(JED/IFEX) – The following is a 25 June 2001 JED press release: JED barred from participating in National Conference on Human Rights The pass of lawyer Dieudonné Kaluba Dibwa, representative of Journaliste en danger (JED) – a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) based non-governmental organisation for the defence and promotion of press freedom – was […]
(JED/IFEX) – The following is a 25 June 2001 JED press release:
JED barred from participating in National Conference on Human Rights
The pass of lawyer Dieudonné Kaluba Dibwa, representative of Journaliste en danger (JED) – a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) based non-governmental organisation for the defence and promotion of press freedom – was not accepted by the National Conference on Human Rights’ (Conférence nationale sur les droits de l’homme, CNDH) ad hoc commission.
The CNDH technical commission’s coordinator claimed that JED’s name did not appear on the list of Congolese human rights organisations chosen to participate in the CNDH meetings, which are being held at the Palace of the People in Kinshasa/Lingwala from 24 to 30 June 2001.
Yet, on the morning of Monday 25 June 2001, JED’s secretary-general noted that JED’s name did in fact appear on the initial list of NGO participants, as indicated in the official press release issued over the weekened by official media outlets. However, the name of the delegate mentioned in connection with JED’s designation is unknown to the organisation.
By the time JED had had the opportunity to ask that this error be corrected, the organisation was replaced on the list by an association named Journalistes sans frontières (Journalists Without Borders), which JED has never heard of before.
JED notes that the CNDH organisers are barring it from participating in this forum, where the organisation was to present a report on the deplorable state of press freedom in the DRC.
JED vigorously protests this cheating, which reflects poorly on the DRC’s government.
Kinshasa, 25 June 2001
Mwamba wa ba Mulamba
Secretary-General
D. M’Baya Tshimanga
President
