Memorandum of Diaspora Congolese women living in Great Britain

We witness and express on one hand our solidarity and the other our concern for innocent Congolese people, particularly women, old and young girls who fell and still fall under the throes of armed conflict. Many of them live in permanent human insecurity, suffering from sexual and gender-based violence, kidnapped, tortured, raped, starved, wounded and wandering in the forests, mountains, valleys, and Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps beyond the borders, and fleeing the inhuman treatment they face unfairly. This situation has hurt the very principles that underlie the universal values of human rights, dignity and democracy.

We bitterly regret the numerous reports on the appalling number of victims of violence and crimes committed, truly unprecedented (5.4 million dead), and no effective protection of people (especially women) has really been provided by the Congolese authorities and the UN Mission in DRC (MONUSCO), mandated by the Security Council of the United Nations. We recall that for over a decade, the Congolese populations in Ituri, North and South Kivu suffer the consequence of the fratricidal conflict between ethnic Rwandans (Hutu and Tutsi) who was exported on Congolese soil mandated by Operation Turquoise by the United Nations Security Council in 1994. Under the pretext of self-defence, Rwanda officially invaded the DR Congo and engaged in genocidal killings of civilians, Congolese and Rwandan refugees, and took this opportunity to plunder Congolese natural resources. This incited the convoitise of other countries bordering the DRC, including Uganda. This gave rise to a regional war on Congolese soil, which included more than seven foreign countries, including the Rwandan and Ugandan armed forces who fought a fierce battle with international impunity, despite numerous reports on the Congolese civilian casualties.

We condemn both the hegemony of certain countries, (particularly those under the protection of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council), the slave, dehumanizing and genocidal practices of capitalist multinationals outlawed in the twenty-first century, and the complicit silence against this attack on the body and mind of black Congolese women which destroys the entire Congolese society and prevents communities from having peace, develop, live in dignity and understanding.

We accuse the crime of failure to assist persons in danger demonstrated by the United Nations Security Council through MONUC / MONUSCO, the African Union, the European Union, the countries of the ECAC, the Great Lakes of Africa and EAC and the current Congolese government against these crimes imposed on the Congolese civilian populations.

We condemn the international, regional, national and local impunity in response to crimes that Congolese women continue to be subject to and all sorts of discrimination and violence since 1996 which marked the invasion of foreign forces in DR Congo.

We call for an end to the occupation of the DRC by foreign forces and the demilitarization and non-legitimization of violence as a means of gaining power in state institutions and the governance of the country.

We demand that justice be served to restore peace and dignity of the Congolese people, and ensure the reconciliation of peoples in the Great Lakes Region.

We are calling on permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, particularly Britain and the Congolese government on their following commitments:

-The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948.
-The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols of 1977.
-The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979
-Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court, on sexual and gender-based violence.
-Resolutions 1325 and 1820 of 2000 by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security.

We recall the United Nations Security Council resolution 1674 (2006) on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, resolutions 1493 (2003), 1596 and 1616 (2005) 1698 (2006), 1768 (2007) 1771 (2007 -2008) on arms embargoes.

We invoke United Nations Security Council resolution 1756 (2007) on the situation in DR Congo, which established a link between armed conflicts, exploitation of natural resources, multinational companies, rape and sexual violence against women and girls used as a weapon of strategic warfare by armed groups.

We cite the United Nations Security Council resolution 1794 (2007) that stresses that the protection of civilians must be given priority when deciding on the use and capabilities of available resources and stated that the UN Security Council Mission to use all necessary means to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.

We evoke the 2008 report published by UN experts showing the involvement of several Western companies and nationals in the financing of the conflicts in eastern DR Congo and in particular the rebel movements.

We mention the new report "Mapping Project" by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to Resolution 1794 (2007), concerning serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed between March 1993 and June 2003 on the Congolese territory.

We demand the implementation of Article 5 of the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of the court over crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, facing what is defined in Articles 6, 7 and 8.

1) Article 6: On the definition of crimes of genocide (including points b, c, d)
2) Article 7: On the definition of crimes against humanity (including points (g), on sexual violence, (h) on the persecution and (d) on forced displacement.
3) Article 8: On the definition of war crimes

It is time for reason, morality and human dignity to prevail over profit and injustice in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The blood of innocent victims is flowing and will only stop with justice and the restoration of peace

As residents and members of the British society, we challenge the British Government, a member of the United Nations Security Council, to demonstrate political will to end armed conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa, which Consequences are therefore the violence against women. We ask this government to commit to enforcing the OECD guidelines that are violated by multinational companies based in Great - Britain, quoted in the UN experts report on the exploitation of Congolese natural resources, and are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

We demand that justice and reparations are made to Congolese women as well as civilians in the DRC and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

We encourage the British government to double efforts through the support of institution building that ensures the sovereignty of a rule of law, social transformation and human development in DRC.

London September 7th , 2010

COMMON CAUSE UK, Platform of Congolese Women in the UK