OUR TEAM
Emmanuel UMPULA NKUMBA
Emmanuel UMPULA NKUMBA, Attorney at the Lualaba Bar, is the Executive Director of African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH). Founder of the Congo River School and CEO of MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM. He is an expert in business and human rights and extractive sector governance in the DRC and Africa.
Mr. UMPULA is a member of the Board of Directors of Rights and Accountability In Development (RAID), Resource Matters and African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA). Previously, he served as Executive Director of Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, Deputy Coordinator of the Platform of Civil Society Organizations Working in the Mining Sector of Katanga (POM) and Advocacy Coordinator of the Jimmy Carter Foundation (The Carter Center).
He is one of the civil society experts in the DRC who participated and contributed effectively to the revision of the DRC Mining Code and Regulations. He has assisted several local communities in filing complaints against multinational companies using the OECD Guidelines and against the Congolese state before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Examples of complaint cases in which he has participated include the Kilwa massacres against the Australian-Canadian company Anvil Mining, the demolition of the Kawama village against the mining company Malta Forrest International, and Heineken against its former workers, etc. He also participated in the revision of the OECD Guidelines in 2011.
In the field of human rights and the environment, he is the author or co-author of several reports and articles available on the internet.
Me. Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI K.
Political scientist and lawyer, Mr. Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI K. is a lawyer at the Courts of Appeal of Haut-Katanga (2004) and Lualaba (2019) and an assistant (doctoral student in environmental law) at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI is a researcher in international human rights law, environmental law, labor law and mining law. He also has extensive experience in the functioning of the administration and human rights investigations, having served respectively for 15 years as Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (CDH), 4 years as Chief of Staff of the Vice-President of the Provincial Assembly of Katanga and 2 years as Senior Advisor to the National Minister of Humanitarian Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (DRC). He was also part of the team of human rights defenders who submitted cases to the office of ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on crimes against humanity committed by the Mai-Mai in North Katanga between 2001 and 2003.
He also collaborated with the NGO African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH) not only in developing a bill to compel private and public companies in the mining sector to respect human rights in the performance of their activities but also in developing the Compendium of good national, regional and international practices on the fight against child labor in artisanal mines and on artisanal mining sites in the provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba in the south of the DRC. Furthermore, as a Consultant for AFREWATCH, Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI has, on the one hand, provided training to leaders of communities living near extractive companies on the ABCs of human rights and techniques for documenting human rights violations and, on the other hand, carried out a study on the environmental impacts of industrial mining activities in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga. Since 2020, he has been collaborating with AFREWATCH in its energy transition program.
Partner at MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM, Dieudonné BEEN MASUDI is part of the teams of lawyers who advocate on behalf of communities living near extractive companies who have been victims, such as the demolitions and evictions of communities living near Luishishi in Kawama by the mining company CMSK, a joint venture between GECAMINES and EGMF.
Me. Grace TSHOMA NUMBE
A year after obtaining her law degree from the University of Lubumbashi, Grace TSHOMA NUMBE began her career as a lawyer in 2009 at the Kinshasa Matete Bar, before obtaining her additional registration with the Haut-Katanga Bar.
Head of Grace Tshoma Numbe & Associés since 2010, Grace TSHOMA NUMBE specializes in business and family mining law. She also has experience in labor law, local community rights, environmental law, human rights law, business and human rights law, and extractive industry governance. She is a Partner at MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM.
Ms. Grace TSHOMA NUMBE holds a Master's degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She is Head of Research at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi, where she is preparing her doctoral thesis in law. She also teaches at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi, the School of Criminology, the Protestant University and Don Bosco University of Lubumbashi.
Passionate about youth, her motto is: “Nourish Minds, Cultivate Talents”.
Me. Yvette NSANGANA BIAYA
A lawyer admitted to the Kinshasa Matete Court of Appeal since 2008, Yvette NSANGANA BIAYA is a partner at MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM. She is also a member of the NGO Action Against Impunity for Human Rights (ACIDH) and an expert on issues related to natural resource governance, as well as the rights of local communities and human rights in the extractive sector.
Holding a degree in public international law and a master's degree in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Yvette NSANGANA BIAYA has been a human rights activist since 2008. She contributed to the reforms of the Mining Code and Regulations of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Hydrocarbons Code and Regulations, and their implementing measures. In her role as a court official, she assists local communities affected by these violations before the courts.
In the area of human rights and the environment, she has published and co-published several reports on violations of the rights of local communities, highlighting the impacts of extractive activities on vulnerable populations.
Me. Toussaint NGOIE
Toussaint NGOIE KABOBA holds a degree in Economic and Social Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lubumbashi in 2005.
He has completed professional internships in several private companies and public institutions and also benefited from training courses for the defense of human rights organized by the NGO Action Against Impunity for Human Rights "ACIDH" as well as other training courses in OHADA law.
Since 2017, Mr. Toussaint NGOIE KABOBA has been a lawyer registered with the Bar Association of the Haut-Katanga Court of Appeal, where he practices his liberal profession. Partner of MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM, he is also a specialist in civil law, family law and labor law.
Boniface UMPULA
Mr. Boniface Umpula, a partner at MUN CONSULTING LAW FIRM SAS, is a lawyer specializing in business law (mining and hydrocarbons), human rights, and finance.
Mr. Boniface Umpula, Av., holds a bachelor's degree in economic and social law from the University of Lubumbashi, a master's degree in mining governance from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Management at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, and several other diplomas and training certificates in human rights, transparency, and governance of extractive industries (mining, gas, and oil), obtained from several other national and international institutions.
Mr. Boniface has over 15 years of experience working with national and international development institutions working in the fields of mining, finance, human rights, and environmental law.
He has also led projects, campaigns, meetings, forums and studies on issues of governance of mineral resources in Africa and the DRC and carried out numerous studies on the impact of the exploitation of natural resources on human rights, the environment and on budgets in the DRC, Sierra Leone and many other countries.
