The building housed the Chamber of Deputies until 1997, when the lower house of Parliament moved into the Palace of the Parliament.

Mbemba was then elected as President of the National Commission of Human Rights at a meeting held in the Palace of the Parliament in Brazzaville on 2 October 2009, and he took office on 7 October.

This was done to facilitate access to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) opened in 2004 inside the west wing of the Palace of the Parliament, and to the Museum and Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism, also opened in 2004.