Casement Report The Casement Report was a document of 1904 written by the British diplomat Roger Casement ( 1864 – 1916 ) , detailing abuses in the Congo Free State which was under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium . This report was instrumental in Leopold finally relinquishing his private holdings in Africa . Leopold had had ownership of the Congolese state since 1885 , granted to him by the Berlin Conference , in which he exploited its natural resources ( mostly rubber ) for his own private wealth . Publicity 1895 – 1903 . For many years prior to the Casement Report there were reports from the Congo alleging widespread human rights abuses and exploitation of the native population . In 1895 , the situation was reported to Dr Henry Grattan Guinness ( 1861 – 1915 ) , a missionary . He established a mission and was promised action by King Leopold late in 1895 , but nothing changed . H . R . Fox - Bourne of the Aborigines ' Protection Society had published " Civilisation in Congoland " in 1902 , and the journalist E . D . Morel also wrote several articles about the Leopoldian government ' s behaviour in the Congo Free State . In 1903 , two years after the death of King Leopold ' s cousin Queen Victoria , the British House of Commons passed a critical resolution on the Congo . Subsequently , the British consul at Boma in the Congo , the Irishman Roger Casement , was instructed to investigate . His report published in 1904 , which confirmed Morel ' s accusations , had a considerable impact on public opinion . Casement met and became friends with Morel just before the publication of his report in 1904 and realized that he had found the ally he had sought . Casement convinced Morel to establish an organization for dealing specifically with the Congo question . With Casement ' s assistance , he set up and ran the Congo Reform Association , which worked to end Leopold ' s control of the Congo Free State . Branches of the association were established as far away as the United States . The report . The Casement Report comprises forty pages of the Parliamentary Papers , to which is appended another twenty pages of individual statements gathered by Casement as Consul , including several detailing grim tales of killings , mutilations , kidnappings and cruel beatings of the native population by soldiers of the Congo Administration of King Leopold . Copies of the Report were sent by the British government to the Belgian government as well as to nations who were signatories to the Berlin Agreement in 1885 , under which much of Africa had been partitioned . The British Parliament demanded a meeting of the fourteen signatory powers to review the 1885 Berlin Agreement . The Belgian Parliament , pushed by socialist leader Emile Vandervelde and other critics of the King ' s Congolese policy , forced a reluctant Leopold to set up an independent commission of enquiry . Its findings confirmed Casement ' s report in every detail . This led to the arrest and punishment of officials who had been responsible for murders during a rubber - collection expedition in 1903 ( including one Belgian national who was given a five - year sentence for causing the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives ) . Reform by 1912 . Despite these findings , Leopold managed to retain personal control of the Congo until 1908 , when the Parliament of Belgium annexed the Congo Free State and took over its administration as the Belgian Congo . However the final push came from Leopold ' s successor King Albert I , and in 1912 the Congo Reform Association had the satisfaction of dissolving itself .