. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Ujamaa

NO MEANS NO KENYA works to provide simple, high impact Self- Defense training to as many women and children as possible worldwide. We believe prevention is key in the global rape epidemic. For far too long the overwhelming focus has been on aftercare strategies – this needs to change. It is believed that Self Defense training can raise a woman or child’s chance of prevailing in a sexual assault by up to 85%.

It is our vision to mainstream self defense and end the fallacies and myths surrounding a woman or child’s ability to stop an assault. Our rape prevention efforts have appeared in over 40 media outlets including CNN, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Current TV, Daily Kos and Fox Sports.

No Means No Worldwide is a comprehensive rape prevention organization for girls and boys. We are a school based program that uses the IMpower system of violence prevention training. We teach classes in 6 week cycles, three times per school year, with the number of students ranging from 7000-9000 per cycle.

We believe the best response to the epidemic of sexual assault is to provide our male and female students with an awareness of the causes and effects of sexual gender based violence and the skills to intervene or prevent it.

Our research shows that in high schools where girls have taken our classes the incidence of rape drops from 20% annually to under 10%. Over half the girls in the intervention groups report having used the IMpower skills to avert sexual assault in the year after the training. Rates of disclosure increased in the intervention groups, but not in controls.

Preliminary research on our new IMpower boys curriculum shows that male students gender-negative attitudes towards women and girls were transformed to a more positive and supportive set of beliefs and behaviors. At 6-month follow-up, 334 of 676 respondents (49.4%) had witnessed a girl or woman being verbally harassed and 259 of 334 (77.5% had successfully intervened to stop the harassment. Similarly, 313 of 676 (46.3%) had witnessed a male physically threatening a girl or woman and 228 of 676 (33.7%) had witnessed a sexual assault. In these situations, 228 of 313 boys (72.8%) and 167 of 228 (73.2%) who witnessed these events, had successfully intervened to protect the victim.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from the United Nations News Centre

In 1999, when a woman appeared at his hospital with genital destroyed by gun shots, the Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege first believed it was an isolated case. “But after about six months, I realized that the story was repeated in other patients that were almost identical: ‘I was raped, and then they pierced me with a bayonet! I was raped, and then they burned rubber on my genitals!'” Dr. Mukwege recalled in a recent interview with the UN Radio and the UN News Centre .

Dr. Denis Mukwege, director and founder of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, and winner of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe

The practice he had just discovered, born of the bloody conflict between the government at that time and the armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), would profoundly mark the rest of his career: the use of the destruction of the female genitalia as a weapon of war.

“This situation simply fell on us,” said Dr. Mukwege to explain the decision he took then to dedicate his professional life to reconstructive surgery for women victims of sexual violence – a decision that would put his life and that of his family in danger.

Sixteen years later, the commitment of Dr. Mukwege has allowed him to treat more than 40,000 victims in the hospital that he himself founded in the district of Panzi in Bukavu, his hometown in the South region Kivu, eastern DRC.

The man that the press has dubbed ‘the man who repairs women’ has also gained international recognition for his work, which has earned him numerous awards, including the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2008 and the Sakharov prize in 2014. Now 59 years old, he has been approached several times for the Nobel peace prize.

This exceptional career, Dr. Mukwege says, is primarily the result of the injustices he faced, starting with his early decision to become a doctor.

Denis Mukwege was born in 1955 in Bukavu in a Pentecostal family of nine children. As a teenager, he used to accompany his father, a pastor, in his daily rounds. One day his father was called to the bedside of a sick child.

“After praying, his father began to pack up and prepare to leave,” reminisced Dr. Mukwege. “But I told him, ‘No Daddy! When I am sick, you pray, but you also give me medicine. ‘ ”

In response, his father remarked that he was not a doctor.

“At that time, there was like a click in my head and I told myself: I want to be a doctor to do what my father could not.”

The child, meanwhile, finally succumbed to his illness.

Years later, after completing medical school in Burundi, Dr Mukwege returned to South Kivu to start his career in Lemera Hospital, a hundred kilometers from Bukavu, as a pediatrician.

During this experience, he was shocked by the discovery of the pain of women who, in the absence of proper care, regularly suffered serious genital lesions after giving birth. He decided to leave to study gynecology and obstetrics in France before returning to Lemera in the late 1980s.

The outbreak of war in the Congo DRC (then Zaire) in 1996 would again confront Dr. Mukwege with injustice. South Kivu found himself in the front line of fighting.

One day, arriving at the hospital, Dr. Mukwege found all its patients had been murdered, a drama from which he took a long time to recover.

“It took me two years before I felt I could be useful again. People do not imagine how one feels responsible for the sick. And then someone comes and kills them in their bed!”

At the same time, Dr. Mukwege himself ws nearly killed in an attack. While transporting a patient to evacuate to Sweden, his car was riddled with bullet shots. Fortunately, he and other passengers were not affected.

Feeling unable to continue working in Lemera, Dr. Mukwege returned to Bukavu, where he founded the Panzi hospital in 1999, shortly before the discovery of the extent of sexual violence in eastern DRC.

A report published in June 2002 by the NGO Human Rights Watch echoed the observations made on the ground by Dr. Mukwege.

Entitled ‘The War Within the War: Sexual violence against women and girls in eastern Congo’, this study is based on research conducted in the provinces of North and South Kivu, then controlled since 1998 by Rwandan Hutu armed groups and Burundian rebels fighting against the government of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1997 – 2001), the Rwandan army and the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD, a Congolese rebel group). According to the report, sexual violence was used frequently and sometimes systematically as a weapon of war by most forces involved in the conflict from the late 1990s.

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(click here for the article in French.)

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

What role should men play to stop violence against women?

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In the one town of Shabunda, “the governor of South Kivu estimated 2,500 to 3,000 women and girls were raped between late 1999 and mid-2001,” according to the report, which did not report other data on a regional basis.

Another Human Rights Watch report, dated June 2014, indicated that tens of thousands have been raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence in eastern DRC over the past two decades. Entitled ‘Democratic Republic of Congo: End impunity for sexual violence’, although the study could not determine theexact number of victims.

According to Dr. Mukwege, one of the difficulties in obtaining detailed data is the fact that sexual violence was and is still a taboo subject for the victims, who are often rejected by their own community.

“The women we care for represent only the tip of the iceberg because many of them are afraid to say they have been raped for fear of being repudiated by their husbands,” he said, adding that although the fighting has now abated in eastern DRC, the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war by armed groups is still relevant.

This taboo is so deeply rooted in Congolese society that the perpetrators, some of whom live near their victims, often enjoy relative impunity. “The woman sees the perpetrtor who lives across the street every morning, but unfortunately he is never made to answer for his actions,” lamented Dr. Mukwege.

Over the years, he has developed an original approach, which he calls “holistic”, to treat victims, taking into account the dimensions of both surgical and psychological, but also the issues of rehabilitation and justice.

“At first we gave only medical care, but we quickly realized that after being treated, the women refused to eat, drink, live and therefore, would also die of some form of suicide,” he said.

The hospital is staffed by a team of psychologists and social workers who work with patients before the reconstructive surgeries.

Once treated, the patients are able to reintegrate into their community while Dr. Mukwege and his team work in collaboration with NGOs that help victims to go to the hospital and provides economic support at their return.

“We found that when they are doing well both physically and psychologically they feel strong enough to be autonomous. At that point the women begin to seek justice” said Dr. Mukwege, who created for this purpose a legal clinic to help women regain their rights and prosecute in court.

His willingness to break the silence surrounding sexual violence against women in eastern DRC, however, brought pressures and threats. He was the target of several failed assassination attempts, one in the office where he made private consultations to patients in Bukavu, which was riddled with bullets. Fortunately, Dr. Mukwege was not present during the attack.

“What am I doing to escape? Not much. Today I have the protection of MONUSCO [Mission to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo], which we appreciate in the hospital, because some members of my staff have also also been kidnapped, tortured and raped, “he said.

Although he feels reassured by the presence of MONUSCO, Dr. Mukwege has admitted that his daily work in Bukavu is performed in difficult conditions and that the silence on sexual violence in DRC is still a reality.

Last September, the Congolese authorities in particular prohibits the dissemination in the country of a documentary film about his background and activities of the Panzi Hospital.

“This is a film that shows the strength of Congolese women, their resilience. […] Women have a much more powerful inner strength than those who would destroy them, “said Dr. Mukwege, expressing his incomprehension at the censorship of the film.

Directed by Thierry Michel and Colette Braeckman, ‘The man who repairs the women – the wrath of Hippocrates’ was screened October 22, 2015 at UN headquarters in New York, in the presence of Dr. Mukwege. A few days earlier, according to press reports, the Congolese government announced the lifting of the decision banning the film in the DRC.

“We can not make progress unless we recognize first that there is a problem. Remaining in the culture of denial is extremely dangerous because it leaves the women to suffer”, he said.

According to Dr. Mukwege, significant progress has been made over the last 15 years. “We have more and more women who not only speak, but who also take a stand and become activists for women’s rights,” he praised.

In July 2014, the President of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, has appointed a Special Adviser in the fight against sexual violence and child recruitment, Jeannine Mabunda Lioko Mudiayi, a sign that attitudes are changing in the country.

The man who repairs women maintains, however, that much remains to be done before we can claim victory. To achieve this, the international community must redouble its efforts to fight against sexual violence related to conflict. Dr. Mukwege calls upon the whole society to consider this matter and not to leave it under the sole prism of women and feminism.

“What is the value of our humanity if people can afford to sell other people to make sexual use, sex slaves,” he said. “Our society must say no and set a red line: if certain acts are committed, it is the entire society that must oppose it.”

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article from L’Actualité (reprinted as non-commercial use)

Giving voice to those who have no voice: that is the daily struggle of Bineta Diop. Special Envoy of the African Union (AU) for women, peace and security since 2014. A trained lawyer, she wants to increase women’s participation in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. “Peace and security are still dominated by men,” says the 66-year-feminist, wearing a turquoise robe and turban.

Bineta Diop. (Photo: EPA/Nic Bothma)

Founder of the association Femmes Africa Solidarité, which marked since 1996 the emergence of women’s movements for peace on the continent, she spends much of her time “on the ground” meeting with refugees and internally displaced, including women whose rights have been violated. From Somalia to South Sudan, Nigeria and Burundi, she collects their stories, lists the emergencies, and defines the actions to be implemented.

She has no fear to confront Heads of State. In 2001, for example, with a delegation of women from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, she convinced the feared Charles Taylor, then president of Liberia, to participate in a regional summit on peace, thus avoiding the outbreak of war. She has also collaborated on various reconciliation programs in areas of crisis and in post-conflict election observation missions. And ishe s currently working on the establishment of an index to track the progress of the condition of women in every country in Africa.

Ranked among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2011 Bineta Diop remains hopeful despite the violence that still ravage the continent.

“What makes me hopeful is to see that women are able to organize despite everything,” she said. “To see them come together in very difficult conditions, to keep smiling and never give up.”

Actualité interviewed her at the World Summit for Innovation in Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar, where she gave a lecture.

For 20 years, Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) has involved women in prevention and resolution of conflicts. What are the main results?

FAS has allowed women to organize and develop skills to become leaders in the establishment of peace. Violent conflict has a major impact on women, their bodies are often used as a weapon of war, a battlefield. But when it comes to solving problems, they are not invited to the discussion table, contrary to the demands of Resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council. The mobilization of women can provide a positive change of attitude, we can be an army without weapons. We can bring together Christian and Muslim women and various ethnic groups to talk and to develop common positions.

How can they manage to override their differences, especially when they have suffered so much conflict, even raped?

While men kill, society makes women responsible for the family, children’s education, care of the old … They therefore have a greater interest in peace and security. They can use their status as mothers and sisters in order to win. FAS provides training throughout the continent to help them understand that the real causes of these conflicts are not religious or ethnic, but related to the sharing of power and resources. Once sensitized, they arrive very quickly to transcend their differences and to put aside their grudges.

(Click here for the original French version)

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Can the women of Africa lead the continent to peace?

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Is religion a motor or a brake for peace, in your eyes?

Religion can be used to ignite conflict, but it is not the source. Men have always used regionalism and ethnicity to defend a political strategy. And now, the Boko Haram and al-Shabaab use Islam to manipulate people. Many listen to them because they are not educated and do not understand the religious texts. And in religion as in politics, women are dominated and have no voice.

What has caused the proliferation of terrorist groups?

The international community and all of us have perhaps made mistakes. Dictators have been overthrown without replacement, which created a political vacuum and space for these groups. And poverty is fertile ground. These groups infiltrating populations are embedded in families. They recruit unemployed youth by promising them paradise and virgins to no end. And they provide communities with what they need: water, electricity, basic education … and everyone closes her eyes. Especially since they are sowing fear.

How can women contribute to their dismantling?

More and more people want to fight against those who take their communities hostage and are not concerned with the interests of the population. The proof is that when their leaders are driven to a village by the military, they are quick to burn everything they had built! To overcome these movements, we must push the state to immediately replace what al-Shabaab and others have set up. People dream of a better world, we must give it to them! But for now, nobody is talking about that. Instead, they talk about military security and intelligence but not the roots of the problem. The State has failed in its responsibility to provide jobs …

In his recent book Africanistan (Fayard, 2015), French scientist Serge Michailof fears that the population explosion in Africa produces the same effects as in Afghanistan. What do you think?

We should not look only at the dark side, there is not chaos throughout Africa. The continent has the resources, and the potential for the greatest economic growth in the world. We have farmland, lakes, oil, sun … and youth who, when properly equipped and motivated, can move mountains. But we need to be better organized. If Africa was not as divided, with 54 countries who look only inward, if we had a comprehensive policy around common interests, we could share our wealth.

Is this the spirit of the Pan-African Vision 2063 action plan, drawn up by the AU?

Absolutely! To achieve it, we consulted everybody: young and old people, women, the private sector … in order to build a prosperous continent, where there may be conflicts, but less violence, and where we can finally benefit from our resources. There is a growing realization: political leaders realize that they involve young people if they want to move forward. And more and more women are involved, are elected, are becoming heads of state. Africa has suffered enough, it is time that men and women of the continent take their destiny in hand, because nobody will do it for them. One objective of the plan is to silence all weapons before 2020, and women certainly have a role to play in that.

Training for Peace

Her work experience in conflict zones has motivated Bineta Diop to create the Pan-African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development in 2005. Located in Dakar, Senegal, the Centre offers training throughout the continent, directly at a community level.