Full report - International Alert

63 • Women’s Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of CongoRECOMMENDATIONSThe atrocities committed against women and girls in South Kivu represent without question anunprecedented degree of barbarism and are both an insult and a challenge to human civilisationat the start of the third millennium. Everything possible must be done to ensure that they neverhappen again. The extent of the rapes and sexual violence against women in South Kivu is adirect result of the military and security situation in the Great Lakes region and theproliferation of foreign or national armed groups operating on the ground. Massive violationsof human rights, war crimes and crimes against humanity have taken place. In view of this werecommend:A. To the UN Security Council:• To require the governments of countries that have attacked the DRC to make reparationfor the various crimes committed, including rapes and sexual violence that women havebeen subjected to by compensating the victims through the government of the DRC;• To consider creating appropriate structures with regard to the DRC, particularly aninternational structure on the model of the International Tribunal for Rwanda in orderto eradicate the culture of impunity that exists in Congo and the Great Lakes region;• To set up, as soon as possible, an independent international inquiry, with a view toestablishing individual and collective responsibility with regard to sexual violencecommitted against women;• To ensure that the restructuring and reintegration of the fighting forces into the newarmy is carried out in a rigorous and transparent manner, so as to promote a truenational republican army in the DRC;• To ensure that the process of disarmament, demobilisation and repatriation (DDR)takes place, adopting appropriate effective measures for the return of foreign militiasto their country of origin, in compliance with Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.B. To the international community:• To ensure that the financial support given to the government of the DRC by the WorldBank, the European Union and other international institutions takes into account theneeds of Congolese women, especially rural women who constitute the mostdisadvantaged social group and the one most affected by the sexual violenceperpetrated during the war;• To give adequate support to local organisations that protect and promote women’srights so that sustainable projects can be established, since the construction of a statebased on the rule of law requires that women’s rights be promoted;