Justine M'Poyo Kasa-Vubu (born 14 April 1951) is a Congolese politician and leader of a small political party, the Movement of the Congolese Democrats (''Mouvement des démocrates congolais''), for whom she stood as a Presidential candidate in the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidenti ...

Life

She is the daughter of

Joseph Kasa-Vubu Joseph Kasa-Vubu, alternatively Joseph Kasavubu, ( – 24 March 1969) was a Congolese politician who served as the first President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from 1960 until 1965. A member of the Kong ...

, the first president of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. She was a candidate in the Congolese presidential elections of July 2006, but obtained only 0.44% of the votes in the first round. After her father died and

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the List of heads of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, presiden ...

took over, she went into exile with the rest of her family, first to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and then to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, where she finished her studies. She wound up living in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and there graduated from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL). She worked in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

for the High Commissioner for the Refugees of the UN. She went back to Belgium to continue her work at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and in Central African studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). In 1991, she joined the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) of Étienne Tshisekedi, the main opposition party to Joseph Mobutu. On 22 May 1997, she was appointed Minister of the Civil Service in the first government of Laurent-Désiré Kabila. She was appointed ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Belgium. She resigned after disagreements with Laurent-Désiré Kabila. In 2013, she was a member of the Mouvement des Démocrates party. Unlike other opposition parties, she was prepared to hold discussions with Kabila.

Works

* ''Joseph Kasa-Vubu mon père : de la naissance d’une conscience nationale à l’indépendance'', Bruxelles, s.n., 1985. * ''Kasa-Vubu et le Congo indépendant'' (1960-1969), Bruxelles, LeCri, 1997. * ''Douze mois chez Kabila'', Bruxelles, Le Cri, 1999. * ''Sommes-nous décolonisés?'', Paris-Bruxelles, Castells – Labor, 2000.

References

External links