Rape as a Weapon of War in Congo and Liberia

Published February 10, 2009 @ 05:51PM PT

This Wednesday, Save Darfur is holding One Night, One Voice - an advocacy night to end violence against women in Darfur. (To learn more about the Save Darfur campaign, see here.) Free-riding on their initiative, thought I'd use this week to look at rape as a weapon of war in other conflicts, including Congo and Liberia.

This week will feature guest blogs from Harper McConnell of HEAL Africa and Jocelyn Kelly of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative writing about Congo, and Lizzie Goodfriend writing about Liberia.

To start off with Congo - New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has called eastern Congo the "rape capital of the world". This legacy extends back to the mid-1990s, yet fighting this past fall threatened to make the problem even worse.

According to statistics gathered by CARE, women reported over 3,500 cases of sexual violence in North Kivu Province alone between January and September of this year.

These numbers, however, barely convey the brutal reality. According to Elisabeth Roesch, the Gender and Advocacy Advisor for CARE in the Congo:

"We know rape is typically under-reported, and feel that this number doesn’t even come close to reflecting the actual number of cases – the actual number is unimaginable. With this recent fighting, we won’t know the full extent right away, because there is such stigma around sexual violence. Women don’t come forward for fear of rejection, reprisal, and because of continued insecurity. They need safety, medical care, support and encouragement, and this is a crucial gap in DR Congo today.”

As Roesch describes: "It has been said that it’s more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in the DRC right now – that couldn’t be more true."

Harper's guest blog will be posted later tonight.

[Rape survivor in Congo - Photo from the BBC]

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Comments (4)

Excellent series of posts, Michael. Incidentally, in his 2008 report before the Human Rights Council the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture outlined how cases of rape in contexts such as these can be classified as torture according to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In his words, the distinction of calling the act torture instead of rape "carries a considerable additional stigma for the State and reinforces legal implications, which include the strong obligation to criminalize acts of torture, to bring perpetrators to justice and to provide reparation to victims". Though not like there's been much adherence in the Congo and elsewhere regarding obligations toward international law...

Posted by Brandy Bauer on 02/11/2009 @ 04:12AM PT
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This is a world wide issue and a major concern of mine. I want to help any way I can in creating awares to end violence against women. Please read the story below.

http://blogs.app.com/saywhat/2009/02/11/saudi-woman-gets-1-year-in-prison-for-adultery-after-gang-rape/

Posted by Jacqueline Dodd on 02/11/2009 @ 11:17AM PT
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Jacqueline and Brandy, thanks very much for your comments,

Michael

Posted by Michael Bear on 02/11/2009 @ 01:51PM PT
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We've published two stories this year on rape as a weapon of war- "Rape of a Nation", (http://mediastorm.org/0022.htm) by Marcus Bleasdale, looks at the whole situation in the DRC, and how it's affecting the lives of all of the citizens there, and Jonathan Torgovnik interviewed over 30 women who were raped during the Rwandan Genocide, and now have children from those rapes, in Intended Consequences (http://mediastorm.org/0024.htm). The stories of these women and children are horrific, and we just hope by making people aware, we can all work together for change.

Posted by Jessica Stuart on 02/13/2009 @ 09:41AM PT
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Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.