections. 1 11. Elections were postponed until 31 March 2019 in the city and territory of Beni, in the city of Butembo (North Kivu) and in Yumbi (Mai-Ndombe). Indirect elections for national senators were held on 15 March 2019 in 24 of the 26 provinces, and on 18 May 2019 in North Kivu and Mai-Ndombe. Lastly, indirect provincial governor elections were held in most provinces on 10 April 2019, in South Ubangi on 13 April 2019 and in North Kivu and Mai-Ndombe on 30 May 2019. 12. Many human rights violations committed in the context of restrictions on democratic space were documented before, during and after the elections, including those of December 2018. During the election campaign period, the Joint Office recorded 147 human rights violations related to the electoral process and 202 additional violations in January 2019, after the election. These included: (a) violations of the right to life and physical integrity during the violent suppression of demonstrations; (b) threats and intimidation against representatives and candidates of political parties; and (c) disproportionate restrictions on the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and the press.2 13. During the reporting period, the Joint Office documented 1,020 violations related to restrictions on democratic space throughout the country, which is 30 per cent fewer than in the previous period (1,466 violations). Of this total, 50 per cent were committed by Congolese national police officers and nearly 20 per cent by members of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reduction in violations is explained by the 1 2 4 See Observatoire de la parité en République démocratique du Congo (Observatory for Parity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Rapport préliminaire de l’Observatoire de la parité sur le processus electoral (Preliminary report of the Observatory for Parity on the electoral process). Available at: https://deboutcongolaises.org/rapport-preliminaire-de-lobservatoire-de-la-parite-sur-leprocessus-electoral/. The report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before, during and after the December 2018 elections will be available soon. GE.19-13875