Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

In August 2010, a high-level panel was convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to hear directly from victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) regarding their needs and their perceptions of remedies and reparations available to them. The High Commissioner tasked the panel to assess the functioning of existing judicial mechanisms for remedies and reparations for victims of sexual violence, and to make recommendations on the strengthening of these mechanisms as well as the need for additional mechanisms, particularly to provide access to remedies for victims whose perpetrators are not known. The panel worked in consultation with the Government of the DRC.

The Panel was informed about efforts undertaken by the Government to address sexual violence, including the adoption of a National Strategy to Combat Gender-Based Violence and the passing of two laws against sexual violence in 2006. The panel found that the needs of the victims of sexual violence it interviewed are largely unmet, particularly in remote areas. The lives they knew have been largely destroyed, and they are suffering greatly - physically, psychologically, and materially. This victimization continues and is compounded by the stigma they often face in families and communities. Their husbands abandon them, and they are socially ostracized. Often this rejection is further compounded for victims who suffer from fistula, victims who become pregnant and bear children as a result of rape, and victims who contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Shifting the stigma from the victims to the perpetrators would have a great impact on the ability of victims to reclaim their dignity and rebuild their lives.

The panel recommends that a fund to support reparations for victims of sexual violence in the DRC, the need for which is foreseen in the National Strategy to Combat Gender-Based Violence, be established as a matter of priority, with the governance of the reparations fund to include representatives of the Government of the DRC, the United Nations, donors, civil society, and survivors themselves, to best ensure accountability for the allocation of funding and the expenditure of funds. Such a fund should benefit victims of sexual violence in all parts of the country, not just eastern DRC. While there must be some element of government contribution to a reparations fund in recognition of its responsibility to the victims, this participation could take various forms including in-kind contributions, percentage allocation of costs, public statements and other forms of symbolic reparation that recognize the harm suffered by victims. The reparations fund should have the flexibility to respond differently to different needs in different places, and the panel recommends that a decentralized model that allows for reparation projects to be formulated at the local or provincial, as well as the national level, would be more effective in tailoring reparations, particularly collective reparations, to the needs of the victims. A reparations fund should be restricted to Congolese-led initiatives so as to help build national capacity, and the design of a reparations fund should be formulated in close consultation with victims of sexual violence, as well as civil society.