Rape has been used as a weapon of war in Dr Congo -- DR Congo gang rape crisis 'spreading', new study says, BBC, 15 April 2010. [2]

Researchersfrom Harvard Universityin the US examined more than 4,000 cases of sexual assault from 2004 to 2008 and discovered that the number of rapes carried out by civilians had increased 17-fold.

Joseph Kabila,the DRCongo president,has asked the UN to withdraw a

pproximately 20,000 UN peacekeepers that have been deployed in the nation since 1999.

-- Rapes 'surge' in DR Congo:

Aljazeera

Yale Genocide Studies Program [6] provided the platform for solution oriented analysis of

"Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan." [7]

Comprehensive analysis [8] of humanitarian emergencies [9] for solution oriented strategic planning, stabilization and development.

Genocide or the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. [10]

[10] Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [11] Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice." [12]

Now, The World Is Without Me: An Investigation of Sexual Violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo : By: Susan Bartels, Michael VanRooyen, Jennifer Leaning,Jennifer Scott, and Jocelyn Kelly, April 2010. [14]

: By: Susan Bartels, Michael VanRooyen, Jennifer Leaning,Jennifer Scott, and Jocelyn Kelly, April 2010. [14] Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women : By: Karen Hirschfeld and Jennifer Leaning, May 2009. [15]

: By: Karen Hirschfeld and Jennifer Leaning, May 2009. [15] Characterizing Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Profiles of Violence, Community Responses, and Implications for the Protection of Women : By Jocelyn Kelly, Michael VanRooyen, Jennifer Leaning, and Will Kragin, August 2009. [16]

: By Jocelyn Kelly, Michael VanRooyen, Jennifer Leaning, and Will Kragin, August 2009. [16] Applied Technology to Crisis Mapping and Early Warning in Humanitarian Settings : By Patrick Meier and Jennifer Leaning, September 2009. [17]

: By Patrick Meier and Jennifer Leaning, September 2009. [17] Evidence-Based Peacekeeping: Exploring the Epidemiology of Lethal Violence in Darfur : By Alex de Waal, et. al., March 2010. [18]

: By Alex de Waal, et. al., March 2010. [18] New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: By Diane Coyle and Patrick Meier, UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation, 2009. [19]



The United Nations reported that as many as 5,000 women and girls worldwide were killed last year by family members, "many of them for the 'dishonor' of having been raped."

Rapes 'surge' in DR Congo:

Aljazeera

Yale Genocide Studies Program

7. Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan