Rights Realisation: the violation of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Abstract
Rights are an existential and a crucial part of human existence. When one’s rights are violated, it affects one’s ability to live a life of dignity and to be valued as a person. The acts of sexual violence committed against the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are violations of their rights to bodily integrity,[1] healthcare,[2] security,[3] and to be free from torture and other inhumane treatment.[4] The issues surrounding sexual violence, particularly the rape of women and girls in the DRC during wars, and after it, are varied and it is within a multi-factorial understanding that solutions can be found to realise rights.
This paper will deal with the issues of patriarchy, rape culture and social structures how these issues affect the sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls in the DRC. The paper also aims to show how a multi-pronged strategy may be used to realise rights and ensure justice for the women and girls deeply affected by the violations of their rights.
In times of war and in times of peace there has always existed the most horrible of crimes: rape.[5] In times of war, when any semblance of order is gone and the world one knows is filled with chaos, the most vulnerable in society become even more vulnerable.[6] It is during these times that the differences between males and females can become even more fundamental. Imbalances in power are expressed through sexual violence and rape is used as a tool and strategy to inflict fear and psychological trauma on females and whole communities.[7]
Rape, is seen as a by-product of war.[8] It is used as a way to ‘punish the enemy’, maim and mutilate women and often results in death.[9] It is the female that suffers the greatest. In the Bangladesh war of independence more than 200,000 women were raped;[10] half a million women were raped in the Rwandan genocide; and 40,000 women were raped in the Bosnian war.[11]
[1] UN General Assembly Universal Declaration of Human Rights Res 217 A(III) (10 December 1948) arts 3, 4.
[2] Ibid art 25.
[3] Ibid art 3.
[4] Ibid art 5.
[5] G Vigarello A History of Rape: Sexual Violence in France from the 16thCentury to the 20th Century (2001) at 2.
[6] Jennifer Turpin ‘Barbie in the War Zone’ (2003) 22(2) Social Alternatives 5 at 5.
[7] JE Trenholm, P Olsson & BM Ahlberg ‘Battles on Women’s bodies: War, Rape and Traumatisation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Global’ (2011) 6 Public Health 139 at 141.
[8] J Bourke Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present Day (2007) at 359.
[9] S Meger ‘Rape of the Congo: Understanding Sexual Violence in the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ (2010) 28 Journal of Contemporary African Studies at 119.
[10] Jeniffer Turpin op cit note 6 at 5.
[11] A Farmer ‘Promoting gender justice in war zones’ (2009) 18 Perspectives: A magazine for and about women lawyers 4 at 5.
