Report only available in french

Law number 09/001, protecting the rights of the child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been in force since January 10, 2009. Although flawed in certain respects, the law will be more effective once it translates the minimum international standard for the protection and promotion of child rights into the national law. Furthermore, it sanctions several rights of the child, including the ban on torture or other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment (article 19), punishable by one to five years of penal servitude and a fine, or life imprisonment if the torture led to the death of the child (articles 151 and 152).

Anxious to contribute in some way to the respect, protection, and realization of the rights of the child, ACAT/Sud-Kivu implemented a project of “support for local initiatives to mentor children who are marginalized or who were victims of violence” in five grouping of the Territory of Kabare in Sud-Kivu. Here, many children are treated as sorcerers, live in the street, and are victims of social exclusion and economic and economic and sexual exploitation. The are also associated with the armed forces and other armed groups.