Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to implement the recommendations in the report, Rape as torture in the DRC, published by Freedom from Torture in June 2014.

DFID recognises there is a strong need in the Democratic Republic of Congo for support to projects to reform the security and justice sectors. We currently provide support to the UN’s Joint Human Rights Office to collect and analyse information on serious human rights violations committed by security sector officers to inform decisions on whether to provide or withdraw UN or international support. We also provide support to Search for Common Ground to undertake awareness raising exercises with the security sector and communities to improve human rights behaviour and levels of trust between security actors and civilians in Eastern DRC.

DFID has and will continue to raise our concerns at the highest level to lobby the Congolese authorities to end impunity for those who abuse or violate human rights.

We ensure that the needs of girls and women are at the centre of all programmes. The UK remains fully committed to playing a full part in efforts to end Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the DRC. At the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in June 2014, a specially convened DRC Country Forum reconfirmed the DRC’s commitment to tackling SGBV. Key successes have been the launch of work on the first Action Plan for the Congolese Army on tackling Sexual Violence and President Kabila’s appointment of a Personal Representative on Sexual Violence and Child Recruitment (Jeanine Mabunda). We expect to reach at least 12,000 victims of sexual and gender-based violence with medical, psychological and economic support.

DRC is a focus country for the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI). The PSVI campaign was launched in May 2012 by the former UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague and the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie. The UK hosted the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June 2014. The summit was attended by over 120 countries and more than 900 delegates, including many from conflict affected countries. The summit agreed practical steps to end impunity for the use of rape as a weapon of war and to begin to change global attitudes to these crimes. In July 2014 William Hague was appointed the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Special Representative’s mandate is to lead the UK’s contribution to the international campaign to end the use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war. He will work with governments, civil society, international organisations and other interested parties to implement the outcomes of the June Global Summit.