The DRC Inquiry: Ad-Hoc Parliamentary Inquiry into the Responses to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in the DRC
Publisher: APPG on International Law, Justice and Accountability and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute
Author(s): APPG on International Law, Justice and Accountability and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute
Date: 2025
Topics: Gender, Humanitarian Assistance
Countries: Congo (DRC)
Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) remains one of the most under-reported and under-discussed crimes, despite the changing perception of sexual violence in conflict as seen over time. Sexual violence used to be perceived as an inevitable byproduct of war, the spoils of an invading army or a successful conqueror. However, the international community now recognises that sexual violence is often used as a deliberate military strategy to demoralise whole communities. This shift in recognition has been significant, especially as it has allowed for the prosecution of the crime. On 19 June 2008, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1820 on the use of sexual violence in war, indicating that ‘rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.’ A year later, in 2009, the Office of the Special Representative of the 2 Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict was established by the UN Security Council Resolution 1888. The Office works towards ending impunity for sexual 3 violence in conflict, protecting and empowering survivors and developing strategies to combat sexual violence in conflict. However, the road towards justice and accountability for sexual violence in conflict, but also prevention, is long.
The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a long history stemming from colonial occupation by King Leopold II of Belgium. After DRC gained its independence in 1960, sexual violence was included as a method of torture by the Mobutu government, but it was not prevalent. It is in the mid-1990s that rape became, again, a common occurrence and tool to torture. This wave of atrocities coincides with DRC seeing an influx of foreign, multi-ethnic génocidaires from, chiefly, Rwanda and Uganda, who brought their violent extremist ideology with them and spread crime across DRC, including killings, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual violence. However, while Hutu militants were responsible for some of these atrocities, the government military is not without blame. This violence continued despite the end of the two wars. The Second Congo War (1998-2003), sometimes referred to as Africa’s World War, claimed an estimated 4 million lives and has been the deadliest war of this century. Sexual violence was a common occurrence as well. The lack of accountability or justice undoubtedly sowed the seeds of the continuing violence today.