A praxis-based understanding of new duty bearers examining contextual realities in the DRC

The debate about legal accountability for human rights is routinely conducted from a legalistic or institutional point of view, which often leads to the conclusion that there is no legal ground for expanding the notion of duty bearers. In this article, we ask whether disenfranchised rights holders themselves are supportive of a broader understanding of duty bearers. We assess the nature of the local discourse on duty bearers in several villages in the Kongo Central province of the Democratic Republic of Congo and analyse this understanding in light of the discussion at the international level. In doing so, we supplement the legal-conceptual discussion on duty bearers with new empirical material in an effort to build global norms on local human rights understandings and to render the human rights discourse more relevant for local rights holders. We argue that there is local support for extending the notion of ‘duty bearer’ to non-state actors in this case, and that the case underlines the need for an integrated multiple duty-bearer framework. At the same time, we warn of pitfalls in the local understanding, which portrays non-state actors’ obligations as an alternative to state obligations and accountability, which risks letting the state off the hook. This risk is exacerbated by the current non-existence of hard law regulating the negative and positive human rights obligations of new duty bearers.