Responsibility to Protect pp 115-128 | Cite as
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Abstract
In today’s wars, civilian populations inevitably pay the greatest price in suffering, torture, and death. It is very difficult for responsible members of the international community to protect the victims of such deadly conflicts. Yet that is what is called for by the emerging norm of the ‘responsibility to protect:’ The need to protect is not only best served by prevention, often it cannot be served in any other way. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a case in point. The wars and local conflicts that have occurred there between 1996 and the present are said to have cost the lives of more than five million persons. It is estimated that these conflicts have also produced around two million internally displaced persons and several hundred thousand refugees in neighboring countries. To protect these millions would have taken an international force far beyond any number that is politically imaginable. Therefore, preventing or at least reducing violence is a more realistic and feasible goal than protection.
Keywords
International Community Democratic Republic Transition Government United Nations Development Programme Transitional GovernmentPreview
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Notes
- 1.In the north, in the Ugandan sphere of influence, violent confrontations continued in the area more or less controlled by the RCD/ML and others.Google Scholar
- 2.United Nations Development Program, UNDP/Donor Mission to DRC/GLR, Defining UNDP’s Role in Disarmament, Demobilization and Durable Solutions (D3), 6 August-13 September 2001, p. 38, http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2001/undp_glr_part2_28nov.pdf.
- 3.See International Rescue Committee, Mortality in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: Results from Eleven Mortality Surveys, 2001, http://www.theirc.org/media/www/mortality_study_eastern_dr_congo_februaryapril_2001.html. “Total death toll from the conflict (1998–2004) was estimated to be 3.9 million. Mortality rate was higher in unstable eastern provinces, showing the effect of insecurity. Most deaths were from easily preventable and treatable illnesses rather than violence. Regression analysis suggested that if the effects of violence were removed, all-cause mortality could fall to almost normal rates.” B. Coghlan et al., “Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Nationwide Survey,” Lancet 367, no. 9504 (2006): 44–51, http://www.thelancet.com.