{"id":39677,"date":"2026-07-15T13:50:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39677"},"modified":"2026-07-15T13:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:50:40","slug":"drc-forms-new-council-in-push-for-war-crimes-justice","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drc-forms-new-council-in-push-for-war-crimes-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC forms new council in push for war crimes justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Democratic \u200bRepublic of Congo (DRC) has formed a new advisory council that includes senior \u200cwar crimes lawyers from the United States (US) and Europe to support its push for accountability for atrocities committed in the country&#8217;s conflict-ridden east.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The move comes as DRC&#8217;s government pursues an increasingly \u200bambitious campaign for international justice in connection with the fighting, a decades old \u200bstruggle involving dozens of armed groups and competition for mineral resources, \u2060in which millions are estimated to have died.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The conflict in eastern DRC is \u200brooted in the fallout from neighbouring Rwanda&#8217;s 1994 genocide. After the genocide, many perpetrators \u200bfled into eastern Congo, helping fuel cycles of violence that have persisted for decades.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last month, Kinshasa filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Rwanda of breaching international conventions on genocide, \u200bracial discrimination and torture.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last year, President Felix Tshisekedi \u200bcalled for recognition of what he described as a &#8220;silent genocide&#8221; in Congo and urged the creation \u200cof \u2060an international commission of inquiry to help break a &#8220;cycle of impunity&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fighting in eastern Congo intensified last year when the AFC\/M23 rebel group, which the UN and Western governments say is backed by Rwanda, seized large swathes of eastern Congo. Kigali denies backing \u200bthe rebels.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The new \u200badvisory council, known \u2060as the Council for the Examination of Atrocities in the DRC, will advise two Congolese state institutions as they seek recognition \u200bof crimes and push for reparations for victims.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is co-chaired \u200bby Congolese \u2060human rights activist Julienne Lusenge and Howard Morrison, a British lawyer and former judge at the International Criminal Court and the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Other members include \u2060Stephen \u200bRapp, the former US war crimes ambassador who \u200bled the prosecution of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, and Pascal Turlan, a former senior International Criminal Court official who \u200bworked on Congo cases.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22455,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-39677","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"DRC has formed a new advisory council","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39678,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39677\/revisions\/39678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}