International Criminal Court, DRC & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (7 February 2025)

Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
Secretary-General’s Travel
International Criminal Court
Human Rights
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Syria
Haiti
Food Price Index
Financial Contributions

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S TRAVEL
The Secretary-General will be in Paris, France, on Monday to attend the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. He will speak at one of the sessions on Tuesday, and he will tell leaders gathered there that the growing concentration of AI capabilities in the hands of a few companies and countries risks widening global inequalities and deepening geopolitical divides. He will underscore that we must prevent a world of AI "haves" and "have-nots" and will call on AI leaders to pool expertise and cooperate with each other. He will emphasize that it is in the interests of government and technology leaders to commit to global guardrails.
While in Paris, he is also expected to meet with President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders.
The Secretary-General will leave France on Wednesday.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
In response to questions about our response to the US Government’s executive order regarding the International Criminal Court, the Deputy Spokesperson said the following:
International criminal law is an essential element to fighting impunity, which is unfortunately widespread in today’s world. The International Criminal Court is its essential element, and it must be allowed to work in full independence.

HUMAN RIGHTS
This morning in Geneva, the Human Rights Council held a special session on the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that if nothing is done to end the offensive of the M23, supported by the Rwanda Defense Forces, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders.
He said that he is horrified by the spread of sexual violence, adding that his team in the DRC is currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery, throughout the conflict zones.
Mr. Türk also said that hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists and members of civil society have reported to his Office that they have been threatened or are being pursued by the M23 and Rwandan forces. Our human rights colleagues have also facilitated the protection of judicial authorities who were in danger.

And to note that this morning, the Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution establishing a Fact-finding mission by the UN Human Rights Office and an Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the DRC. Both will examine violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law committed in North and South Kivu Provinces of the DRC since January 2022.

Bintou Keita, the Head of our peacekeeping mission in the DRC – MONUSCO- also spoke in Geneva this morning.
She said that hundreds of thousands of displaced people are being forced by M23 to return to their places of origin, without any guarantee or humanitarian assistance on their safe and dignified return.
She also expressed her concerns about the use of misinformation and dis-information, adding that the suspension of social networks such as X and TikTok by the Congolese authorities is a serious infringement of the right to information and must be swiftly lifted. In a region with a sensitive history, Ms. Keita added, ethnically motivated attacks remain a serious concern.

Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=07%20February%202025