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Research and advocacy on sexual violence Sexual violence against women and girls is one of the most horrifying aspects of the armed conflict in eastern DRC. All sides have participated in these atrocities. During the conflict rape was happening on such a scale that local and international human rights organisations, as well as women’s organisations, began referring to ’a war within a war‘ and to a ’war against women’. Although Rwandan and Burundian troops have officially withdrawn from the region, the security situation in eastern DRC still gives cause for concern and sexual violence against women continues to be widespread. Acts of sexual violence are being committed with unprecedented cruelty, the perpetrators inflicting the most humiliating and degrading treatment on their victims that they can devise. Many rapes happen in public places, and gang rape as well as forced rape between family members is common. This sexual violence is often accompanied by torture, and in some cases, murder. Women in South Kivu have mobilised to condemn and eradicate violence against women and these systematic violations of their human rights as well as to support women who have been subjected to sexual violence. Our partners, the Réseau des Femmes pour un Développement Associatif (RFDA) and the Réseau des Femmes pour la Défence des Droits et la Paix (RFDP) are working on the issue on a number of levels from the provision of care for victims to advocacy nationally and internationally. RFDA runs a number of refuges in Uvira in South Kivu where victims can receive medical care and psycho-social support. RFDP is involved in advocacy work targeting the United Nations, national institutions and local administrative authorities. In 2005 the two organisations, together with International Alert, produced a report – the first of its kind by Congolese women themselves – based on interviews with 492 rape victims and 50 members of the armed forces, examining the socio-cultural origins of the violence and the different forms that it takes. Most research studies have tended to focus on describing and condemning sexual violence – this report goes one step further, examining the reasons for these crimes and looking at the factors and motives that drive the perpetrators to commit them. It describes the consequences of the rapes and makes specific recommendations aimed at the UN Security Council, the international community, the government of DRC and the South Kivu Civil Society Coordination Office. We have worked with our partners to use these findings to lobby for change in international policy and action, such as disarmament and demobilisation of local militia, improved discipline for fighters, reparation to the victims of sexual violence, and increased support for Congolese civil society working on the issue. Alert has advocated these recommendations at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and raised awareness of the issue more broadly through Congolese press and radio. You can read our Sexual Violence report in French or in English Read our 2004 report, Gender Justice and Accountability
in Peace Support Operations: Closing the Gaps, which looks at the
challenges and obstacles to ensuring gender justice and accountability
in the context of international peace support operations and provides
recommendations for UN and regional peacekeeping bodies as well
as military and civilian peacekeepers. For more information, contact
Sylvie Pereira Last updated: November 2006 |
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