Dialogue between women survivors of sexual violence during Guatemalan and Congolese conflicts
The Unión Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas (UNAMG) and UNITERRA*, with the Comité national Femme et Développement (CONAFED**) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, organized a four-hour video-conference on August 18 among women survivors of sexual violence that occurred during Guatemalan and Congolese conflicts.
In Guatemala and DRC, as in many other regions of the world, sexual violence has been used - and still is - as a war tactic by combatants, particularly to humiliate and demoralize their opponents, to continue the conflict through communities’ disorder or as a tool for genocide. In such contexts, sexual violence represents a synthesis of women’s patriarchal submission.
Survivors have limited access to justice. This dynamic of total impunity, when it comes to sexual violence used as a weapon of war, contributes to the continuation of violence against women in today’s Guatemala.
This video-conference is one of the achievements of an exchange project among survivors, which began with the UNAMG, in September 2010, and was implemented throughout the year, notably through training workshops and the exchange of letters and photos among the participants.
By strengthening of survivors’ individual and collective capacities, this project’s main objective was access to justice and full compensation for women victims of sexual violence in conflict areas.
According to the participants, this activity was a success and represented for them a safe space to share their stories, information and strategies against violence.
Anais Tobalagba, UNITERRA volunteer
*a joint program of CECI and WUSC.
**member of the Concertation des collectifs des associations féminines de la région des Grands Lacs africains (COCAFEM/GL ), one of our partners in the Project to fight violence against women and girls in the Great Lakes region (PLUVIF).
