On 1 July, Sir Ronal Sanders delivered the 2025 Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture celebrating the life of Sir Shridath Ramphal
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Ongoing Conflict in Eastern DRC: Challenges to Governance, the Rule of Law and Development
On 30 April 2025, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies co-hosted this event alongside SOAS University of London's Africa, Law and Development Research Cluster. Panellists had a critical conversation on the Ongoing Conflict in Eastern DRC and its broader implications for governance, the rule of law, and development in the Great Lakes region.
Our distinguished panel of experts included: Nicole Batumike, Trésor Makunya, and Dr. Felix Mukwiza Ndahinda.
Chaired by Dr. Olivia Lwabukuna, this panel reflected on the current Rule of law breakdown in Eastern DRC as a cause and consequence of protracted development challenges facing the DRC and the wider Great Lakes Region. They considered the nuanced/weakened/paternalistic global, regional and local governance structures and reflect on how these influence/are influenced by the complexity of DRCs historical, social, economic and geopolitical dynamics. The panel attempted to draw/dispel links between law, conflict, society and development in the DRC - particularly in light of how weak state governance in peripheral/porous regions like Eastern DRC has been scaffolded by global aid structures - UN, civil society and worsened by the alleged meddling of the International community (both politically and economically) and neighbouring countries – which have complex relationships within the GLR region. It further explored consequences flowing from US Aid withdrawal and MONUSCO’s disengagement or their plan to/ mandate renewal and challenges.
The panel also:
- considered whether all the above factors have emboldened other actors (both state and non-state) and fast tracked the breakdown of law and order in Eastern DRC.
- considered the impact of the recurrent cycles of conflict, including its current iteration on the general society and its political economy, particularly the impact on vulnerable members of society such as women and their economic means, survival and empowerment.
- engaged with the existing domestic, regional, and international legal framework and its responses to the conflict/s and discussed whether such responses are adequate for resolving the current conflict and ensuring accountability for victims (clarify legal issues).
- highlighted limitations and opportunities within existing legal and institutional frameworks and highlighted options that emanate from the African region, the GLR and from the DRC people and their civil society, especially in light of the current crisis within global governance.
Panelist Bios
Nicole Namwezi Batumike is a Gender and Responsible Sourcing specialist at the Panzi Foundation, a Congolese non-profit. In Bukavu (DRC), she laid the groundwork for Panzi’s ethical jewelry brand, crafting a traceable, inclusive mine-to-market model with local and global partners. Now based in Washington D.C., she works on addressing the intersections of structural inequality, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV), and mining through collaboration with international stakeholders, including U.S. companies and policy-makers. Nicole holds a Master’s in African Studies from Oxford, a BSc in International Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva, and is currently pursuing a second Master’s in Mining Law in Africa at the University of Cape Town.
Trésor Muhindo Makunya is an Associate Professor at the University of Goma and an Extraordinary Lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, where he teaches in the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. He also serves as Co-Editor of the African Human Rights Yearbook, Convening Editor of the African Court Law Report, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Pretoria University Law Press. In addition to his academic roles, he sits on the Scientific Committee of the DRC Presidential Commission for the International Recognition of the Genocide perpetrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and serves as an Expert with the DRC’s International Justice Task Force.
Felix Mukwiza Ndahinda is a researcher, consultant, Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences, and Research Advisor for the Research, Documentation, and Policy and Engagement (RDPE) at the (a)Egis Trust. He previously worked as an Assistant Professor at Tilburg Law School/Tilburg University in the Netherlands and as an Associate Legal Officer for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He holds a PhD from Tilburg University (2009) and an LLM from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights (Sweden-2006). He has lectured and published extensively on the intersections of law and peace, conflict, and justice in Africa, with a focus on the Great Lakes Region.
This page was last updated on 20 May 2025
