Forced Marriage in the Congo

Wives in Slavery Forced Marriage in the Congo

A Free the Slaves Field Research Exposé June 2013 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Free the Slaves liberates slaves, helps them rebuild their lives, and transforms the social, economic and political forces that allow slavery to persist. We support community-driven interventions in partnership with local groups that help people to sustainable freedom and dismantle a region’s system of slavery. We convince governments, international development organizations and businesses to implement key changes required for global eradication. We document and disseminate leading-edge practices to help the anti-slavery movement work more effectively. We raise awareness and promote action by opinion leaders, decision makers and the public. Free the Slaves is showing the world that ending slavery is possible.

Funding for Free the Slaves work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including this field research and report, is provided by the Open Square Charitable Gift Fund. Open Square’s vision statement: “We envision a world where women play a full and equal role in decision making processes at every level, where challenges are pro-actively embraced with inclusivity, authenticity and respect; where beauty is defined by the achievement of human potential.”

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that as a result of their activism they are that as a result of their activism they women who misbehave!” as “strange viewed current the Slaves and formerMany Free staff members contributed to this work, designed and who including: Jody Sarich, conducted the field research; Karen Stauss, who also conducted field research and drafted a portion of this report; Zorba Leslie and Jack Kahorha for assisting in the field research; and Gabriel Deussom and Terry FitzPatrick for overseeing report drafting and Callahan, production. Photographs: Peggy Karen Stauss. We Jody Sarich, Zorba Leslie, thank Katie Stauss of Scintilla Consulting for authoring the report and contributing to its conception. thank Open Square for its loyal we Finally, patience and support as advice, – as well our on-the-ground – in sustaining warmth efforts and respond to prevent in the Congo those described in this to abuses like report.

In publishing this report, Free the Slaves the Slaves In publishing this report, Free strives to honor the individuals who agreed to speak to us in hopes of contributing to better futures for themselves and their are grateful for their fortitudechildren. We and their stories. Congolese human rights and Several facilitated and rights organizations women’s advised our work at every step of the way; without their help and expertise this work been impossible: SOS Femmes would have Activistes en Danger; Solidarité des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits Humains (SOFAD); Arche and d’Alliance . the Synergie in Baraka, Thanks also to Synergie pour l’Assistance Violations des Droits de Victims aux Judiciaire Kivu (SAJ) and Solidarité Humains au Nord et le Développement Féminine pour la Paix to Special thanks Intégral (SOFEPADI). translator Innocent Lubingo. also express our admiration for the We rights advocates who repeatedly women’s told us – usually with a hint of laughter – Acknowledgements Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Table of Contents

6 Executive Summary

8 Introduction 8 The Congo Context 8 Goals of the Research and Report 10 Female Subservience in Congolese Marriage 10 Forced Marriage as a Form of Slavery

12 Research Methodology 12 Procedures 13 Limitations of Study Methodology 13 Human Subject Protection

14 Stories of Slavery and Survival 15 Marriage by Rape 16 Marriage by Sale 18 Marriage by Kidnapping 20 Child Brides 20 Impact on Women’s Health and Welfare

26 Legal Analysis

28 Recommendations 29 To DRC Legislators and Legal Advocacy Groups 29 To DRC Courts 29 To DRC Prosecutors and Police 30 To DRC Education Ministry and Schools 30 To DRC Health Ministry and Health Providers 31 To Civil Society Organizations (churches, CBOs, NGOs, etc.)

32 Appendix 32 Helpful Definitions of Forced Marriage 32 Helpful Definitions of Slavery

33 Endnotes

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American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative Rule of Law American Bar Association of the Elimination of All Forms on United Nations Convention Women Discrimination against Community-based organization Demographic and Health Survey The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo) a Rwandan , du Rwanda Démocratiques de Libération Forces rebel group operating in Congolese territory the Slaves Free Mission in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Peacekeeping Democratic Republic of the Congo (U.N. Mission) Non-governmental organization Social Institutions and Gender Index Fund United Nations Children’s

FTS SIGI DHS NGO CBO DRC FDLR UNICEF CEDAW ABA ROLI

MONUSCO Acronyms & Terms & Acronyms Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 1 Executive Summary

There are few things more fundamental in life Researchers outline how forced marriage than marriage. It is the foundation of family. It meets the legal definition of slavery under provides legal and cultural structure for society. international conventions and DRC law, the conditions that create vulnerability There is growing recognition, however, that to enslavement, and the physical and for many women and girls in the Democratic psychological toll that forced marriage inflicts Republic of the Congo (DRC or Congo), on Congolese women. marriage can be slavery. It can begin through abduction and rape. It can be arranged by fathers to repay debts. These brides enter Key Findings: marriage against their will. They are forced to provide labor without compensation. They • Forms of Forced Marriage: cannot pursue their own life goals. And they In the Congo, forced marriages typically fall cannot escape. into one of four classifications: marriage by rape, marriage by sale, marriage by This exposé examines the causes and impacts kidnapping, and child marriage. of forced marriage in the Congo – through the stories of women and girls who have • Debt: experienced it firsthand. The case studies Poverty or debt within a woman’s family provide a lens into the reality of how forced increases her vulnerability to forced marriage occurs, how it is hidden in plain marriage. Many cases of forced marriage are view, often without being challenged, and negotiated settlements that absolve a family how it adversely impacts both the wives who member, often a father, of debt. are enslaved as well as society at large.

6 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 7 Schools & Clinics: servicesImproved in schools and health facilities are needed to ensure cases of forced marriage are identified and addressed effectively. Community Education: Increased support is needed for can that grassroots movements effectively address local attitudes and education, practices through dialogue, and other communications. Scale-up Support: Increased and coordinated and knowledge evaluation, monitoring, management is needed to ensure continuous learning and the scale-up of practices that are raising awareness and reducing vulnerability to forced marriage. The case studies provide a lens into a lens into studies provide The case marriage of how forced the reality in plain view, how it is hidden occurs, and challenged, often without being how it adversely impacts both the as as well wives who are enslaved society at large. • • • Current interviewed and former during slaves this research project commonly stated that it will be necessary to change attitudes in the Congo in order to end forced marriage. Many including wives in forced community members, do not realize that the practice is marriages, illegal. Education about the right to consensual along with education on the marriage, can help harmful impacts of forced marriage, forced marriage a Congolese residents make thing of the past. Justice System: are needed to prevent Legal revisions discrimination against women and prohibit or significantly limit the use of a dowry in marriage. or bride-price Judicial strengthening is needed to support of forced marriage prosecution crimes. Increased cooperation and in the players coordination among key including justice system is needed, courts, local governments and police, civil society. Children: Girlsto forced are especially vulnerable less power have marriage because they due to double discrimination of being both children and female in a patriarchal Child marriageshigh-risk result in society. pregnancies with greater rates of both maternal and neonatal illness and death. Conflict: The military conflict in eastern DRC has increased the vulnerability of women to creating a climate forced marriage by Armed where there is limited rule of law. taking with impunity, combatants ignore laws women and girls from their homes. • • • Key Recommendations: Key Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Forced marriage can and should be addressed within the framework of the anti-slavery movement – wielding the full range of effective tools – from legislative reform and law enforcement to locally-driven networks for prevention, protection, rescue and self-liberation, and social 2 norm transformation. Introduction

minerals. The Congo Report: Slavery in Conflict The Congo Context Minerals3 revealed the presence of slavery in Congo’s North Kivu Province. Congo’s The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC or Mining Slaves: Slavery at South Kivu Mines4 Congo) is a beautiful place. Its lush landscapes documented slavery in the South Kivu province. are picture postcards of tropical bounty. It’s a region blessed with abundant natural Those reports examined how unstable resources. Congo exports minerals that are conditions in eastern Congo’s conflict zone used in manufacturing around the globe.1 contribute to widespread enslavement, including forced labor, debt bondage, forced But the DRC is also one of the most prostitution, sexual slavery, peonage and lawless and violent spots in the world today. child labor. This report expands that base Kidnappings, rape, slavery and other assaults of knowledge with a closer examination of a on freedom and human dignity occur daily. An lesser-discussed form of slavery also present estimated 5 million Congolese have died as in eastern Congo: forced marriage. a result of ongoing armed conflict.2 Control of lucrative mining sites, and the slaves who labor there, fuels the fighting. Profits from the production of “conflict minerals” such as tin, Goals of the tungsten, tantalum and gold provide revenue Research and Report for a variety of armed groups. This report is the product of field research Free the Slaves (FTS) has uncovered conducted in North Kivu and South Kivu widespread slavery at key mining sites in provinces in 2012. Researchers gathered the eastern DRC that produce these conflict the perspectives of, among others, wives

8 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 9 Many of the girls and women met during Many of their the research had been unaware as rights within their marriages and, had lost a result of their experiences, was psychological control hope. As such, enough to imprison them. cases of forced marriage in eastern DRC meet the definition of slaverya range of marital in formulasgirls – including women and who or sold, tricked, traded, raped, kidnapped, were into marriage.exchanged against debt but always violent, Through sometimes the variety of forced-marriage coercive, (FTS) documented by tactics that has been women and girlsresearchers shows that many are entering marriage against their will. Once these same women and girls are married, domestic being forced into sex, exploited by with often suffer, They servitude, or other labor. healthcare and limited high-risk pregnancies, they and emotional abuse. Crucially, physical independent if any few to make are allowed decisions about their futures. These women and girls free to leave. are not lose if would they children whom have Many no means of survival have since left. Many they their education and skills. In addition, lack they families would not support to they them were return to their parents’ home; since leaving a forced marriage families their arranged by would be considered a shame to the entire against are held physically they Often, family. would be hurt and/or fear they or their will, of the girls and women left. Many killed if they met during the research had been unaware as of their rights within their marriages and, had lost hope. a result of their experiences, enough to psychological control was As such, imprison them. This reportthe stories of specific tells individuals who are representative of four categories or general forms of forced marriage. The 5

6 7 and former wives. Many of these women and and former wives. Many girls survivors were of repeated incidents This reportbeen could not have of brutality. courage to speak. produced without their this report goal in producing the Slaves’ Free that forced marriage evidence is is to provide a form of slavery afflicting women and girls in that forced marriagethe DRC. FTS argues can within the frameworkand should be addressed of the anti-slavery – wielding the movement full range of effective tools – from legislative enforcement to locally-driven reform and law and rescue protection, networks for prevention, norm and social transformation. self-liberation, uses a sociological definition the Slaves Free slaverywhen explaining modern-day to forced to work the general public: “People under threat subsistence, beyond without pay away.” cannot walk who or actual violence, FTS goes into In policy and legal settings, “A greater depth on the definition of slavery: relationship in which one person is controlled or of violence, the threat through violence, has lost free will and psychological coercion, is exploited economically, free movement, subsistence.” and paid nothing beyond Forced marriage is a crime in the DRC, and marriage in the DRC, is a crime Forced is considered a form of sexual violence. that violators There is little evidence are ever prosecuted. These crimes go unpunished primarily due to a lack of community awareness and girls’ rights of women’s of the law, and a resistance regarding consent to marry, that go against long-held social laws to new practices. The lack of full and free consent present in the stories of the girls and women met during the research for this report accompanied was or other the threat of violence, violence, by psychological coercion. These wives were exploited economically and not paid for their this report As such, illustrates how labor. United Nations defines forced marriage as a “union of two persons at least one of whom to the has not given their full and free consent marriage.” Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery Female Subservience in “I give you my daughter to protect,” the man said, explaining what a father says to his Congolese Marriage son-in-law upon his daughter’s marriage. “Through you, let her experience love like she Forced marriage in eastern DRC stands out experienced from me.” as a unique form of slavery less than it might otherwise, owing to a local context of marriage This report explores the tension between 8 that normalizes the subservience of wives opposing norms, why some forms of forced 9 and even their physical abuse, whether the marriage have proliferated in certain marriage is consensual or not. This raises circumstances, and how some Congolese the question of whether one can consent to a communities are working with anti-slavery, marriage which, once entered, may become a women’s rights, and human rights activists relationship of enforced servitude that cannot to move toward more humane marital be freely exited. As such, this report looks at arrangements that respect women’s and girls’ forced marriage not only at the moment of human rights and the law. marriage – the wedding day – but also once the marital relationship is underway, including the reasonable means of exit, if any. Forced Marriage as a Against this traditional backdrop of female Form of Slavery subservience and inferior power, stands a less malignant marital tradition in the DRC This report elaborates the nature of forced that places value on the wife as a person who marriage in the DRC, showing definitively deserves to be loved, cherished, and protected, that it is a form of slavery. The report as expressed poignantly by one village notable also demonstrates that, among these in Baraka over the course of this research. marriages, there is diversity in the methods

Once a girl or woman becomes a wife, then within the community, there is frequently a sense that anything goes: she can now be treated as little if anything more than the property of her husband and his family.

10 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 11 The report attitudes at changing also looks with more forced marriage, toward understanding practice is harmful. that the interviewedOne woman her in Uvira expressed very harmful to see [our] “It’s point of view: daughters and not being going into families same area added: Another from the accepted.” forced to marry were we and we “[In the past], care of to take have we had to endure. [Now], our children.” This report a closer look at also takes Our legal Congolese and international law. analysis supports thesis that forced the overall marriage constitutes a clear form of slavery, victims deservewhose victims or potential the victims of other formssame protections as This argument contributes to the of slavery. current discussion within the anti-slavery legal and and academic community about whether when forced marriage constitutes a form of slavery internationally under accepted legal frameworks. of enslavement arising from various local various from arising of enslavement persisted have – including those that traditions been have intact and those that historically distorted time for the purposes of over tradition One example is the exploitation. of dowry and meaning and its evolved time. consequences over forced marriages of the abuse that In view the report asks the heap on their victims, how do societal normsnext urgent question: perpetuateand institutional behaviors forced marriage To with social and legal impunity? specific circumstances analyze we respond, sanction the phenomenon that conspire both to The “trap of and hide it in plain view. – wherein the legitimacy” will be explored a fact that once a community has accepted is social there specific marriage at the onset, and institutional acceptance of abuse within once a girl the marriage. Put another way, then within the or woman becomes a wife, there is frequently a sense that community, goes: she can now be treated as anything more than the propertylittle if anything of her husband and his family. Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

“Women should not accept to be misled by men. If I am like this today it is because I was misled by a man. I would like to tell parents they shouldn’t force children to marry.”

– Woman in Kabira 3 Research Methodology

Procedures The criteria for the four human subject groups included the following characteristics for each This report uses primary human subject group: research as described below, complemented with secondary documentary research. Most 1. Women and girls who were currently in, often the secondary research is used in this had almost been in, or had previously been report to provide political, legal, and social in forced marriages; context for primary research findings, or to contrast the situation in other countries. 2. Parents and current or former husbands of women or girls meeting the first criterion; 10 Free the Slaves used purposive sampling to 3. Community leaders and members familiar conduct the primary research for this report. with the phenomenon and particular This approach was selected because the instances of forced marriage; goal of the research was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences, attitudes, 4. Activists working on the issue of forced feelings, and behaviors of research subjects marriage and violence against women. that met pre-established criteria.

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12 This research and report focus 11 Research subjects may have not been able to not been have subjects may Research continuing fear entire stories out of share their control. or psychological not selected randomly subjects were Research been of those who have from the population in forced marriage not a and as such are representative sample. interpreters on relied were In most cases, during interviews. researchers and between Cultural differences created additional barriers have subjects may to full understanding. on the impact of forced marriage on women and girls. Researchers had training and extensive experience in human subject qualitative qualified well and were interviewing approaches, of interviewto safeguard the well–being subjects. Researchers ensured that no human exposed to an unreasonable risk subjects were of harm. Prior to their participation, the primary explained to subjects the risks and investigator benefits of their participation, and obtained their written consent to participate. not Subjects were informed that induced to participate, and were from participation free to withdraw were they without harm to their legitimate interests. The privacy and confidentiality of all research protected throughout the course subjects were of the research and production of this report. been used for all case have Pseudonyms studies. The faces of research participants have been digitally altered in photographs to conceal their identities. Human Subject Protection in conducted which was This research, principles and the Slaves accordance with Free guidelines for the protection of human subjects minimum standard exceeds the and research, U.S. Departmentset by of Health and Human Services regulations. • • • • study prevalence was not a This field research to quantify the number and does not attempt or percentage of Congolese women or girls in forced marriages. marriage also has an impact on men and Forced in Congo. boys Limitation of Study Limitation of Study Methodology limitations: This research has the following key Research subjects were identified by Congolese by Congolese identified subjects were Research collaborated with that generously organizations on the organizations’ based the Slaves, Free The of the selected subjects. knowledge the North Kivu and geographic focus area, was of eastern DRC, South Kivu provinces and partner the Slaves’ selected based on Free which in these areas, organizations’ experience are particularlyto slavery vulnerable in its modern forms. More than 50 women and girls participatedinterview in individual and group sessions. researchers used the guided the Slaves Free as a general also known interview method, interview This method was guide approach. selected instead of an informal conversational greater focus by approach in order to achieve themes that of the main ensuring coverage FTS has used in its modern slavery research across countries. The guided interview method greater flexibility than what could have allowed using other alternativesbeen achieved such as standardized open-ended or standardized closed/fixed response interview strategies. by the guided interviewThe flexibility offered necessarymethod was due to the complex nature of the interview themes and the potential dynamic nature of participant understanding of the coursequestions over of interviews. The guided interview allows more flexibility in also cases where interview subjects might become others’emotional when discussing their own or experiences of abuse. The guided interview researchersformat to adapt questions allowed to context and experience, to each subject’s by subjects in explore specific issues raised and to adapt as needed. The more depth, guided interview flexibility method also allowed in interview thus meeting the needs of timing, research subjects with wide-ranging external obligations within a conflict context. Researchers directly transcribed interview data using a text documenting the flow of discussions format, this text with research subjects. Subsequently, for thematic content as part analyzed was of the preparation for this report. Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Each case study points to others, thousands of girls and women are in similar circumstances. 4 Stories of Slavery and Survival

This chapter introduces four common forms of It is important to note that most victims of forced marriage that this research uncovered: forced marriage embody more than one of the marriage by rape, marriage by “sale,” marriage four forms of forced marriage; one specific by kidnapping, and child marriage. Each section marriage may combine the issues of rape, debt describes how these marriages are first repayment, kidnapping, and child marriage. forced and later enforced. Each section also For example, a common scenario in South presents the immediate reasons – cultural, Kivu province involves a girl (or woman) being political, economic, or personal – why parents, kidnapped by a group of boys and men who husbands, or others conspire to force and hold her captive and rape her repeatedly. At the enforce these marriages. Each case study end of her ordeal, the family of the boy or man points to others; thousands of girls and women who orchestrated the kidnapping will go to the are in similar circumstances. parents of the girl to offer a dowry. 14 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 15 Jeanette’s Story: Jeanette’s tells the story of from Mukere, Jeanette, a man who came to see her at school 14 years old. At when she was one day living with her aunt she was the time, following the death of her mother and two brothers. The man who visited her him a visit at his home. to pay her asked not understanding Jeanette decided to go, When she arrived, he had asked. why her in a room friends of the man locked and although she tried to fight with him, raped. She became she was him off, her. and her aunt evicted pregnant, aunt had already promised her Jeanette’s to another man in exchange for regular home. deliveries of fish to the family’s no longer she was been raped, Having a viable candidate for marriage to the fisherman. A 13 14 prosecutor in South Kivu province interviewedprosecutor in South Kivu province as part of FTS’ research explained that many parents of raped girls to force their often prefer daughters to marry a man who has raped her, especially in cases where she has become on to explain that punishing pregnant. He went rape under customary is extremely difficult, law since rape victims are ashamed and families to come forward. do not want Marriage in these circumstances is the many preferred option. Because of the rape, community members regard the victim to be unmarriageable to other men. So marriage to the rapist becomes her last option to obtain place her secures which marriage, of status the her within the community while also removing as a burden to her birth family. loss of virginity through rape leads A woman’s quiet Congolese women either to keep many or to stay about rape because of the shame, within a marriage where rape has occurred, are no longer with the knowledge they considered worthy else. of marriage to anyone These taboos about virginity can be major psychological coercion contributors to women’s into forced marriage. This phenomenon is seen virginity at cultures that prize women’s in many the expense of their safety. Due to cultural taboos about the loss of Due to cultural taboos about the loss of girls become the and women many virginity, wives of their rapists. According to a Congolese a man who man interviewed in the DRC press, and does rapes a virgin is obliged to marry her, a dowry to pay have to do so. not always Marriage by Rape by Marriage Similarly, the stories in this report the stories show that it Similarly, to distinguish between is sometimes difficult or trigger of a forced the proximate cause underlying and its causes. Thus, marriage, the purposefour forms of identifying these of forced marriage specific is not to oversimplify but rather to articulate differences situations, the This provides in the various causes. and more a clear taxonomy practical benefits of fruitful of targeted strategies to discussion stop forced marriage. Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Marriage by “Sale” assure that the marriage was entered into freely.16 In many cases, it is the promise of a dowry Today in the DRC, a dowry can take the form of that motivates parents to force a marriage. FTS cash, cattle, or other items of value, and can researchers uncovered numerous stories of represent a massive investment for poor rural women and girls who had been forced to marry families. Once a dowry is paid, the wife is then in situations where economic incentives were a economically and socially obliged to remain key factor. with her husband; if she leaves, the dowry must be repaid to the husband’s family. This Throughout much of the world, a dowry is economic obligation would be unacceptable traditionally paid by the wife’s family to the to the bride’s family, and thus this is the key groom’s family. However, in the DRC the coercive mechanism that links a dowry to transaction is reversed. The tradition of a forced marriage. dowry or bride-price, where the family of a groom provides either cash or items of value such as cows to the family of the bride upon marriage, is often involved.15 Once a dowry is paid, the wife is then economically and socially Traditionally in many parts of Africa, including obliged to remain with her the DRC, a bride-price was of modest value husband…this is the key coercive and represented a token of thanks from the husband’s family to the wife’s, rather than an mechanism that links a dowry to exchange or sale. The dowry was sometimes forced marriage. shared with witnesses whose job was to

16 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 17 Cécile’s Story: Cécile’s tells the story of returning age 15, Cécile, to find a much home from school one day older man discussing financial matters Cécile’s Later that day, with her father. her to go see the man at his father asked home to pick up something the man owed the man When she arrived, to her father. informed and her behind door her the shut her because now his wife, that she was father had exchanged her for that debt. The man raped her that night. Cécile ran told her but her father the next day, away husband. she must go back to her new instead to her maternal uncles, She went furious with the father and tried who were to persuade him not to send Cécile back. insistent. He attacked But the father was and they and injured one of the uncles, mother tried to Cécile’s down. backed but her father beat speak with her father, too. The father brought mother, Cécile’s home. husband’s Cécile back to her new she again. But this time, She ran away met a woman who agreed to help Cécile protection, woman’s this under While hide. Cécile met a staff person from a Congolese non-governmental organization. able to With their support, Cécile was meet other girls in earn some income, and feel less difficult circumstances, alone. The economic restrictions that the dowry restrictions that The economic her beyond the wife often extend enforces on with some communities death, husband’s brother. forcing the wife to marry the husband’s neglect and mistreatment In these situations, woman from Uvira can be common. One “My husband’s described her experience: missing a tooth brother is unkind – I’m no one But if you refuse, because he beat me. you can be beating care of you. They will take for nothing.” in the research A common theme uncovered forgiveness forced marriages that allowed was a Forgiving family. a bride’s by of a debt owed the families by debt in these cases is viewed This can be a a dowry. as equivalent to paying very strong incentive for forcing a daughter to is otherwise especially for a family that marry, notably if the family its debt, unable to pay goes faces legal action or violence if the debt unpaid. FTS researchers that in some discovered community members to attempt cases, intervene on behalf of girls who are forced into it is the decision though, marriage. Ultimately, of the father – because of his accepted – that carries his daughter the authority over that regardless of economic This reveals day. norms gender or other incentives involved, create a structuralforced marriage. context for Some women in forced marriage attempt trying the escape by home and repay to leave a woman who attempts this is However, dowry. society to be “difficult” and is considered by isn’t repayment As well, not accepted socially. possible because the dowryalways has long since been spent. One woman explained how she left her no but they to her parents, husband and went and longer had funds remaining from the dowry, to return told her to the husband. Because they she the dowry, the means to repay she lacked and had another child. “I am still returned, “giving birth she said, there despite problems,” and getting old.” Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Marriage by Kidnapping

In some parts of the DRC, there is a ritual where a family arranges a marriage, but the girl or woman involved is not aware, and she is actually “captured” or kidnapped by her husband. This ritual in some communities is customary and considered normal. One traditional chief interviewed by FTS researchers explained that although the practice has been increasingly condemned in Congo, it persists. In many cases the kidnapping ritual also involves a bride-price or other financial gain paid to the bride’s family, or includes debt forgiveness.

Other forms of kidnapping are linked to the continuing DRC conflict. It has enabled widespread sexual assault by creating a Ada’s Story: climate of impunity, where the rule of law is non-existent, and by converting rape into a One day when Ada was 15, a man offered weapon of war, as has been seen in a number U.S. $100 to Ada’s father in exchange of conflicts globally.17 Government soldiers and for her. Ada’s father, who drank heavily, rebels have used rape to terrorize communities accepted the offer without telling her. She into support or submission. was told to go to the man’s house to get money for food, but when she arrived, she was raped. Ada reported this to a Forced marriage is exacerbated by neighbor, though not to her father. The conflict due to the long absence of neighbors intervened, but were told by some fighters from their home bases, the father to mind their own business, and their desire to have a “wife” with and Ada was returned to her husband. them at their base of operations away When she arrived at his home, he had from home. moved to another town. Ada soon learned she was pregnant, and so she was sent to be with her husband. He then left to Kidnapped wives in these circumstances are find work in the mines, again leaving her sometimes viewed as sex slaves or prisoners behind. Her baby was born soon after, of war, since their families were not involved in but she never saw her husband again. planning the marriages, and the women or girls A Congolese organization approached are held captive away from family and other Ada. She received counseling, which she support systems. reports has helped her to maintain hope. And she received financial assistance, While many cases of kidnapping and rape including seeds to grow food and support within the conflict context do not lead to for generating income through the sale of marriage, de facto marriages are frequently the soap. result of these kidnappings. Forced marriage is exacerbated by conflict due to the long absence

18 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 19 Olivia’s Story: Olivia’s abducted while she was 17, When Olivia was Several well. from the village fetching water home of a man to whom men took her to the (or cow one of debt drinking a owed father her soon learnedabout U.S. $500). She that her father had arranged in return the kidnapping debt. Olivia repeatedly for forgiveness of the but her father continued to send escaped, could not afford to stating that he her back, to purchase the cow that would be required to allow her to come home. She appealed but her explaining her suffering, her mother, nothing she could do. mother said there was Olivia bore eight children, Over the years, but her husband continued to harass her his inability to pay regarding her father’s she debt. He frequently reminded Olivia that him otherwise. He regularly be with wouldn’t after all Olivia explained that even beat her. her father to leave, if she were these years, if she left even would be liable for the debt, her children with her husband. Of the abuses voice her Olivia recounted to researchers, the most emotional when discussing was how her husband compared her to a dog. This indicates an emotional toll that forced at the value away by chipping marriage inflicts women feel as human beings. able to prevent Olivia was Fortunately, a similar fate from befalling one of her kidnapped by daughters. The daughter was in a situation that a man from another tribe, able to rescue not arranged. was Olivia was home her daughter from the abductor’s that night; the daughter had not yet been raped. She is now back home. Olivia tells in choice should have her children that they that the man and woman should marriage, “Look at She implores them: each other. love look at how I’m living. I don’t how I am living, to live the same life I’m living.” you want Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery of some fighters from their home bases, and resources to safely exit a marital relationship. their desire to have a “wife” with them at their In these ways, wives that are children fall under base of operations away from home. Forced the ownership and control of their husbands in marriages and the pervasiveness of sexual a manner that is functionally identical to other assault during conflict link to the common forms of slavery. underlying issues: impunity and the lack of rule of law; the culture of violence within armed A leader of a women’s rights organization in groups; and an overarching societal culture the Fizi area of South Kivu province works to that often devalues women’s personhood. prevent sexual violence against young girls. She makes very personal efforts, including protecting victims inside her own home. When Child Brides she met with Free the Slaves field researchers, she reported that she was sheltering 13 girls UNICEF estimates that one in three women in her home; seven were there at the time of aged 20-24 worldwide (roughly 70 million the interview. These are girls who, if they go women total) entered into their marriages home, will be married off to much older men. before age 18, and of those, about 23 million One girl, age 13, had been promised to a were younger than 15 when they married.18 78-year-old man. The women’s rights activist In the DRC, it is estimated that 74 percent of explained that traditional customs dominate girls and women between 15 and 19 years of life in Fizi, despite a 2006 law that criminalizes age are married.19 Many of the case studies of child marriages. She explained that village- forced marriage documented by Free the Slaves level awareness-raising is vital – focusing on field researchers for this report involved girls how early marriage harms a child. She stated who were younger than 18 at the time they that early marriage is more frequent among were “married.” financially desperate families. Because of poverty, if it means he will have one less mouth A recent Anti-Slavery International report to feed, a father will give his daughter away. explains how child marriage is a form of slavery, by analyzing the means in which children typically enter into the marital union, Impact on Women’s the nature of the union once entered (i.e., Health and Welfare whether there is treatment that indicates ownership and complete control), and the The research in eastern Congo consistently degree of freedom to exit the marriage through revealed impacts of forced marriage 20 divorce. Children are not mature enough to on women’s long-term health, including enter into a consensual marital relationship. psychological and physical suffering within the During marriage, they are vulnerable to control marriage. In one case, a woman, now past and abuse due to their relative lack of power middle age, had been forced as a young woman and resources, and their relatively lower level to marry an abusive husband. Over the course of education. As well, they often lack both of their marriage, she reported being routinely knowledge of their rights and the financial raped. She was also forced to carry numerous pregnancies after she had stated she could not withstand any further pregnancies. This woman Children are not mature enough described being regularly in physical pain due to enter into a consensual marital to years of forced intercourse. She was never relationship. During marriage, they able to leave the marriage because her family are vulnerable to control and abuse refused to repay the dowry, and because she due to their relative lack of power and did not want to abandon her children. resources, and their relatively lower level of education. In some ways, this woman was fortunate to survive, as many women die due to the rigors

20 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 21 When Djany was 12, a group of rebels 12, was When Djany compound and took came to her family’s cattle. Her her along with her family’s shot at father tried to stop them but they the ground to drive him back; her mother away. as the rebels carried Djany wept where into the forest, taken She was man, a 30-year-old one of the rebels, chosen to be her husband. She said was was but to be with him, she did not want told she would be killed if she did not in the forest with him accept. She stayed forced to have was for three years. Djany sex with him and to perform other work, do the work, If she didn’t such as laundry. other she would be beaten. There were women in similar circumstances with her, about escaping, talked frequently and they for fear of being killed and but didn’t out did not know their way because they of the forest. The rebels frequently had foot or by to change locations either by Burundi between and moved helicopter, when Djany and the DRC. Eventually, she decided in the DRC, were they saw to escape on her own. By the time she but her mother had died, returned home, in and cared for her. an uncle took Djany Djany’s Story: Djany’s Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

of multiple pregnancies and the high level of injuries, and vaginal fistulae.25 Fistulae can maternal mortality in the DRC, especially for be both physically and socially debilitating, mothers under the age of 19. Nearly half of confining women to their homes if not Congolese women have a child by age 19, addressed through surgery. according to the World Health Organization, and they go on to have an additional five children Psychological impacts are equally damaging. on average —amounting to one of the highest Women in forced marriages are often removed fertility rates in the world.21 Women in most from support systems within their birth marriages in the DRC exercise almost no communities, including any supportive family control over family planning decisions.22 members as well as friends. Long hours of work prevent any time for personal pursuits or recreation. They may suffer from constant They may suffer from constant belittlement and other emotional abuse, verbal belittlement and other emotional and physical assault, and other severe forms abuse, verbal and physical of manipulation and control. Their experience assault, and other severe forms may teach them that they are only worth the of manipulation and control. Their labor that they provide, that their lives have no experience may teach them that intrinsic value, that they have no rights, and they are only worth the labor that that they have nowhere to turn. they provide, that their lives have no intrinsic value, that they have no “You are there, you are suffering,” said one rights, and that they have nowhere to woman from South Kivu province describing turn. forced marriage. “[You] have no choice. [They say:] ‘Do this, do this.’ If you refuse they can beat you like an animal.” The maternal mortality rate is 670 deaths per 100,000 live births.23 Total maternal deaths are extremely high in absolute terms, with maternal deaths in the DRC and five other counties accounting for half of all maternal deaths worldwide.24 Mortality is exacerbated by poor birth spacing, extremely limited access to quality reproductive health services including delivery, and the young age of many mothers. In addition, the lack of access to and use of family planning, and consequent high fertility rate, can hurt families’ ability to meet basic needs, making the marrying-off of daughters seem like an economic imperative. In this way, high fertility rates and poverty are both causes of and outcomes of forced marriage, as part of a vicious cycle.

Women in forced marriages also suffer health complications associated with rape and unsafe labor including sexually transmitted infections,

22 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 23 Parfaite’s Story: Parfaite’s her father agreed to 7, was When Parfaite in give her as a wife to a 20-year-old man mother, exchange for U.S $150. Parfaite’s approached the arrangement, upset over rights activist for help. The a women’s mother and activist approached the man He told them who had purchased Parfaite. and planned to have Parfaite, that he liked but did in with him immediately, her move not plan to actually marry until she her paid a dowry 12. Having was to Parfaite’s the husband-to-be refused to back father, rights activist offered down. The women’s and which he accepted, the man $200, spared the marriage. was Parfaite Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Rose’s Story:

When Rose was 14, soldiers from the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan rebel group operating in Congolese territory, emerged from the forest, broke into her house, raped her, and took her back into the forest in Masisi, where she spent three years. Rose was raped repeatedly by 11 FDLR soldiers during this time, and eventually became pregnant. One day when the Rwandan soldiers were away, she encountered some Congolese men who helped her escape. She gave birth to a boy with the help of neighbors. Soon after the birth, the FDLR located Rose and took her back. She became pregnant again, this time with a girl. When the FDLR went to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) for repatriation to Rwanda, she was forced to cross into Rwanda with her “husband.” Because they were interviewed together by U.N. officers before being moved to Rwanda, Rose could not speak up. Rose was very angry that her voice was not heard. After a short time in Rwanda, her husband was away for a training program, and some Congolese women helped Rose back into Congo. However, her community does not accept her and she is unable to work, though she has two children to care for. Community members treat her as though she had voluntarily converted to being an outsider by being kidnapped, raped, and bearing the children of an outsider. Rose’s situation underscores that the appearance of a legitimate marriage creates circumstances that effectively hide, and thus perpetuate, a very real state of slavery.

24 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 25 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

International human rights law guarantees the right of individuals to enter into marriage only with their “free and full consent” and requires states to prohibit marriages below an officially designated age of consent – age 18 in the DRC. 5 Legal Analysis

The acts described in this report constitute crimes, which can form the basis of demands violations of both Congolese criminal law for a comprehensive governmental response and international criminal and human rights – toward both perpetrators and survivors – in law. While the acts of the perpetrators are the future. Congo’s Sexual Violence Law of at least in theory punishable under law as 2006 criminalizes “forced marriage” and would outlined below, it is equally important that the punish a parent or guardian – though not a victims have access to all forms of remedy colluding prospective spouse – for forcing an and that they be provided with the services adult or minor child to marry. (The prospective and assistance needed to rebuild their lives. spouse may be susceptible to punishment Their rights to such assistance are recognized for other crimes including sexual violence under international law but unfortunately are committed prior to or even during the course of little regarded under Congolese domestic law. the marriage.) The penalty for forcing an adult In practice, the government of the DRC fails to marry is one to 12 years of incarceration; to provide any form of assistance even to the that penalty is doubled when the victim is most marginalized and abused among these under the age of 18.26 Some of these crimes women. may also be prosecuted as “sexual slavery,” defined as exercising one or more of the rights Nonetheless, it is important to include here of property over a person (including detaining a description of the legal treatment of these or otherwise depriving of liberty, selling, buying,

26 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 27

34 36 but this has not been done since but this has not been 35 Article 165, which requires the wife to live at Article which requires the wife to live 165, residence; her husband’s as Article which situates the husband 444, the “head of the household” and requires barring the her husband,” the wife to “obey exercise of her own free will; as Articles which situate wives 445 to 448, dependents and submissive servants who such as signing cannot execute legal acts, without permission from their contracts, husbands; A number of articles that entrust the management of marital property to the husband. The payment of dowry although The payment is required, stipulate that the dowry does the law can be also authorizes law symbolic in nature. The for president to set a maximum value DRC’s a dowry, • • • • While these discriminatory Code Family do not directly condone forced provisions perpetuate norms they within the marriage, DRC legal system that place women in inferior give positions relative to men. The provisions their wives similar to husbands control over self- property and negate women’s rights, determination. There are no counteracting or governmental policies that Congolese laws the formswould provide of assistance needed to liberate themselves from such women by whether in the form of physical marriages, protection or economic support. choose to leave a servile a to leave choose marriage.This report the pernicious dowry role that the unveils of some marriages at the outset system plays the Family in eastern Congo. Nonetheless, requires that a prospective Code actually with the parents his family agree husband and – though notably not of the prospective bride with the bride herself of a – on the amount parents. dowry to be paid to the bride’s 1988, perpetuating high dowry1988, and prices consequent abuses. of the DRC’s A number of other provisions Code are discriminatory women Family towards servileand fail to protect them from forced and the despite criminalization under marriages, include: Code. These provisions Penal and 31 28 The DRC’s The DRC’s Legal scholars have Legal scholars have 29 32 Sexual slavery carries a 27

33 The African Charter on the Rights and 30 new Constitution, adopted in 2006, also adopted in 2006, Constitution, new of eliminating all consecrates the principle forms and of discrimination against women their assures the protection and promotion of rights. penalty of five to 20 years.penalty of guarantees International law human rights into marriage individuals to enter the right of and full consent” only with their “free argued that such crimes also fall within the argued that such crimes also fall within which is already broader definition of slavery, it considered a crime against humanity when is committed as a widespread or systematic practice. requires states to prohibit marriagesrequires states to prohibit below age of consent – age an officially designated the DRC government 18 in the DRC. In 1986, to global convention ratified the most recent on the U.N. Convention enshrine this right – of Discrimination Forms the Elimination of All (CEDAW). against Women Forced marriage in certainForced contexts has also been found to be a violation of international A landmark international judgment criminal law. the appeals chamber of the Special Courtby for Sierra Leone in 2008 found that forced marriage during conflict – in which women are systematically kidnapped and held for and sexual exploitation and domestic work, assimilated as “wives” – is a crime against humanity in its own right. lending or trading) accompanied by forced acts forced acts by accompanied or trading) lending nature. of a sexual Welfare of the Child, which entered into force in which entered into force of the Child, Welfare also by the DRC, 1999 though not ratified yet explicitly prohibits the betrothal and marriage of girls the age of 18. under and boys At least two practical impediments exist to the enforcement of prohibitions on forced marriage First, in Congolese and international law. widespread corruption and the near complete in both conflict and in Congo, lack of rule of law restrict prosecution of any non-conflict zones, enforced were if the law even crimes. Second, Code reinforces Family the DRC’s in general, dynamics in contradiction to patriarchal power the more progressive Constitution and Sexual both adopted in 2006. Violence Law, Discriminatory within the Family provisions a practical impact on a woman’s Code have or to ability to choose whether or not to marry, Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

6 Recommendations

This chapter contains recommendations to must adjust their mindset and increase their prevent forced marriage and rescue those awareness of the harmful impacts of forced already affected. Recommended interventions marriage. One woman suggested more self- relate both to structural changes and to help among women: “I would like other women case-specific efforts, and are divided for to help us ... Invite people not to take deals convenience into categories below. they cannot pay back. There are women who take debts and give daughters for those Women interviewed during the research debts.” Another woman from the same area emphasized that debt was a key factor in stated simply: “Parents should stop causing forced marriage. Many suggested that families problems for their children.”

28 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 29 Undertake of 2006 and to training to raise police knowledge of the Sexual Violence Law understandPolice need a practical understanding specifically the crime of forced marriage. of effectively and how to workhow to gather evidence with and protect victims and witnesses. Build capacity to work in cooperation with communities and be seen as a positive force. police effectiveness in this area are broader issues of police of the issues that prevent Many support abuse of community members. and even Thus, for capacity corruption, indiscipline, to be effective in the area of forced marriage unless it addresses building of police is not likely these systemic issues. within the police and address problems of gender discrimination and harassment Investigate against women violence to addressing in order to create a culture that is conducive workplace, within the community. Strengthen courts to handle the prosecution of forced marriage Magistrates must be cases. to manage witnesses how evidence required for these cases, trained in the specific types of share strategies with each other for successful prosecution. and and protect victims, be at risk because and victims’ advocates in cases where their security may Protect lawyers their actions in court defy community norms. may motivation) of the courts systems and mechanisms, for Increase capacity (knowledge, is essential to This cooperation and civil society. local government, cooperation with police, increasing court success in handling forced marriage and civil cases. Local governments society groups can be instrumental in building community support to perceive forced marriage in order to promote reporting encouragement of the which is needed of the crime, as a crime, and witness cooperation. effective functioning of the judicial process, Advocate for and enact revisions to the Family Code to eliminate provisions that discriminate Code to eliminate provisions to the Family revisions Advocate for and enact Constitution and the DRC government’s in accordance with the DRC against women, obligations under international instruments legal that it has ratified. of dowry Code that prohibits the payment for to the Family a revision Advocate for and enact decree requiring that the dowry promote a presidential not payment marriage; or alternatively, symbolic amount. exceed a nominal, • • • • • • • • To DRC Prosecutors DRC and Police To To DRC CourtsDRC To To DRC Legislators Groups and Legal Advocacy To Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

To DRC Education Ministry and Schools

• Train school administrators and teachers to educate and actively engage parents and students (male and female) to stay in school. Schools should work actively with parents and get involved in cases where girls may be taken out of school for marriage.

• Modify curriculum for sexual and reproductive health education to emphasize healthy choices rather than solely the virtues of abstinence.

• Train school personnel and students to report all violations of the Sexual Violence Law of 2006 and create a process that requires these reports to be made and followed up.

To DRC Health Ministry and Health Providers

• Health care providers should be trained to identify and report all cases of sexual violence, while effectively treating potential victims. • Issues of confidentiality should be addressed in this training. • Ensure a health facility environment that is hospitable to women and respects their human rights. This encourages women to feel free from the norms that keep them silent and helps them to feel comfortable making reports.

30 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 31 Knowledge of forced marriage and how it adversely affects communities, and an understandingan and marriageforced of Knowledge adverselyit how and communities, affects including support norms, of actions that can help change community for enforcement of the Sexual Violence of 2006. Law change communication skills to transfer information about forced Education and behavior and to support to promote transformative new dialogue, marriage to community members, practices. groups and other women’s skills to promote collective action by Community empowerment concerned actors. build Networking and knowledge management skills to coordinate among organizations, on successes and lessons learned efforts and leverage of comparative based on areas advantage. adapted and where needed, skills to ensure that workMonitoring and evaluation is effective, circumstances. to new Support mass communications campaigns (e.g., radio, print, and TV) and local community- print, Support radio, (e.g., mass communications campaigns dialogue) to community local theater, door-to-door, campaigns (e.g., based communications build community understanding the adverse of impacts of forced marriage on society and the Sexual Violence under provided and to educate on the legal consequences individuals, and on law, the as well on gender equality Communications should focus broadly of 2006. Law changing cultural norms to forced marriage. connected which are often effective in creating social Support peer-to-peer communications approaches, be in escaped forced marriage can talk to other women who may who have change. Women mothers- also visit households and attempt to talk to mothers, may these marriages. They and other women. Child-to-child interventions also be effective – grandmothers, may in-law, escaped forced marriageespecially ones where girls to other girls talk about options have who who are vulnerable or are in forced marriages. rescued or Build a broad network relationships to ensure that victims are first, of collaborative and second, supported to liberate themselves from forced marriage and other forms of slavery, with the range of servicesprovided themselves in freedom. need to sustain they In many cases, civil society organizations form the nucleus of movements to the nucleus of movements society organizations form civil cases, In many change norms and community practices. Increasing their impact will require areas: building capacity in the following • • • • • • • • To Civil Society Organizations (Churches, CBOs, NGOS, etc.) NGOS, CBOs, (Churches, Organizations Society Civil To Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

Appendix

Helpful Definitions of Forced Marriage:

• “A union of two persons at least one of whom has not given their full and free consent to the marriage.” United Nations Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage, Article 1(1), 1964.

• The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery established the concept of servile marriage being one in which:

• A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or

• The husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or

• A woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person; based on religious practices and cultures.

Helpful Definitions of Slavery:

• “The status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” (1926 Slavery Convention)37

• “Forced to work, under threat of violence or coercion, for little or no pay, and unable to walk away.” (Free the Slaves)38

32 Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery 33 purposive samples are w Initiative in DRC, of the cases of w Initiative in DRC,

“The Congo Report: Slavery in Conflict Minerals.” Free the Slaves (June 2011). Available at http://www. Available (June 2011). Free the Slaves “The Congo Report: Slavery Minerals.” in Conflict freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=243. Ibid. Ibid. at (June 2013). Available Slaves the Free Kivu Mining Sites.” at South Enslavement Mining Slaves: “Congo’s http://www.freetheslaves.net/congo. 2013 21, 2007) (as excerpted May (November Free the Slaves “Defining and Measuring Slavery,” Bales, Kevin at http://www.freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=21). Article Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage, 1(1) on Consent to Marriage, U.N. Convention (1964). Bar Association Rule of La According to a representative of the American forced marriage registered with the initiative’s legal aid clinics, none had yet been successfully prosecuted. legal aid clinics, forced marriage registered with the initiative’s of state protection and recourse for and availability types, including prevalence, marriages, “DRC: Forced (2008-2012). Ottowa Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Research Directorate, victims.” which establish the man as the head of the household and Code Articles Family 440 to 455, example, For wife requires “marital authorization” before acting.detail a number of circumstances where the 4th Combined Reports on the and 5th Periodic and status of implementation of the Convention of the DRC on the evaluation 2004). ( May (CEDAW). of Discrimination against Women Elimination of All Forms and husbands, there are circumstances that justify being hit by 76 percent of Congolese women believe experienced violence from their partneralmost half of women have within the prior 12 months (Demographic and Health Survey Judicial authorities pursued (DHS) 2007). no actions in cases of domestic violence in to the U.S. Department according 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). 2010, of State A purposive subset of a larger population constructed sample is a non-representative to qualitatively as opposed to a representative/probability-based understand features of that group. A purposive sample, criteria, used when it is not possible to specify the entire population of people meeting research is sample, and/or access is difficult. As such, generally since the total population is not known used to gain a deeper qualitative understanding of features (e.g., experiences, beliefs, feelings), within a feelings), beliefs, experiences, used to gain a deeper qualitative understanding of features (e.g., of features either in the subset or in and are not used to establish quantitative prevalence population subset, the total population. at (June 2013). Available the Slaves Free at South Kivu Mining Sites,” Enslavement Slaves: Mining “Congo’s http://www.freetheslaves.net/congo. PartWelfare) 46 Federal Regulations Title 45 (Public the “Common Rule” under the Code of Specifically, and operation, January establishes the function, revised 2009 (45 CFR 46), (Human Subject Protection), establishes the requirements for informed consent, boards, registration requirements for institutional review fetuses, neonates, additional protections for vulnerable subjects including pregnant women, and provides and economically or educationally disadvantaged populations. children, prisoners, Reporting and Peace Institute for War Sexual Violence Feeds Against Women.” Tradition “War, Héritier Maila, as at iwpr.net/print/report-news/war-tradition-feeds-sexual-violence-against-women, 2009). Available (October, appeared on 7/17/12. The 2002 case of the kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart shows how linking shame to rape/loss of virginity can ritually “married” to home, perpetuate slavery culture. Smart in any her parent’s abducted at age 14 from was a nine-month period. At a trafficking forum and repeatedly raped over at Johns Hopkins University her abductor, she explained that she “felt so dirtywas raised in a after being raped. She said she in 2013, and so filthy” once about abstinence and compared a girl’s religious household and recalled a schoolteacher who spoke piece of gum, I’m that chewed-up gosh, my ‘Oh, “I thought, gum. The girlbody after sex to used chewing said, you no longer have how easy it is to feel like And that’s you throw it away.’ a piece of gum, nobody re-chews a be worth would it even make would it even value… Why screaming out? Why worth, you no longer have at www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/ Available life still has no value.” difference if you are rescued? Your 2013). 7, thanks-abstinence-teacher-elizabeth-smart-felt-im-chewed-piece-gum (May 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 8. 9. 10. 7. 11. 12. 13. 14. Endnotes Free the Slaves Exposé June 2013: Wives in Slavery

15. A dowry can be involved in unforced marriage, too. Therefore, a dowry alone is not a sufficient indicator of forced marriage; other coercive forces must also be involved. 16. E. Torday, “Bride-Price, Dower, or Settlement.” Man, Vol 29, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1929). Available at www.jstor.org/stable/2790807, accessed 7/26/12. 17. The United Nations Security Council has determined that, globally, “women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/ or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” Resolution 1820 (2008), adopted by the U.N. Security Council on June 19, 2008. 18. “Committing to Child Survival, A Promise Renewed.” Progress Report, UNICEF (2012). Extracted, at ttp://www. apromiserenewed.org/files/APR_Progress_Report_2012_final_web3.pdf. (May 22, 2013). 19. Ibid. 20. Catherine Turner, “Out of the Shadows: Child Marriage and Slavery.” Anti-Slavery International (April 2013). Available at http://www.antislavery.org/english/resources/reports/download_antislavery_publications/child_ labour_reports.aspx. 21. “DRC: Lowering maternal mortality rates is a tough bet.” IRIN News. Available at http://www.irinnews.org/, (December 22, 2009). 22. “Combined 4th and 5th Periodic Reports of the DRC on the evaluation and status of implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,” (CEDAW/C/COD/4-5) (May 2004). 23. UNFPA, available at http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/news/pid/8388, accessed on June 10, 2013. 24. Ibid. 25. Fistulae can be caused by prolonged, obstructed labor or rape, weakening tissue and creating a hole through which urine and feces pass uncontrolled. Juhie Bhatia, “Rape epidemic fuels fistula cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Global Voices (July, 2009). Available at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/07/29/drc- rape-epidemic-fuels-fistula-cases/. 26. Congolese Penal Code, Art. 174f. 27. Congolese Penal Code, Art. 174e. 28. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, 986 UNTS 393 (1962, entered into force 1964); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1249 UNTS 13. 29. Ibid. 30. Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Art. 14 (2006). 31. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990). 32. Prosecutor of the Special Court v. Alex Tamba Brima, Case No. SCSL-2004-16-A (February 22, 2008). 33. See, e.g., Annie Bunting, “Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations: Researching and Prosecuting Old Harms and New Crimes.” Canadian Journal of Human Rights, pp. 165-185 (2012). 34. DRC Family Code, Art. 361. 35. Ibid., Art. 363. 36. Bullet points adapted from Marie Mossie and Mariana Duarte, “Violence Against Women in the DRC: Alternative report prepared for the CEDAW,” World Organization Against Torture (July 2006), pp. 7-11. 37. 1926 League of Nations Slavery Convention. Available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails. aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIII-3&chapter=18&lang=en. 38. “The Congo Report: Slavery in Conflict Minerals, Free the Slaves,” (June 2011). Available at http://www. freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=243.

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