View previous stories
	Sexual violence is a despicable crime for which there can be no impunity by UN News & agencies Democratic Republic of Congo   March 2011   UN report details suffering of rape victims, recommends reparations.   A United Nations report unveiled today highlights the deprivations endured by thousands of victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including poverty, denial of justice and lack of access to medical and psychological treatment, and recommends the establishment of a reparations fund.   “Remedies and Reparations for Victims of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” prepared by a special high-level panel appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, reveals that the survivors of sexual violence have no recourse to compensation and other forms of remedies or reparations.   During the panel’s visit to DRC from 27 September to 13 October 2010, its members heard from 61 survivors of sexual violence, ranging from a girl raped when she was three years old to a 61-year-old grandmother, about what they perceived their actual needs to be.   The panel met with some individuals and groups, the report says, “including victims who had contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of rape, victims who had become pregnant and had children as a result of rape, victims whose husbands had rejected them following their rape, child victims of rape, victims of rape who had taken their cases to court seeking justice, and victims of rape by civilian perpetrators.   “Among the victims with special needs whom the panel met were a girl with sensory disabilities, a young woman who is blind, and four men, two of whom were raped and two of whom were sexually assaulted in other ways,” the report states.   Health care and education were among the highest priorities conveyed to the panel by victims.   “They are determined, but in many cases unable, to send their children to school. Those who have contracted HIV/AIDS are deeply troubled by concern over what will happen to their children when they die. Many victims who met with the panel have been displaced from their homes. They expressed the need for socio-economic reintegration programmes.”   Many women never report the rapes, either due to fear of stigmatization or lack of faith in the judicial system. “There is no point in making an accusation,” one woman said. “I learned by example from most people raped before me that there is no justice,” she said. The report notes that “these victims expressed great frustration because their perpetrators have escaped from prison while they have not been paid the damages … even in those cases where the State has been held liable.”   The report notes that most victims interviewed were unable to seek justice through the courts because they cannot identify their perpetrators, or in some cases, because perpetrators have not been arrested.   The panel recommends that a fund to support reparations be established as a matter of priority, and that the management of the fund include representatives of the Government of the DRC, the UN, donors, civil society, and survivors themselves.   The panel was comprised of Kyung-wha Kang, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights; Elisabeth Rehn, former Minister of Defense of Finland; and Denis Mukwege, Medical Director of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the capital of DRC’s South Kivu province.   Commenting on the report, Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who is currently visiting victims in the eastern DRC city of Goma, said sexual violence undermined the social fabric and reinforced a vicious cycle of violence.   “Sexual violence is a despicable crime for which there can be no impunity; its perpetrators must be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Mr. Lake said in a statement. He described the report as a “valuable contribution” to efforts to end sexual violence in DRC.   Feb 2011 (Open Society)   By the end of the sixth day of the landmark mass rape trial currently taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 47 women had told a closed session of the special military court their horrifying accounts of what happened in Fizi on New Year"s Day. With the general public barred from hearing their testimony by the president of the military court, Lt Colonel Utena Kuluila, the final witnesses gave their individual versions of the terrible events on January 1, when soldiers raped and looted their way through the town.   Most of the men and boys had fled after they had been told that soldiers were going to attack Fizi and kill 100 men in retaliation for the earlier murder of a soldier by inhabitants of the town.   In most instances, this left the women alone and vulnerable with their children. There was no defense when the soldiers arrived. They entered these women"s homes and raped them in front of their children. In almost all instances, they were raped by more than one soldier.   One woman provided testimony that after she was raped by one solider she lost consciousness. When she woke up there were two other soldiers in the room with her. She could not be certain if they had raped her while she was unconscious but thought they may have.   Another woman was asked by the court why it took more than three days for her to get her medical certificate showing she had been raped. She responded that it was difficult to access medical facilities as her town is remote and she is poor. Indeed, infrastructure in this part of the eastern Congo is challenging at best.   While the women give their testimony in Swahili, the five military judges listen attentively and interject, a number of times asking questions of the women"s lawyers or of the women directly to clarify the facts. There is no cross-examination of the witnesses, rather defense counsel for the 11 soldiers charged with rape, attempted murder and crimes against humanity make statements to the court attempting to cast doubt on the testimony. The women"s lawyers respond to these until the court is satisfied. The lead prosecutor Colonel Laurent Mutata Luaba makes a number of key points illustrating that there is a pattern to the evidence and reiterates particularly pertinent issues that are salient to the prosecution"s case.   Speaking to him during a recess, Luaba says that he is happy with the proceedings and that all has been going well. It is a painstaking process making the case against the accused and he says he is determined to do as thorough a job as possible. Maitre Therese, the one woman among the lawyers representing the women, says that they will be asking for the death penalty against the most senior accused officer Lt Colonel Kibibi. He is charged with crimes against humanity and rape. Article 169 of the Military Penal Code Law 024/2602 provides for the military court to give the death penalty on a guilty verdict. An alternative sentence would be life imprisonment.   Watching this senior soldier is fascinating. Unlike his subordinates, whose uniforms are in a state of disrepair and none of whom are wearing boots, he has a military bearing. Kibibi"s boots are polished, his uniform immaculate, his beret neatly tucked under his epaulette, which bears the two shiny stars of his rank. He pays complete attention to the proceedings and barely moves from his position. This is the most senior soldier to be tried for crimes against humanity in the DRC. Yesterday a woman directly accused him of raping her.   At the end of the day we have an opportunity to speak with two of the women who have been raped. Nyota is 36 and Faida is 29. Between them they have eight children. They are extremely poor and are now also extremely traumatized. Both of them speak to us about their pain, both mental and physical. They have been rejected by their husbands since the rape and members of their community have shunned them. They say that they were unaware of what stigma meant before the rape.   When asked what they think of the process that the mobile gender courts are implementing, Nyoya says, "This tribunal is good. It is this kind of process that will bring peace in the Congo."   She also says that the women know that other women all over the Congo are supporting them and that this has given them strength. Both women tell us that they fear reprisals and even if there is a conviction, the battalion remains in their area and that these terrible atrocities could occur again.   But watching Lt Colonel Kibibi and the other accused in court, there is also a sense of hope—hope that this and other mobile gender court proceedings will send a clear message out across eastern Congo that there is no longer impunity for grievous crimes and that women like Nyota and Faida should not have to live their lives in fear.   * The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has published a number of reports on gender violence in the DRC, access link below for more details. Visit the related web page
	Irish PM criticizes Vatican over failure to tackle clerical child sex abuse by AFP, Reuters   Feb 7, 2012 (Reuters)   An Irish victim of clerical abuse said on Tuesday that Catholic Church guidelines on how to root out paedophile priests and protect children needed to be backed up by penalties for bishops who fail to implement them.   Speaking at a major conference in Rome on the sex abuse crisis, Marie Collins said rules without sanctions were too easily ignored and cases were often swept under the carpet, allowing paedophiles to carry on molesting children.   "I would hope that internally there could be some ecclesiastical penalty for a bishop who may not follow the guidelines," the 65-year-old campaigner for abuse survivors told reporters during the conference.   "You obviously have civil law as well, but I am talking more on the church side."   The Vatican sent a letter to bishops last year telling them that they must make it a global priority to tackle the sexual abuse of children by priests and every diocese must draw up its own guidelines in line with local criminal law.   The four-day meeting this week has brought together more than 200 people to discuss how the worldwide Church can become more aware of the problem, make a commitment to victims and prevent future cases.   Collins, the only victim attending the conference, spoke in detail in front of bishops and religious leaders about the abuse she suffered at the hands of a priest when she was thirteen years old and how it damaged the rest of her life.   "The fact that my abuser was a priest added to the great confusion in my mind," she told them. "Those fingers that would abuse my body the night before were the next morning holding and offering me the sacred host."   She said when she tried to warn church leaders about the priest she was ignored on several occasions despite existing church rules on child safety, and he went on to molest others. "These men can abuse for their whole lifetime leaving behind them a trail of destroyed lives," she said.   "Coming from a country where guidelines are ignored, I am conscious that as well as having them written down you must have some way of making sure they are implemented."   Oct 2011 (AFP)   Irish prime minister Enda Kenny has launched a blistering attack on the Vatican, accusing it of "dysfunction, disconnection and elitism" in its failure to tackle clerical child sex abuse.   His hard-hitting comments came in a parliamentary debate on a report which accused the Roman Catholic Church of failings in its handling of abuse allegations against 19 clerics in the diocese of Cloyne, southern Ireland.   Mr Kenny said that as a practising Catholic he did not find it easy to be so critical of the church authorities, but said the revelations in the Cloyne report were of a "different order" to previous reports detailing abuse.   "Because for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago," he told the Dail, the lower house of parliament.   "And in doing so, the Cloyne report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism, that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.   "The rape and torture of children were downplayed or "managed" to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and "reputation"."   Politicians were debating a motion which criticised "the Vatican"s intervention which contributed to the undermining of the child protection".   So many people wanted to speak that the session was extended, and the motion was finally passed without a vote being taken.   Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi declined to comment on Mr Kenny"s remarks.   The Cloyne report was one of a series of reports that have rocked predominately Catholic Ireland, detailing horrific sex abuse of children and attempts by church leaders to cover them up.   The two-year probe into the handling of complaints made in the largely rural diocese of Cloyne between 1996 and 2009 found the authorities response to have been "inadequate and inappropriate", and said this had compounded the victims pain.   The report was strongly critical of the failures of the former bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, who had been private secretary to three successive popes - Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II.   It said Bishop Magee, who resigned last year, had "to a certain extent detached himself from the day to day management of child abuse cases".   Mr Kenny said that far from listening to the evidence with compassion and humility, the Vatican"s reaction was "calculated" and "withering".   He blasted the influence of the Church, saying that "clericalism has rendered some of Ireland"s brightest, most privileged and powerful men, either unwilling or unable to address the horrors cited" in landmark recent abuse reports.   And he said "this Roman clericalism must be devastating for good priests ... as they work so hard, to be the keepers of the Church"s light and goodness within their parishes, communities, the human heart".   "But thankfully for them, and for us, this is not Rome," Mr Kenny said.   Foreign minister Eamon Gilmore raised the report"s concerns with papal ambassador Giuseppe Leanza last week, and Mr Kenny said his government would wait to hear the Vatican"s reaction.
	View more stories