Burkina Faso lawyer named UN independent human rights expert for DR Congo

Burkina Faso lawyer and ethnologist Titinga Frédéric Pacéré has been appointed the United Nations Independent Expert to report on the human rights situation in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

An award-winning writer, Mr. Pacéré counts among his many publications a book he wrote for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the rights of migrant workers in Burkina Faso from 1897 to 2003.

He is also one of the lawyers accredited to plead before the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.

UN rights experts work independently of governments. They report to the UN Human Rights Commission and, in some cases, to the UN General Assembly.