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Congo - Our Voices
Matter - Women Victims of Sexual Abuse & Rape Speak Out - Film
Women's Initiatives for Gender
Justice - Our
Voices Matter features
interviews with women victims/survivors of rape and other forms of sexual
violence from North Kivu, South Kivu and Province Orientale. Through their
testimonies, this advocacy film highlights the multiplicity of perpetrators
operating in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the lack of
accountability for these crimes, and the medical services, psychosocial
assistance and economic support urgently needed by victims/survivors. The
interviews were conducted by six local women’s rights advocates who are
partners of the Women’s Initiatives.
Since 1996, the Eastern DRC has experienced war and widespread insecurity.
Several local and foreign militia groups continue to operate in the
resource-rich Eastern provinces of the country, along with the armies from
neighbouring countries, and the DRC national army.
According to UN reports, millions of people have been killed and hundreds of
thousands have become internally displaced and recognised as refugees. It is
also estimated that hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been the
target of rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence since the
beginning of the conflict.
While existing laws in the DRC criminalise sexual violence, perpetrators are
rarely prosecuted and impunity is common. Even when perpetrators are
prosecuted, sentences are often not enforced; and for those imprisoned, escape
is a ready option. In addition, the scale of the ongoing violence in
Eastern DRC including the widespread commission of sexual and gender-based crimes,
along with limited availability of medical and support services and the stigma
associated with these crimes contributes to a culture of lawlessness, poverty
and trauma. Our Voices Matter demonstrates the ways in which
these factors impact disproportionately on women and girls.
Testimonies featured in this film include Elisabeth, who was told by the police
that she could not have been raped by the Congolese Army because she was ‘too
old’; Riziki, a 17-year old school girl raped by several FDLR militia members
who now lives with a physical disability after also being shot during the
attack; and Chantal, a young girl abducted and raped by LRA rebels who
describes the trauma of what she has witnessed. Our Voices Matter
is a call to action to the Congolese Government to provide victims/survivors
with the necessary medical and economic assistance, ensure domestic
accountability for perpetrators, and increase their cooperation with the ICC.
The film also calls upon the international community to support initiatives to
prevent these crimes in the DRC, ensure the protection of women and girls and
support ICC prosecutions.
Gender Justice Video Advocacy
Our Voices Matter is a part of a larger video advocacy initiative
launched in 2010 between the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS
in which more than 30 partners of the Women’s Initiatives have been trained in
video advocacy. The project will produce six gender justice films highlighting
sexual and gender-based violence and other gender issues in armed conflicts,
fragile states and post-conflict environments.
Five of the six documentary countries selected for the project currently have
situations under investigation by the ICC. They are also countries where the
Women’s Initiatives has extensive domestic peace and justice programmes and
well established partnerships with a large number of grassroots women’s rights
and peace advocates, networks and organisations. All of the videos were filmed
and co-edited by our local partners in each of the conflict and post-conflict
settings.
The videos in this series include ‘No Longer Silent’ (Northern Uganda) and ‘Our
Plea’ (CAR). The documentaries on Kenya and Kyrgyzstan are currently in
production. All of the films will soon be available on our website.
The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice programmes in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice has 120 organisational and network
partners and members in Eastern DRC, as well as three focal points in Province
Orientale, North Kivu and South Kivu.
In 2006, we conducted two documentation missions in the Ituri district in
response to the exclusion of charges for gender-based crimes from the ICC case,
The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. On the basis of this documentation,
in 2006 we submitted a dossier to the Office of the Prosecutor which details 51
interviews with victims/survivors of sexual violence of which more than 30 of
those interviewed alleged the crimes were committed by Thomas Lubanga’s UPC
militia. In November 2006, we became the first NGO to file before the ICC, highlighting the limited justice to be
provided for Ituri-related victims of a case based on narrow charges and
arguing for investigations into gender-based crimes.
In 2012, we filed again in the Lubanga case to highlight ways in which
reparations ordered by the ICC should address the particular experience of
women and girls, including victims/survivors of sexual violence and
gender-based violence.
Read more about the DRC Situation and cases in our eLetter Legal Eye on the
ICC and in the annual Gender
Report Card on the ICC.
Our DRC programmes, in collaboration with local partners, include: