Foreign Affairs Committee agrees motion regarding Democratic Republic of Congo

The motion was proposed by Senator David Norris and agreed unanimously by the Joint Committee.

Bearing in mind -

• the death of 5.2 million people over a ten-year period from war-related causes, the largest in any conflict since the Second World War,
• the illegal occupation of the city of Goma by the militia known as M23,
• the displacement of some 2.2 million people in the DRC,
• the forced movement of thousands of people to neighbouring countries,
• the 17-fold increase in the number of rapes on civilians between 2004 and 2008,
• the on-going recruitment of child soldiers, some as young as 8 years of age,
• the increasing humanitarian crisis,
• the absence of essential infrastructure like roads, schools and health centres,
• the pillage by militias, mercenaries and traders of the country's enormous mineral wealth, and
• the collapse of the kind of norms that are required for a functioning society,

the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade calls for –

• an immediate end to the conflict and the disarmament of all militias, most particularly that of the M23 group,
• prioritisation of and re-engagement with existing political agreements,
• protection of all civilians and the implementation of stabilization mechanisms,
a new political process to address the drivers of the conflict, one that will involve the European Union (EU), the United Nations Security Council UNSC), the African Union (AU), and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR),
• neighbouring countries, most notably Rwanda and Uganda, to comply with international law, respect human rights and to disengage from any destabilisation activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
• the government of the DRC to end corruption and respect human rights,
• a renewed and strengthened mandate for MONUSCO, the UN force in the DRC,
• those alleged to have committed war crimes should not be given refuge and should be turned over to the International Criminal Court,
• a commitment to the full implementation of the EU Transparency Directive and Accounting Directives,

and

calls upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure that –

• the resolution of the current conflict in the DRC remains a key objective of its six-month presidency of the European Union, and
• that on-going violations of human rights within the DRC will be raised by the Minister and his officials at the UN Human Rights Council to which Ireland has just been elected,
 
and given the scale and intensity of the conflict regrets the absence of any significant reporting by Irish and international media of the conflict and calls for greater political and media engagement with the conflict.

For further information please contact:

Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2

P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551

Committee Membership

Seán Crowe, TD
Pat Breen, TD (Chairman)
Eric Byrne, TD
Olivia Mitchell, TD
Bernard J Durkan, TD
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, TD
Gerald Nash, TD
Dan Neville, TD
Maureen O’Sullivan, TD
Brendan Smith, TD

Senators

Deirdre Clune,
Mark Daly,
Lorraine Higgins,
Michael Mullins,
David Norris,
Jim Walsh.