DRC: New Legal Clinic Established to Combat Impunity for Sexual Violence in Kiwanja, North Kivu

The joint office UN Human Rights office (BCNUDH in French acronym) and NGO Centre de recherche sur l'environnement, la démocratie et les droits de l'homme (CREDDHO) recently established a new legal clinic in Kiwanja, North-Kivu. Funded by the Canadian Cooperation for International Development since 2008, this activity is part of the legal and judiciary dimension of the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in the North and South Kivu provinces.

"Thanks to the new clinic, victims of sexual violence and human rights abuse will receive free and appropriate judiciary, medical and psycho-social counselling as well as socio-economic reintegration," explained Céline Bullman, the focal point on sex violence issues at MONUC's Human Rights Office in Goma.

Kiwanja legal clinic is the third established in North Kivu and the sixth in the Kivus in general. The clinic will serve 25 localities of the territory of Rutshuru and serve as a relay centre for approaching judicial staff situated far from the population of the territory of Rutshuru. The legal and judicial dimension of the project is to fight impunity which the perpetrators of sexual violence enjoy, through public awareness campaigns and facilitation of access to justice by the victims.

The Legal clinic's role is to provide guidance and free judicial assistance to victims including their families to help them bring to justice those who commit such horrible acts and to ensure that legal actions are taken against them. "MONUC's Human Rights Office has contributed with IT equipment and a generator to help the legal clinic capture, gather and analyse human rights violations as well as monitor the legal proceedings and carry out their activities," further said Céline Bullman.

MONUC's Human Rights Office will also make a technical contribution in terms of training for the clinic staff to help them collect and analyse information from partners. "The end objective is to help NGOs take ownership of techniques on the monitoring of human rights violations, assistance to victims and to become autonomous which will enable them to carry through the project when it expires."

"The fight against human rights abuse is not only the prerogative of NGOs. To improve the human rights situation and eradicate human rights abuses in the territory of Rutshuru, we must work in synergy with political, administrative and military authorities," said the chief of CREDDHO's office in Kiwanja. "We encourage all the stakeholders in the fight against impunity, not only NGOs and civil society organisations, but also FARDC, PNC, the judiciary, political and traditional authorities to work in collaboration with the legal clinic with a view to maximising efforts in the fight against sexual violence," highlighted Céline Bullman.

The territory has been and is still the scene of conflicts and gross human rights violations, more particularly sexual violence. Kiwanja suffered reprisal attacks from CNDP in November 2008, entailing targeted massacres of villagers and other violations including sexual violence (see Consolidated Report on the Investigations Conducted by Human Rights Office on the gross human rights violations committed in Kiwanja, North-Kivu, in November 2008 and September 2009, as reported by MONUC's Human Rights Office).