From ambitions to actions: assessing new transitional justice institutions in DRC

The foundation of transitional justice in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) dates back to the Conférence Nationale Souveraine (CNS) held from August 7, 1991 to December 1992. The CNS lasted for 17 months after successive suspensions by President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. Throughout this conference, 23 committees alongside numerous other sub-commissions were set to document various areas of public affairs. Among the committees and submissions, two were dedicated to document large scale human rights abuses and ill-gotten goods: the commission of assignation and human rights violations and the commission of ill-gotten goods. The reports issued by these committees were overshadowed by political race to nominate the prime minister to conduct the political transition. To all human rights abuses that occurred before 1990, the DRC has undergone the deadliest conflict after World War II from 1998 to 2003 with over 6 millions of victims. From 2006 to 2025, the conflicts broke out and still killing thousand and thousand with any transitional justice process in response. This paper portrays the state of play of institutions specially created to handle transitional justice issues across the DRC. Therefore, it reminds the standard of a credible process of transitional justice (1), then examines one by one each transitional justice institution created by the DRC government (G-DRC) (2). It also questions the political will of the G-DRC on transitional justice matters and deems it insufficient (3). The paper ends by a short conclusion with perspectives for a better future for transitional justice in the DRC.