Congo-Kinshasa: Police Officers Trained on Crimes of Sexual Violence

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United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

21 August 2008
Posted to the web 21 August 2008

M. Diallo and F. Zeneth

In August 2008, 37 DRC Judicial Police Inspectors (IPJ) and Judicial Police Officers (OPJ) of the territories of Beni, Butembo and Lubero in North Kivu province were trained by MONUC's Human Rights section on the role of the IPJ and OPJ in the investigation of crimes of sexual violence, in order to better ensure the protection of victims and witnesses.

The training, organised by the United Nations Human Rights Office forms part of the legal and judicial activities of the project against sexual violence, financed by the Canadian Agency for International Development.

With such a huge scale of sexual violence in the DRC, the international community, international and national NGOs as well as the DRC government decided to unite their actions and strategies around a "joint initiative" framework.

These actions and strategies aim to fight against the plague of sexual violence in the DRC, and the United Nations Human Rights Office is in charge of the legal and judicial wing, in order to help victims find justice, to better protect victims and witnesses, and to promote and protect human rights.

At the opening of the training, the Mayor of Beni declared: "We hope that at the end of this training, you will have mastered laws 06/18 and 06/19 of July 2006 20 and their codes on the one hand, and on the other, remodeled your behavior and way of working, in order to receive and assist victims and witnesses, and to write and transmit you own reports."

The participants were educated on the content of the new laws regarding sexual violence and its different forms in the RDC; the assignments of the IPJ and OPJ with regard to the law of 1978; the procedures for assisting victims of sexual violence; national and international legislation concerning sexual violence; and the relative principles relating to the protection of victims and witnesses of sexual violence.

At the end of the training, the IPJ and OPJ committed themselves to renew their authoritisation in accordance with the law, but in particular to abstain from levying transactional fines in relation to sexual violence at the judicial level.

Finally, the participants deplored the absence of a protective suitable legislative framework for their protection, like their colleagues from the intelligence and security departments.

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