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Hearing — Rape as a Weapon of War: Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict

April 2, 2008

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
From press release (Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL):

United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) chaired a hearing today examining the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, legal options for holding perpetrators accountable and the role the United States plays in preventing and prosecuting this horrific crime.
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A recent report documented conflict-related sexual violence in more than 50 countries, covering nearly every corner of the world. In many of these conflicts, rape is used systemically and deliberately to humiliate, demoralize and destroy civilian populations. In addition to being raped, woman and girls are tortured, mutilated and forcibly impregnated to change the ethnic make up of groups. Widespread rape was reported during the Rwandan genocide in the early 1990’s, the civil war in Sierra Leone and the Bosnia conflict, and has also been reported in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Also discussed at today’s hearing were legal options for holding accountable those who use rape as a military tactic. Despite mass rape’s classification as a crime against humanity in international law, loopholes in US law make it nearly impossible for the government to prosecute those found in the US who may have committed rape in conflicts overseas. Because of this, the United States may be an unwitting safe haven for war criminals.
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Dr. Denis Mukwege, a doctor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a witness at today’s hearing, discussed the use of rape as a weapon of war and the experiences of the victims he treats at the hospital he runs in the city of Bukavu.
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Lisa F. Jackson, an Emmy award winning filmmaker and director of the documentary “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo,” testified about the lack of attention cases of sexual violence receive globally.
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The hearing on the use of rape as a weapon of war was the first-ever Congressional hearing on the issue of sexual violence in conflict and the sixth hearing of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Also testifying at today’s hearing were Karin Wachter, Acting Gender-Based Senior Technical Advisor at the International Rescue Committee, and Kelly Dawn Askin, the Senior Legal Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Webcast of hearing available; also, individual testmonies in PDF.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3225

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