How Congo Responds Sexual Violence

How DR Congo responds to issues of sexual violence  __________________________________________  Believe it or not, the Congolese government has proved it is active in the combating sexual violence in the ten following ways: 1.   Enacts laws to protect women and children without making any effort to enforce them.   2.   Passes annual State budgets owithout allocating funds for combating sexual violence   3.  Maintains incentives for military officers to commit sexual violence by promoting those who are accused of committing these horrific acts to higher grades   4. Deplorable lack of follow-up on the  statements about fighting against sexual violence. (Most of these commitments are issued when they have visitors from the West)   5.  Quick reassignments of persons accused of committing sexual violence to new positions and places.   6.  Use of funds collected from Western countries on behalf of victims of sexual violence to pay exceptional salaries to individuals accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity (the case of Ntaganda and others ..)   7.  Actions that demonstrate a lack of political will to balance the scales of justice for victims of sexual violence   8.   Unjust refusal to compensate victims of sexual violence   9.   The total absence of measures to hold accountable members of the Congolese army accused of committing rape and sexual violence   10.  Concession policies for those who are accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Call it what you want, this is nothing other than a license to encourage rather than discourage war criminals of tomorrow. The goal was not only to criticize the government's approach to this very critical situation that has made the DRC to become "the world capital of rape," but rather to try to show why these problems persist despite of the government's efforts. The ultimate challenge for the Congolese Government is to develop wisdom in the fight against sexual violence, but this will come when it is ready to recognize these problems in its current approach.   http://www.mjpcongo.org  MJPC is a nonprofit organization working to defend and promote justice and peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with particular emphasis 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.

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