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AFRICA – GREAT LAKES: Treat rape as crime against humanity, women urge
Women ministers in charge of gender affairs from the Republic |
KINSHASA, 9 Feb 2006 (IRIN) – Rape is a serious offence that
should be treated as a crime against humanity, alongside genocide and war
crimes, representatives of women’s organisations in Africa’s Great Lakes region
have proposed.
“Studies undertaken in all our countries have shown that
rape has become a real epidemic in our region,” Marie Ingabile, a Rwanda gender
expert, said on Wednesday in a statement issued at the end of a three-day
workshop in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC).
“That is why we are raising men’s awareness by explaining to them
that these women who are being raped, physically wounded and humiliated are
their mothers, spouses, daughters and that men suffer also in that respect,” she
added.
The workshop, attended by participants from Burundi, DRC, Republic
of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, was in preparation for an international conference
on the Great Lakes, planned for Nairobi, Kenya, later this year.
Several
thousands of women as well as girls have been raped in the civil wars that have
ravaged the Great Lakes region for years. Moreover, rape is still being
perpetrated in a number of hot spots, despite most of the countries in the
region being in a post-conflict situation.
During the workshop, the women
said they wanted their request to be translated into a law to make rape a
punishable offence. This law, they said, should be enforced in national courts
of Great Lakes countries.
Moreover, the women urged their governments to
compensate rape victims and pay for their medical and psychological treatment.
They said most rape victims were often rejected by their families, or ended up
with unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS,
fistula and other dire medical conditions.
The workshop participants
also requested that women play a key role in the prevention and resolution of
conflicts in their respective countries.
“We ask that women be given
ambassadorial positions as an acknowledgment of women’s intellect and
competence,” Francois Ngendahayo, Burundi’s minister for human rights, gender
and national solidarity, said.
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