Today, in Kinshasa,  the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice together with six Congolese partners and WITNESS, launches the gender justice advocacy video Our Voices Matter – Congolese Women Demand Justice and Accountability. Our Voices Matter 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 were conducted by six local women’s rights advocates who are partners of the Women’s Initiatives.

The 25-minute gender justice film was privately screened for the Congolese Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Ms Wivine Mumba Matipa, before being publicly launched today at an event attended by representatives of the Congolese Government, the UN, the diplomatic missions and the media at Grand Hôtel in Kinshasa.

Our Voices Matter is 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 documentary countries selected for the project currently have situations under investigation by the ICC. The countries involved in the project are also locations where the Women’s Initiatives has extensive local peace and justice programmes and well established partnerships with a large number of grassroots women’s rights and peace networks and organisations. All of the videos were filmed and co-edited by the Women’s Initiatives’ local partners in each of the conflict and post-conflict settings.

Videos in this series include No Longer Silent (Northern Uganda) and Our Plea (Central African Republic). The documentaries on Kenya and Kyrgyzstan are currently in production. The films will soon be available on our website.

Follow the launch of Our Voices Matter live on Twitter @4GenderJustice

Read the press release of the launch of Our Voices Matter in English and in French