Nora Holmes's List: IHR Research: DRC

• rape in conflict zones
• armed group M23 marched into the eastern Congolese city of Goma
• city’s fall to the M23 on Tuesday
• risk of being caught in crossfire
• numerous crimes under international law and other human rights violations committed in the course of fighting
• 15 years, civilians
• women and girls
• rape and other forms of sexual violence being widely reported.
• raped while I was collecting wood
• I don’t want to marry you,
• armed conflict has forced many women and girls to flee several times – often without adult male relatives, which places them at further risk of sexual violence
• sexual harassment from security forces.
• gender-based violence in North Kivu
• United Nations Security Council has recognized the continued “widespread sexual and gender-based violence” in eastern DRC.
• urged to do more to bring an end to such violence
• 16 Days of Activism campaign
• call to bolster the UN peacekeeping forces around IDP camps and other areas in the DRC that lack the necessary security presence
• Militarism
• gender-based violence
• widespread around the world,
• Militarism fuels these violations, which have a disproportionate and long-lasting effect on women and girls.
• “Militarism privileges certain forms of masculinity
• must be challenged and adequate safeguards put in place to protect  women and girls affected during and after war.
• revalent during an active armed conflict
• militarization and its negative effects often precede fighting and continue to be felt as a legacy of war
• national ministries of foreign affairs
• global Arms Trade Treaty
• no region of the world has been immune from experiencing sexual and gender-based violence in the context of militarism
• access to justice
• survivors

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• US: Senate Vote on Violence Against Women Act a Victory
• US House of Representatives should move quickly to renew the Violence against Women Act (VAWA)
• US Senat
• providing legal protection and services to counter domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
• passed the bill,
• women’s safety won out over partisan politics
• House should come together and stand up for the rights of all women and their families to live lives free from violence
• supports victim services such as rape crisis centers,
• housing for domestic violence survivors,
• Congress has reauthorized the VAWA twice
• funding is especially critical for the survival of these programs
• 68 votes in favor,
• Democrats
• Senate rejected a substitute
• Republican lawmakers in the House announced on April 25, 2012, that they are drafting a bill similar to the substitute
• House has yet to consider a bill to renew the VAWA
• there is no substitute for protecting all victims,
• no one should be trapped in a violent
• • statistics in US
• Ensuring accountability for sexual and domestic violence through the criminal justice system
• funding for programs
• bill also fills important gaps in the country’s efforts to prevent and respond to violence against immigrant women,
• stalking would be adde
• Department of Homeland Security to issue regulations to prevent sexual abuse in immigration detention centers
• proposed regulations currently exempt immigration detention facilities
• “We’ve come too far to let partisan differences derail the single most important US law for women’s safety.”
• 1994,” Rh

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• DR Congo colonel's rape conviction
• urged authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to step up reforms to its justice system following the conviction
• Lieutenant Colonel Kibibi Mutware was sentenced to 20 years in jail for ordering an attack on the village of Fizi, eastern DRC, on 1 January, in which more than 35 women were raped.
• “For decades crimes like this have gone unpunished in DRC
• much remains to be done to ensure victims of gross human rights violations in the country receive justice
• , jurisdiction for crimes under international law-
• should be transferred to civilian courts.
• prison conditions in the country also need to be tackled
• corruption
• willingness of victims and their families to seek justice in the DRC is often undermined by a fear of reprisals
• threats and intimidation against them by Forces
• authorities must immediately put in place witness and victim protection mechanisms
• increase spending on the justice system
• 35 women were raped, houses were looted and villagers were subjected to inhumane
• In the army’s attack
• population escaped into the neighbouring countryside
• immediate international attention.
• soldiers
• were arrested in Januar
• 20 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity

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• US Should Urge Rwanda to End M23 Support
• United States government should publicly support sanctions against Rwandan officials backing the armed group M23,
• Goma on November 20, 2012.
• rapes,
• Rwandan officials may be complicit in war crimes through their military assistance to M23 forces
• fall of Goma to the M23 magnifies the security risks to civilians in eastern Congo
• 11 civilians killed and dozens of others wounded during the fighting in and around Goma since November 15
• All parties to the conflict should take urgent measures to protect civilians and stop abuses.”
• ackground on the M23
• soldiers who took part in a mutiny from the Congolese army between late March and May 2012.
• M23’s senior commanders have well-known histories of serious abuses,
• mass rape,
• five of the M23 leaders were on a UN black list of people with whom the UN would not collaborate

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• widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment.
• horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo,
• Since June
• The fighters also raped at least 46 women and girl
• M23 fighters shot dead a 25-year-old woman who was three months pregnant because she resisted
• youngest rape victim was eigh
• Two other women died from the wounds inflicted on them when they were raped by M23 fighters
• committed abuses against civilians with horrific brutalit
• others who spoke out against the M23’s abuses
• have been targeted.
• M23 leaders deny that they or their forces have committed any crimes.
• Rwandan military officials have been providing important military support to the M23 rebels, including weapons, ammunition, and training
• Rwanda a party to the conflict.
• United Nations Security Council should sanction M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials
• conflict in eastern Congo is bound by international humanitarian law
• Common Article 3 and Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions
• prohibit summary
• violations committed deliberately or recklessly are war crimes
• Commanders may be criminally responsible
• evidence of Rwandan suppor
• Congolese civilians have endured the brunt of wartime abuses,
• Background on the M23
• General Ntagand
• mass rape
• crimes against humanit
• ICC renewed its request to the Congolese government to arrest Ntaganda immediately and transfer him to The Hagu
• Killings and Rape by M23 Forces
• M23 fighters deliberately
• raped at least 46 women and girls in areas under their control
• ecause they resisted
• 13 of the rape victims were children
• e targeted
• When you leave the areas controlled by the government and then come back, they punish you
• gang-raped his wife.
• I have no desire to live after what I have seen. It is only animals who could have done this.
• 15-year-old girl
• , two M23 fighters raped a 12-year-old girl
• these criminals had no heart or pity for anyone,
• They continued to rape her until they were satisfied.”
• Rwandan Support to the M23
• behavior was markedly different
• they were going to fight in Congo
• Forced Recruitmen
• Rwandan Recruitment
• Threats Against Human Rights Activists
• He was also forced to find young women to bring to the M23 camp; he brought three, ages 15, 20, and 25. Their fate is not known.
• Pressure on Former CNDP Members
• Abuses by Other Armed Groups in Eastern Congo
• Raia Mutomboki militia
• militias appear to have taken advantage of rising ethnic tensions and the security vacuum created by the Congolese army’s focus on the M23 rebels
• Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, is sought on a Congolese arrest warrant for crimes against humanity for mass rape
• Congolese armed group Raia Mutomboki
• and the FDLR
• hundreds of civilians have been attacked
• s sought to ally
• Abuses by Congolese Armed Forces
• operations against the M23 rebels, Congolese armed forces have also committed abuses
• convicted him

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• August, 2009, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
• efforts to curb sexual and gender- based violence
• we look forward to them being implemented into new areas of cooperation
• • if after 3 years US is still cooperating, COMPLICIT (supporting a got'vt that supports M23)
• military cooperation with the DRC
• emphasizes human rights
• bring down horrific levels of sexual and gender-based violence,
• end impunity for those who violate human rights,
• reduce corruption,
• Our shared goal is for the DRC to realize its full potential for the benefit of the Congolese people
• end the terrible plague of sexual and gender-based violence

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• UNICEF reports sexual violence in the Congo
• claimed hundreds of sexual violence victims in the past two months
• women and girls continue to be prime targets of retaliation between rival militias along the country's porous borders
• 657 cases of sexual violence involving women and girls
• September and October
• sexually victimized
• are reported
• Many cases of VS
• 35 confirmed rapes so far as victims undergo medical evaluations
• shelters set up by international aid organizations
• U.N. plans to send a special missio
• Angolan deportations of more Congolese nationals were announced in August 2001
• mass-expulsions are making civilians more vulnerable to such attacks
• Relations between the DRC and Angola
• straine
• 10,200 Congolese nationals were deported
• sexual violence were reported associated with these expulsions
• Lords Resistance Arm
• Warring insurgent groups
• operating in the eastern DRC are a main source for instability in the region
• Rape has become a weapon of war in the Congolese conflict.
• rape capital of the world
• 15,000 women raped in eastern Congo last year
• attacks occurred in parts of the country where armed rebel groups moved into areas considered to be pro-government but lacking in army or police protection
• considered Africa's oldest and deadliest wa

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• Eastern Congo has been called the "rape capital of the world" by U.N. Special Representative Margot Wallstrom
• 48 women are raped every hou
• October 2001
• medical NGO
• there was such a need for medical help
• Stay at home and face starvation. Or, go out to the fields for food and be raped. Most women chose the latter.
• Women told me of their daily choice
• It had become the norm.
• war continued until 2003, when a peace treaty was signed
• Officially, the fighting came to an end, but it didn't stop. Nor did the rape
• in 2005
• most of those women had died or disappeared
• The people I spoke to this time related organized rape camps, with daily roll-calls
• new efficiency
• integrated part of the rebel forces lives
• in 2009,
• many time
• they expected to be raped
• gang rapes
• girl children
• were being raped as well.
• consequences and stigma of rape.
• husband's family rejected them
• Mama Masika.
• 10 years she's helped more than 6,000 victims
• created a community in an area that is not regularly attacked
• tries to dream of a better future, but she's also realistic
• But for that to happen, she believes, the fighting and the rape must stop
• "But I don't see either the rape or the fighting ending today.

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• EU should help end impunity of Congo war criminals
• that I am lying
• girls' parents were either dead or had rejected their daughters
• Tens of thousands have been raped or otherwise assaulted by army soldiers, rebels, or other men
• Sexual violence has been used to terrorize civilians by all warring parties
• European Union
• programs of assistance for the victims that have made a real difference to the lives of some
• immediate medical and social assistance
• programs for military and judicial reform
• chieving shockingly little
• donors have achieved shockingly little in their fight to end sexual violence
• rapes are on the rise
• army has received extensive training on civilian protection
• continues to be one of the main perpetrators of sexual violence
• commanders are still treated as untouchable
• European Union is deciding on a new mandate for its security sector reform program
• helped to reduce corruption
• should help improve army accountability for serious crimes,
• clear chain of command
• functioning military courts.
• Reform can succeed only if those who commit or condone sexual crimes and other human rights abuses are prosecuted.
• Army reform alone will not end
• EU should support and fund a mechanism to try those most responsible for the crimes
• separate chamber on war crimes
• President Joseph Kabila has himself called for such a mechanism.
• require investigation and prosecution of senior army officers for crimes
• Congolese army responded by proclaiming a policy of "zero tolerance" for rape and other human rights crime
• now the army, with the support of Europe, should put this principle into practice

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• Stopping Rape as a Weapon of War in Congo
• coming back from the river to fetch water,
• is one of thousands of women and girls who were raped during the Congo's brutal conflict.
• 200,000 women and girls have been the victims of sexual violence since 1998
• 2008 alone, nearly 16,000 rapes were reported in Congo
• sexual violence is practiced systematically by many fighters
• government soldiers and militia fighters
• in 2002,
• Human Rights Watch's researchers in Goma have helped raise awareness of sexual violence in Congo and internationally by documenting rape
• improve support
• despite growing awareness of the massive scale of sexual violence in Congo, rape was not decreasing.
• ew soldiers had been prosecuted
• 14th brigade
• commanders frequently block their investigations
• we started to see some movement
• this summer
• President Joseph Kabila
• progress on an anti-rape strategy
• loudly criticized the brutal abuses by all belligerents to the conflict,
• military announced a zero-tolerance policy for sexual violence and other abuses
• several rape trials have been opened,
• August,
• pledged US$17 million in aid for victims of sexual violence
• make sure that prosecutions continue and that the military actually changes its policies
• it will take continuing advocacy to keep the Congolese government and donor governments focused on ending sexual violence.

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• problem of rape as a military weapon
• Why would anyone use rape as a tool of war? What does this achieve?
• most effective ways of victimizing and terrorizing communities
• perpetrated in public so you shame both the woman, and you emasculate
• where family honour is very important, you really undermine these incredibly important values
• Congo
• very much about subjugation and dominance of the whole community
• really effective way of damaging communities.
• where are the worst places in the world,
• extent and the magnitude of rape in the conflict areas in the Congo is staggering
• actual laws dealing specifically with this problem
• International Criminal Court statute
• rape is part of the definition of war crimes.
• resolution of the UN Security Council
• Security Council has a mandate and an obligation to investigate
• What can be done about it?
• prevention is really a long-term project.
• education
• issue is to ensure that there is absolute accountability both on the part of individual perpetrators and along the chain of command
• pressed for is prosecution of perpetrators - and there has been some success in the Congo
• individual commanders of units or battalions are held accountable
• if soldiers know that there are going to be consequences
• in the Congo, soldiers acted with such impunity around sexual violence because there was no mechanism there to stop them or hold them accountable
• A recent study indicates that nearly two million women in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been raped
• into daily life
• translate to a more rape-prone society
• I could imagine circumstances where it's not only the rape but it's the impunity that would encourage
• Is there anything we in the West can do to help
• solidarity with the women's rights leaders
• encourage ... governments to make sure they're investing a lot of money
• some resources are being given to bulk up civil societies for women
• empowering women leaders
• educating
• resources are in place for girls' education

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• Security Council vote to create a senior position dedicated to ending sexual violence in armed conflict
• June 2008
• Security Council passed a resolution identifying rape during war as a problem in need of special attention and resources
• commit resources to stopping sexual violence in war
• provides for the senior position dedicated to ending rape in war
• Resolution 1888

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• under-reported
• M23 rebels in control of the largest town in eastern Congo
• argues that war is becoming progressively less violent
• publicity can indeed distort humanitarian aid.
• unnerving to be accused of exploiting rape
• in 2009, when Hillary Clinton visited the Congo and turned sexual violence into a signature issue of US foreign policy
• paying for those earlier, overheated descriptions
• restrained
• or do we see any evidence that the UN is pushing a "narrative" of exaggeration
• many UN officials feel that sexual violence is distorting their own work
• serious under-reporting from eastern Congo
• none of these cases were investigated by the UN because Fizi is considered too dangerous
• Diplomats never visit, UN aid workers need armed escorts, and UN peacekeepers are afraid
• only confirmed 167 cases
• government will not want to advertise rape by its own
• facts not getting out from places like the Congo
• five armed groups are now fighting each other in the Kivus
• any woman whom they catch in the open will probably get raped if she is from a different ethnic background
• such acts are no less "strategic" because the rapists are probably not acting under orders
• deaths from war may be in decline, but security is certainly not improving.
• The UN and American Bar Association have funded mobile courts which prosecuted 79 government soldiers for rape last year

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• illegal exploitation of natural resources
• Internal conflict in the eastern provinces
• extremely negative effect on security and human rights during the year
• interethnic tribal conflict
• government control over many regions remained wea
• it was often difficult to determine whether they were following orders or acting independently, particularly in the east
• . Government corruption remained pervasive
• Armed groups continued to commit numerous, serious abuses
• constituted war crime
• widespread crimes of sexual violence
• (FDLR
• FARDC
• government signed separate peace agreements
• amnesty law that pardoned former members of armed groups for crimes committed in the east
• Degrading Treatment
• There were very few reports of government authorities taking action against members of security forces responsible for these act
• n June 26, the Military Tribunal of Lubumbashi sentenced the captain of the local GR contingent
• ive years in prison for multiple crimes
• rape, and sexual mutilation
• abducted a 14-year-old girl, took her to his house, and repeatedly raped her over four days
• prosecutor released him without charge.
• raped 13 women and six girls,
• uthorities took no action against the police officers,
• Authorities took no known action against members of security forces responsible for the following rapes committed in 2007:
• Armed groups committed sexual violence and other types of abuses against civilians during the year
• military justice system remained a weak institution.
• only a small fraction" of the total number of acts of sexual violence committed by FARDC soldiers had been prosecuted
• rarely were mid-level or senior-level officers investigated for having committed acts of sexual violence
• sentences were rarely carried out.
• urged the government to investigate and prosecute senior army officials involved or complicit in rampant sexual crimes against women and girls as part of its efforts to combat sexual violence.
• In July President Kabila announced that the government had adopted a policy of "zero tolerance" for human rights violations by the security forces
• Judicial corruption remained pervasive
• law enforcement personnel and magistrates continued to treat rape and sexual violence in general with a marked lack of seriousness
• failed to dispense justice consistently and was widely disparaged by the international community and citizens as ineffective and corrup
• The law requires that a defendant can be tried only by a judge in the military justice system who is of equal or higher rank than the accused
• alliances between government forces and various rebel groups continued to foster loyalties that have prompted government officials to try to prevent the prosecution of some of the leaders and members of these armed groups
• Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts
• Despite the presence of MONUC, security forces and armed groups continued to kill, abduct, torture, and rape civilians and burn and destroy villages
• All parties continued to use mass rape and sexual violence with impunity, often as weapons of war, and to humiliate and punish individuals, victims, families, and communities
• by September the total number of sexual violence cases registered at health centers in North and South Kivu exceeded 7,500,
• nearly double
• 80 percent of survivors identified their assailants as members of either the FARDC or armed groups
• lack of data, social stigma, lack of confidence in the judiciary, and fear of reprisals prevented many rape survivors from coming forward
• rape cases had doubled or tripled compared with 2008.
• gang-raped
• During the year the number of men raped appeared to increase
• social stigma prevented many male victims from coming forward
• ed the
• extreme difficulty of securing the release of girl soldiers from armed groups, whose commanders often saw them as sexual possessions
• linkages between the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the east, the conflict, corruption, and human rights abuses,
• smuggling
• lack of vetting, training, and planning of the integration of former armed group members
• "has escalated abuses committed by the army against civilians,
• Government security forces arrested, illegally detained, raped, tortured, and summarily executed
• during military actions against armed groups during the year
• newly integrated FARDC units in Orientale, composed of approximately 6,000 soldiers, had become a major security threat
• Rwandan army soldiers
• Women and girls, some of whom were later killed, were raped during the attack.
• 10 of the women who escaped the FARDC attack described being gang-raped and had severe injurie
• operations in the Nyabiondo-Pinga area were intended to "kill civilians and terrorize the Hunde and Hutu population
• there were no further developments regarding the serious abuses they allegedly committed against the local populations in October 2008, including the killing of nine civilians, the rape of three girls
• Rape by members of security forces remained a serious problem
• perpetrators enjoyed almost total impunity.
• 349 of the 639 sexual violence cases documented by HRW, the victim or other witnesses clearly identified the perpetrators as government soldiers.
• newly integrated ex-CNDP FARDC soldiers
• violently raped
• raped eight women and five minors
• raped at least 10 women
• Authorities took no action against FARDC soldiers
• Abuses by Armed Groups Outside Central Government Control
• llegal armed groups committed numerous serious abuses

• retribution for alleged collaboration with government forces.
• killed, raped, and tortured civilians
• FDLR destroyed at least 7,051 homes and other structures and perpetrated 290 cases of sexual violence in North and South Kivu
• ord's Resistance Army (LRA)
• relocated from Uganda to the DRC's Garamba National Park
• responsible for killing, raping, and kidnapping hundreds of persons in the DRC
• as it continued to seek the overthrow of the Ugandan government
• RA attacks continued throughout the year, resulting in executions, abductions, and sexual violence, although the level and intensity of the attacks decreased as the group fragmented into smaller units
• ncrease in "undisciplined behavior"
• Abuses by UN Peacekeepers
• The significant risk of rape by soldiers and armed groups, coupled with government inability to secure eastern territories, effectively restricted freedom of movement by women in many rural areas, particularly in the east
• Displaced women and children were extremely vulnerable to abuses by armed groups, including rape and forced recruitment
• Women
• law criminalizes rape, but the government did not effectively enforce this law
• pervasive in conflict areas in the east
• more than 1,100 women and girls were raped each month in the east alone
• law on sexual violence, enacted in 2006, broadened the scope of the definition of rape to include male victims, sexual slavery, sexual harassment, forced pregnancy
• penalties for sexual violenc
• Government security forces, armed groups, and civilians perpetrated widespread and sometimes mass rape against women and girls
• olice were responsible for 81 percent of all reported cases of sexual violence in conflict zones and 24 percent in nonconflict areas
• estimated that 200,000 Congolese women and girls had become victims of sexual violence since 1998
• Statistical information on rap
• remained fragmented and incomplete
• represented only a small percentage of the real total o
• stimated that less than 50 percent of women who were raped had access to health
• Prosecutions for rape and other types of sexual violence remained rare
• HRW and several other human rights groups continued to criticize the government for failing to investigate and prosecute members of the security forces,
• 2 percent of the cases, were taken to court.
• Most victims did not have sufficient confidence in the justice system
• concern over the failure to implement the law
• investigate and prosecute individuals
• ay the public treasury
• significant and increasing number were civilians, not only in conflict zones but also in other regions
• ormalization of violence against women.
• consequence of the climate of impunity,
• common for family members to pressure a rape victim to keep quiet
• enormous social stigma
• unsuitable for marriage
• frequently abandoned
• ed rape victims to marry the men who raped them
• Domestic violence against women occurred throughout the country
• Women did not possess the same rights as men under the law or in practice
• economic discrimination.
• aw prohibits all forms of child abuse, but it appeared to be common
• law does not prohibit female genital mutilation (FGM).
• law prohibits marriage of girls under age 14 and boys under 18; however, marriages of girls as young as 13 took place.
• consensual sex is 14 for women and 18 for men,
• however, child prostitution occurred

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• 23 October 2012 Last updated at 09:5
• as been at the centre of what could be termed Africa's world war
• five-year conflict
• government
• against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda
• history of DR Congo has been one of civil war and corruption
• 1997 neighbouring Rwanda invaded it to flush out extremist Hutu militias
• Kabila
• rift between Mr Kabila and his former allies sparked a new rebellion,
• turning the country into a vast battleground
• Coup attempts and sporadic violence heralded renewed fighting in the eastern part of the country in 2008
• signed a peace deal with the government in January, but clashes broke out again in August
• Ugandan rebels in north-east:
• Rwandan rebels in the Kivus:
• eastern areas remain beset by violence
• Rwanda and Uganda of training and arming the M23 rebels in the east
• intention of imposing sanctions on both M23 and its foreign supporters

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