A/HRC/7/25 page 10 recommended that the commander of the 9th military region and his subordinates be suspended with immediate effect and brought to justice, and it urged the competent authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee the independence of the judiciary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. F. Underfunding of the judiciary 27. In order to ensure the smooth administration of justice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the judiciary must receive adequate funding from the Government. Underfunding and lack of job security among all judicial staff play no small part in undermining the independence of the judiciary. The share of the budget allocated to the Congolese justice sector in 2007 was only 0.75 per cent of total public spending, a slight increase from 0.6 per cent in 2005 and 2006 (in most countries this figure ranges between 2 per cent and 6 per cent). Only US$ 5,000 was made available for legal aid and about the same sum for compensation for damages caused by the State. This amount is far too small, considering that awards of damages against the Congolese State since January 2005 add up to US$ 1,300,000. Given the lack of financial resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Government could establish an expert group to devise an appropriate timetable for payment of the sums owed and to find creative compensation solutions, whether symbolic, collective or low-cost (exemption from school enrolment fees, support for income-generating activities, etc.). G. A worrying use of the Constitution that threatens the independence of the judiciary 28. According to the information provided in June 2007 by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, the President of the Republic dismissed the Chief Justice of the Military High Court and the First Advocate-General of the military prosecutor’s office and replaced them with new judicial officers. Under the new Constitution, however, the President of the Republic may only dismiss and appoint members of the national legal service on the recommendation of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (CSM), a body which guarantees the independence of the judicial system. In this case, as the Council had not yet been set up, the unilateral dismissal and appointment of judicial officers by the President of the Republic was a violation of the Constitution and compromised the independence of the country’s judiciary. 29. More worrying still, a petition was submitted recently to the Bureau of the National Assembly seeking a revision of the constitutional provisions on the composition of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary. The 310 signatories petitioned for the inclusion of the President of the Republic and the Minister of Justice in the Council, in flagrant violation of the principle of the independence of the judiciary enshrined in the Congolese Constitution. Nevertheless, the Act on the Supreme Council of the Judiciary was eventually adopted without amendment by the National Assembly at its extraordinary session from 17 to 24 December 2007. The framework laws on the three new high courts (the Constitutional Court, the State Council and the Court of Cassation) have not yet been considered, however. 30. Despite some small progress between June and December 2007, the persistence of impunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is particularly worrying, given the lack of progress on, and the obstruction of, many cases involving serious human rights violations where