 Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us here at the US Institute of Peace. My name is Nancy Lindborg. I'm the president of USIP. And for those of you who are visiting for the first time, welcome. USIP is a federally funded but independent institute that is dedicated to finding practical solutions to conflicts with the mission of helping conflict to be transformative, not violent. So how to prevent, mitigate, and recover from violent conflict. And it is my distinct honor today to be with you to welcome Ms. Janine Mabunda-Liocco to the Institute. Ms. Mabunda serves as the personal representative of the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in charge of the fight against sexual violence and child recruitment. This is one of the most important and most challenging portfolios globally that I can imagine. So I'm absolutely delighted to have her here. And I'd also like to welcome Ambassador Faida Matifu and her colleagues from the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We thank all of you for what the embassy has done in coordination with our good colleagues at KRI. Thank you for helping us to prepare for this very important conversation. And the embassy is generously sponsoring a reception following today's event. So we hope everybody is able to stay and to join in on that conversation. It will be just at the International Women's Commons, so we'll show you the way. Ms. Mabunda, we are just extremely honored that you could be here today. This is her first visit to the United States since just passing her one-year mark in this job. And your role as the special representative on sexual violence is a welcome sign of a seriousness of purpose on a tragedy that has really afflicted so many women and children in the DRC for several decades. So our hats are off to you, and we very much look forward to hearing how your year has gone and how you see the challenges ahead. At USIP, we very much see sexual violence as a weapon of war and that it is critical to see it as more than just sexual violence amidst violent conflict. It represents really a culture of violence that extends beyond treaties. It disrupts civil society, governance, and reconcili efforts, which is why we really need to think of this as a comprehensive approach when we think of dealing with avoiding violent conflict. We very much look forward to hearing how the DRC has taken a forward-looking strategy on this difficult problem. And I'm very pleased at this point to hand the microphone over to my very good colleague, Katherine Kunis, who's our senior advisor on gender. And in her role has led our missing peace initiative looking at how to mitigate and prevent sexual violence in conflict and in post-conflict. So Kathleen, thank you very much, and take it away. Thank you very much, and I'm going to sit right here. Nancy, thanks for your welcoming remarks, and I want to echo our gratitude for all the people who helped make this important event here today possible. I want to just say that the issue of sexual violence has been a center of our work in the gender and peace building program here at the Institute for the last six years. Why? Because we know that sexual violence and its core issues don't last a minute or an hour or three hours. It lasts decades. And we know that sexual violence and conflict is something that often has many, many invisible traumas and disabilities associated with it. And so as we come together to look at post-conflict reconstruction, we must put sexual violence both at the conflict level, at the violent extremist level, and in the domestic level all into perspective. We are grateful to have with us here at the Institute Ambassador Johnny Carson, who is our senior advisor to the president here. But he has really laid so many paths for relationship building between the United States and Africa. Ambassador Carson has served as ambassador in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, as well as other assignments in his foreign service in Portugal, Botswana, Mozambique, and Nigeria. And not to say that these incredibly important physicians have not been his only service, he began in Tanzania as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. So this is a man who, for an American man who has really helped shape American policy on Africa and these countries. So I am now going to turn the microphone over to Ambassador Carson, who will introduce our guest today. Kathleen, thank you very, very much for those very kind remarks about me and for the very nice introduction. Before I formally introduce our speaker this afternoon, let me open by saying a few words about sexual and gender violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For close to two decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the epicenter of some of the most horrific and prolonged violence against girls and women and to a lesser extent boys and young men. The sexual violence that has swept across the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been of epic proportions. Swedish Foreign Minister Margaret Wallström once remarked that the Congo is the, quote, most dangerous place on earth to be a woman, end quote. And there is really very good reason for that statement. Although we will never know the precise numbers, there are probably in excess of 200,000 women who are survivors of rape living in the eastern Congo today. Many of these victims of horrific crimes that have never been reported, women don't do it because they face stigma and rejection in their communities. And almost none of the victims ever receive the physical and psychological medical services that they need or that justice requires. We know who the victims are. We know the daily traumas and struggles and stigmatization that they all face. But we also know the villains. They are the members of the many armed groups who operate in the eastern Congo. And they are too often the uniform members and offices of the security services. And although the numbers are going down, the villains are sometimes UN peacekeepers sent to protect the people that they ultimately hurt. And all too often, many of the villains go unpunished. That is starting to change. That is starting to change. And in recent years, the Congolese government has begun to take the issue of sexual violence seriously to institute new policies and to arrest and prosecute individuals caught. Today, we are extraordinarily, extraordinarily privileged to have with us Mrs. Jean Mabundo Diocco, President Cabela's personal representative and the person in the Congolese government directly responsible for addressing the number one trauma facing the country today. Mrs. Mabundo is on her first visit to Washington since her appointment by President Cabela in July of 2014. She has extensive, extensive experience in the private sector, in banking, in finance, and in monetary issues, both at the international level and also in her own country. She has also deep experience in the public sector as a senior government official, as a member of parliament. And she has brought energy and commitment to the job, the new job that she has been given. She will be providing us this afternoon with an update on her government's efforts and new initiatives to address sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially the east. Mrs. Mabundo, we look forward to your remarks and what your government is doing, has done, and is planning to do in the future to address the horrendous issues which you have been charged to try to resolve. Before asking Mrs. Mabundo to speak, I would also like to add my welcome to Ambassador Matifu, a good friend, former diplomatic colleague, and a very good representative of her country here in Washington. And Ambassador Matifu will be making remarks at the very end of this session after Mrs. Mabundo has spoken and taken questions. It is my pleasure to introduce Mrs. Mabundo and ask her to speak. She can speak here, or she can speak at the podium, but we are very pleased to have you. I think I'm going to stay with all the rest of the people at this chair. Good afternoon, distinguished youth experts, members of diplomatic cause, ladies and gentlemen. And I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the UCIP United States Institute of Peace for organizing this important session. I follow the Institute's work on the issue of gender-based violence and the recruitment of the soldier child. And on behalf of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I thank you for all that you have contributed who inspired me on my road to this new mandate that I have been assigned one year ago. I would like also to thanks Mrs. Nancy Lindberg and Dr. Kathleen Cuenast for the kind welcome to this prestigious institution and Ambassador Johnny Carson for the kind word of introduction he made. It's a great honor. Finally, I'd like to recognize the DSE ambassador, my sister, Honorable Fahida Mitiful. It has been a long way to come here. And this is my first official trip visits in Washington since being appointed one year ago by President Joseph Kabila as the personal representative in charge of the fight against sexual violence and the recruitment of shoulder child in my country one year ago. On the 8th July, it has been one year. So for those of you who have followed the work of our office, you may know that our team spends the majority of our time on the field in the DSE. I'm not traveling that much in the rest of the world because I think our work is more on the field with them in areas of recent conflict, particularly in the Eastern Congo. In just one year, we have started a public dialogue that once was taboo. And we have sought to tackle the issue of impunity and accountability, both in the military and in the society as a whole. Our work is conducted on the field, like I said, face to face, community by community, village by village, because Congo is big and its diversity diverse, that kind of approach. We are achieving success in one area. The more you are progressing, the more you discover that the issue is linked with other challenge, which are linkitude or long-term policy as a country and its daunting. As I speak before you today, during my first visit in Washington, I found myself with a different challenge, really, navigating the complexity of the politics of the Great Lakes region where I belong, being from the DSE country. And at the conclusion of my exchange with you, you can tell me which is more daunting. I start my professional life in banking sector, while I spend my days adding up more numbers, considering issues of profit, growth, and budget. That's my major. I decided to transition to government. It was in 2007, hoping to bring my private sector experience and management into service for my country. And I wanted to earn the respect of my country, men and women. And I decided to rally for a member of parliament. And I won election to the parliament in the territory of Bumba that you don't know. But that's my village in the Ecuador province, my home area. And I was becoming the first woman ever elected in my territory. When I took over this position one year ago at the request of our president, I left my seat in the parliament with a heavy heart. And I fought it very hard for the right to represent the people of Bumba, the woman of my country in general. But in my current role, I'm empowered because I have to fight for all the people of the DSE, and especially for women and children. And it's rewarding. It's difficult, but I wanted to do it. So it's with a great humility and excuse me for my English that I come here today to speak about what we are doing, how Congo is changing, and what we have accomplished. But also what are the difficulties? What are the challenge? Because it's an easy everyday. What is left in this fight against sexual violence and recruitment of soldier child? As I share this information with you today and the contents upon which we are working, I can ask you that eventually you open your mind to the fact that we are making progress. It's not easy, but we are trying to design a new path regarding the story of sexual violence and child abuse in the DSE. Is it enough? Not at all. Will it ever be? It's difficult to say, but I hope so. But is this progress significant for a country who are faced 10 years and decade of violent turmoil? I think, yes, we are making a change. So how do we do it and how all that has happened for the one year elapsed under this mandate? As I am amongst experts, I will dispense with a lecture on the recent history about the sexual violence issue and the child recruits and to explain how we have made it and what are the hurdles we are facing. In fact, you mentioned it a little bit, dear ambassador. We have been plunged through 10 years of very violent conflicts. But thanks God, in 2013, this has stopped. This has stopped because we were able with the support of the international community to put an end to all this burgeoning, armored group who were just ongoing on the violence in the Eastern Congo. And after the surrender of the M1033, was create a momentum, a possibility, an opportunity for peace and stability. And this permit our government to address this too complex issue. Because without peace, it's difficult to go in form a conflict zone and try to engage with the survivor of all this bad experience. So my appointment was also a statement, not only by the president of Congo who was very engaged about this issue, but I will say a statement from the men of Congo towards the women of Congo that peace was a good timing, a good opportunity to speak about the positioning of women by fighting against this terrible and miserable issue. Because we wish as a nation to change the narrative. I think you mentioned it, this foreign affair, the Sweden affair of foreign minister who tagged Congo like being the capital of rape. It's certainly not a reason of being proud about. And really, it hurts. It hurts all the people of Congo each time that I'm going in Goma or Bukavu and that we remind this tag, nobody is very happy. And so everybody is committed to change the narrative, not by propaganda, but by facts. And it's not easy to change overnight a legacy of conflict, but we must address it in partnership with Congolese people, day to day Congolese people, not high ranked top level Congolese people, but rural people because they constitute 80% of the population. So we have created a roadmap because when you join a mission like this, you can be overflow because the task seems so big, giving the past legacies, but we have decided to go on six avenue and we choose what we call six pillar, six milestone that we are trying to follow and which was including assessment of the progress or assessment first of the situation, then to the fight against impunity, the rule of law, tree prevention through education, economic inclusion, rehabilitation of the victim and the survivor of this miserable experience, duty of memory as an exercise of reconciliation among our people and continued advocacy and communication efforts about what is DLC today? What is different about DLC of yesterday? The fight against impunity is more about, like I said, rule of law and justice. And I will say that what's happened when I have been appointed is that naively, I heard all the stories that you have also heard and read and I said, well, because it's about impunity of security forces, because it does imply military justice being complacent or blind or passive about what's going on, maybe I should call the chief commander, ask a meeting to him and try to discuss the issue to table it on the, I mean not the table so that we know how we're gonna start this battle because this is not my battle, this is a battle of a nation and they are the first category to be pinpointed. So I called them, I was received and like I said, each time I will always remember that I asked for a call to his meeting so it was supposed to hand shakes and then we're gonna see each other the day after but he received me and he was the chief commander of an army, a big army and he received me with seven general and I was like alone with my notebook and he said, you came alone. It was not like very confident about my ability to deliver the mandate. So I say, yes, I came alone because it was at first a contact meeting but if you want a working session, we can work. So I sit with them all and I explain what I've heard, what were the critics of the population when I was touring around, what people on the street were saying about them and I said to them, it's time of peace and you have been maybe a courageous and heroic army for fighting for Congo flag and defending our frontiers and it was a challenge but no it's over because we defeat them 23 so we have to be accountable and to become an army of peace and peace for the people of Congo and are you able to embark with me on that? And they said yes and they opened their books and they allow me to go in the camps, they allow me to go in the garnison, they allow me to go where they have their military courts speaking to the people very friendly to know how has it happened that they do not sanction, what was the reason, was it financial, was it technical, was it logistical and we create a relationship, a way of working not personal relationship but task force relationship, my team and their teams and it was paying off. After one year, we were able to record 135 case of military officer or military soldiers being convicted for rape case. It included the conviction of a high-ranked general, General Kilkawu, which used to be a warlord in the Ugandan frontiers and which used to rape two minor girl of 12 and 13 years. It took the people of Congo or the states of Congo seven years to file the case properly because you have to imagine that former conflict zone to get testimony, to get proof, to get forensic proof, it's not easy but we made it and it was emblematic not only for me but for the army to prove to the rest of the world that they were able to sanction inside their own rank and they did it, it's not me, it's them. So based on that, it create a precedent of people feeling that well, now it's a public position, now we know that we can speak about that, the woman have no right or should not be feel guilty about having been raped, they can claim and they can go to see the prosecutor to see a change and this movement that we are trying to instill in the military justice, we have also tried to do it on the civilian court and on the civilian court it was a little bit different because on the military level, it's a single body, they have their own system of justice depending to the same justice minister but it's a single body, they align very quickly, it's very easy to instill a message and then people will just adjust. While to the civilian justice is a little bit different, we have 114 territories, Congo is big and each province has this civilian justice structure so it was a little bit more challenging. The logistic and the financial and technical constraints were bigger and we found out that to address the fight against impunity and the fight for protecting women in front of violence the best solution was to have mobile court so we set up mobile court and mobile court is a system where in a specific area you call on the rural radio and people let them know that they're gonna be the high prosecutor who's gonna come in your area and if you have any case of rape which is properly evidence, properly and legally filled you are entitled to come and to register your case so that it's dealt and we did it recently in Bunya which is at the Uganda frontier where we held a serial trial on a mobile court basis for 65 people suspected of being rapists and it took one month. People came from all over the surrounding villages and out of the 65 people that we had sanctioned, 46 that we are called for sanctioned. 46 were convicted, 13 were freed up because there were lack of evidences and the five of the cases were not really violence cases it was other case falling under another low regime. So that's how we are concretely fighting on a day-to-day basis on the field regarding this issue of fighting against sexual violence and I think that we are getting some interesting testimonies when we were in Bunya, Catherine which is the sister of one of the victim told us that she had been crying every day when she was sleeping over two years hoping that one day justice will happen for her young sister because her young sister has been raped, she was six years old and she was not even able to stand because injuries were so deep that she felt uncomfortable and seeing that there is a mobile court coming in their villages addressing this issue sanctioning the rapists where they are so that the community can see that it's not acceptable it's not tolerate anymore it was a great psychological reward for them and we try to extend the system of mobile court in all other part of the countries but it's challenging logistically but people want to see justice at their door the sense of peace for people of Congo on the average rural area the sense of peace goes with security and goes with justice so that's what's one of the pillars that really we consider is very important in such a matter that with this battle we've engaged one year ago we are receiving extremely strong support from United Nations from other bilateral countries who have gone through it or neighboring countries because we have to share the best practice we have to share the lessons of this kind of experience and it ended up with a good record for Congo because the last UN report of 2014 shows that if one year ago we had 15,000 cases of rape in 2014 we were able to decrease it by 33% for 10,800 cases of rape and this is a UN report so it's encouraging us to be more severe and to keep on going the same route again, is it enough? Certainly not is it a progress? At least it's a beginning of a change support to the victim because it's not only about punishing people and being repressive I think also like Ambassador Carlson said it's what are the two and how do you accompany the bad experience that the victim has suffered and we must break the silence because we are not in the same cultural society in your Western society you can speak very easily about any matters especially matters linked to intimacy, sexuality it's not the case in Africa and it's not the case in Congo and you have to learn to these victims to be able to speak about the experience to change the status of them feeling guilty and the rape is not feeling guilty so we set up a campaign that we call Break the Silence and we said to this campaign you must break the silence and we start this campaign on the March month woman march month of last year setting up a call center where a victim can call because obviously when you have been a victim you feel guilty you feel ashamed by what happened you feel also scared by the reaction of the community who can stigmatize you so if you can just buy a call call somebody who doesn't judge you who doesn't know you who will not accuse you to the community and that you are hidden by a phone call it's better and it has been very effective but because we start getting phone calls from victims saying that I have been raped what can I do, what's the process and you start also to this phone call educating the people because we have not the same level of background we are not equipped the same way to withstand and to fight when we get this kind of misery and no later than 15 days ago I had a very good and moving testimony because we saw somebody coming into our office it was a lady I will call her Shaka and Shaka came and she was sitting like claiming on the desk of my hostess saying that but you said break the silence and I'm breaking my silence I'm coming to claim here and you have to receive me so it was really a very powerful message so she didn't know who I was because it was Friday I was on jeans so she didn't recognize me and I said what are you willing and she said to me no Madame Mabunda told me by the advertising we have to break the silence I'm breaking my silence I want to be helped so she explained the story and Frank who is in the room here who was a legal expert took her in charge and it was so moving to see her really harassing my hostess saying you said break the silence I'm breaking the silence because there is a cultural barrier and we have to help to move this cultural barrier and I think this is important to be able to help this victim in many way so that really it can make the difference if you help them to raise the awareness that they are not the guilty people the guilty people should be the rapists it's the conversation change also we have also observed that in the name to accompany the people and the victim you should not just punish them accompany punish the rapists accompany them legally or psychologically or medically there is a very fighting spirit in these people of Congo and including the survivor of this experience especially in eastern Congo and they say no we don't want to be on our knees we don't want to cry we want to stand up we want to show that out of this experience we are even stronger and being alive is just a proof for the rapists that they didn't succeed so we want to learn about a job we want to be autonomous and we want to make a living and we have to take care about not leaving these people behind on the road so we have tried an experience and that's the pillar that we call economic inclusion, economic reintegration we start in a small village 35 km from Goma at their request a vocational training for survivor of rape and survivor of forced recruitment in armored group and they will be taught for two months training in agriculture, literacy, pastry, soap, process it's their own request any change from one village to another but it always goes the beginning is literacy and we were planning to get 75 people yesterday we had the people of Goma and we were 98 people so we had to refuse people showing that even if they have faced this hard experience they want to be alive they want to withstand and that's a good sign if we can just replicate and systematize that kind of answer in terms of accompanying them regarding the soldier child because this is also part of my mandate what I can give as an update is that Congo has started the soldier child program in conjunction with United Nation 10 years ago at the beginning of the conflict because that was really a concerning point and we could not even wait for peace agreement to save these children from armored groups so we enter into a long process we built a strong knowledge on the process we focused on separating the children from the armored groups or within our army within our army we made the stand very strong also by ruling eventually by threatening the commanders of the army that anyone who's got a child in his troops maybe revoked from the army and we work in conjunction with UNICEF which is the Child Protection Unit of United Nation the army of course is organizing them to go in any camp and garrison to see, to check because they are better equipped than us whether they were minor or children and as of today based on an independent review we made last year at the beginning of this year we have a soldier child free army and this authorized army for example to go and support what's happening now in Central Africa where we have a battalion of the D.R.C. being there because they are more trained than other people about this soldier child so and I think again we were encouraged by the last report of the Deputy Secretary-General in charge of that saying that Congo has made some progress on the soldier child issue and what we are speaking about now is a dialogue with the United Nation regarding soldier child, not sexual violence to daily D.R.C. from the list of the country who are blacklisted for recruiting a soldier child so in summary I don't want to be too long I will give the floor to you and to your question but we have noticed and we are all aware being Congolese in the room that D.R.C. has always been portrayed like the hell in her or whatsoever and we have decided as a country to take the opportunity of this peace momentum to build another story and I will not be here if I was not supported because you cannot do such difficult and delicate work without the support of any stakeholders involved and I would like to thank all the ENGO who are with us, the Defence Ministry because without them I could not go in this former conflict zone and I hope that the story will go on because there is another Congo there is also a Congo which is not about just victim of violence there is also a Congo who's got a 9.5% growth rate and which is about the top performer in economic reform these days so thank you. Madam Mahbunda that was an excellent presentation and a great amount of progress you have yourself brought an enormous amount of energy and commitment to the job that you have been given I'd also like to applaud the innovation of mobile courts taking justice to the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo especially to those areas where violence has occurred but justice has not been done I'd like to start the questions off by asking you about another court and this is the mixed tribunals the mixed chambers as they are sometimes called nearly two years ago President Mobutu agreed that mixed chambers mixed tribunals would in fact be a useful addition to the Congo and bringing about justice and these mixed chambers would have brought in foreign judges to work alongside of Congolese judges to prosecute and adjudicate cases of the worst sort atrocities and mass violence I'd like to ask why has the mixed chamber process not moved along as rapidly as the mobile courts and what do you see as the status of the mixed chambers going forward? Can you take out a question? Well we can take a few more questions if that's acceptable to you why don't I do this and if you have a question please identify yourself make the question as short and brief as possible so we'll take several questions sir in the back you've got your Good afternoon and thank you very much for that amazing presentation my name is Timothy Kane I direct the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center right down the street at the George Washington University and I'm wondering if you have data around the targeting of women who identify as lesbian, bisexual or transgender in the Congo and if that's something that is sort of being tracked or being explored I don't get the interview sentence if you wonder whether is tracking sexual violence against lesbian, bisexual women or transgender women being researched and investigated because in many other countries women of sexual minority identities are more severely targeted than heterosexual women and I'm just wondering if that is on your radar collection of data correct, thank you we'll take one more hey, I'm Carolyn from George Mason University I'm a PhD candidate and I was wondering if you could speak to the training of police officers to collect evidence and to support the victims thank you so regarding the mixed chambers it's a question which comes on and on but I will say there is two schools there are people who are for the mixed chambers and not people but there are I will say legal legal advisor, lawyers deputy and senator who are for the setup of mixed chambers and there are other people who believes sorry there are other people who believe that we are in a process of global justice reform and so it will be probably disorganized to set up a mixed chamber without reviewing all the process of the justice reform that we are busy doing now to make sure that we are not creating a sort of exceptional court while the full system should be reviewed like it is evidenced by the experience we have on the field regarding the justice capacity and justice delivery on the field so I think so far that's where the debate stands and obviously if we can use already the existing justice institution and facilities I think the tendency will be to go there why because it's easier to build on something which already exists than in all this challenging new Congo where you have many obligation to meet in term of reform you add the issue of the mixed chambers so that's the last update we have from the parliament from the CNET and from the justice ministry but thoughts regarding the reform of justice the ministry of justice has held recently the Zeta Ginerau it's a sort of national forum to assess the level of justice in the AC under the circumstances of a peace system because we are no more at war so we have more time we are more serious to think about it and it gathered together all the justice civil and justice prosecutors to get their best idea about how we can really make this reform not to be too long not to be stretched and to be effective in term of delivery to the people regarding research on sexual violence eventually directed to lesbian and bisexual people if we have data not that I know so far I would say that it's quite a new a new topics and we have no data so far in the AC so regarding training of policemen I think that you are right in raising the question because we also felt on the field that the training the technical adjustment the ongoing technical adjustment on anybody who is a public servant engaged in the chain of fighting and sexual violence which I recruit is worthwhile we've got a lot of training going to the police system either we do it on our own either we share with other countries either we share with the United Nations and in the police even there are a little bit more advance that at the army where they have even some focal point woman focal point dedicate to that question of sexual violence in the army it's just recently so less than six months that they appoint a three woman general and one is in charge of the department of civic education of the army so she trained people not on operation matter but on human rights and red line that you have to take into account while you go on the field and it's a very experienced general woman she has 47 years of experience she has been trained in Israel she is a parachute jumpers so she is well respect by demand because she is an operational soldier and we try as much as possible to make sure and to be vigilant to the fact that also the army has to be a little bit feminized on some of the sectors so that we are sure that the dialogue the conversation about sexual violence is just flowing on all the level not just on the top level but on all the level on the trainee when they are coming they are welcome lady and yes the training is very important technical assistance is important and the issue of how to collect proof and foreign seek report stay an issue of concern which needs to be addressed properly we have some reward questions I'm going to go with Kathleen who is asked thank you so much and I want to congratulate the leadership of the country for their work in the effort to change the narrative by fact I think that is an incredible effort that you have laid out in front of you the pillars and I just want to recognize what remarkable progress and what support that will be to other countries in the country world dealing with this I'm interested in your comment on how to remove cultural barriers in 2010 we had an event here on the DRC and sexual violence and we asked about the religious community and what role you see the religious community playing in as you say beating the silence and removing social cultural norms around sexual violence both men and women and if in fact the new Pope's leadership on the issue of sexual violence have been a leverage point for your work Deborah Harding, thank you I have sort of a two part question madam abundant thank you very much for your presence here today in your presentation first of all I wonder if you could talk about whether the incident of rape has declined appreciably since the war has stopped and secondly are there no structures in the traditional culture that that would be that would be present in trying to control the behavior of those who rape of the rapists thank you thank you very much Princeton lineman from the U.S. Institute of Peace in the mobile courts that you set up how difficult was it to collect the evidence to identify the assailants and get the sufficient evidence to convict people one of the question was relating to what we can we do to set up a culture about no violence in using religious leaders and other I would say cultural tools to make sure that the community and the society is aware about the no go or the red line regarding sexual violence I would say that the answer may be multiple facets but so far the experience we have on the field is that on religious community we are receiving and I can just testimony what I'm seeing in the office we have a lot of people writing to us and out of the people writing to us we have been surprised in the past months to see that the protestant church the other I would say other religious movement have wrote to us to ask how they can work with us together in terms of campaigning in terms of advocacy and we really praise that we were surprised some other people also from church movement gave us some testimony and experience about what works best in the community and it was very powerful so there are on our next list of people for the advocacy but obviously we start where it was the most urgent it was the army at first so we are aware of that and we think that they are very powerful especially in a country like Congo which is mainly very religious and Catholic oriented we have also other tools out of the religious leaders inside the community we can use the tool of the education and like I told you eventually our office or my mandate intervening on a crisis mode something bad has happened and an emergency mode somebody get into my office or call the number of break the silence and we have to act very quickly but on the longer term what says the behavior of violence it says that you are not considering woman or girls like being eligible of any right in a society so do we want to build a society in the AC where people believe that no certainly not and it's not me as a woman who speaks it's even the man of Congo and what have they decided to do the prime minister the education minister the parliament in voting the budget have increased the budget of education from 6% for years behind to 16% as of today usually the average in Africa of education budget should be 25 to be ok but to go for a country starting from 6% to reach 16% despite the fact that you are spending a lot of money to set up your security is a tremendous work and it's paying off because 4 years before the education campaign in favor of girls we had 7 million of children going to school in the AC for 70 million of population today 4 years later with a very strong environment campaign let your girl go to school we have 17 million children in the AC going to school and it's very impressive myself I'm always surprised because I was not a student like that you can go in any village in Congo whether it's in west north or south you can be in your car early in the morning 5.30 and you see people in white and blue and they go to school and really people are eager to learn because they know that the only way to survive and to make a living is somebody and to be autonomous it's to go to school so the education program is very strong we have also noticed by the education ministry some of the facts that we have seen in violence whether it's about child recruit in army, whether it's about raping young teen goes when the school is very far away from the village center so we have changed the policy in school building and we have set a bet saying that we're going to build 1000 schools per year in the AC and what does the school in terms of priority should be set up should be built in area where there is no school or in area where there is school with the roof of the school being palm leaves and where the tuition fees for the children is to bring on your way to school a green palm leaf because the old palm leaf is old and it's just allowing the leakage of the rain when it rains so the government was very hard to say that determined about that and they said well we're going to build 1000 schools per year and one school should not exceed 50,000 to 100,000 US dollars but it has to be a school with 6 classrooms more wider so that the children can feel better with shares with office and it has been done and we have to thank and praise and let you know that we have an American NGO who's helping the government on that which is Global Coalition for Education of Mrs. Albright and they are doing a tremendous job and really I've been myself seeing this school with palm leaf roof and one year after they were a school in concrete in the school also they separate the girls to toilets from boys and it speaks to some parents especially in the Bantu culture in the African culture when the parents are sure that the toilets are segregated they are more engaged to send their little girls at school so that the parity rate which is the number of girls that you find in a classroom was 10 years 4 years back it was 0.6 for one boy meaning that you have 60% of girls in a class for 100% of boys and we just let the girl go at school building 1000 schools per year the priority index has changed and we are now reaching 0.8 to 1 which means 80% of girls where they used to be 60% so it's very effective and that's the long term way to address the inequality between the little girl and the little boy and that's really the pro-lungement of our mandate so that's for the question of education and religious community regarding has violence decreased with the help of the war yes probably because most of the surprising and impressive figures of rape records we had in the DLC is linked to war violence when people are doing war and are fighting against each other rape is a tactic of the war to terrorize a community and to get hold on them of their resources so with the peace momentum that we see since 2013 obviously the record also of rape has decreased but not only just by peace fact because it's not automatic so because people and opinion have realized that on a public level on a public sea it's not accepted anymore which makes this decrease and statistic that we have seen I also think that the fact that the UN backup was there on the post-conflict time and I should praise Mrs. Bangoura the deputy secretary general of UN in charge of that matter that we will host I think next week has been very present to help the DLC on the post-conflict time to set up a better program especially the action plan for the army, for them also to fight inside their system regarding this issue so it's a a mix, a combination of many two regarding the mobile court and the evidences one should not believe that when we say mobile court is a sort of express court you go in the middle of somewhere and you just render justice without reference to law and rule a sort of movie justice or moving justice, no usually what happens the civilian or the military prosecutors call on us saying that I have a lot of cases of rape I think it will be more useful to get them together to be systematic and to apply the same law code but I'm facing some logistical challenges because some cases are distant from where we are and we cannot organize a proper system of touring around in all the region so usually the justice has already filed that they have prepared that they have checked, cross-check they follow the legal process about the proof record and when it's okay they call on us. The proof is evidence in the Bounia case because we had 65 cases and we convicted 46 13 were freed up because there were lack of evidence and we are not there just to do simulacrode justice or theater justice, we are there really to stick to the law and we have a law dating back 2006 which is very clear about what you have to bring as proof to make sure that you can be eligible to claim for violence on rape. Madam Mabunda I have several questions that I like to ask the first is what is the the greatest current difficulty or impediment that you face in making more progress what would it take to have more mobile courts out in the field to deliver greater justice more timely to those who have been impacted and what is it that you think the international community can do more of or do better in terms of helping you with the work that you have to do? I think that like you have noticed the challenge is big because Congo is big it's 80 times Belgium I think 10 times France and we can go on for reasons so the challenge is really accurate and I think we had not planned to get into decade of violence we had not planned to get the collateral damages going with this decade of violence but as a state we will not be failing and I think the funding issue is quite important and I noticed that when we do the mobile court because to move people around in such a distance yes it requires funding and logistical challenges I think also the issue because we are at UCIP the issue of peace and security in the Great Lake region is very key and cornerstone we will not be able me speaking to you today if Congo was not at peace because if Congo is not at peace I cannot go in Goma I cannot go in Bukavu I cannot sleep in very remote villages at some countries frontier to make sure that I'm listening to what this woman have suffered and to give them the support that the state has the obligation to give them so peace in the Great Lake region is key because Congo will not do peace alone Congo has nine frontier we cannot change a frontier we cannot change a country and we have to make sure that everybody has understood that it's time now in the Great Lake region for peace and nothing else that's really cornerstone and thank United States because in 2013 they have been very strong in the M23 adventurer the other issue and challenge I will say will be technical assistance because you name it this very dedicated average civilian or military judges are really doing their work in very difficult and challenging condition I will remember a mobile court we had in Wichuru and I give the example because I was really impressed and I was very moved it was one captain soldier who just called me we had a woman meeting in a village in Goma and he said to me yes madam I'm not a woman but I would like to call on you because I have arrested like seven people for rape since the defeat of M23 it was in February 2014 and we are in August I'm not even able to render justice because there is no court here and Goma is too far so I promise to him that we will come back and do a mobile court and we did it in October 2014 and he called us to see to come at the mobile court and it was so impressive to see these I will say anonymous Congolese soldiers being judges rendering justice inciting the civil not the civil code but inciting the penalty code regarding sexual violence citing the status of Rome which is an international law citing some rule of precedent mainly rule of precedent cases from DRC but they said they will be more encouraged and more strong if they can also cite cases of other countries just to show to people that it doesn't happen just in Congo it's a rule you have to respect women so technical assistant for this kind of people is very important and I was impressed because they were under a dusty tent it was sometimes raining, sometimes sunny but they did it for three weeks I think and they went to the end of it so technical assistant is very key and finally I will see all what is psychological support because culturally African I mean in DRC at least I cannot speak for the other countries but in DRC it's very rare if not nonexistent to feel the need to go to a psychologist and if you look for a psychologist even in the city of Kinshasa I don't think there is that much there may be one or two for a country of 70 million people it's quite not that much and with all the trauma that people have faced linked to the war I think that we should review that area finally also one of the main challenges is I think advocacy and communication because every day I'm reading on internet I'm reading in newspaper very fancy things about Congo I don't say it's not true but I said it should be good and it should be time also to encourage the peace momentum and the real commitment and hope that people of Congo have regarding this peace momentum it should be time for anybody who's willing to also give justice to this change of story and yes advocacy and communication is very important because Congo is not just like I said about raped woman like they told me and really I bring this message everywhere where I go in the rest of the world they said we were on our knees but no we want to stand to stand by and to make a living out of it and I think it should inspire us so advocacy and communication is still important so that's what I can say let me I don't know whether anyone else has any questions if oh we've got now some hands before only a few minutes doctor I'll let you start My name is Nini Kanda I am a pediatrician and I have worked and I have worked here in the area of child victimization but I wanted to ask you as you look toward the future how do you see your mandate do you see your mandate institutionalized to cover the whole society the whole country or do you see your mandate as one that is more limited and circumscribed to the circumstances of conflict Hi I have many questions Dr. Valerie Begley I guess my first question is can you talk a little bit about how the international rhetoric around gender based violence in war rape as a weapon of war has helped your work I saw a third hand My name is Beth Ellen Holliman I'm with the international grant making organization Dining for Women and my question is what are the current penalties for the criminals for the convicted criminals that's all thank you Thanks the question regarding my mandate obviously it will be a little bit early after one year to get a firm answer on it and probably also it depends on the long term policy of the states of Congo like I told you my mandate will not be isolated and progress will not be achieved if there is no strong institution in the defense department education department gender department and justice department so I should also pay tribute to what they are doing because if they were not doing it properly I will not be able to achieve such progress now it's also true that the mandate was created like I said in really in a sort of saturation about the stories of sexual violence and to make sure that we have not only a single one-stop shop counter but also somebody who will be in French we say le droit sur pied de guerre I don't know how to translate that in English but it means that you are really on a war mode you do the war to this fight and because you want to see the line move when the line have moved and they will decide I mean the nation will decide and the stakeholders will decide I think normally it should be transferred to the gender department and the social affair department but we really made we really wish it to made it clear that for the time being it's utmost priority and it has to be dealt like that for the question regarding the international support yes eventually I didn't mention it very in the very details in my presentation but it's obvious that you cannot reach result just alone and again I will really praise and thank United Nation first because they have believe in our capacity to do the turnaround while others eventually were a little bit skeptical and really Mrs. Bangoura has been key in changing, helping, constructing the policy with us and I think yes the support of the international community was also very important also you know being a member of the international society through United Nation it give you also access to the practice of other countries the way the issue change faces depending on where you are today we are speaking about Syria today we are speaking about some things happening in India and today we are also speaking about Nigeria, Boko Haram how Nigeria deal with this issue and when I was in United Nation we spoke with the Nigerian delegation and they say we have 270 girls who have been kidnapped and it's an issue for us and you are speaking about 10,000 of people that you are trying to help so how do we do and how do we exchange best practice so I think the international community on that front has been very helpful and we have been very helpful to the international community for that. Then what are the kind of penalties? Penalties the law is very clear it depends really on the appreciation of the civilian of the military judges but so far what we have seen is that damages can go from 1,000 US dollar to 100,000 US dollar for the general example and not a threat for society it also goes sometime with for the army you are revoked from the army and not only they revoke you but they take you out all the grids and the rank you had gone before so it's quite severe and you can go in jail for 10 years to 20 years so because we at first in the past it used to be debt penalty but debt penalty has been converted in never end jail I will say so that's what I can say thank you we are going to try to maintain our schedule so I am going to take this opportunity to begin the transition and thank you Mrs. Mabunda for a great presentation this afternoon and to say that I hope that the mandate that you have will continue and not be restricted or limited and I hope that the president and the government have the goodwill the common sense to keep an articulate and energetic and committed voice like yours out front trying to push back on not only the fact of the violence against women and some men in the eastern Congo but also the public image that accompanies the facts that we have seen in the past so I am going to ask everyone to join me in thanking Mrs. Mabunda for an excellent presentation on a a very important subject as a part of that transition we've asked Ambassador Matifu to make some closing remarks on behalf of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the DRC mission here in Washington Ambassador Matifu Thank you very much Ambassador Carson I would like to take this opportunity also to thank USAIP for organizing this event it has been long overdue to listen to DRC voice on the issue of sexual violence and I'm so pleased that it's my good friend and sister Jeanine Mabunda who has been given this very difficult task it's a daunting task but I was very pleased when she was appointed because I knew that they have chosen the right person to tackle this issue so thank you Jeanine for coming and thank you for your thorough presentation on this issue Jeanine's mandate and Jeanine's office really exemplify the microcosm of the transformation that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is going through the Democratic Republic of the Congo has embarked on religious reforms in all sectors whether you talk about the security sector whether you talk about the economy whether you talk about education you talk about health the Democratic Republic of the Congo is very very serious to make the DRC the country that it should be a power in Central Africa in the Central African region it wasn't just by chance that the President chose to have this structure within his own office he did not create an agency that would depend on another ministry or within the department of such and such ministry he created it within the President's office to show how serious he was about this issue it's a comprehensive issue Jeanine talked about the pillars and these pillars they include economy include education it includes good governance it includes rule of laws and all these really unbodies the government program the government is very busy putting in place policies that promote transparencies that promote improvement of our economy our economy has been doing very well for the last six years the growth has been steady while we are pushing for a two digits increase in the economic rate for next year and all this is not being done just lightly as a mineral producing country we are now members of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative we have adhered to OHADA which is a Pan-African organization for the harmonization of business law in Africa all this effort really is to make a comprehensive program that would benefit especially the women the women are a very important component of the DRC but also the DRC is a very young country it's a country where the youth make the most majority of the population and if we don't start doing something right now then we risk an implosion of our population there are so many programs about the youth but going back to the women because we the women we are the mothers we are the ones who raise our children we make the most part of the population especially in the informal economy and it's very very important to empower women when you empower women you empower a nation which is extremely important that Janine's work has to be coupled with economic empowerment programs I think we talked about psychological support which is extremely important and we're hoping that down the road we'll have a partnership with the US with other countries to deal with these psychological issues but we also we seek also partnership economically we seek investment we have embarked on an ambitious program in agriculture the great majority of farmers in the DRC are women we have NGOs today who are focusing on women empowerment through agricultural production we have ECI the Eastern Congo initiative that they are working with women in the cocoa in the cocoa fields hopefully soon you will be buying chocolates from cocoa coming from the DRC ECI also is working with women in the coffee fields soon you will be drinking coffee from Starbucks coming from the Eastern Congo and you know and so on the government within this ambitious program of agricultural development because agriculture is a renewable wealth and we want to make it really the source of growth for the DRC but agriculture and in this program also actually within the prime minister's office one of the person who is perheading this program is a woman so the women even though there are still very few in the parliament where Madame Mabunda comes from even though there are still very few of us in the diplomatic field but the president has insisted time and time again whether it's political parties whether it's in the ministerial cabinet you have to show the parity almost because our constitution recognize the parity but how do you get there you get there through education you get there through empowering women and this is what Madame Janine Mabunda in many ways has been doing so we hope and I look forward for the time when other countries will be citing DRC's best practices and I will be that will be probably you know my proudest moment and as we engage on this new conversation on this new transformation of the DRC for you to work with us don't stay behind don't stay locked up in that kind of advocacy that only portray DRC in a negative way talk about what you heard here and come work with us and work with Madame Mabunda and all the other structure within the DRC I think Madame Mabunda said it much much better than I can and I want to thank you again Ambassador Carson thank you so much for organizing this event Ambassador Matifu thank you for your presentation and again thank you for helping to bring Madame Mabunda here to Washington DC let me say that following immediately following this event there will be a reception one floor above us in the International Women's Commons area of USIP this is being sponsored by the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo we welcome all of you to join us in going up the steps and then taking an immediate left in through the gates to the International Women's Commons again let me thank you Madame Mabunda for being here today and we greatly appreciate your presence and your participation Ambassador Matifu welcome back we're glad to have you with us this afternoon and thank you all for joining us and Kathleen especially for the enormous work that the gender program directs here and Riva thank you and I want to on behalf of the US Institute of Peace just answer to Ambassador Matifu that our next meeting on the DRC will be about that transformation forward we are on your team we're so pleased to hear the vision and the leadership that we see here embodied in both of your work so thank you very much and thank you all for coming and I do want to also give a special thank you to our colleague and friend Ambassador Johnny Carson who has made a world of difference today and every day thank you very much