We the participants at the Forum on the Participation of NGOs in the 32nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the 6th Human Rights Book Fair held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Banjul, from October 14th-16th, 2002,

Noting that since 1996 serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law were committed on a large scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo;

Given that the authors of these crimes have never been prosecuted;

In view of the provisions contained in international instruments on the protection of human rights and the development of international criminal law, as well as the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, particularly its articles 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 (para. 1);

The participants at the NGO Forum ask the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to ensure that the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo take measures to:

• Pursue the inter-Congolese negotiations with a view to reaching a national consensus;
• Abolish the Military Tribunal which is a special court in the Democratic Republic of Congo used by the current government to neutralise opponents, journalists and human rights activists;
• Immediately enact the law on the reform of the military justice system ;
• Reinstate the moratorium on the abolition of the death penalty;
• Establish an appropriate judicial mechanism to shed light on the serious human rights violations committed since 1996 in the Democratic Republic of Congo ;
• Prosecute the authors of these violations before the relevant courts ;
• Protect human rights defenders in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

Done in Banjul, The Gambia 16th October, 2002