A/HRC/42/61 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 9 August 2019 English Original: French Human Rights Council Forty-second session 9–27 September 2019 Agenda item 10 Technical assistance and capacity-building Human rights situation in the Central African Republic Report of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic* Summary The present report of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, Marie-Thérèse Keita-Bocoum, drawn up pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 39/19 of 28 September 2017, covers the period from July 2018 to June 2019. It describes general trends in the human rights situation in the Central African Republic and the major developments affecting it. The reporting period was marked by an intensification of the peace talks, which led to the adoption, on 6 February 2019, of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic between the Central African Government and 14 armed groups. The agreement, signed in Bangui, was the result of the negotiations held in Khartoum from 24 January to 5 February 2019, in the framework of the African Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, launched by the African Union. As to developments in the human rights situation, the number of violations remained high until the end of 2018 and then fell sharply in the first half of 2019. This decrease is attributable in part to the absence of major confrontations between rival armed groups or attacks on the civilian population, and to the signing of the Peace Agreement on 6 February 2019 in Bangui. However, an attack by members of the armed group Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation), one of the signatories to the Agreement, was a setback in this trend towards improvement. The Independent Expert wishes to emphasize that the peace process will succeed only if the Peace Agreement is implemented in good faith by all parties to the conflict. Justice is key to resolving the crisis in the Central African Republic and will be the decisive factor in the success of the peace process. * Agreement was reached to publish the present report after the standard publication date owing to circumstances beyond the submitter’s control. GE.19-13726 (E) 020919  030919