The Carter Center MR-program DRK

With support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), The Carter Center implemented the Human Rights Defenders Protection and Capacity Building Program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from February 2013 through August 2016. The overall goal of the program was to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the DRC to successfully advocate for policy and practice reform related to human rights, elections and mining governance. To realize this goal, the program sought to address the primary challenges faced by Congolese CSOs in their work, including security risks and gaps in organizational and technical capacities. In pursuit of its goal, the Center worked towards realizing the following results: 1. Selected Congolese CSOs have increased capacity to manage human rights defenderprotection systems; 2. Selected Congolese CSOs trained in organizational development are more effective,credible, and sustainable; and 3. Selected Congolese CSOs are able to carry out their technical interventions moreeffectively and with greater impact. Within the grant period, many targets have been surpassed and successes identified. While the main highlights can be found here, the full scope of project activities, including additional details on successes and impact, are detailed in the body of the report and few selected below. Human Rights: Alert and Protection System (APS). The Center continued to support the Kinshasa-based APS and coordinated civil society responses to a total of 20 threat cases over the project period, including providing judicial assistance, disbursing funds for medical care and shortterm relocation, contributing to public statements and trial monitoring. Treaty body reporting and advocacy. The Human Rights House trained and supported its partners to conduct research, report, and advocate on selected human rights violations in the framework of the DRC’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and in the DRC’s review session for the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The Center also supported partners in the submission of a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regarding the protection ofhuman rights defenders, and a report to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) regarding access to free primary education. The Center subsequently supported its partners to conduct follow-up monitoring of issues identified in the treaty body reports and conduct advocacy efforts at both the national and international levels. Organization capacity building. The Human Rights House supported local civil society partners in project design, proposal drafting, and monitoring and evaluation techniques. As a result, local partners raised a combined $808,352 in external grant awards. The Center also trained and supported the Human Rights House’s civil society partners in the development and formalization of their organizational structures, including documents such as by-laws, strategic plans, and annual budgets. Elections Forum on electoral law. The Center worked with its primary citizen observation CSO partner, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (CEJP), to strengthen their ability to play a more active role among electoral stakeholders, leading advocacy initiatives and helping focus the attention of all key stakeholders on resolving critical electoral issues. During the January 2015 protests of the revised electoral law under review by the Parliament, it became evident that space was needed for a constructive cross-party discussion. As a result, the Center worked with CEJP to organize a forum on the law where opposing sides could come to a common understanding of contentious provisions and develop a consolidated list of recommendations. Deployment of observers. From August through December 2015, 102 long-term observers (LTOs) were deployed to 51 regions to collect and submit data on the pre-electoral period throughout the DRC. Prior to deployment, the Center supported CEJP in training its observers for observation and deployment via cascade trainings in Mbandaka, Kinshasa, Kisangani, Bukavu, Kananga and Lubumbashi. Workshops also took place to provide training and support for using ELMO, data collection and analysis, and report writing. A total of 5,454 weekly reports were compiled according to the 26 provinces, which were then analyzed and used to develop CEJP’s pre-election observation report. Mining Contract and asset sale transparency. The Carter Center has consistently advocated for increased transparency of the Congolese extractive sector through collaborative engagement with civil society, government, and mining companies. Key results include: ? Successfully advocated for the disclosure of six major mining contracts following a letter from President Carter to Prime Minister Matata. ? Along with the International Monetary Fund, contributed to the disclosure of previously unknown details of the February 2015 sale of a copper mine to Glencore, a sale in which the state-owned mining company Gécamines lost its interest in a potentially profitable concession. ? Successfully advocated for provisions mandating the disclosure of environmental and social impact assessments to be included in the draft Mining Code legislation. ? Successfully publicized and advocated for the blockage of the sale of an undervalued state-owned mining asset to an offshore shell company. The sale was ultimately canceled in June 2014. To sum up, even if some weaknesses of the capacity of TCC regarding its internal managment and control in DRC are well noted, the Embassy assesses that TCC has satified the results framework of the project and  strengthened civil society parteners role on policy practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The overall goal of The Carter Center in the DRC is that strengthened civil society organizationsachieve human rights policy and practice reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tothese ends, the Center is dedicated to improving the security, organizational capacity, and technicalcapacity of key civil society organizations, particularly youth engagement in the democratic processes.