As Impunity Watch has been celebrating this week 15 years of work on the fight against impunity and promotion of justice and peace, I am also reflecting on my journey with this unique organisation. This journey started in October 2014.
While in Kinshasa/DRC in August 2014, I received a forwarded email from a friend from Nigeria that I had met at the University of Cape Town/South Africa about two years and a half earlier. The forwarded email was about a job opportunity opening with Impunity Watch, in the framework of the Peace Beyond Borders programme that was implemented in three Great Lakes region countries: DR Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. I applied for that job opportunity in September 2014, from Goma/DRC, and I was successful.
I had already finished my contractual commitments with Sonke Gender Justice, and I was at the beginning of my part-time commitment with Adonai Consulting, when I was invited to join Impunity Watch’s team at the Bujumbura/Burundi office at the end of the recruitment process. I then changed my plans of going back to Kinshasa (from Goma where I was on a family visit) and moved to Bujumbura in October 2014. It was kind of an adventure!
At Impunity Watch we were three researchers working on the regional programme (Peace Beyond Borders, which had Oxfam Novib as lead of a consortium of about 11 national and international NGOs, including Impunity Watch). A few weeks after joining the team (in November 2014) I was already in the field conducting research, whose results and recommendations were published in 2015 as youth and women agendas for peace in the Great Lakes region, alongside a research report on citizens’ perceptions on conflict transformation in the Great Lakes region.
When the regional conflict transformation programme (Peace Beyond Borders) ended in 2016, I started working specifically on another regional dealing with the past programme, with a focus on eastern DRC, in the framework of a strategic partnership between Impunity Watch and PAX. Then other projects followed.
That is how it all started and evolved. I am honoured to be part of Impunity Watch’s story and journey.
Impunity Watch is an international non-profit organisation working with victims of violence to deliver redress for grave human rights violations, uproot systemic impunity and promote justice and peace.
Some photos on research fieldwork and workshops (2014-2015):
Some photos on reflection and planning meetings with partners (2017-2019):
Some photos on policy engagement activities (2015- ):
Some photos on the 15th anniversary activities in The Hague (October 2023):
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My latest blog posts/articles:
- La justice élève une nation, une société
- The 9th Edition of the African Transitional Justice Forum in Kinshasa
- Highlights from an Advocacy Mission at the African Union in Addis Ababa
- Comprendre la mémorialisation et ses implications
- Highlights from the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
Gentil Kasongo 