Abstract
This Article discusses what the United States can do to promote the rule of law and human rights in DR Congo. This Article contends that U.S.-DR Congo policy has been formulated in dribs and drabs, limited in quantity relative to the enormity of the crisis, and without an overarching plan for promoting legal coherence and yielding long-term, systemic change. To be effective, U.S.-Congolese policy must be crafted and executed with a holistic approach-security, disarmament, infrastructure, food assistance, and health care must all undergird greater efforts to establish the rule of law. In effect, the United States must initiate an "African Marshall Plan"-a massive resource and assistance infusion to bring about wide-ranging, organic change and secure the benefits of DR Congo's free elections and the recent Nairobi/Goma peace process. To implement such an African Marshall Plan this Article advocates both procedural and substantive changes in U.S. policy toward DR Congo. Part I of the Article will place current U.S. policy in context by examining the United States' role in Congo's post-independence human rights debacle-its support of Mobutu and its shifting alliances in the African Great Lakes Region after the Cold War. Part II will consider DR Congo's continuing human rights problems after elections in 2006 and recent American piecemeal efforts to contribute to the country's peace and rebuilding process. Finally, Part III will analyze recommended changes in U.S. policy necessary to curb the ubiquitous violence and ingrained culture of impunity in DR Congo. These recommended alterations are both procedural and substantive.
Recommended Citation
Gregory S. Gordon,
An African Marshall Plan: Changing U.S. Policy to Promote the Rule of Law and Prevent Mass Atrocity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
32 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1361
(2008).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol32/iss5/1