By the CNONGD, Forus member in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

In November 2017, the Congolese associative movement represented by numerous and credible non-profit associations of the DRC, gathered at the Liloba Catholic pastoral center of Lemba under the auspices of CNONGD, had, in the framework of a concerted position of the CSOs of the DRC, firmly condemned the initiative of the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, who proposed at the time a bill amending and supplementing Law 004/2001/of July 20, 2001 on the freedom of association.  

On that occasion, the CSOs said without ambiguity "No to a bill that is liberticide, poorly motivated, inopportune and unnecessarily dangerous for the DRC because it is unconstitutional”.  

Faced with the pressure exerted by the forces in favor of individual and collective freedoms in the DRC, the Parliament of the Republic had killed the examination of the said bill, pretending to listen to the voice of the people organized in associations. Alas! It was only a reprieve, a slap in the face from this parliament that insisted on legislating against opinion, against the popular will. A parliament that only listens to the voice of selfish interests and that operates like a "caravan that passes when the dog barks". A parliament in the pay of a government that acts out of defiance.   

Indeed, while all national and international opinion was about to salute the lucidity of the representatives of the people for having understood the inappropriateness and impertinence of this bill, here is that the National Assembly, in its calendar of the ordinary session of March 2018 entrusted the said bill to its PAJ Commission for examination and this under the arrears of September 2017.

What were CSOs and all forces that believe in the vital role of the associative movement in general and non-profit associations in particular in the Democratic Republic of Congo to understand?

What lessons should be learned from this way of doing things by the Government and Parliament of the DRC who only listen to the law of force and not the force of law?  

Lessons to be drawn:  

• 1st. The Parliament and the Government of the DRC operate by defiance and remain fundamentally in the logic of "the dog barks the caravan passes"; 
• 2nd It is enough to say that the interests of the people do not count for the Ministers and the national deputies of the DRC; 
• 3rd The negative complicity in this matter between the Deputies supposed to represent the people and the members of the Government who have the responsibility to ensure the well-being of this one hides badly a plot of the Congolese leaders against the citizens; 
• 4th This attitude of the National Assembly of the DRC leads us to ask the question concerning the relevance of legislative productions in this country: "Laws in the DRC, for whom and why?”
• 5th The major stake of this bill that was hastily examined and adopted is none other than the negation of the role and the place of the non-profit associations in the development of the country;
• 6th The basic motivation of the said bill was therefore the destruction of the freedom of associations in the DRC in defiance of all international agreements and conventions to which the country has freely and voluntarily committed itself;
• 7th the violation by the Congolese politicians of Kinshasa, of the article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates we quote: "The law is the expression of the general will" would be proven in case the Congolese leaders do not turn away from the said bill.  

Call for mobilization in favor of associative freedoms in the DRC!

Faced with the dichotomy clearly established between our demonstration of November 2017 as to the inappropriateness and impertinence of the bill under consideration and the negative motivations stigmatized by the Government and Parliament of the time, we should mobilize and engage in the following path to significantly influence this bill in order to defeat it:  

Any CSO worthy of the name and respectful of the principles that bring social peace, whether it is Congolese or foreign, must refrain from accompanying, by any initiative whatsoever, this legislative process that aims only to muzzle if not to remove non-profit associations from the field of development of the DRC. It is a question here of realism in the head of the civil society which must avoid supporting a thing and its opposite.