Implementation

But we can take nothing for granted. How do we go from past horrors to a beginning of post-confit normality? With the help of the United Nations, since the signing of the joint communiqué of 30 March, 2013, our Government has designed and deployed a plan of action to combat sexual violence. It has mobilized all the energies of the nation, especially the Ministries of Justice and National Defence, the defence and security forces, the General Auditorate, civil society organizations, and religious and traditional leaders. Much of this normalization programme is based on prevention, the fight against impunity and the socioeconomic response that I will address in this statement. Beyond technical principles and terms known to us all, these are lessons of humanity, experiments in living together, stories of distress or hope that we champion on a daily basis, claim as our own, and refuse to deny or stigmatize.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has enacted the law of 20 July 2006 and applies the Rome Statute, which punishes sexual violence. Consequently, the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo adopted a campaign plan, led by the internal Specialized Commission for the Fight against Sexual Violence, which has been carrying out awareness-raising activities in all military camps for three years. The Commission is supported by the United Nations system.

The implementation of this plan of action has enabled the developmenet and signing of acts of solemn commitment by 218 commanders, including generals and colonels as well as 13,585 trained soldiers throughout all of the military camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are not only concerned about the eastern part in conflict, but about the 26 provinces, in order to ensure the sustainability of the culture of the fight against sexual violence. The Congolese national police is part of that dynamic, thereby reinforcing police capacities.

Is that enough? Most certainly it is not. Yet it is a significant step. Such prevention efforts would be insufficient if not accompanied by pedagogical value.