Genocide against women

The abuses against human rights have been generalized on all the civil population and non-stopped during the whole conflict. The women have been the most vulnerable group in front of this phenomenon. According to the last reports of humanitarian organizations, more than 15 % of the Congolese women have been victims of physical and sexual violence in the RDC.

A coalition of 71 Congolese NGO addressed a Letter to the council of Security of the UNO in order to bring the UNO ‘s attention to the most dramatic situation suffered in this country. Only during April 2008 more than 880 cases of violations were documented, cases, that according to these NGO, only represent the 10% of the totality.

The women – of all ages - have been often victims of physical and sexual violence, inside their houses or outside. They don’t declare all the sexual aggressions due to the shame and the dishonour that they cause. These prejudices and rumours about the topic have destroyed many families and have finished with many of the hopes of post-conflict recovery. The violated women not only are pushed back by the their relatives, but also they are stigmatized by the community as impure women. During the armed conflicts, the violations and other sexual aggressions are used as weapon of war. In the case of the RD of Congo, the attacks against women have been a way of terrifying the whole civil population and force it to flee and have the opportunity to occupy a certain zone.

Nowadays, the violations and other sexual aggressions are committed after the lootings. The majority of the violent acts are committed by an armed man or in groups, and with the presence of the woman’s family, her husband and children. This is still an unpunished crime in the RD of Congo.

This practice continues in certain territories in the east of the RD of Congo, where women and children are victims of the violence. The situation get worst and the sexual aggressions are not only used as a war weapon but really are a serious social problem.

One of the Congolese gynaecologists who is attending every day patient victims of the violation, Mukwege, tells that “ we do not know why these violations are taking place, but a thing is clear: they are carried out to destroy the women ”. The sadism and brutality with which  they are attacked are of such a magnitude that  the  reproductive and digestive system of many of them are injured and damaged for all their life” According to John Holmes, general undersecretary of Humanitarian Matters of United Nations, “ the sexual violence in  Congo is the worst of the world; the high numbers, the systematically brutality and the culture of impunity are atrocious.

No  access to treatments

Amnesty International published the report" Democratic Republic of Congo: Massive violations. Time to take measures ", in which are documented cases of widespread and sexual violence in the context of the conflict that affects all the country. It observes that the victims don’t have an effective access to an integral and suitable medical treatment. The Government and the international community have to take immediate measures for victims of violation to facilitate the access to the medical treatment to thousands of women. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) is tackling the problems of sexual violence with programs of preventive treatment against the possible infections, as the AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and against not wished pregnancies, in 72 hours after the violation. At the same time, medical personal is being trained in order to attend correctly these women and if it is necessary, to move them to the Hospital centre of Bukavu specialized in this kind of treatment. According to the CICR, the social impact of the violations is so serious that the structure of the whole community gets instable. The targets of this program are, therefore, to cheer up to the community to accept the victims of violations and to help to enable them to recover the rhythm of normal life. Part of the programme is also to incise on the rapists making them remember that they also have a mother, a wife or a daughter.

Peace builders.

Women have been historically discriminated in the process of peace carried out in their own country. At the same time, the reality has been slanted and women have been shown as passive victims of the conflict, while their leadership and performance as ombudswoman or negotiator of peace has been kept invisible. The case of the RD of Congo is not an exception.

So, the need of offering a specific protection to the rights of women in the armed conflicts and to gather the work of women's organizations in the peace building process,  has been finally recognized by the international organisms. This recognition of the importance of the approach of gender been reflected in the adoption of the resolution 1325 of the Council of Security of the United Nations on Women, Peace and Security of October, 2000. In Africa, groups of women have formed the African Committee of Women for the Peace and the Development (AWCPD), which later has joined the African Union. In the RD of Congo there have been also women who have worked for peace. This is the case of Claudine Muyala Tayaye Bibi, an activist for Peace who has organized workshops and seminars about gender and conflicts. Her goal is to train the community leaders in this matter. She has also signed several declarations and she is the author of many articles in which she calls for the implication of women in all the aspects of the peace building processes. She represented civil society in 2002, during the dialogues that took place in Sun City, negotiations in which women were not allowed to act as official negotiators. She said: “" I do not feel that we are in peace when the weapon is quiet. I will feel the peace when it will be possible to listen to women ‘ voices”.

Sources:

Irin News. www.irinnews.org

The New York Times. Violaciones salvajes avivan el traumático conflicto de Congo. El País. 18 de octubre de 2007.

Umoya – Comités de Solidaridad con el África Negra. www.umoya.org

Campanya “Àfrica sí que té solució”. Creu Roja a Catalunya. www.creuroja.cat

Comitè Internacional de la Creu Roja. www.icrc.org

Escola de Cultura de Pau.Baròmetre nº17, abril-juny 2008. www.escoladepau.org

Amnistía Internacional. www.amnesty.org. Amnistía Internacional Bélgica www.amnestyinternational.be