A/RES/56/173 (e) The effective release by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo of several human rights defenders; (f) The adoption by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo of Law No. 001 of 17 May 2001, on political parties, and the promise of openness and tolerance which it offers by inviting the Government to continue on that path and to enforce the law fully for the benefit of all political tendencies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; (g) The action undertaken by the human rights field office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while encouraging the Government to collaborate and further strengthen its cooperation with the office; (h) The statements by the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the effect that child soldiers would in future no longer be recruited and, in that context, the ratification by the Democratic Republic of the Congo of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 13 and the commitment made by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to cooperate with United Nations organs and non-governmental organizations in order to ensure the demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers, as well as the measures taken by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to that end, while urging other parties to the conflict to do the same; (i) The release and repatriation carried out under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in conformity with international humanitarian law, of persons at risk because of their ethnic origin, and of prisoners of war; (j) The continuing presence and wider deployment of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in support of the implementation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement; (k) The commitments made by the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to improve the human rights situation, particularly those given when he attended the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights, while encouraging him to give concrete effect to those commitments; (l) The organization of the National Human Rights Conference, held in June 2001, while expressing the hope that its results will lead to an improvement of the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; (m) The consent of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Special Rapporteur’s plan to undertake, within the framework of his mandate and in the coming months, an initial joint mission to investigate the massacres in the province of South Kivu and other atrocities referred to by the Special Rapporteur in his latest and previous reports, with a view to bringing to justice those responsible and reporting thereon to the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, and the agreement given by the rebel groups to that mission of investigation; 2. Expresses its concern at: (a) The resumption of fighting in the eastern part of the country and the adverse impact of the conflict on the situation of human rights and its severe _______________ 13 Resolution 54/263, annex I. 3