{"id":68945,"date":"2016-04-29T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T11:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/on-defending-democratic-space-in-the-drc\/"},"modified":"2016-04-29T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T11:26:12","slug":"on-defending-democratic-space-in-the-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/on-defending-democratic-space-in-the-drc\/","title":{"rendered":"On Defending Democratic Space in the DRC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span dir=\"ltr\"> WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, April 29, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Press Statement<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>John Kirby<br \/>Assistant Secretary\u00a0and Department Spokesperson,\u00a0Bureau of Public Affairs<\/p>\n<p>Washington, DC<\/p>\n<p>April 28, 2016<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing a historic year that should \u2013 according to that country\u2019s constitution \u2013 culminate in the DRC\u2019s first democratic transfer of executive power. The United States supports the Congolese people in their pursuit of timely, free, and fair elections and underscores the importance of open political space to a credible electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>We are deeply concerned by the government\u2019s arrest and intimidation of Congolese citizens participating in and preparing for peaceful political activity in Kinshasa and Haut Katanga Province the weekend of April 24. The DRC government has, under its own constitution and its international human rights obligations, the responsibility to respect its citizens\u2019 human rights including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Repression destroys the trust and confidence of the very citizens who are needed for any credible dialogue amongst all Congolese stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>The United States underscores UN Security Council resolution 2277\u2019s pronouncement that a peaceful and credible electoral cycle, in accordance with the constitution, is critical to the DRC\u2019s long-term stabilization and consolidation of democracy. As Secretary Kerry told President Kabila recently, we stand ready to support those committed to such elections. The United States strongly believes that the Congolese people, free of fear, should shape the future of Congo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, April 29, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; Press Statement John KirbyAssistant Secretary\u00a0and Department Spokesperson,\u00a0Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, DC April 28, 2016 The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing a historic year that should \u2013 according to that country\u2019s constitution \u2013 culminate in the DRC\u2019s first democratic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-68945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}