As President of the RPDH and Coordinator of the Publish What You Pay Campaign, Christian Mounzeo coordinates activities monitoring the violations of human rights, and drafts press releases, urgent appeals, letter, reports describing the human rights context in Congo and denouncing the abuse of human rights. He also organises training programmes, awareness raising and the spreading of principles which guarntee the enjoyment of freedom and rights. The organisation has also developed legal aid programmes and publishes a newsletter.

"I am Christian Mounzeo, working for the Association for Peace and Human Rights (RPDH), an organisation dedicated to the promotion and defense of human rights, through the establishment of the rule of law, good governance, the fight against impunity, transparency of natural resources and citizen participation. Our approach would establish a link between natural resources and the implementation of economic and social rights as part of the project of social justice in Congo-Brazzaville. In this regard, the organisation acts as a member of the Campaign “PublishWhat You Pay”, launched in 2002 with the aim of forcing the government to divulge the amounts of taxes, royalties and other payments related to industry; in order to make public all payments to government, as a way to make their management more responsible.

Ultimately the goal is to ensure that the income from natural resources is used to reduce poverty and the paradox “rich countries in natural resources, but effectively poor." Mainly, my organisation has launched two campaigns on combating impunity and promoting transparency in oil issues. These campaigns have had a significant impact on the relationship between government and civil society.

In April 2006, I was detained for three weeks at the prison of Pointe-Noire with my colleague Brice Mackosso. I was charged with “breach of trust, forgery and use of forgery”, accusations that the investigating judge estimated without basis. Nevertheless, the trial was held and I have been condemned to a year’s suspended sentence in December 2006, the verdict was confirmed in abstensia, without debate, last July.

The judicial procedure aimed to criminalise the main anti-corruption activists in the Congo, to discredit them in order to prevent their participation in the committees on transparency and against corruption.

During this masquerade I was able to leave the country, I do not know how and why the authorities allowed me to travel for an advocacy mission between France and Britain.When I came back in November 2006, the police arrested me again and detained me in the Security Services of the state of Brazzaville airport. Officially, I was charged with defamation of the Head of State and denigration of the country abroad. The personal intervention of the president saying on Radio France Internationale that he does not complain, allowed me to go to Pointe-Noire for my trial.

From January to June 2007, I was not able to leave my city or district, Pointe-Noire. Indeed, I was prevented from taking part in the first meetings of the Trustees Board of the Initiative Extractive Industries Transparency, of which I am a member, at the World Social Forum, or to the France-Africa counter summit. I was the subject of a house arrest for which no one claimed responsibility. On one hand, the prosecutor said he had not been informed, and that the case was no longer in his juridiction. On the other hand, the authorities were saying that it was a judicial decision. The truth is that I was systematically discharged from any aircraft I tried to take in order to work abroad.

In addition, HRD are also victims of a campaign of denigration by the Government using public media, but also in private media disseminating its propaganda. In a country where the political opposition has been totally wiped out, HRD have to play the role of inescapable voice of the voiceless. Their importance was growing, so the government attempted to silence them in order to prevent them from playing their public role."