Human Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo The European Union as a Force for Good? MARY MARTIN Introduction Human security, defined most simply as individuals’ freedom from want and from fear, is a precarious commodity in the Democratic Republic of Congo( drc ), a country still trying to shake off decades of dictatorship and civil war. An estimated 1 200 people are dying daily from illness and malnutrition, aggravated by civil war. The 2005 Human Development Index ranks Congo 167th out of 177 countries, taking into account life expectancy, literacy and education, and gdp per capita. Around 1.6 mil­lion Congolese live uprooted from their homes and 71% of the population are undernourished. 1 In 2006, the European Union invested substantially in Congo’s first democratic elections in four decades, as a crucial step towards cementing sustainable peace in the Great Lakes region. That support culminated in the first eu autonomous military mission to Africa to support un peace­keeping troops during the extended electoral process. This article examines the contribution made by the eu ’s presence in drc – and in particular eufor , the military mission which ended in De­cember 2006 – and how it interacted with other initiatives, such as eupol and eusec , the esdp police, and the security sector reform missions, as well as flanking measures by the European Commission. The eu presence is evaluated in terms of the five principles of the Human Security doctrine set out in the Barcelona Report on Europe’s Security Capabilities. 2 It seeks 1. Source: International Crisis Group. Figures for Internally Displaced Persons are estimates by ocha and relate to October 2006,»The Human Development Re­port«, undp September 2005. 2. The five principles are:(i) the primacy of human rights,(ii) clear political author­ity,(ii) effective multilateralism,(iii) a bottom-up approach, and(v) a regional focus. Source:»A Human Security Doctrine for Europe. The Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities,« available at: http://www.lse. ac.uk/Depts/global/5publications3.htm ipg 1/2008 Martin, Human Security in DR Congo 89