What We Do

Torture, a common practice in East DRC In Eastern DRC, torture is used as a widespread practice by the armed forces and particularly by agents of the National Intervention Legion (LENI), a specialist intervention unit of the Congolese National Police. From 2014 to 2015, local NGOs gathered numerous personal accounts from the population about cases of abuse, arbitrary...

For 10 days in 2012, the small village of Minova was the scene of a wave of violence: the villagers were victims of acts of mass rape, murder and pillage. The perpetrators of these atrocities were all members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Congolese National Police (PNC). This case provoked a national outcry and 39 Stat...

In August 2015, TRIAL International submitted a report on progress and obstacles in the fight against impunity for sexual violence in the Eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu to the United Nations. Written in partnership with 11 local NGOs, the report describes the insufficient measures taken by the Congolese state and puts forward specific recommendations t...

(The Hague, 19 May 2016) – The European Union (EU) and its member states should make a commitment to further enhance national prosecutions of crimes under international law and human rights violations, six international human rights groups said today. Member states should adopt necessary laws, create specialized war crimes units, and ensure that these units have finan...

Rached Jaïdane Wrongly suspected of inciting an attack against the party in power, Rached Jaïdane, a former political opponent, was arrested in Tunisia in 1993. Among the acts of cruelty that he suffered during his detention, Rached Jaïdane was punched, kicked and beaten with truncheons all over his body; he was subjected to the “roast chicken” method of torture,...

The Ruzizi Plain is situated in South Kivu Province and borders on Burundi. A conflict has raged for many years between the two ethnic groups that populate the plain, the Bafuliro and the Barundi, due to land-holding, economic and political rivalries. The local civilian populations endure regular waves of attacks and serious crimes, while the State authorities have n...