Women, Peace, and Security News archive: Great Lakes
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Pre- 2007 Country News Archives

Burundi | Central African Republic (CAR) | Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) | Rwanda | Uganda

2007 Great Lakes News Archive

DRC: Punish rape as weapon of waR
December 11, 2007 - (The Times) Congolese activists have launched an appeal at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute those in their country who use rape as a weapon of war.

UN rights expert raises alarm about human rights abuses in DR Congo
December 6, 2007 – (UN News Centre) Raising alarm about abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), especially the volatile eastern region, an independent United Nations human rights expert is calling for measures to protect civilians there.

ICRC urges all sides in Congo to spare civilians
December 6, 2007 - (Reuters) The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday called on the army and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo to spare civilian lives in their latest bout of fighting in the country's conflict-ravaged east.

Angolan soldiers rape, beat Congolese migrants
December 6, 2007 - (Reuters) The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said Angolan soldiers have raped, beaten and tortured illegal Congolese migrant workers before deporting them across the border.

Uganda: Justice system fails victims of sexual violence
November 30, 2007 - (Amnesty International) Amnesty International today accused the criminal justice system in northern Uganda of ignoring, denying and tacitly condoning violence against women and girls, while it protects suspected perpetrators.The accusation came as the organization issued a new report detailing individual cases of sexual abuse against women and girls in northern Uganda.

Rwanda: Campaign Against Gender Violence
November 29,2007 - (The New Times) In celebration of the International 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, sixty five women from across the country are currently on a two-day tour of development activities in the city.

DRC:Campaign Against Sexual Violence in South Kivu
November 29, 2007 - (IRIN) A campaign to combat gender violence is under way in South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a province that has become notorious for the high incidence of rape and other sexual violations.

Sexual violence against women in DR Congo amounts to war crime: UN expert
October 26, 2007 – (UN News Centre) The scale and brutality of the sexual violence currently faced by women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, an independent United Nations human rights expert has told the General Assembly.

DRC: Rape cases up by 60 percent in North Kivu - UNHCR
October 12, 2007 - (IRIN) A total of 351 cases of rape were reported in North Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), representing a 60 percent increase from August, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on 11 October.

Burundi: No protection from rape in war and peace
October 9, 2007 - (Amnesty International) Amnesty International and ACAT -- Burundi (Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture) today called on the Burundian government to take immediate action to protect women and girls from rape and other sexual violence in Burundi.

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War
October 7, 2007 - (New York Times) Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore. Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

Launch of UN Action Plan to Empower Women
September 20, 2007- (MONUC NEWS) Wednesday September 19 2007 marked the official launch in Kinshasa's Grand Hotel of UN resolution 1325 in the DRC, entitled "Women, Peace and Security." The resolution envisages an action plan aimed at empowering women in order to have gender equality and a durable peace, where there is no impunity for sexual violence and other human rights violations against women.

Rwanda: Mrs Kagame Lauds Women Entrepreneurs
September 15, 2007 – (AllAfrica) Appeals for involving women in economic transformation of developing countries dominated yesterday's one-day workshop on Gender and Enterprise Development.Opening the regional workshop at Novetel Hotel Umubano, the First Lady Mrs Jeannette Kagame remarked that empowering women financially boosts development in countries. Mrs Kagame said that increasing women's ability to contribute to economic growth is crucial in helping the nations develop since they (women) play great role to sustain their families.

DRC: Call to address sexual violence in the east
September 14, 2007 - (IRIN) The international community must take urgent action to eliminate rampant sexual violence in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Stephen Lewis, former UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa, has said.

Burundians Say Peace Must Include Tough Rape Laws
September 13, 2007 - (WOMENSENEWS) As postwar Burundi prepares for a reconciliation process based on South Africa's, women's rights advocates say the first step must be bringing the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.

Progress made to keep children off battlefield, UGAnDA
August 30, 2007 - (Washington Times) At 12, Lucy Aol was clutching an assault rifle and preparing to ambush government soldiers. At 13, a rebel commander a decade older made her his wife. At 16, she was a mother.

5,000 sexual violence cases reported in DR Congo
August 25, 2007 - (PANA) Some 5,470 cases of sexual violence have been reported between January and June 2007 in South-Kivu province of the DR Congo, according to reports by the local commission on sexual violence.

Shock at sex crimes in DR Congo
July 30, 2007 - (BBC News) A UN human rights expert has said she is shocked at the scale and brutality of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

UNICEF voices concern about sexual violence in Burundi
July 13, 2007 – (ReliefWeb) The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) says it is concerned about the large and growing number of children in Burundi who are victims of sexual violence. UNICEF says few cases are ever prosecuted and is calling for urgent reform of Burundi's judicial system. Lisa Schlein has more for VOA from UNICEF headquarters in Geneva.

the Woman Behind Uganda's Peace Hopes Betty Bigombe Put Life on
Hold to Intercede in Northern WaR
July 11, 2007 (Washington Post Foreign Service) Betty Bigombe plowed her own path as a mediator between two men at war. Her bodyguards addressed her as "Sir," but it was her womanly nurturing side, her wiles and selfless sacrifices that took her where no man had been.

Uganda: 'Let Us Take Gender Equality Seriously' – Interview with Rachael Mayanja
June 26, 2007 – (All Africa) In all her years at the UN, Mayanja has seen the number of Ugandans working with the world body grow.

UNIFEM receives US$3 million to boost Burundian women's role in peacebuilding
June 21, 2007 – (UNIFEM) On 20 June 2007, UNIFEM received US$3 million from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund in Burundi to implement a project on Restoring the Role of Women in Reconciliation and Community Reconstruction. UNIFEM has been closely involved in the development of this joint initiative between the Government of Burundi and the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB), through the provision of technical support to the Ministry for Gender.

Uganda: Women Ministers Appeal for More Aid
June 19, 2007 – (AllAfica) CONCERNED that 30 million children are not in primary school and that 60% of HIV/Aids cases globally are in the Commonwealth countries, ministers for women's affairs have asked the heads of government to provide sufficient funds for gender equality.

Uganda: Kampala Communiqué - Eight Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting Kampala, Uganda, 11-14 June 2007
June 19, 2007 – (Concord Times) From the 11th to 14th June 2007 ministers and delegates from 32 Commonwealth countries converged for the 8th Commonwealth Woman's Affairs Ministers Meeting (8WAMM) at the Speke Resort conference centre in Munyonyo ,Kampala,Uganda. The theme for this year's conference was: 'Financing Gender Equality for Development and Democracy'.

uGANDA: Women slow to volunteer for HIV vaccine trials
June 12, 2007 - (PlusNews) Too few Ugandan women are willing to participate in trials of a potential vaccine against the HI virus, local scientists have said.

DRC: Atrocities of a war without end
June 08, 2007 - (The Star) A tiny child with a gaping, bloody gash between her legs. A young woman whose breasts are stretched grotesquely out of shape. A woman whose lower face resembles a skull, her mouth carved away by vengeful rapists.These are the pictures that Justine Masika Bihamba carries with her on her travels, in the hope that the world will see the plight of sexually abused women in the mineral-rich provinces of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congo-Kinshasa: UN Human Rights Chief 'Appalled' By Sexual Violence in DR Congo, Burundi
May 31 2007 - (UN News Centre) The top United Nations human rights official today said that she was appalled by the level of sexual and gender-based violence she found in Africa's Great Lakes region, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.

BURUNDI: Study says coffee harvest linked to increase in gender-based violence
May 25, 2007- (IRIN) The April-July coffee harvest period in Burundi has been linked to increases in gender-based violence and the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

CAR: Hague Court Inquiry Focuses on Rapes
May 22, 2007 – (The New York Times) The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague said Tuesday that he would investigate human rights violations committed during a brutal crackdown after a coup attempt in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.

DRC: Villagers flee killings as 'peace' plan backfires
May 9, 2007 - (Reuters) "I buried my child in the forest," said Jeannette Nyirarukundo, who fled her village in eastern Congo when it was attacked by the government army meant to protect it. Six-year-old Moise starved to death before the family reached the safety of a camp at Nyongera, 70 kilometers (44 miles) from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma.

SUDAN-UGANDA: Frustration over LRA's refusal to free women and children
May 09, 2007 - (IRIN) The Ugandan government on Tuesday said the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continued to hold thousands of abducted children and women, despite repeated pleas for their release from both the state and international organisations.

From Peace TORCH to Peace Treaty: Ugandan Women Promote an Inclusive, Sustainable Peace
May 7, 2007 - (UNIFEM) The signing of an Agreement on Comprehensive Solutions to the Causes of War by the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on 2 May 2007 in Juba, Sudan, has been hailed as the first step towards a final peace agreement to end more than 20 years of conflict in the nation's North. Yet for women in Uganda and the region, this significant step is part of a long journey towards a peace that includes the perspectives of women.

UGANDA: Women petition court to outlaw FGM
April 30, 2007 - (IRIN) Women’s rights activists in Uganda have petitioned the Constitutional Court demanding that female genital mutilation (FGM), practised by several communities in the east of the country, be declared illegal.

Life After Rape in Congo
April 25, 2007 – (The Christian Science Monitor) The posters in Marie Pacuriema's otherwise-bare office are cheerful, with smiling cartoon characters standing upright and proud. Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo have rights, they declare. Together we can make a difference! Violence against women will stop!

DRC: Arbitrary killings, rape part of ongoing abuses in the east
April 19, 2007 (IRIN) - Executions and rape of civilians have continued in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) according to a report published by the United Nations detailing human rights abuses during the month of March.

GBV Offices – A Sign of Progress in UNIFEM Partnership with Rwandan Police
April 18, 2007 – (UNIFEM) "GBV Offices" reads a small sign on a door of the Rwandan National Police Headquarters. These three letters hold great significance, designating the Gender Based Violence Desk Office, where police personnel are specifically trained to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The Gender Desk includes an interview room to enable women to speak in confidence with a trained officer; a nationwide toll-free hotline service for reporting SGBV; and a UNIFEM-UNDP-funded adviser. It signifies a national shift in justice sector policy — enhancing the capacity of law enforcement officials to apply human rights standards to cases of violence against women, in a country racked by rape and genocide within recent memory, and where domestic violence is now particularly pervasive in the provinces, according to Rwandan Police.

WFP forced to cut food aid to Ugandan refugees
April 18, 2007 - (Reuters) The United Nations World Food programme (WFP) has said a shortage of donations has forced it to cut food rations for more than a million people uprooted by a vicious two-decade rebellion in northern Uganda.

Rape as war weapon: Rwanda genocide 13 years later
April 9, 2007 – (M&C) A photography exhibition on the massacre of 800,000 Rwandans in 1994 was opened at UN headquarters Monday with human rights advocates denouncing sexual violence as a major weapon in conflicts, citing the current situation in Sudan's Darfur region.

Rwanda: NGO Validates Programme On Women Empowerment
March 29, 2007 – (The New Times) The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Rwanda, a regional office for Central Africa, based in Kigali-Rwanda recently launched a validation workshop of its country programme document for the period 2007-2010. During the workshop, UNIFEM's National Programme Officer, Donnah Kamashazi presented a strategic plan for the next three years that is geared towards gender mainstreaming and women empowerment as part of the national development priority on gender implementation and the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS).

GRAVE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY ALL SIDES MAR DR CONGO'S TRANSITION FROM WAR, UN REPORTS
March 7, 2007 – (UN News Centre) Summary executions, enforced disappearances, mass arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment and torture of civilians for their political affiliations as well as rape continued at an alarming rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a climate of total impunity in the second half of 2006, according to the latest United Nations report on the issue

RWANDA: Trauma counselling vital to recovery from sexual violence
February 7, 2007 – (IRIN In-Depth) KIGALI: The use of rape as a weapon of war during the 1994 Rwandan genocide left hundreds of thousands of women with deep emotional scars that are yet to heal.