First of all, thank you so very much for the opportunity. It's exciting to be here and a great honour to be sharing this desk with Roméo Dallaire.

My name is Rachel Pulfer. I am the executive director of Journalists for Human Rights.

JHR is an independent, non-partisan charity that works to strengthen media in conflict zones, developing countries, societies in transition, and other places where the sector is traditionally weak.

I'd like to share with the committee our view of the urgent human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC.

This presentation is based on the experience of our partners in the DRC and our network of journalists all over the country, as well as our recent conversation with Monsignor Marcel Utembi, head of the Congolese national bishops' conference, CENCO, during his visit to Canada.

I would like to share some recommendations that highlight areas for action, as well as help you understand the situation regarding the right to freedom of expression and how media development could support the Government of Canada's efforts to improve the situation.

I'd like to leave you more informed about the situation, with some recommendations grounded in the context for action. I also have some recommendations that show how media development could potentially contribute towards Canada's efforts to ameliorate the human rights situation in the DRC, at minimal cost and for maximum potential impact.

The situation of human rights in the DRC remains tenuous in the extreme, as I'm sure you are all very well aware. The number of refugees internally and externally displaced, caused by ongoing violence in the DRC, recently surpassed those of the Syrian refugee crisis, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. Urgent action is recommended to forestall disaster.

In April 2018, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office documented 493 violations of human rights in the country. This is a considerable step up from the 406 violations in March of this year. In the provinces suffering from armed conflict, notably North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, during the month of April, 66 people were killed by armed groups.

In Kasai, the Kamwina Nsapu armed uprising against government forces has caused thousands of deaths and displaced individuals across the country. Sources indicate that, in May, national armed forces and the militia, Bana Mura, killed approximately 250 people in retaliation to a Kamwina Nsapu uprising, of which 62 were children.

Since 2016, the DRC has faced an increasing number of violations of human rights and fundamental liberties and peaceful demonstrations have been violently repressed on an alarming basis. Tensions have increased and in January 2018, there have been violent repressions against demonstrations organized by the church, in particular. A recent report published in March 2018 by the mission of the United Nations in the DRC and the UN Joint Human Rights Office informs us that between January 2017 and 2018, 47 people, including women and children, have been killed by the security services and defence forces during demonstrations alone. Citizens have been attacked and arrested by state-backed intelligence agents, and opposition figures, like Moise Katumbi, former governor of Katanga province, have been forced into exile. The most recent example is the national deputy, Léon Mulumba, who was imprisoned for offending the head of state. Mulumba was sick and he was sentenced in his hospital room.

The implications of this situation on press freedom are significant. The population of the DRC is continually deprived of its right to information and on numerous occasions, access to the Internet has been cut. This is done to quell dissent and to prevent the organization of peaceful demonstrations on social media platforms. Many media outlets close to the opposition have been closed, in spite of measures to ease tensions put in the accord of December 2016. Journalists have been intimidated, arrested, and harassed. In this year alone, the organization, Journaliste en danger, based in Kinshasa, registered 44 cases of violations against press freedom. In Kasaï-Central, since April of this year, a dozen journalists have been attacked and intimidated by government authorities. On May 19, in Kinshasa, one journalist named Christine Tshibuyi was kidnapped, after covering a funeral of a young militant.

In such an environment, journalists self-censor out of fear of reprisal. As the electoral period approaches, we fear that the human rights situation in the DRC is becoming critical.

In this particular situation, what can Canada offer and what does Canadian media development offer, in particular? Journalists for Human Rights has been working in the DRC for 10 years.

We work by sending journalism trainers to work side by side with local journalists on a form of tough, hard-hitting accountability journalism that emphasizes local human rights issues and catalyzes locally led and sustainable solutions to local problems. This is especially valuable and relevant in fragile environments where the authority's capacity to act on behalf of its constituents is compromised, and where press freedom exists but is under threat, such as in the DRC.

How can this help in a constructive way? I'll give you an example. JHR has been working in the DRC for the past several years, and in 2016 we convened the first-ever national forum for media in the DRC. The goal was to bring journalists together to make common cause and protect one another against common threats.

Three weeks after the forum ended, we had to do exactly that. The president of the Kikwit chapter, Badylon Kawanda, was investigating a political disappearance at the provincial office of the Agence nationale de renseignement, which is the DRC version of the CIA. He was beaten up so badly he had to be hospitalized. The entire network publicized this incident, and I wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail about this problem. Two weeks later, the chef de sécurité for the local office came to Kawanda's radio station in person to apologize for the poor behaviour of his subordinates. He gave his word that it would not happen again, and Kawanda has continued his powerful work unharassed since that point. The chef de sécurité cited media pressure, both local and international, as the main reason for his action.

When it comes to transformational change for communities, JHR-trained journalists in DRC have been putting local issues on the agenda and catalyzing positive change. In another example, we trained local journalists, highlighting the plight of the hearing impaired in Matadi, Bas-Congo province, making the argument that the hearing impaired were left out of the public dialogue because there was no sign language interpretation on state television. After the features ran on a local network, the governor of Bas-Congo province announced that he would be launching a school for the hearing impaired, which he subsequently did, and he directed that sign language interpretation be included in all coverage on state television, in a failed state, through a violent election.

Further, and germane in light of the recent Ebola outbreak, JHR-trained journalists have played a powerful role in ensuring the flow of information and combatting misinformation during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia. One JHR journalist, Kolubah Akoi, was given an African Union humanitarian award for his work in ensuring that Liberians in Lofa County, the epicentre of the outbreak in Liberia, understood how to seek medical help, what to avoid, and how to bury their dead safely.

These outcomes were achieved and are achieved in a particularly cost-effective and efficient manner. The average JHR trainer works with a minimum of 20 journalists during their time in-country, and these journalists have, on average, an audience reach of approximately 20,000 people or more. The actual impact of any development dollars invested in media is exponentially greater than the number of people directly trained, a phenomenon known in media development circles as the media multiplier effect. This is not to mention the impact that expert trainers from Canada can have in clarifying the need for Canadian action internationally on human rights in the DRC while reporting on these stories to large audiences at home in Canada.

This is particularly germane now, at a time when the human rights situation in the DRC is worsening by the day. Local authorities and institutions are compromised, and bilateral and multilateral actors feel paralyzed to act in the face of these extraordinarily complex and dangerous situations.

In the current environment, working with local and international media is one of the only reliable ways that external actors can exert internal pressure and help local communities and civil society generate positive change for themselves. Let's be honest; none of us moved in a significant way on the Syrian crisis until we saw that photo of Alan Kurdi on the beach in the Mediterranean. International journalists can put a crisis on the international map, and local journalists can create local awareness of human rights issues and propose local solutions, all for a fraction of the cost of other forms of intervention in an environment where institutions are severely compromised to accept, let alone channel, bilateral aid effectively. Working with journalists will build the internal feedback loops required to bring about that positive change and help the Congolese to help themselves.

I have some key recommendations. With a view to improving the situation of human rights in the DRC, we recommend that Canada lend its voice and weight to the following points: that Canada continue its robust support for credible and transparent elections; that Canada push for elections to be organized for and take place in December 2018 as recommended by the agreement signed under the aegis of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, also known as CENCO; that the current head of state not be involved in these elections, as required by the constitution of the DRC; that Canada also advocate support for fair, free, and credible elections at the UN Security Council; and in line with Security Council Resolution 1325, that Canada promote women's roles as peace builders in this process.

We also recommend that in the absence of functioning public institutions and a weakened civil society, the Canadian government consider prioritizing support for media development organizations operating in the DRC. We also recommend that Canada call for commitment from various political actors, opposition and majority, not to promote hate speech.

Canada's reputation as an honest broker for bringing a coalition of partners to the table has translated into an international leadership position for Canada for media in the DRC. It is one that we, at JHR, would like to build on through leveraging Canada's full potential as a future global leader in media development.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. I look forward to answering your questions.

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