“In the DRC, more than 123,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported in 2023, a 300 per cent increase in only three years and over 61,000 victims have been treated by humanitarian partners in the first half of the year 2024.
This represents one victim every four minutes.”
Prof. Denis Mukwege
Written statement of Prof. Denis Mukwege – to the ad hoc Parliamentary Inquiry into conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the legal responses thereto
London – November 2024
Honourable Members of the Inquiry,
I salute the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute initiative for convening an ad hoc Parliamentary Inquiry into conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the legal responses thereto.
As a first hand witness of the devastating effects of CRSV used as a weapon of war in Eastern DRC, I have high hopes that this scourge receives greater attention of Parliamentarians, as these acts constitute an attack on our shared humanity and are therefore a matter of urgent international concern.
It is with a profound sense of urgency and responsibility that I represent the staff of Panzi Hospital and Foundation and provide this testimony, reflecting the experiences of various generation of survivors who have endured unimaginable suffering, yet whose courage to seek justice remains unwavering.
During the last decades of continued war and instability, our country has been subject to repeated wars of
aggression by neighbouring countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. Women and girls have paid and continue to pay a very heavy price in this forgotten war and neglected crisis.
The systematic recourse to rape and gender-based violence, including sexual slavery and forced pregnancy, used by all combatant forces – Congolese and foreign armies or armed groups – has been characterized by the widespread and systematic nature of these most heinous crimes, as highlighted in the United Nations Mapping report, published 14 years ago. During this period, sexual violence was frequently used as a method of war and a strategy to displace, terrorize and subjugate the population1
.
For instance, commemoration took place two weeks ago in the locality of Mwenga, 120 km form Bukavu, the
capital of South Kivu, where around 15 women were abducted, tortured, raped in public in front of their husbands and children and then buried alive by a rebel movement supported by Rwanda in 1999. No one has ever been prosecuted or held accountable for these international crimes that are imprescriptible.
To give you an idea of the scale and gravity of the prevalence of the sexual violence pandemic in the DRC, we
have treated together with my staff more than 83.000 victims since the foundation of Panzi Hospital in 1999.
They have ranged in age from as young as 5 years old to as old as women well into their 80s.
In the DRC, more than 123,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported in 2023, a 300 per cent increase in only three years and over 61,000 victims have been treated by humanitarian partners in the first half of the year 2024.
This represents one victim every four minutes. The escalation of armed violence since 2021 resulting from the resurgence of M23 rebel armed group and the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF), has led to staggering levels of sexual violence, often associated with the forced displacement of civilian population.
I wish to stress the alarming numbers of sexual violence victims in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps around Goma, the besieged capital of North Kivu. A recent civil society report describes unprecedented sexual violence linked to massive displacement of civilians in the region and shows that 91 percent of victims treated in 2013 with Doctors Without Borders assistance in DRC were admitted in North Kivu, where clashes between the occupying forces, the Congolese army and other armed groups have been raging since late 2021, forcing hundred of thousands of civilians to flee.
The majority of IDPs are children and women, and the lack of security in and around these camps combined with the lack of funding of the Humanitarian Response Plan exacerbates their vulnerability. It often forces them to resort to survival sex and prostitution or to seek wood and food outside the camps, exposing them to the armed men and the enemy.
Panzi Foundation is contributing to alleviating the suffering of displaced women and girls in dire need of
humanitarian by providing dignity kits, basic supplies and food.
Even though the above-mentioned data are extremely shocking, they represent only the tip of the iceberg, as many places affected by the ongoing conflict remain inaccessible for health and humanitarian aid workers, and many victims died or are too traumatized to talk and seek much needed support and care.
The right of victims to justice is an undeniable prerequisite for any credible effort towards social and economic development and consolidation of society and peace.
As with other human rights, it is useful to return to basic principles, because the prohibition of rape and other forms of sexual violence entails States obligations, in particular an obligation to protect which includes making sexual and gender-based violence an offence, effectively punishing the perpetrators, and providing adequate care and compensation to victims
.
Since 2006, the DRC has enacted laws regarding sexual violence, but we must reduce the gap between the law and its implementation. It is not just a question of responding to violence, it is above all necessary to prevent the non-repetition of crimes, restore the values of humanity within communities, and amplify efforts to combat the roots causes of violence and instability.
Impunity remains a major factor, together with the illegal exploitation and illicit trade of strategic minerals, which is deeply linked with mass crimes committed in the DRC for the past decades.
Shame, silence, stigmatization, and fear of reprisals too often prevent women from filing a complaint. On top of these obstacles, the lack of confidence in State institutions, particularly in the justice system, dissuades many Congolese victims from filing complaints and often leads them to resort to friendly settlements under local customary law.
Therefore, Panzi Foundation carries out awareness-raising activities within the martyr communities, sensitizes religious and community leaders and supports those who wish to do so to file a complaint. To note, the legal pilar of Panzi holistic care model is often the last stage of our support for our patients – which also includes medical, phycological and economic assistance – and our legal clinics are covering all the costs of preparing a file and representation at all stages of the procedure free of charge.
Beyond facilitating access to justice, we attach particular importance to ensuring the enforcement of court
decisions, which allows for redress through the courts, even if to date, the enforcement of judgments remains extremely rare, which leaves the victims with a feeling of justice half done.
In addition, as “Justice must not only be done, it must also be seen to be done” to defeat the culture of impunity, Panzi Foundation also supports mobile court hearings to bring justice closer to litigants and communities, and these efforts sometimes lead to encouraging results.
On July 27, 2018, the DRC High Military Court upheld the conviction of 11 men, including a provincial deputy,
found guilty in December 2017 of crimes against humanity for the rape of dozens of young children and girls and for murders in the village of Kavumu, 25 km from Bukavu.
To note, this decision is the culmination of five years of mobilization by many national and international actors, including health professionals, psychologists, Congolese lawyers and NGOs. For a country where prosecutions for sexual violence often fail due to lack of sufficient evidence and commitment from authorities, this longawaited judgment confirmed that synergies between health actors, police, lawyers and judges can result in justice for survivors
.
Most recently, on May 15th 2023, the Military Tribunal of Uvira sentenced Munyololo Mbao, alias Ndarumanga, former leader of a faction of the Raia Mutomboki armed group in the DRC, to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. Among the charges confirmed by the court are the crime of murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery as well as forced pregnancy, which constitutes a historic precedent before a national court
.
It is worth mentioning these precedents but also to stress that access to justice remain very limited, if not nonexistent, for most survivors, and although we encourage these efforts as justice is an integral part of the healing journey of our patients, we must acknowledge that the above-mentioned Court decisions appear like drops of water in an ocean of impunity, which remains the norm rather than the exception for sexual and gender crimes committed in the DRC.
Mobile courts and other community-based justice mechanisms should be expanded, with increased funding and long-term sustainability plans. These initiatives should be supported by robust witness protection programs to ensure the safety of survivors and their families.
Today, the world has started to mobilize against the scourge of CRSV, including thanks to the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office-led Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), and the link between sexual violence and international peace and security is clearly established since the adoption of landmark United Nations Security Council resolution 1325, adopted nearly 25 years ago. We are convinced that there will be no peace without justice, and no lasting peace until victims of human rights violations are heard and treated with dignity by States.
Therefore, to break the vicious cycle of violence and impunity, we advocate for the implementation of the
Mapping report recommendations and the adoption of a holistic national transitional justice strategy in the DRC, to be implemented by Congolese authorities with the support of the international community.
Like all peoples, the Congolese have not only the right to peace, which is the essential for the enjoyment of all human rights, but also to justice, truth, reparations and institutional reforms aiming at the non-repetition of mass atrocities.
Faced with the scale of the crimes that have ravaged our country for decades, the Congolese judicial system, too often undermined by corruption, political interference and a lack of independence, does not have the capacity to tackle the challenges of impunity.
While DRC President promised in 2020 to put transitional justice on the government’s agenda, only a non-judicial mechanism, the National Reparations Fund – FONAREV – has been set up in 2022 but is not yet operational and effective, which is causing much disappointment among victims. So far, only interim reparations were made available to survivors of CRSV thanks to civil society projects financed by the international community in North Kivu, South Kivu and Central Kasai
.
In addition, despite the launch of a popular consultation process on transitional justice by the Minister of Human Rights in 2022 and the establishment of a Scientific Committee responsible for developing the draft national transitional justice policy in the DRC, this policy has still not been adopted to date and we deplore the fact that the government’s action program for 2024-2028 contains only a cosmetic mention of transitional justice.
This bitter observation demonstrates that there is no real political will on the part of the regime in place to advance transitional justice in the DRC, which is very regrettable but hardly surprising when we know that war criminals have swapped their uniforms to occupy positions within institutions and the government.
Congolese men and women also have the right to their Nuremberg. This is why we are advocating alongside
victims and survivors for the establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for Congo and/or mixed
specialized chambers. The high level of involvement of foreign armies on Congolese territory, the international or internationalized dimension of the conflicts and of the crimes committed in the DRC require an international and/or internationalized response from justice.
In addition to prosecution, we insist on the urgent need to put the security and justice sector reforms, including the penitentiary, at the forefront of transitional justice measures to be considered and to put in place a procedure to vet judges, security and defence forces, but also the intelligence services. This is a top priority for the consolidation of rule of law, protection of civilians and human rights and peacebuilding. #
There must also be significant investment in the DRC’s judicial infrastructure, including capacity-building for judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement personnel. This should include specialized training on CRSV and gender-sensitive approaches to justice.
After decades of denial, manipulation and lies, truth seeking mechanisms appears essential to establish the
responsibility of state and non-state actors, prevent the non-repetition of atrocities, deal with the trauma of the society and promote reconciliation within Congolese society and between the countries of the Great Lakes region.
Furthermore, given the time needed to set up the international and/or hybrid criminal jurisdictions to be
established, we urge the international community and the Congolese authorities to facilitate as soon as possible the deployment of a team of investigators integrated into the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office, including among others experts in forensic anthropology, to exhume the numerous mass graves in order to preserve and collect evidence of acts likely to constitute international crimes committed in the DRC.
This exhumation process, which is a precondition for the efforts to prosecute and judge the perpetrators and their masterminders of international crimes as part of the transitional justice strategy to be implemented in the DRC, will also provide a dignified burial for the deceased, and allow families to mourn their loved ones.
Furthermore, we welcome the determination of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Court (ICC) who published in 2023 a policy paper on gender crimes11, and we hope that this tool will contribute to efforts to fight impunity throughout the world, including in the DRC, specially as ICC Prosecutor Karim Kahn decided to renew investigative efforts in the DRC with a focus on alleged Rome Statute crimes occurring in North Kivu since January 2022, which coincides with the launch of the latest aggression of the RDF with its suppletive of M23 armed group.
Finally, we also encourage the UK and other western states to use the principle of “universal jurisdiction” to
investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed in the DRC, including those listed in the Mapping report. It is time for the UK to stop parading criminals on red carpets in London, but to face a red line, that of the law.
If we want to eliminate CRSV in the DRC, international law and justice must apply equally everywhere. The
international community, including the UK, must do more to end the Congolese tragedy and has a vital role to play in supporting justice initiatives in the DRC and in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
All levels of responsibility – national, regional and international – must be established, and Rwanda and Uganda must be held accountable for their repeated violation of international law and human rights, their destabilization activities as well as their leading roles in the plundering of natural and mineral resources and the commission of international crimes committed in the DRC. Coordinated international sanctions of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and the UK, and legal action should be considered against individuals and entities authors or complicit in these crimes.
It is urgent to end double standards policies that have profoundly eroded the credibility of international actors and institutions charged with maintaining peace and security and protecting universal human rights.
I trust the testimonies of witnesses and experts that will be heard in the Parliamentary commission will galvanize political will in the UK to contribute to ending the climate of near total impunity prevailing in the DRC by bringing transitional justice to the millions of Congolese victims and assisting Congolese people in honouring its dead with dignity, healing its wounds and building with future generations a Nation free from exploitation, suffering, humiliation and injustice.
I thank you in advance for the actions you will undertake to accompany us on the path to peace through justice, both reparative and retributive.
Denis Mukwege
Nobel Peace Prize 2018
===
Footnotes:
1 Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003, OHCHR, August 2010, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/CD/DRC_MAPPING_REPORT_FINAL_EN.pdf
panzifoundation.org
Women Peace and Security report of the Secretary General, 24 September 2024,
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/S-2024-671.pdf
SRSG Keita’s Statement United Nations Security Council
New York, 30 September 2024, available here: https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/2024-09-
30_briefing_de_la_srsg_devant_le_conseil_de_securite.pdf
Letter dated 31 May 2024 from the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo addressed to the President of the
Security Council: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/118/80/pdf/n2411880.pdf
MSF report “We are calling for help”, released on 1St oct 2024 : https://msf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/EN%20-
%20DRC%20SV%20Report%20-%20Print%20-%20Pages%20-%20V2.pdf
Guidebook on State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Mukwege Foundation, available here :
https://www.endcrsv.org/guidebook/
panzifoundation.org
The case of Kavumu: a model of medicolegal collaboration; Naimer, Karen et al.
The Lancet, Volume 393, Issue 10191, 2651 – 2654, available here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-
6736(19)30649-X/abstract
8 DRC: Conviction for forced pregnancy and other crimes against humanity for warlord Ndarumanga – TRIAL International, TRIAL
International, available here : https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/drc-conviction-for-forced-pregnancy-and-other-crimes-againsthumanity-for-warlord-ndarumanga/
panzifoundation.org
Panzi Foundation Advocacy Brief for the Adoption of a Holistic National Transitional Justice Strategy, 2021, available
here: https://panzifoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Holistic-National-Transitional-Justice-Strategy.pdf
Information on Global Survivors Fund activities in the DRC are available here: https://www.globalsurvivorsfund.org/ourwork/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/
panzifoundation.org
Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Policy paper on gender crimes, 2023, available here : https://www.icccpi.int/sites/default/files/2023-12/2023-policy-gender-en-web.pdf
Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC on the Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and renewed
investigations, 14 October 2024, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-situation-democraticrepublic-congo-and-renewed
panzifoundation.org
