A/HRC/16/27 3. Since my last report, the Joint Human Rights Office has continued to register numerous human rights violations throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of them remain tied to the conflict that still rages in the eastern part of the country. Such violations were committed during military operations led by the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) against armed groups and/or by armed groups in retaliation for those operations. In Orientale province and North and South Kivu, the Lord’s Resistance Army and Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) combatants, in some cases in coalition with other Congolese armed groups, including MaiMai groups, have stepped up attacks on the civilian population, killings, sexual violence, looting and abductions. Several of these violent acts could constitute international offences, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, as the recent convictions handed down by Congolese courts against the perpetrators of similar acts of violence in the eastern part of the country show. 4. Sexual violence remains a major concern in the conflict taking place in the east, as in the rest of the country. The reporting period was particularly marked by the systematic rape of at least 380 women, men and children in 13 villages between Mpofi and Kibua in Walikale territory, North Kivu, between 30 July and 2 August 2010 by FDLR and Mai-Mai Cheka combatants and combatants affiliated with Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, a former FARDC soldier who established his own armed group in early 2010. The security forces also committed numerous rapes during the reporting period. For example, 10 women were reportedly raped by FARDC soldiers from the 431st Battalion in Katalukulu, South Kivu, on 6 August 2010. 5. Human rights violations due to structural shortcomings of State institutions continued to be reported throughout the country. The situation remains marked by human rights violations that are the result of recurring weaknesses of these institutions. Many other cases of human rights violations stem from the personal conduct of State officials, who often take advantage of their office and use their authority for personal ends with impunity. 6. The reporting period has also seen a rise in serious violations of the rights of human rights defenders, journalists and opposition party members. The murder during the night of 1–2 June 2010 of Mr. Floribert Chebeya, Executive Secretary of the Réseau national des ONG des droits de l’homme de la République démocratique du Congo and President of the Congolese non-governmental organization Voix des Sans Voix pour les droits de l’homme, attests to the seriousness of the attacks on human rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These new incidents are particularly troubling as the presidential and national legislative elections draw near in 2011. 7. On 1 October 2010, my Office issued a report providing an extensive account of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the country between 1993 and 2003. The report notes that the vast majority of the 617 serious incidents that it describes point to the commission of multiple violations of human rights and/or international humanitarian law, which may constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes, and often both at the same time. The report also concludes that the apparently systematic and widespread attacks on Hutus (refugees and others) in 1997 and 1998 reveal a number of inculpatory elements which, if proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide. There are, however, a number of countervailing factors that could lead a court to find that the requisite intent was lacking, and hence that the crime of genocide was not committed. The report analyses various options for dealing with impunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the establishment of judicial mechanisms and a truth-seeking mechanism, institutional reform and reparations for victims. GE.11-10197 5