Réparations en droits de la personne et en droit international humanitaire : problèmes et perspectives pour les victimes en République démocratique du Congo

The victim of violations of human rights and / or international humanitarian law has long been excluded from its own case before the international criminal justice system and is now recognized both in international and many national criminal jurisdictions. Now, the question becomes: ‘can it be considered that the debate on the recognition of the victim`s status as well as the right to compensation under the current Rome Status system for victims’ participation and allocation of compensation to them is now over?’. Indeed, despite the existing international legal instruments on human rights, the issue of reparations for victims of violations of human rights has never been fully resolved within States practice. Each State shall, in accordance with its own laws and jurisprudence, organize an acceptable manner of protecting victims from violations of the rights enshrined in those legal instruments and incorporating them into its domestic legal arsenal. However, it must be said that their implementation depends on each State capacity and will. However, each State organizes, according to its own laws and jurisprudence, the acceptable way of protecting victims from violations of the rights enshrined in those legal instruments. Many States have ratified the latter, only their implementation depends on the capacity and will of each State. With regard to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular, since its independence, several people have been victims of human rights violations due to civil wars, the dictatorial political regime set up from 1965 to 1997, various political conflicts arising in the course of the instauration of democracy. Although several international legal instruments have been ratified and a number of domestic laws have been enacted to implement these instruments, victims have not benefited from reparations for the harm suffered. This lack of implementation of these instruments and of the laws adopted in favor of all these victims puts the Congolese State in the difficulty of responding to the real and legitimate concerns of the latter, who nevertheless are expecting effective measures which are favorable to them. However, it must be recognized that Congo is a developing country, one of the poorest countries in the world, not because of its potential but because of the political instability that has prevailed since it became independent. If there are ordinary and military courts competent to try cases of violations of human rights and / or international humanitarian law, its failure and that of its judicial institutions in the implementation of compensation Victims stress their inability to provide the necessary guarantees of their rights. In spite of the legal recognition of the victim's status, the Congolese State still has difficulty in effectively implementing international standards and the various United Nations recommendations on the right to reparation of victims. These difficulties arise from four problems related respectively to (1) the inadequate functioning of the judicial system to judge reparations, to which must be added difficult access to justice (from the entrance to the judicial exit route); (2) the failure to adapt international standards to national standards on reparations; (3) the imbalance between the party sought or the party to be repaired and the victim, and (4) the number of victims who have access to reparations with regard to the State budget and insufficient material and human capacities. Assuming that the exercise of the victim's right to reparation includes access to domestic and international judicial proceedings, the need for reparation stems from a general principle of law that " An unlawful act must be compensated for the harmful consequences of his act ". It is in this context that, in accordance with international legal instruments and domestic laws on the protection of victims and their right to reparation, this research focuses on the implementation of internal legal and institutional mechanisms capable of meeting the needs of victims of violations Human rights and / or international humanitarian law. These mechanisms are those that can adapt to the number of victims, the ability to establish responsibilities and the financial resource of the state.

Keyphrases: Reparation, Victim, Human rights, International humanitarian law, State responsability, Individual responsibility, Responsibility of non-state actors, Class actions