Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that those responsible for civilian deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo are held to account for their actions in the international courts.

The UK is deeply concerned by the continuing violence in many parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo that is leading to civilian deaths. We frequently raise our concerns with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo since it has primary responsibility for bringing those responsible for unlawful killings to justice. Alongside our international partners we have called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate these crimes swiftly and bring the still unidentified perpetrators before national courts. The International Criminal Court is an independent body and a Court of last resort, which is complementary to national legal systems. It investigates potential crimes only when the domestic authorities are unwilling or unable to bring perpetrators of the most severe crimes to justice themselves.