KINSHASA, DRC, August 28, 2024 /African Media Agency (AMA)/- The figures are alarming: according to the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office of MONUSCO (UNJHRO), between March 2023 and March 2024, 61 deaths were recorded at Kakwangura prison in Butembo, an average of five deaths per month. If we consider this year alone, 50 cases have already been recorded.
« For some time now, Butembo prison has not been monitored. Furthermore, barely one or two deaths were recorded there per year. Since the state of siege was declared, it has become overcrowded. The number of prisoners has increased from around 800 before the state of siege to 1,300, for a prison that has a capacity of 220 people. “, warns a local human rights defender.
In addition to the lack of food, insufficient medical care and a shortage of magistrates, there is prison overcrowding and its corollary, namely promiscuity, which increases the death rate in detention.
Know the law, to be able to defend victims
In an attempt to remedy this, 75 actors (including 15 women) members of the local synergy of citizen movements, pressure groups and civil society organizations took part, from August 23 to 25, in a training course on human rights in Butembo. A training course provided, at the request of the Synergy, by officers of the UNJHRO.
The aim was to strengthen the capacities of the synergy members in terms of human rights; monitoring and reporting techniques, the rights of persons deprived of their liberty, the qualification of offences were, among others, covered. They will thus be able to make good pleas and carry out concrete actions to remedy the recurring cases of death recorded at the Kakwangura prison in Butembo.
« You have to know the law and the law, pure and simple, to be able to qualify an offence and to qualify an arrest as arbitrary and a detention as illegal. So knowing human rights means being able to denounce an arbitrary arrest, and therefore ask for the release of the victim. “, explains the BCNUDH.
For Franck Mumbere Mukenzi, one of the participants, this training is a necessity to equip local human rights defenders and enable them to better play their role, within the framework of the protection of civilians and individual freedoms. The training allowed us to understand why there are so many people in prison, why so many prisoners die. It also allowed us to know how to conduct advocacy and monitor human rights, in order to avoid overcrowding, which is the cause of many deaths in prison. ” he explains.
A commission to monitor human rights in prisons
On the sidelines of this training, the BCNUDH organized meetings with the various actors in the Butembo penal chain, with a view to acting as quickly as possible on the causes of this situation. Another immediate measure is the establishment of a commission responsible for monitoring human rights in prisons. This involves resuming joint visits to dungeons, to act on the flow to the prison and also to advocate with local judicial authorities for the release of prisoners who have the right to be released.
Finally, a working session with prison staff and members of the synergy, now trained, took place on Monday, August 26 to physically verify the prisoners and their judicial records. In sight: the decongestion of this prison establishment.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for MONUSCO.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
2024-08-28 09:31:39
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