Conflict in the Congo: Human Rights and Protection
Begins |
5 Mar 2008 - 6:00pm |
| Ends |
5 Mar 2008 - 7:50pm |
| Location |
66 West 12th Street. Room 619 |
"They are not just rape like usual rape, but they put hot plastics inside the organs. They put woods, they put bamboos, they put everything—[guns]” - Congolese Human Rights Activist Christine Schuler Deschryver
“Atrocities in Congo's volatile province of South Kivu extend ‘far beyond rape’ and include sexual slavery, forced incest and cannibalism”- Washington Post July 31st 2007
The second part of the Conflict in the Congo Seminar Series focuses on the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today and during the brutal Second Congolese War.
We are fortunate to have two guest speakers for this seminar: Michelle Brown from Refugees International and Erin Kenny from the United Nations Population Fund.
Ms Brown will discuss the humanitarian situation, focusing on internal displacement and reintegration of displaced people into their communities, as well as the overall humanitarian response .
In 2003, UNFPA was tasked with overseeing country-wide coordination for all Gender-Based Violence (GBV) issues in the DRC. This has provided the agency with both tremendous challenges and opportunities, and lessons from this experience are just now emerging. Ms Kenny recently returned from a month-long mission to the DRC, where she focused her attention on strengthening UNFPA's capacity to effectively prevent and respond to GBV, and to better coordinate systems of response. She will be discussing findings from this mission, as well as some of the defining aspects of the nature of sexual violence in the conflict-impacted regions of this country.
Michelle Brown joined Refugees International in 2000 and currently represents the organization at the United Nations. She has conducted field assessments in the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Latin America and South Asia. On her more than 25 missions in the past eight years, Ms. Brown has focused her advocacy on issues such as protection of internally displaced people and refugees, reintegration assistance in post-conflict situations, and children affected by armed conflict. Before joining RI, Ms. Brown worked for three years as an English teacher in Japan. She also worked in South Asia with various women's health organizations and with women's micro-enterprise organizations in Cambodia. She has a Master's degree in International Development Studies from George Washington University.
Erin Kenny is the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Specialist within the Humanitarian Response Unit of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). In this role, Ms. Kenny provides strategic and technical direction to the Fund, supports country offices to strengthen their GBV prevention and response capacities and to coordinate systems of response, and represents the Fund on all matters related to GBV in humanitarian settings.
Prior to joining UNFPA, Erin worked with both the International Rescue Committee and the Christian Children’s Fund, designing and implementing GBV programs in conflict and post-conflict settings including in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Erin holds a Maters of Public Health from Columbia University with a concentration in Forced Migration and Health.