Rape As Torture in the DRC: Sexual Violence Beyond the Conflict Zone
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Rape as torture in the DRC: Sexual violence beyond the conflict zone Freedom from Torture Country Reporting Programme June 2014 Freedom from Torture Freedom from Torture (formerly known as the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture) is a UK-based human rights organisation that exists to enable survivors of torture and organised violence to engage in a healing process to assert their own human dignity and worth and to raise public and professional awareness about torture and its consequences. As one of the world’s largest torture treatment centres we provide rehabilitation services to survivors including psychological therapy and physiotherapy; and our specialist doctors prepare forensic medico-legal reports (MLRs) that are used in connection with torture survivors’ claims for international protection and in our country reports as a collected evidence base to hold torturing states to account. Since our foundation in 1985, more than 50,000 survivors of torture and organised violence have been referred to us. In 2013 Freedom from Torture provided treatment for 1,015 clients from 53 different countries. Every year our Medico Legal Report Service (still known as the Medical Foundation Medico Legal Report Service) prepares between 300 and 600 medico-legal reports for use in UK asylum proceedings. Survivors Speak OUT! network Survivor Speak OUT! (SSO) is the UK’s only torture survivor-led activ- ist network and is actively engaged in speaking out against torture and about its impacts. Set up by survivors of torture, for survivors of torture, SSO uses first-hand experience to speak with authority for the rights of torture survivors. The network is supported and facilitated by Freedom from Torture and all network members are former Freedom from Torture clients. Rape as torture in the DRC: Sexual violence beyond the conflict zone Country Reporting Programme June 2014 FOREWORD It is a real honour to write this foreword, as women, the population must be educated about sexual vio- as Congolese and as survivors of torture. lence and ways of supporting survivors. There is no point raising awareness of victim’s rights if there is no We feel how lucky we are to be writing this, living in enforcement of the law. a country where our rights are respected, where we have been helped by Freedom from Torture to rebuild We hope this report will bring change in the lives of our lives. We feel how lucky we are to be able to women in the DRC and end their long period of suffer- stand alongside the Survivors Speak OUT! network and ing. We hope the DRC government will take sufficient speak out about the changes we would like to see hap- measures to support and protect women in the entire pen in the world. country. We hope the government will improve the conditions of detention centres and allow regular visits We have participated in this report to call for change by international monitoring bodies. We hope the UN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where will help end the eastern conflict, which gives the there have been more than two decades of armed DRC government an excuse to hide behind. We hope conflict, sexual violence against women and wide- the United Nations will ensure that the government spread impunity for abusers. Although there is war in respects the human rights conventions it has signed up the eastern part of the country, sexual violence is not to. only limited to the war zone. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are happening even where there is We applaud the UK’s leadership of the initiative to “peace”. As you will read in this report, most of the stop sexual violence in conflict and hope this report women surveyed were based in Kinshasa and sexual proves how vital it is that in the DRC this effort is violence was mostly being used as a form of torture in expanded beyond the conflict zone and throughout the detention centres. Women detained miles away from entire country. the war are suffering in similar ways to those in the eastern parts of the country. We know this is a long list of hopes and that many of them will not be easy or quick to achieve. But this Wherever it is committed, the effects of sexual report shows the alternative - a country where women violence are the same. Women across the DRC are continue to suffer sexual torture in silence, without suffering in silence. They don’t know where to turn access to support or justice, and where perpetrators to for advice, counselling or any kind of support. The continue to act with impunity. infrastructure put in place is not enough to help them. Lack of implementation and insufficient resources Our personal experiences have shown us that somehow mean these initiatives are not bringing changes in hope does remain, even in the very darkest hours. So practise. The adoption of the 2006 law against sexual we write with the hope that the DRC can again be- violence and the promulgation of the law criminalising come a place where women and men live in freedom, torture in 2011 are not enough. These cannot be the safety and with their human rights respected. only commitments the government makes to tackle these crimes. The sexual violence evidenced in this report is torture and it should be considered as such. Perpetrators must be prosecuted, the judiciary must be independent, survivors must be assisted to rebuild their lives, and 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was researched and written by Jo Pettitt. Programme, including participation in the project Research assistance was provided by Jenny Cotton. working group, which has guided the research, in the development of recommendations and in advocacy The report was reviewed by the following staff at and communications work related to the project. Freedom from Torture: Dr Juliet Cohen, Dr. Elizabeth Zachariah, Dr Maggie Eisner, Dr Joanne Miller, Jude The Country Reporting Programme also relies on Boyles, Emily Rowe, Bitenge Makuka, Rhian Beynon, the hard work of colleagues from across Freedom Katy Pownall and Jean-Benoit Louveaux. The report from Torture’s centres and in all departments of the was also reviewed by Congolese women who are sur- organisation. We would like to acknowledge the con- vivors of torture and former clients of Freedom from tribution of all those at Freedom from Torture who Torture, and by members of the Survivors Speak OUT! have in one way or another supported this project network. and to thank them. External reviewers were: Théo Boutruche and Giulia In particular we thank the staff of the Medico-Legal Tranchina. Report Service, including the doctors who prepare the medico-legal reports, the interpreters and the Policy consultation was provided by Théo Boutruche. legal and administrative staff who make this work Consultation on the country context was provided by possible. We thank the staff in our Clinical Records Bitenge Makuka. team, whose patience with our endless requests is highly appreciated. The report was designed by Freedom from Torture’s Webmaster, Philip Cartland and edited by Sara Scott. We also thank those staff who participated in our project working group and who have guided the Freedom from Torture would like to thank all these work of the project throughout. This includes staff contributors for supporting the project and for lending from Freedom from Torture’s Clinical Department their considerable expertise to this work. and staff from the Policy and Advocacy and Commu- The Country Reporting Programme work relies on, nications and Survivor Activism teams, who will be above all, the participation and support of our clients; responsible for taking the project forward. survivors of torture who are willing to share their med- Research at Freedom from Torture is greatly sup- ico-legal reports with us for the purpose of research, ported by the work of our highly talented research in order to further Freedom from Torture’s efforts to interns. We would like to thank Jenny Cotton for her hold torturing states to account and to prevent torture dedicated and meticulous work on this project. in the future. Finally we thank Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer We would like to acknowledge the contribution of our (www.freshfields.com) for funding the printing of this Congolese clients to this project and to thank them. report. We would especially like to acknowledge the Congo- lese women who are former clients who participated This project is funded by the European Union. in the project working group and guided the develop- ment of the recommendations. This publication has been produced with the assis- tance of the European Union. The contents of this We would also like to acknowledge and thank Survivors publication are the sole responsibility of Freedom Speak OUT! network members for their collaboration from Torture and can in no way be taken to reflect with Freedom from Torture in this project from the the views of the European Union. outset. Together we have worked on developing mean- ingful survivor participation in our Country Reporting 3 The vast majority of the women in the study were arrested and de- tained in non-conflict contexts. The majority (26) were resident in Kinshasa when they were detained, while three were resident in Bas- Congo and five in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu and Orientale. Of the 60 detention episodes reported here, 49 took place in Kinshasa, five in Bas-Congo and six in the eastern provinces. GLOSSARY Acronyms and abbreviations Acronyms and abbreviations pertaining to the Democratic Republic of Congo follow the French word order; for the sake of brevity and clarity, in most cases the full names are translated directly into English.