Christian groups and believers around the world capped a week of refugee advocacy with World Refugee Sunday in hopes of mobilizing more churches to pray for the more than 42 million refugees and internally displaced peoples.
In particular, Christian relief groups this year used World Refugee Sunday and World Relief Day to highlight the plight of women and girl refugees, which some say governments have failed to protect from rape and other forms of violence and exploitation in conflict situations.
“[A]lthough the international humanitarian laws are in place that guarantee the protection of civilians, women, and children, they are not being upheld,” reported Martina Liebsch, head of Migration and Trafficking for Caritas Internationalis.
“Governments and UN agencies must address this failure by improving protection, medical treatment, counseling and means for rehabilitation and compensation,” she added. “Women should be encouraged to report on the abuses they suffered to start their healing. To do justice to their suffering their perpetrators should be brought to justice.”
Caritas, which works in conflict-torn areas around the world, noted how women and girls who have fled the conflict in Sri Lanka to go to camps say violence is their chief source of fear, for example. Overcrowding in camps leads to lack of privacy for women and adolescent girls and creates an environment for abuse, the Catholic relief group reported.
In Colombia, meanwhile, women and girls face sexual abuse, forced recruitment and exploitation as cheap laborers amid the country’s civil war. Around 17.7 percent of women in Colombia who had fled their homes reported the cause as sexual violence, Caritas noted.
And in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled eastern region, 463 rape cases in South Kivu have been reported in the past three months – more than half the number reported in the whole of 2008.
What’s worse is that women and girls in eastern Congo fear soldiers meant to protect them as much as they do other armed actors involved in the intractable and brutal conflict, according to a new community-based study by international relief and development agency World Vision.
The study, carried out in the displacement camps and communities in North and South Kivu, found that women fear rape by any "men who wear uniforms," whether they be government forces or armed militias.
“Sixteen out of 18 focus groups named armed groups as the main perpetrators of violence against women and girls,” World Vision reported. “Eleven of the groups also felt that the government army was a threat to their safety and ten called for all soldiers to be removed and replaced by well-trained, well-paid police.”
As part of its work to help reduce the threat of violence against communities in eastern DRC, World Vision has trained 2,500 government soldiers and police officers in International Humanitarian Law since last October.
World Vision has also formed community protection committees made up of both men and women, which work to redress some of the issues raised in the study.
But groups such as World Vision and Caritas say more needs to be done in the government sectors to protect women and girls, who represent almost half of the internally displaced and refugee populations worldwide.
To call for action on protecting women and children refugees worldwide, Caritas members from 11 countries will be attending a U.N. consultation on refugees next week organized by the United Nation’s refugee agency, UNHCR, on June 29 in Geneva.
In her remarks, Caritas’ Liebsch noted how violence against women affects families, communities and villages.
“The effects of this violence are devastating,” she added.
Missions
Christian groups highlight 'devastating' violence against women, girl refugees
By: Eric Young
Christian Post Reporter
Christian Post Reporter
Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 8:26 (EST)
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Added: Friday, 3 July 2009, 12:36 (EST)
MJPC blames the Congolese Government for the Deteriorating Situation in East Congo(DRC)
"There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in lawless eastern Congo for six months" Following the deteriorating situation in east Congo, the MJPC called today for the Congolese Government to urgently pay the salaries to thousands of soldiers who have not been paid for over six months in eastern Congo, take swift action to enforce the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant against Bosco Ntaganda and to hold accountable perpetrators of sexual violence against women for their acts. "Failing to hold accountable individuals who commit war crimes and crimes against humunity continues to be the leading cause of widespread and systematic sexual violence acts against girls and women in the easten Congo" said Makuba Sekombo, Community Affairs Director of the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the DR Congo (MJPC). Mr. Sekombo again criticized the government of Congo for not only the continuing failure to protect women and young girls from sexual violence, but also for "encouraging conditions that create opportunities for sexual violence to occur". "There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in the lawless eastern Congo for six months" said Sekombo. The MJPC has also renewed its call for the Congolese government to take urgent needed action to end human rights abuses in east Congo, hold perpetrators accountable and ensure reparation for the victims of sexual violence. The MJPC has been urging the Congolese government to compensate the victims of sexual violence in order to also help combat impunity in eastern part of Congo where sexual violence against women and children has been widely used as weapon of war for more than decade. The MJPC online petition calling for help to put pressure on Congolese Government to compensate victims of sexual siolence in Eastern DRC can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html About MJPC MJPC works to add a voice in advocating for justice and peace in the DRC particulary in the east of DRC where thousands innocent civilian including children and women continue to suffer massive human rights violations while armed groups responsible for these crimes go unpunished For more information about the MJPC and its activities, visit http://www.mjpcongo.org. or call Makuba Sekombo @ 1-408-8063-644 or e-mail: info@mjpcongo.org. The online petition calling on the Congolese Government to put urgently in place a comprehensive program of compensation for the victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.htmlMakuba Sekombo, Sacramento, CA
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