Mapping Report > Introduction > Terms of reference

On 8 May 2007, the Secretary-General approved the ToR of the Mapping Exercise, delineating the following three objectives:

• Conduct a mapping exercise of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003.

• Assess the existing capacities within the national justice system to deal appropriately with such human rights violations that may be uncovered.

• Formulate a series of options aimed at assisting the Government of the DRC in identifying appropriate transitional justice mechanisms to deal with the legacy of these violations, in terms of truth, justice, reparation and reform, taking into account ongoing efforts by the DRC authorities, as well as the support of the international community.⁶⁸

It was decided that OHCHR would lead the Mapping Exercise and the project was funded by the voluntary contributions of ten interested partners.⁶⁹ The UNDP Country Office in the DRC was responsible for the financial administration of the Mapping

Exercise and MONUC provided logistical support. The three parties signed an agreement defining their respective rights and obligations.⁷⁰ The continued and overwhelming support of these three bodies for the Mapping Exercise should be mentioned at this juncture.

In the words of the High Commissioner in office at the time, the Mapping Exercise report was “expected to be the first and only comprehensive United Nations report documenting major human rights violations committed within the territory of the DRC between 1993 and 2003. In this regard, the report should be of fundamental importance in the context of efforts devoted to protecting human rights and combating impunity.” By contributing significantly to the documentation on the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the DRC during this time of conflict,⁷¹ this report aims to assist the Congolese authorities and civil society in defining and implementing a strategy that will enable the many victims to obtain justice and thereby fight the widespread impunity. This should also enable the mobilisation of other international resources to address the principal challenges faced by the DRC with regard to justice and reconciliation.

The ToR required the Mapping Exercise Team⁷² to “start and complete this exercise as soon as possible (…) to assist the new Government with the tools to manage post-conflict processes”.⁷³ It was expected to take at least two months for the Team to be recruited, deployed and become fully operational, followed by an additional period of six months to carry out the Mapping Exercise, extendable should the circumstances require it. Although many considered the timeframe for the Mapping Exercise to be too short for the scale of the task at hand, it was nonetheless necessary given the urgent need to bring the operation – the launch of which had been reported on many occasions – to a speedy conclusion so that the Congolese people could start benefiting from it right away. In the end, the Mapping Exercise would last just over ten months in total, from the arrival of the Chief of the Mapping Exercise in late July 2008 to the submission of the final report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in mid-June 2009.

In line with the ToR the report was submitted to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo requesting its observations and comments related to factual inaccuracies for consideration in the final version of this report. The report was also shared with the Governments of other countries named in the report for feedback. The High Commissioner for Human Rights committed to make public any comments received by these Governments, with their agreement, at the same time as the release of the report.