In recent years, the brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) precipitated an epidemic of sexual violence.
Human rights groups have found that all parties to the conflict have used sexual violence as a weapon of war; one study estimated that, between November 2008 and March 2009, as many as 1,100 rapes were carried out per month. A combination of impunity, insufficient state responses (or complicity) and ongoing conflict means that sexual violence continues to affect women across the country.
Anne-Marie during a psychosocial support session with a victim of SGBV in DRC
A victim of sexual violence herself, Anne-Marie Buhoro, an activist from the DRC’s South Kivu province, felt motivated to work for other victims and survivors like her and to combat the impunity that she saw around her.
“Nobody was denouncing these violations because of the fear that was prevailing at that time,” she explains. “I was still angry about the violence that I suffered myself. I wanted to fight against [sexual violence], but also to make the voices of other victims heard at the local level.”
In 2010, Buhoro and other women founded the Initiative for Vulnerable Persons and Women in Action for Integrated Development (IPVFAD), which provides support to victims and survivors of sexual violence in the DRC.
Buhoro wanted to contribute to the protection of women in her region who face multiple human rights violations—not least, the constant spectre of sexual violence—which led to her involvement in work aimed at preventing and protecting against sexual and gender-based violence.
“We wanted to denounce the violations but also to support the victims to empower them and help them make their voices heard,” she says.
Buhoro says that she works against “the multiple forms of violence faced by women and girls in the eastern DRC, and other crimes that are committed without conscience.”
Her experience is a reminder that the impact of crimes continue long after they are committed, explaining that she is motivated by the fact that “the perpetrators circulate freely; the survivors, meanwhile, are afraid to report cases because once they have filed complaints, they are tracked down and made vulnerable by the same perpetrators.”
“I saw that, in [the DRC], it is the criminals who receive the best treatment—especially in our army. They kill and commit all types of violence…only in order to reach higher ranks.”
Buhoro says her experience “gives me hope for positive change,” for the “recognition of all the harm suffered by the survivors and victims in [the DRC] and for the respect of the rights of victims.”
Professional training for the empowerment and socio-economic integration of victims- DRC
The INOVAS network is another source for hope, she says, by linking the work being done at the local level with national and international justice processes through the hard work, experiences and expertise of other victims and survivors like her. “I hope that INOVAS will…broaden the scope of interventions at all levels—local, regional, national and international—and support survivors to make their voices heard,” she says.
But most of all, she is motivated by a sense of “catharsis.”
“If we manage to bring a case before the court and get a sentence against the perpetrator, this is rewarding.”
“But when we as victims and survivors fight and lead that fight, it’s also a kind of psychological rehabilitation for us. There’s a kind of catharsis; it helps us to heal when we are taking the lead in this fight.”