Global Voices Online

D.R. of Congo: Campaign against sexual violence

Sunday, May 11th, 2008 @ 10:55 UTC

by Ndesanjo Macha

Countries:: D.R. of Congo
Topics:: Children, Gender, Law
Languages:: English

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Malagasy:

Kôngô (RDK) : Fanentanana ho fampitsaharana ireo fanolanana...

“Two important events from the DRC - The one month campaign against sexual violence in the DRC took place between March 17-April 17th and coincided with a new law to ending the crimininalisation of children by accusing them of witchcraft,” writes Black Looks.

2 comments

Mwangi - the Displaced African

I think this is one of the most neglected issues of our time whose solution can have long lasting impacts long into eternity (no exaggeration). After all, men and women will always exist side by side.
I think there needs to be greater efforts to educate men on how to co-exist respectfully with women and especially with respect to their sexuality. From a very young age, in my humble opinion, men should be taught about their sex drives and how to harness them in positive ways in order to avoid its manifestation in ultimately destructive ways that include rape.
I think we can only criminalize and threaten for so long, when sexuality is such a natural part of the male existence from the time he hits puberty. After all, don’t a lot of these people who get locked up for rape end up going to prison and continuing with “active sex lives”.
There needs to be more done to educate the men while great strides are still being taken to protect the women and children.

# 2008-05-11 at 20:09 pm

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cooper

Love Black Looks and I too wonder on the brevity of the campaign.

The wars in the Congo out of the control of all but Africa I fee.Though I do believe that the world can have a significant impact on the violence against women there by noticing it, and insisting that the culture of impunity end.

To prosecute punish rapists abiding by their own laws - the stricter laws from 2006 ,would be a good start.

As far as education of men in the Congo that is another issue and one I am not familiar with but of course the education which plays into the attitude of men toward womenplays a very important role in how women are treated everywhere.

# 2008-05-16 at 5:15 am

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