The Congo was elected to serve a 3-year term on May 20, 2011 when 176 UN member states, out of 193 UN General Assembly members, voted in favor of the Congo's candidacy. This is the Congo's first term on the UN Council since its establishment in 2006.
This is just some of what the most recent State Department report says about human rights in the Congo:
- "Major human rights problems included beatings and torture of detainees by security forces, poor prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention. Other human rights abuses included: lack of due judicial process; arbitrary arrest; political prisoners; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association; refugee abuse; restrictions on the right of citizens to change their government peacefully; restrictions on the activities of opposition political groups; official corruption and lack of transparency...
[T]he government did not effectively enforce the law [against rape]...Rape was common... Domestic violence against women, including rape and beatings, was widespread but rarely reported. There were no specific provisions in the law outlawing spousal battery... Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)... still occurred."