gisw13_chapters

CONGO, democratic republic ofOnline violation of women’s rightsSi Jeunesse SavaitFrançoise MukukuIntroductionDuring the electoral campaign of 2011, a female politicianfrom the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)stood for parliament and was duly elected. One day,while I was watching television, I saw that she hadbeen the victim of phone harassment. A strangerregularly threatened her because she had been successfulin the elections.The insults included insinuations that she hadprostituted herself to win the post and that shewas no longer worthy of being a wife. The man,who failed to introduce himself every time, alsoused a blocked number. Despite her fear at seeingthat anybody could access her number, shesaid that she felt an inner reassurance becauseshe had campaigned well and deserved her seatin parliament.The story of our parliamentarian is unfortunatelynot isolated. For women who dare to take publicoffice, or are in some way in a position to give theiropinions on the running of the country – such asjournalists, female politicians or public figures inother domains – it is not uncommon to receive telephonethreats to discourage them in their work, orto have their private photographs circulated withouttheir consent or even doctored photo montagesshowing them in compromising positions. Identitythefts on Facebook have also multiplied.Policy and political backgroundIn 2006, the DRC organised its first democratic andtransparent elections in 40 years. Although the newconstitution adopted by referendum included, forthe first time in black and white, the principle ofequal male-female representation, the implementinglaw for this parity was not adopted in time toforce political parties to submit electoral lists withequal numbers of female and male candidates.The fact that in the DRC power is still perceivedto be in the hands of men and women are culturallyregarded as unsuitable for the public arena has alsohad an impact on the election of female politicians.In every election, they find it difficult to be accepted.Their personalities are sullied by falseaccusations, and the publication of compromisingphotographs and videos on the internet or viaBluetooth is a way of discouraging them and tarnishingtheir images in the minds of the Congoleseelectorate.With regard to privacy violations, Congoleselaws do not recognise the sanctity of personal mail,which may include email. The provisions of theCriminal Code stipulate that defamation is applicableif newspapers publish false information. Butin most cases, only influential people and politiciansgo beyond their right to respond and resortto the legal system to assert their rights. There isno provision in the law for the theft of data, whichfalls under misappropriation of goods belonging toanother person, as any type of fraud is classified bythe Criminal Code. In the case of publication withoutconsent, there is no real misappropriation asthe data still exists and is accessible to the owner.Sometimes, the data was given in good faith, but fora different purpose.Using technology to violate women’s rightsWith the increase in the number of internet usersand service abuses and owing to the easy accessprovided by mobile telephones, we are witnessingthe appearance of violence against women makinguse of these technologies.Telephones and applications that allow anonymityare used to frighten women. They arethreatened to discourage them from talking about“distressing” subjects. This is what happened tothree female radio journalists from Nord-Kivu whoprovided regular news coverage about women whohad been the victims of brutal and cruel rape in theeast of the country. They received threats to forcethem to stop tarnishing the image of the country.Most of the time, these women do not reportsuch acts because they do not know what to do insuch cases.Other women, often personalities from theworld of politics, journalism or business, regularlysee photographs of themselves circulated in photomontages of naked bodies in the sexual act. This isall to reduce them to what their detractors wrongly101 / Global Information Society Watch