The Embassy of Democratic Republic of the Congo in Geneva

The territory achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 as the "Republic of the Congo," and — then known simply as Congo (Léopoldville), later renamed Zaire — joined the United Nations on 20 September 1960, one of 16 newly independent African states admitted to the UN that year. Independence was almost immediately followed by the "Congo Crisis": the mutiny of the Force Publique, the secession of the mineral-rich Katanga and South Kasai provinces, and the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in January 1961. In response to the Congolese government's own appeal for assistance, the Security Council authorized the UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC) in July 1960 — the UN's first large-scale peacekeeping operation, which at its peak deployed nearly 20,000 personnel and remained in the country until 1964; UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a 1961 plane crash near Ndola while travelling to negotiate a Congo ceasefire. The country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1964, became the Republic of Zaire in 1971 under Mobutu Sese Seko, and reverted to the name Democratic Republic of the Congo at the UN on 17 May 1997. The country's post-1996 conflicts (the First and Second Congo Wars) led to the establishment of further, larger UN peacekeeping presences, including MONUC (1999) and its successor MONUSCO (2010), which remains active in the eastern provinces of the country to this day — meaning the UN has now maintained some form of peacekeeping presence in the DRC for well over 60 years.

The DRC currently sits as an elected member of the Human Rights Council (term to 2027) and, at its own request (backed by 27 states, including Czechia), prompted the Council's 37th Special Session on 7 February 2025 to address the escalating conflict and human rights crisis in North and South Kivu provinces — only the Council's second special session dedicated specifically to the DRC, the first having been held in 2008. That February 2025 session led to the creation, under resolution S-37/1, of an Independent Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in North and South Kivu; its three experts — chaired by Arnauld Akodjenou of Benin, alongside Maxine Marcus and Clément Nyaletsossi Voule — were formally appointed in October 2025 following delays linked to UN funding constraints, and delivered their first official update to the Council in mid-2026, warning of an "exceptionally grave" human rights situation marked by sexual violence, unlawful killings, and mass civilian displacement. A follow-up resolution (60/22), adopted in October 2025, pressed the UN Human Rights Office to staff the inquiry fully and ensure a field visit could take place by January 2026. The Council's 61st and 62nd sessions (2026) have continued to feature enhanced interactive dialogues on the Commission's ongoing findings, alongside a separate Special Rapporteur mission on internally displaced persons that visited the DRC in May 2025 — the first Special Procedures country visit to the DRC in over 13 years.