History+of+DRC-+WR-+SP12

The Dominican Republic of Congo (DRC) was originally conquered by the Belgians. Europe came into the DRC with Belgium taking control of the area. They wanted to colonize and conquer the territory. The first official head in control was King Leopold II who began to take over the area. He officially colonized and placed the territory as a claim of Belgium around 1908. The Dominican Republic of Congo had many riots break out as the years proceeded. Belgium slowly lost control of the country they were supposed to be governing. Their loose grip on the country led to the independence of the DRC in 1960. There has been constant fighting going on in the Dominican Republic of Congo for years. The close country Rwanda has been causing a lot of the issues. Their constant rebellions keep moving into the DRC and overall it has been displacing thousands of the country’s citizens. The first civil war between many African countries lasted from 1997-2003. The United Nations has continued to help the wars going on in Africa by trying to keep the peace. Even though the wars have not completely stopped the violence has slowly started to decrease. Today the DRC is run by their President Joseph Kabila who just recently won their election for another term. The social issue started to arise when their wars began to break out in the country. The attacking soldiers would use rape to violate the women. This tool of sexual violence has been a common trend throughout all African war history. Violating women has been something the men have been doing for years in the DRC. They have no idea of any of the women’s rights. The men especially feel that they have most of the power and try to show their dominance through degrading the women. Taking advantage of women is a way to give the women of Africa nothing to hold on to. The women of the DRC still continue to have little rights in their country, but now many women activist who have gone through the same experience as the women of the DRC, are reaching out their hand to help. Non-profit organizations contribute on speaking up for the victims. The women are hopeful a change will take place and the women will have rights in the Dominican Republic of Congo.

Leaders: President Joseph Kabila: Joseph Kabila played an influential role by promising to bring peace and reason back into the lives of the people of the DRC. He was the president at the time and had major political power in the country. He also helped end the war in the DRC from the years he was president (1998-2003). He helped push the DRC back into the right direction by getting them to move away from violence and war. Ultimately he had political power in the situation to help make power moves to help the women being affected by things like sexual violence. He has the ability to talk to his country and influence the people about standing up for women's rights. He already has helped make the fighting stop so some of the abuse to women has began to stop (in the case of rape). President Joseph Kabila has the power to help make laws to pass for these women in support of them. He can help band the country together to give equality and worth to women.

Justine Masika Bihamba: Justine Masika Bihamba is a human rights worker and activist for the Dominican Republic of Congo. She had a rough experience and tough life in the DRC so she felt the need to stand up for women. She had been sexually assaulted by the military and her daughters were also abused by the armed forces. September 27, 2007 she had placed legal complaints about the soldiers and she was promised that justice would be served. After a year it still has not been brought to the attention of the government for a trial. Soldiers continued to see the same women that they have raped and continue to threaten them. Justine's children are extremely afraid of soldiers and fear they will be killed due to all the violence and horror stories they have heard or witnessed. Two of her daughters have also fled away to another country to get away. Justine feels passionately about giving rights and justice to women. She has supported the women's campaign against sexual violence and continues to help victims. She will forever be giving her input on this social issue and will continue to actively play a role in bringing women power in the African countries, especially in the Dominican Republic of Congo.

Hillary Clinton: Hillary Clinton has made her contributions to helping the social issue of women's rights. She took a trip to the Dominican Republic of Congo and saw the impact the men were having on the women. While she was on the trip she listened to the harsh stories of the women who were taken advantage. The reason the soldiers do this to women is so that the soldiers can take control over the area. Hillary saw how harsh the women's conditions were and decided to give them help. She contributed 17 million dollars to help the victims of sexual violence and survivor services/programs. She wanted to give women some power and self worth in their country. She has realized these women have been through a lot however she wants to help support them and give them the confidence to be successful in their own country.

Mathild Muhindo: She is a strong women's rights activitst who continues to make her message loud and clear. She is the director of the Olame Centre, which is a women's rights national organization. She believes strongly in stopping the discrimination and sexual abuse women have recieved in the DRC. She continues to support and voice her concerns of the women by creating and founding a comitee off of parliment to investigate special cases where rape was used as a weapon of war. Her work doesn't just stop their she also helped lead a group of women's organizations who proposed a law about women's rights especially including preventing against sexual violence. She passionately keeps working with the women of Congo to help them get what she think they deserve. Her efforts and accomplishments already have made an impact on the Dominican Republic of Congo but the final step will be finally achieving laws to protect and bring justice to the women.

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