Our Voices Matter, co-produced by the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and six local DRC partners in collaboration with WITNESS, features interviews with women victims/survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence from North Kivu, South Kivu and Province Orientale. Through their testimonies, this advocacy film highlights the multiplicity of perpetrators operating in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the lack of accountability for these crimes, and the medical services, psychosocial assistance and economic support urgently needed by victims/survivors.

The interviews for this film were conducted by six local partners of the Women’s Initiatives, who are women’s rights and peace advocates from Eastern DRC. The film was developed and co-edited by the Women’s Initiatives and its local partners in collaboration with WITNESS.

Testimonies featured in this film include Elisabeth, who was told by the police that she could not have been raped by the Congolese Army because she was ‘too old’; Riziki, a 17-year old school girl raped by several FDLR militia members who now lives with a physical disability after also being shot during the attack; and Chantal, a young girl abducted and raped by LRA rebels who describes the violence and trauma she experienced and witnessed. Our Voices Matter is a call to action to the Congolese Government to provide victims/survivors with the necessary medical and economic assistance, ensure domestic accountability for perpetrators, and increase their cooperation with the ICC. The film also calls upon the international community to support initiatives to prevent these crimes in the DRC, ensure the protection of women and girls and support ICC prosecutions.

While existing laws in the DRC criminalise sexual violence, perpetrators are rarely prosecuted and impunity is common. In addition, the scale of the ongoing violence in Eastern DRC including the widespread commission of sexual and gender-based crimes, along with the stigma associated with these crimes and the limited availability of medical and support services for victims/survivors, contributes to a culture of lawlessness, poverty and trauma.

Our Voices Matter demonstrates the ways in which these factors disproportionately affect women and girls.

Gender Justice Video Advocacy

Our Voices Matter is a part of a larger video advocacy initiative launched in 2010 between the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS in which more than 30 partners of the Women’s Initiatives have been trained in video advocacy. The project has produced six gender justice films highlighting sexual and gender-based violence and other gender issues in relation to several armed conflicts, fragile states and post-conflict environments.

Five of the six countries selected for the video project currently have situations under investigation by the ICC- Uganda, the DRC, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Kenya. They are also countries in which the Women’s Initiatives has extensive domestic peace and justice programmes and well established partnerships with a large number of grassroots women’s rights and peace advocates, networks and organisations. In addition to Our Voices Matter, other videos in this series include No Longer Silent (Uganda), Our Plea (the CAR), Bridging the Gap: Reinforcing Gender Desks in Nairobi (Kenya) and a Sudan video (unnamed for security reasons). The documentary on bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is currently in post-production.

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice has 147 organisational and network partners and members in Eastern DRC, as well as three focal points in Province Orientale, North Kivu and South Kivu.

In 2006, the organisation conducted its first two documentation missions in the Ituri district in response to the exclusion of charges for gender-based crimes from the ICC case, The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. On the basis of this documentation, in 2006 the Women’s Initiatives submitted a dossier to the Office of the Prosecutor which details 51 interviews with victims/survivors of sexual violence of which more than 30 of those interviewed alleged the crimes were committed by Thomas Lubanga’s UPC militia. In November 2006, the Women’s Initiatives became the first NGO to file before the ICC, highlighting the limited justice to be provided for Ituri-related victims of a case based on narrow charges and arguing for investigations into gender-based crimes.

In 2012 and 2013, the organisation filed again in the Lubanga case to highlight ways in which reparations ordered by the ICC should address the particular experience of women and girls, including victims/survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Read more about the DRC Situation and cases in the eLetter Legal Eye on the ICC and in the annual Gender Report Card on the ICC.

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice DRC programmes, in collaboration with local partners, include:

• Documentation of sexual and gender-based crimes;
• Direct assistance and support initiatives for victims/survivors of sexual and gender-based violence including the establishment of a Transit House and access to medical support;
• Advocacy and legal filings before the ICC regarding the prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence in Eastern DRC;
• Advocacy and monitoring of the implementation of the 2009 Goma Peace Agreements and their impact on the security situation in Eastern DRC;
• Monitoring outbreaks of fighting and tracking militia movements;
• The women’s human rights defenders support programme – to date, we have assisted with the temporary relocation of more than 30 women’s human rights defenders and their families due to threats and harassment from militia;
• Electoral monitoring, including documenting the participation of women as candidates in provincial elections; and
• Co-hosting 20 country-based workshops, strategic meetings and events in Province Orientale, North Kivu, South Kivu and Kinshasa for more than 500 participants since 2006.
• Read more about these programmes in our eLetter Women’s Voices and in In Pursuit of Peace | À la poursuite de la paix.

No Longer Silent, co-produced by the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and local Ugandan partners in collaboration with WITNESS, features six testimonies of women abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and their demand for justice, access to land, housing, livelihoods and psycho-social and medical assistance. Through their testimonies, this advocacy film highlights the need for the Government of Uganda to implement the Juba Peace Agreements (2007-2008) and transform the current priorities of the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) to include women as stakeholders and beneficiaries in the reconstruction and recovery process.

The interviews for the documentary were filmed by six members of the Greater North Women’s Voices for Peace Network (GNWVPN) – the Women’s Initiatives primary partner in Northern Uganda. The film was developed and co-edited by the Women’s Initiatives and its local partners in collaboration with WITNESS.

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender has been working in Uganda since 2004 and has over 5,000 members and partners who are grassroots women’s rights and peace activists in the conflict-affected north and north-eastern sub-regions of Uganda.

Gender Justice Video Advocacy

No Longer Silent is a part of a larger video advocacy initiative launched in 2010 between the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS in which more than 30 partners of the Women’s Initiatives have been trained in video advocacy. The project has produced six gender justice films highlighting sexual and gender-based violence and other gender issues in armed conflicts, fragile states and post-conflict environments.

Five of the six countries selected for the video project currently have situations under investigation by the ICC—Uganda, the DRC, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Kenya. They are also countries in which the Women’s Initiatives has extensive domestic peace and justice programmes and well established partnerships with a large number of grassroots women’s rights and peace advocates, networks and organisations.

In addition to No Longer Silent,other videos in this series include Our Voices Matter (the DRC), Bridging the Gap: Reinforcing Gender Desks in Nairobi (Kenya),Our Plea (the CAR), and a Sudan video (unnamed for security reasons). The documentary on bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is currently in post-production.

In December 2010, seven members of the Greater North Women’s Voices for Peace Network, the primary partner of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice in Uganda, attended a five day workshop on video and advocacy training organised by the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS.

This video documents the training workshop and includes interviews with some of the participants

From 28 March to 6 April 2011, the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS held a ten-day video advocacy workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, for 17 gender justice activists from six armed conflict and post-conflict situations.  This video documents the training and includes interviews with the organisers.

In September 2010, the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice launched a multi-year project with WITNESS to train more than 30 partners and women’s rights activists from armed conflict situations on the use of video as an advocacy tool.

The gender justice films and the skills developed through this project are being incorporated into the Women’s Initiatives international and domestic gender justice programmes, international strategies and global movement-building activities.

Our Plea, co-produced by the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and Jeunesse Unie pour la Protection de l’Environnement et le Développement Communautaire (JUPEDEC), a local partner, in collaboration with WITNESS, features the testimonies of two young women, Lea and Joelle, who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the South-Eastern provinces of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The interviews reflect the experience of many communities in the CAR and the Great Lakes Region regarding the crimes committed by the LRA including the pillaging and destruction of villages, and the torture, rape and enslavement of children and adults forced to fight for the LRA and to become a part of this militia.

In Our Plea Lea and Joelle describe their experiences within the LRA, their lives following their return to their communities and their efforts to start over.

The interviews for this film were conducted by JUPEDEC, one of the local partners of the Women’s Initiatives within the Central African Republic. The film was developed and co-edited by the Women’s Initiatives and JUPEDEC in collaboration with WITNESS.

In 2005, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, and four other senior LRA commanders for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Northern Uganda, (see arrest warrant here). In addition to their activities in Northern Uganda, the LRA has also been active for many years in Southern Sudan. In 2006, the LRA agreed to a ceasefire and entered into peace talks with the Government of Uganda. Subsequently, the militia group removed itself from Uganda and increased its operations in several neighbouring countries including the CAR and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  Since 2009, the Women’s Initiatives and its local partners have advocated for the ICC to extend its investigations into crimes committed by the LRA in the Great Lakes Region including the CAR, the DRC and South Sudan.

Our Plea is a strong call for the ICC to consider further investigations into alleged LRA crimes committed in the CAR and elsewhere, and to the CAR Government to provide urgent medical, psychosocial and economic assistance for the rehabilitation and reintegration of LRA victims/survivors, especially girls and women including those returning with children born as a result of rape and sexual enslavement.

Gender Justice Video Advocacy

Our Plea is a part of a larger video advocacy initiative launched in 2010 between the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and WITNESS. The project will produce six gender justice films highlighting sexual and gender-based violence and other gender issues in armed conflicts, fragile states and post-conflict environments.

Five of the six countries selected for the video project currently have situations under investigation by the ICC- Uganda, the DRC, the CAR, Sudan and Kenya. They are also countries in which the Women’s Initiatives has extensive domestic peace and justice programmes and well established partnerships with a large number of grassroots women’s rights and peace advocates, networks and organisations.
In addition to Our Plea,other videos in this series include Our Voices Matter (DRC), No Longer Silent (Uganda), Bridging the Gap: Reinforcing Gender Desks in Nairobi (Kenya), and a Sudan video (unnamed for security reasons). The documentary on bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is currently in post-production.

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice programmes in the Central African Republic

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice has been working in the CAR since 2005 and the following year we held our first meetings and consultations with local women’s rights organisations and victim/survivor groups.

In July 2009, the Women’s Initiatives was accepted as amicus curiae by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the case of Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, to submit observations on the decision issued by Pre-Trial Chamber III to dismiss charges of rape as torture along with other charges relating to gender-based violence in the confirmation decision.  Read more in the Gender Report Card 2009 and Legal Eye on the ICC eLetter August 2009 and July 2009.

In November 2009, the Women’s Initiatives held the Women, Peace, Justice, Power workshop in Bangui for 40 local women’s rights and peace advocates. The four-day workshop provided participants with an update on the Bemba case as well as information about the ICC including the assistance mandate of the ICC Trust Fund for Victims. Following the workshop, women’s organisations, advocates from the youth sector and victim/survivor networks organised a public march of over 2,000 women calling for accountability, implementation of the reconciliation agreements and assistance to victims/survivors.

See statements from the workshop In Pursuit of Peace | A la poursuite de la paix

Bridging the Gap: Reinforcing Gender Desks in Nairobi, produced by the Young Women’s Leadership Institute (Kenya) (see also here) with the support of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice in collaboration with WITNESS, features interviews with victims/survivors of rape, medical practitioners, lawyers and police officers addressing the response by the law enforcement service to sexual and gender-based violence in Nairobi.

These interviews highlight the reluctance of women to report sexual violence to the police due to fear, the perceived corruption of the police and their reluctance to carry out serious investigations. Several of the interviews highlight the impact on victims/survivors of not being able to access timely medical care due to the limited referrals provided by the police.

In 2004, the Kenyan police force established Gender Desks within police units and stations to facilitate reports of domestic and sexual violence. Although this has led to some improvements, the interviewees in this film highlight the need for specialised training for the police officers assigned to the Gender Desks, the importance of locating the Desks in private and secure settings, the need for improvements in police investigations of sexual and gender-based violence, and the establishment of a comprehensive referral mechanism by the Gender Desks.

This documentary was filmed and edited by the Young Women’s Leadership Institute with support from the Women’s Initiatives in collaboration with WITNESS.

En octobre 2010, Women’s Initiatives et WITNESS ont organisé un atelier de formation préliminaire sur les techniques de vidéo pour 13 de nos partenaires de la RDC avant la Marche mondiale pour les femmes, le 13-17 octobre, à Bukavu, dans l’Est du RDC. Ce court-métrage a été réalisé par les participants pendant l’atelier et souligne la situation sécuritaire des femmes dans le conflit au Nord et au Sud Kivu, la prévalence de la violence sexuelle perpétrée par les milices, et la nécessité d’avoir la responsabilité pour ces crimes.

Celebrating Bertha von Suttner and 100 years of the Peace Palace

Women’s Initiatives addresses UN Security Council

Justice for All? The ICC – Ten Year Review Conference: Gender justice and the ICC, progress and reflections

Protection, Participation and Reparations – child soldiers and the ICC

UN Press Conference on Gender Report Card 2010

Women’s Initiatives interview with Al Jazeera about rape trial in DRC.

Interview with Brigid Inder, Executive Director

Radio Interview by ABC with Brigid Inder, Executive Director

Women’s Initiatives speaks to Al’ Jazeera at the Opening of Bemba trial