How do we prevent Gender-Based Violence in war?
A Youth Ambassador’s Perspective

This year, I was privileged to serve as a Youth Ambassador for Panzi Foundation. In one of our monthly sessions, we were tasked with answering the question: “How do we prevent Gender-Based Violence in war?” Reflecting on this question and gender-based violence more broadly, I could not help but think about growing up in Kinshasa, miles away from the conflict in the eastern DRC. 

I remembered going to the tailor at the corner of the street to get my secondary school skirt tailored to my rather tiny waist. I must have been between 12 and 14 years old. As I sat in the tailor shop awaiting my turn, two women were talking, one older and the other younger. The younger woman was expressing distress at the fact that her husband beat her badly, it seemed to have been a habit. As the younger one spoke, the older woman’s face hardened not with anger, but with an overwhelming sense of duty as she replied:” He is your husband. He will beat you sometimes. You need to be a good wife,” consequently draining any trace of hope off of the face of her friend.

I don’t remember how I felt hearing her words, but their conversation stayed with me. 

Sadly, these harmful gender norms have transcended generations, shaping beliefs and values to this day. For instance, I was talking with a childhood friend, expressing frustration with a scandal in Kinshasa. This scandal centered on a pastor who had several wives and had made a 14-year-old girl his 12th wife, as promised to him by her father. The pastor and the father had been arrested. As I expressed frustration with the fate of so many young girls in the same situation, my friend pushed back and claimed, “The girl must share in the responsibility. She wanted to marry the pastor, she had expressed interest in him. She admired him, really liked him, I was told. Although she may have a small responsibility, she was responsible nonetheless, she had the choice.” 

I remember feeling shocked, angry, and, upon further reflection, incredibly sad. I felt sad because his statements reveal not only the burden put on women’s shoulders since their childhood but also our society’s obstinacy in relieving the responsibility and burdens of men. 

These are not isolated incidents. These are two stories among many of gender-based violence (GBV) enabled by harmful gender norms in our communities. Our societies’ beliefs on the “place” of women not only strip them of their full and equal humanity but also actively engage in violence while simultaneously protecting the perpetrators. The painful reality is that within the context of war, these harmful gender norms not only remain, but also contribute to the stigmatization, sexual violence, and impunity characterizing the conflict in eastern DRC. 

In 2014, Human Rights Watch published a series of survivors’ testimonies of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence(CRSV) in eastern DRC, two of which particularly demonstrate the ways that these existing gender norms translate during war times. 

The first testimony is one of a 38-year-old woman who experienced the mass rapes in the Luvungi Area in July 2010. 

The 38-year-old reported being tied to a tree and raped by six rebel fighters. She said: 

“The first, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth. I started bleeding seriously, but I couldn’t do anything about it. When the sixth wanted to rape me, he said he needed to clean me off. He took his jacket and forced it into my genitals.” 

She then managed to free her hand to defend herself but it was cut with a machete by one of the men, leading her to lose consciousness. She added:” Only the people who treated me know this story. I’ve hidden my shame until now. If only I had died, I would have been able to get rid of this shame.”

Arrest warrants were issued for the organizers and planners of this operation, one of whom is Sheka. In 2011, despite public knowledge of the mass rapes and his arrest warrant, Sheka shamelessly solidified his public status by running for parliament in the 2011 national elections, just over a year after these horrifying mass rapes. Human Rights Watch reported that the Congolese government had made little effort to arrest him. It was only in 2020, a decade later, that Sheka was detained for his war crimes with over 300 victims. However, what does it do to a society when a well-known and established mass rapist runs for parliament and remains unpunished for nearly a decade? What norms does it spell out to young men and women maturing in such a society?

The second testimony that stood out from the report is one of an 11-year-old girl who experienced the mass rapes by the Mai Mai rebel group in the Walikale Territory in July 2013. 

The 11-year-old was dragged out of her home and raped by three fighters who threatened to cut her head off if she kept screaming. She reported:” Until now, I have nightmares. When I go to the village people make fun of me. They say I’m the wife of a Mai Mai.” 

This stigmatization from community members is not unique to this case as it has been demonstrated that many women experiencing sexual violence in the conflict are often stigmatized, further adding to the burdens they carry. 

As of 2014, Human Rights Watch was not aware of efforts for accountability in the July 2013 Walikale territory mass rapes. I also could not find efforts for accountability in this specific case. Today, the girl must be 22 years old, if she is still alive. 

How do we prevent Gender-Based Violence in war? I believe that the prevention of CRSV and GBV must start before war and address societal gender norms through accountability and education. The use of Gender-Based Violence and the subsequent impunity in Eastern DRC’s conflict is not arbitrary; it is, in part, a reflection of our society’s gender norms, a mirror held to our tolerance for and acceptance of women’s suffering. Consequently, our prevention efforts must address the reality that our societies have refused to acknowledge the full, inherent, and equal humanity of women and girls and that our social structures protect abusive men, perpetuating impunity.

Therefore, to prevent GBV in war, not only must we collectively stand behind efforts to end the cycle of impunity in and out of war, but also prevention efforts must start at the earliest levels of education. We must provide the next generation with an education that intentionally empowers women, breaks down the systems of beliefs that perpetuate violence, and testifies to the full and equal humanity of women. Education may not completely eradicate CRSV and GBV in this conflict as it is important to recognize that rape is used as a weapon of war; a deliberate and calculated tool by armed groups, many of whom are not Congolese. Foreign aggressors—including neighboring countries—have played a significant role in this brutality, using sexual violence as a weapon to terrorize communities and destabilize the region. However, education will transform our collective reaction to GBV and CRSV in our communities, transferring stigma and shame from the survivors to the perpetrators, and consequently challenging the norms that have enabled impunity.

This need for education is the reason for the necessity of the Youth Ambassador Program and its subsequent impact. The program has empowered me and other youth all over the world with the knowledge and skills to hold conversations on gender, raise awareness among our peers, and challenge harmful gender norms globally. The Youth Ambassador Program is not only a call for international solidarity with women but also a call for action, because as long as women’s full and equal humanity is not recognized in our societies everywhere, these inequalities will echo on battlefields and women will continue to bear the ultimate burdens of war.