Inclusive political participation & Human Rights

In light of the worsening political and security crisis in the DRC, EurAc calls on European Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the High Representative of the EU Federica Mogherini, to take concrete steps to prevent a further escalation of violence and new abuses in the DRC. At the Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 6 March, the EU declared its intention to “adopt new individual restrictive measures against those responsible for serious human rights violations or for incitement to violence and those who would obstruct a consensual and peaceful solution to the crisis, one that respects the aspiration of the people of the DRC to elect their representatives”. EurAc believes that it is time to turn words into action, this declaration into a decision to apply new targeted sanctions.

As the European Foreign Affairs Ministers are due to discuss the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 6 March 2017, the European Network for Central Africa (EurAc) strongly believes that a second round of European Union (EU) targeted sanctions (travel ban and asset freeze) against senior political and security actors, closer to the inner circle of President Joseph Kabila and responsible for human rights abuse as well as for the violent crackdown on dissident voices and for undermining the democratic process, wo