UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor warned on Wednesday that human rights defenders are increasingly targeted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), especially in the eastern region of the country, amid intensifying armed conflict.

Lawlor said that human rights defenders in the DRC are continuously intimidated, attacked and killed even though authorities have been urged to investigate human rights violations and arrest perpetrators. Lawlor stated that Obedi Karafuru, a human rights defender, received death threats before he was shot dead by unknown men in rebel-held territory in North Kivu province. Another human rights defender also received death threats in February 2022 after he questioned the effectiveness of the DRC government’s declaration of a state of emergency in North Kivu. In addition, four female human rights defenders from the organization “Tous pour la Paix et la Cohésion Sociale” were subjected to kidnapping and violence after they organized on women’s rights, and Lawlor noted that two other female human rights defenders from the “Youth Movement for Change” have faced death threats and violence from an armed group since November 2023.

Lawlor highlighted the importance of guaranteeing the physical integrity of human rights defenders and urged authorities of the DRC to ensure that they are provided with safe working spaces. Lawlor said:

I call on authorities in the DRC to take all necessary measures to ensure a safe working space and protection for human rights defenders, as well as to guarantee the exercise of their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and to effectively and reliably investigate all cases of executions in accordance with international standards, including the Minnesota Protocol, and bring those responsible to justice[.]

Lawlor also noted a 2023 DRC law ensures human rights defenders, including female human rights defenders, are physically protected.

According to the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC, at least 387 human rights defenders and 67 journalists were subjected to intimidation, physical violence and attacks of reprisals perpetrated by state agents and armed groups in the country from June 2023 to April 2024.

Violence in the eastern region of the DRC has increased and caused the internal displacement of more than 6.1 million people. In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch reported the March 23 Movement (M23), a rebel military group allegedly backed by Rwanda, has been responsible for unlawful killings, rapes and other apparent war crimes in the DRC since late 2022. The UN began withdrawing its DRC mission, known as the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), by transferring control of its first base of operations in February to the Congolese government as part of its plan to end its current humanitarian operations within the African country by the end of the year.