Category: Stopping Misogyny

DC: Enough Project- RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign

On March 8, we will recognize the efforts and lives of women worldwide – both their triumphs and the issues they continue to face.

As part of Women for Women International’s “Join Me on the Bridge” project, which strives to unite societies and people in peace across the world, the RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign will be hosting a midday march for peace across the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC.

We will march in solidarity with women from around the world, and in particular, with women from Rwanda and Congo who will also join together in peace on a bridge between their countries to demand an end to war and to demonstrate that women can build the bridges to peace and development.

The walk will be followed by short presentations by leading Congo experts and women’s empowerment advocates.

Speakers:

Sylvie Maunga Mbanga, Congolese human rights lawyer

Jimmie Briggs, Executive Director, Man Up Campaign: Stop Violence Against Women

Candice Knezevic, RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign Manager, ENOUGH Project

Andrée Simon, President and COO, Women for Women International

Seema Jalan, Director of Global Development Policy, Women Thrive Worldwide

Where: We will begin the march at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the end of Memorial Drive on the Arlington, Virginia side of the bridge (CLICK HERE for a map). The closest metro stop is Arlington Cemetery on the blue line. From there we will walk down Memorial Drive, across the Memorial Bridge, and to the Watergate Steps at the base of the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington, DC side.
Map

When: Meet at the Women in Service Memorial at 12:00pm on March 8, 2010. We will begin the march by 12:30pm. The march and the speakers program should finish by 1:30pm.

SOS Children’s Villages reports:
— “Rape victims in the south east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, can usually be paid off with five goats and some money to forget an act. This is why, in a six month drive to re-shape attitudes towards the crime, United Nations staff are telling women they can go to court. One of the stops on the campaigns tour is the village of Mwitwobe in Katanga province. There about 100 men and women gathered to hear UN human rights workers tell them about their rights in cases of sexual violence.’Rape is a crime. It is important for you to break your silence and denounce it,’ said the UN’s Ashraf Sebbabi, who works for the organisation’s human rights division in Congo.”
— “In 2008, some 1,200 cases of rape were reported in the nations Katanga province, which is the same size as France. ‘I’d like to know if you know that sexual violence is punishable by law in the DRC,’ Sebbabi asked Mwitwobe villagers. Rapists, in the West African country can be sentenced to terms of five to 20 years in prison or to life, if the victim dies because of the assault, according to the Congolese Penal Code in his hand. But even though it is illegal to come to an arrangement when a rape case is brought, the Congolese traditionally settle of sexual assault cases through their own customs. Also, a victim’s parents can force the rapist to marry her, after having been compensated both in kind and in cash. These kind of arrangements also bring the added problem that they can encourage rapists to rape again. ‘Here, you pay money, five goats, a rush mat and a loincloth to purify the image of the girl who has been dishonoured,’ a young man told Associated Press news agency.”