A/HRC/38/31 I. Introduction 1. In response to the wave of violence sweeping Kasaï since 2016, the Human Rights Council on 23 June 2017 decided unanimously, by its resolution 35/33, to establish a team of international experts on the situation in Kasaï, for a period of one year. 2. On 26 July 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed Bacre Waly Ndiaye of Senegal (Chairman), Fatimata M’Baye of Mauritania and Luc Côté of Canada as international experts. They were assisted by a secretariat set up by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and based in Kananga, Kasaï Central Province. 3. In March 2018, the team of international experts presented an oral report to the Human Rights Council. 4. The team would like to thank the Democratic Republic of the Congo for its cooperation and for facilitating access to the country. It expresses its thanks to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) for its support, as well as to United Nations bodies, including OHCHR and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWomen), and the governmental and non-governmental organizations that provided it with their cooperation. Lastly, and above all, it thanks the victims and witnesses who agreed to tell their stories. II. Terms of reference 5. In accordance with paragraph 10 of resolution 35/33, the team of international experts was assigned the tasks of collecting and preserving information, determining the facts and circumstances of presumed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Kasaï and communicating the conclusions of this investigation to the judicial authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to establish the truth and ensure that the perpetrators of deplorable crimes are all held accountable to before the country’s judicial authorities. 6. The team believes that its terms of reference were to establish the facts and circumstances of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed to date and since 2016 in the provinces of Kasaï, Kasaï Central, Kasaï Oriental, Lomami and Sankuru1 likely to constitute crimes under international criminal law. In the light of the broad terms of reference given to the team and the time frame it was assigned, the team gave priority to investigating the most serious acts of violence, such as attacks on the right to life and physical integrity, and specifically sexual violence, gender-based violence and violence committed against children. 7. The team also considers that its mandate is to examine the roles of all the parties involved in the wave of violence that has affected Kasaï since 2016, including the defence and security forces, the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the Bana Mura militias. III. Methodology and standard of proof 8. The international team of experts collected information from many sources on the wave of violence. It established a selection methodology concentrating on the most serious and symptomatic incidents, and it conducted interviews with 524 victims, witnesses, presumed perpetrators and other sources. Documents, photographs and videos were collected in support of the testimonies. 1 4 In the present report, “Kasaï” or “the provinces of Kasaï” refer to those five provinces, while “Kasai Province” refers specifically to the province of that name. GE.18-10936