Military justice reform conference in DRC

A major conference on military justice and its reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has just been conducted in Kinshasa. From this report by Radio Okapi:

Professor Espoir Masamanki, founder of the School of Thought in Criminal Law and professor of military criminal procedure at the University of Kinshasa, stressed the importance of this conference. According to him, military justice is often poorly perceived by the population: "The Congolese do not know what is in this justice. They have a very poor perception of military justice. This is why we thought it was necessary to organize a large conference on military justice to communicate on issues of military justice in order to participate in the popularization of this justice which for us, is a normal justice," he declared.

However, a preliminary investigation conducted by Bertin Tshama, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Kinshasa, highlights criticism from the public. "There is slowness in the processing of cases before the military justice system. There is aggressiveness in arrests and instructions before the military justice system. There is torture," explains Bertin Tshama.

The strengths and weaknesses of military justice, particularly its two-headed nature in that it judges military personnel and police officers as well as civilians, call for reforms, according to some speakers and law students.

Human rights jurisprudence strongly disfavors the trial of civilians by military courts. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights forbids it.