CIAO DATE: 05/2010
April 2010
Congo: A Stalled Democratic Agenda. The consolidation of democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is stalled on almost all fronts, and the Congolese regime remains fragile. When Joseph Kabila became the first democratically elected president in 2006, the international community celebrated the election as a milestone in the peace process, but today checks and balances barely exist, as the president's office has curtailed the powers of the government, parliament and judiciary. Civil liberties are regularly threatened, and key institutional reforms -- decentralisation and the security sector -- have made no significant progress. Unless the Congolese political authorities give new impetus to democratic transformation and institutional consolidation in 2010, the gains made during the transition could be at risk and the international investment in the giant country's stabilisation wasted. The Congo's international partners must place democratisation and institutional reform at the centre of their dialogue with Kabila's government and link the provision of development aid to their progress.
Resource link: Congo: l'enlisement du projet démocratique [PDF] - 1.3M