V-Day, a global movement formed by Ensler to stop sexual violence against women and girls, enters its eleventh year this month, focusing heavily on the women of the DRC.
Eve Ensler, a feminist activist known for her controversial yet ground-breaking play "The Vagina Monologues" has chosen the issue of sexual violence against women in the Congo as the theme for this year's "V-Day." Formed in 1998 to raise funds and awareness through annual benefit productions of the play, the "V-Day" movement has since exploded, raising over $60 million and educating millions around the world as to the issue of violence against women. The organization has also funded a number of community-based programs in targeted areas such as Kenya, Egypt, Mexico, Afghanistan and Iraq.
However, in choosing to engage in the fight to end sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ensler navigates this year's V-Day through virtually uncharted territory. Though reliable statistics are scarce, a report published by the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region of Africa finds that in the medical centers of UNICEF alone 38,000 women received treatment for sexual violence in 2007.
Even more worrisome is the fact that this statistic is limited to those who have actually sought health care for such trauma, meaning that the number of women suffering from sexual violence is likely to be far greater than official data shows. Unfortunately, this probability falls in line with the systemic under-reporting of sexual violence cases throughout the developing and developed world.
Systemic Rape of Women and Girls in the DRC
The conflict in the DRC, commonly referred to as Africa’s First World War, has rendered some 5.4 million people dead since the outbreak of fighting in 1998. According to Anup Shah in the March 27, 2008 Global Issues report "The Democratic Republic of the Congo,” such catastrophic numbers render the conflict in the Congo as the world's deadliest since WWII.
While these dramatic statistics typically dominate the relatively meager coverage the conflict has received since its inception, the use of sexual violence against women by government and armed rebel forces alike has only recently begun to generate fervor amongst activists throughout the international community. Ensler’s decision to make sexual violence in the DRC the theme of 2009’s V-Day is bringing rape in the Congo, designated a war crime under international law, into the humanitarian spotlight.
Rape in the Congo: V-Day Spotlight 2009
After making a journey to the DRC in 2007, Ensler wrote in an August 1, 2007 Glamour article entitled “Women left for Dead- and the Man Who’s Saving Them,” that “nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly, terrifying and complete as the sexual torture and attempted destruction of the female species here….It is not too strong to call this a femicide, to say that the future of the Congo’s women is in serious jeopardy.”
Upon her return, Ensler developed the “Turning Pain to Power” Tour along with Congolese gynecologist Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the DRC that specializes in treating raped women and girls. The Tour publicizes violence against women in the Congo and the ongoing efforts made by Mukwege and others to halt its spread. The Tour’s next stops are in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and the itinerary can be found by clicking here.
The copyright of the article Ensler's V-Day Combats Congo's Sexual Violence in International Human Rights is owned by Carey Hogg. Permission to republish Ensler's V-Day Combats Congo's Sexual Violence in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Petition Calling for Compensation of Victims of Sexual Violence in
Eastern DR Congo
"We urge the International Community
especially the United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, German, UN
General Secretary, the UN Security Council members,European Union and
African Union to pressure the Congolese Authorities to Compensate Victims
of Sexual Violence in Eastern DRC"
The Mobilization for
Justice and Peace in Congo (MPJC) has announced the launch of a global
campaign to collect signatures to urge the international community to put
pressure on president Kabila, the Congolese government and the Congole
Parliament to take urgent action to compensate victims of sexual violence
crimes in East of DR Congo. The petition can be signed at
http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html
According to
Makuba Sekombo, Director of Community Affairs of MJPC, "despite legal
provisions, the government of DR Congo has not yet created a formal victim
support fund to compensate the hundreds of thousands of women and girls
victims of extreme sexual violence in Eastern DR Congo. These victims
continue to live a tragedy that the United Nations and humanitarian
organizations are having difficulties to bear in Eastern DR Congo," he
said. "While no amount of money can erase the trauma and inconceivable
grief suffered by victims and their families, compensation is crucial in
the recovery process and the governement of Congo must assume its
responsibility"
The petition urges the international
community especially the United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium,
German, UN General Secretary, the UN Security Council members,European
Union and African Union) to pressure the Congolese authorities to
compensate victims of sexual violence in Eastern DR Congo, where sexual
violence against women and children has been widely employed as weapon of
war for more than decade.
"For many of victims, it is
essential to know that they have a choice to seek justice and
reparation," said Mr Sekombo, "The availability of accessible
mechanisms which support the right to seek a compensation would symbolise
official acknowledgement of the Government and a way of taking
responsibility for its tragic failures to protect hundreds of thousands
women and children against horrific sexual violence crimes and can be
experienced as a commitment by the Congolese Government to improve the
criminal justice system response to future sexual violence crimes and
strengthen measures to prevent these terrible crimes from being committed
in the first place." added Mr. Sekombo.
About
MJPC MJPC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to working to add a
voice in the promotion of justice and peace in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo in particular in the East where thousands of innocent civilians,
including children and women continue to be victims of massive human rights
violations while the armed groups responsible for these crimes remain
unpunished.
For more information on MJPC and the
activities, visit the web site http://www.mjpcongo.org. E-mail:
info@mjpcongo.org or call Makuba Sekombo at 1 408 806 3644. The online
petition calling for for help to put pressure on Congolese authorities to
compensate victims of sexual siolence in Eastern DRC can be signed at
http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html or http://www.fivvsc.org
Apr 3, 2009 8:18 PM
Guest :
Do SOMETHING FOR THE VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONGO: help put pressure
on president Kabila, the Congolese government and the Congolese Parliament
to take urgent action to compensate victims of sexual violence crimes in
East of DR Congo. The petition can be signed at
http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html
Apr 25, 2009 10:22 PM
Guest :
MJPC questions ICC waiting to issue an arrest warrant against Nkunda.
The Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the D.R. Congo (MJPC)
today called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest
warrant against laurent Nkunda accused of multiple war crimes and crimes
against humanity which are well documented by various human right
organzations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Laurent Nkunda, former leader of the National Congress for the
Defence of the People (CNDP) armed group, was arrested on 22 January and is
detained at an undisclosed location in Rwanda.
How long would it
take for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC),
Luis Moreno-Ocampo to decide whether or not to issue an arrest warrant
against Nkunda? echoed Makuba Sekombo, Director of Community Affairs of
MJPC. The ICC Prosecutor has been investigating war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
since since 2004, but the ICC reportdely opened an investigation into
alleged war crimes committed in the DRC since 1 July 2002.
Nkunda has been repeatedly implicated in numerous serious war crimes and
crimes against humanity since 2002. In September 2005, the Congolese
government issued an arrest warrant for Nkunda, accusing him of numerous
war crimes and crimes against human rights. Human Rights Watch, for
example, which has been calling for his arrest for war crimes and crimes
against humanity since February 2006 and has documented summary executions,
torture and rape committed by soldiers under the command of Nkunda in
Bukavu in 2004 and in Kisangani in 2002. Also armed groups loyal to warlord
Nkunda have been repeatedly accused of using rape as a weapon of war and
the recruitment of child soldiers, some as young as 12 after the abduction
from their homes. In November 2008, the UN mission in the country (MONUC),
Humn Rights Watch many other organizations accused Nkunda of war crimes in
November 2008; an estimated 150 people were killed innoncently in the town
of Kiwanja by the troups loyal to Nkunda.
The MJPC deplores the
refusal by the Government of Rwanda to hand over Nkunda for trial.
"How shocking that Rwanda which has been receiving assistance from the
International community to arrest genocide suspects and hand them over to
the ICTR or to Rwanda would not allow for the extradition of a war criminal
accused of massacring civilians, sexual violence, abduction of civilians,
Feb 19, 2009
