Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment - Democratic Republic of the Congo

[From the introductory text accompanying this report on the U.S. Department of State website: "In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti-trafficking progress of countries that may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2010 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2009 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May – the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report – and November. Readers are requested to refer to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large-scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country or territory."]

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made noteworthy progress in demobilizing children from fighting factions since the release of the 2009 TIP Report, but significant work is still needed in other areas of anti-trafficking law enforcement. The government has shown little progress in prosecuting suspected trafficking offenders. Although the Child Protection Code, which criminalizes child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, was enacted in January 2009, it remains unimplemented and without the necessary budget.

The government assisted the UN Mission to the DRC (MONUC) and international NGOs in demobilizing more than 2,000 children from various fighting factions in 2009; approximately 16 percent were found in the ranks of the national army (FARDC). While the FARDC high command was supportive of the efforts by MONUC to remove children from its forces, it continued to demonstrate little control in preventing ground troops from recruiting additional children or subjecting local populations to forced labor, including in connection with illegal exploitation of natural resources.

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