Citizens’ alerts against corruption in Kinshasa’s courts

Corruption in the courts hits ordinary citizens hardest – and those who suffer it rarely know where to turn. In 2024, under the anti-corruption component of the Justice Reform Support Programme (PARJ2), funded by the European Union, and of the REPLIC project, co-funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation, CERC worked with RCN Justice & Démocratie to give them a channel.

CERC set up a social alert system run by 9 focal points appointed by civil society organisations and anti-corruption networks. Equipped with phones and trained by CERC, they collect corruption complaints from their communities and pass them on. The prosecutors and heads of division of the public prosecutor’s offices of Kalamu, Ndjili and Matete supported the system, and 70 posters with its toll-free number were put up in the courts.

CERC also ran the Youth Anti-Corruption Project Incubator: integrity clubs in four universities in Kinshasa – the University of Kinshasa, the Pan-African University, Reverend Kim University and Bel Campus University – with as many women as men and 30% marginalised or under-represented students.

On 3 December 2024, 61 students from the four clubs diagnosed corrupt practices at university and drew up a joint action plan, including advocacy with the National Assembly for a law to protect whistleblowers.

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