Eastern Congo Essay

Samantha Nutt, a medical doctor and co-founder of War Child, narrates her sixteen years of experience traveling in conflict zones struggling to help the most vulnerable targets, women and children. Her book “Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid” strings that bind Western nations to war torn countries and simultaneously critiques the serve of militarism and misguided aid efforts, which she believes to exacerbate their mission in bringing relief from poverty and conflict. The author analyzes from her multiple trips to war zone nations of Congo, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.

making him less human. Even though Jurgis makes money from his work, it is not enough to

“…the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children released a report on their investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of West African refugee children in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Their interviews with 1500 men, women, and children refugees revealed that girls between the ages of 13 and 18 were sexually exploited by male aid workers, many of whom were employed by national and international non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and the UN, and also by UN peacekeepers and community leaders.” (Hynes 2004:

Even though, Kristof realizes the complexity of the problems, the authors still develop on practical ways to aid women. The authors stress the involvement of individuals in human rights matters. To emphasize their point, Kristof interviews a light-skinned black girl from Ethiopia, Woineshet. Woineshet tells the authors that she lived in a rural area where if a young man wants to marry certain girl, but does not have the “bride price” at hand, or the family won’t accept him, he could just kidnap the girl, and then rape her – it is the tradition, says Woineshet. Because women are raped, they will have difficulty marrying anyone else. To make matters worse, Ethiopian law

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, power is the ability or right to control people or things. This definition is apparent throughout the history of China and through historical figures. Confucius is one of the most influential historical figures of Chinese history. In Confucius’s mind, the government should retain power, however, not to the extent that they do today. According to The Confucian Ethic and More About Confucius, “the government’s most important job was to inspire people [...] to feed and protect the people and gain their admiration” (The Confucian Ethic 13) . Confucius’ beliefs differ from what is going on now because he is calling for the government to treat the people with respect and take care of them. This may exist somewhat in China today, but China is known for killing political prisoners and silencing people who disagree with them. Mao Zedong, another historical

In the article, “Analyzing Rape Regimes at the Interface of War and Peace in Peru,” Jelke Boesten argues that the issues of rape that are addressed in war crime tribunals reinforce the idea of a rape script that survivors should appeal to. This limits the understanding of the gendered dimension of warfare, for it produces a narrow interpretation of rape victimization. This consequently leads to the recognition of a limited number of cases and excludes those who do not fit the script. Similarly, with the discourse produced by TRCs, the amalgamation and narrow interpretation of testifiers’ experiences post-conflict renders the state with a summarized story that they may or may not identify with. This diminishes the process of healing that should be sought for from judicial and non-judicial transitional justice measures.

According to ICRtoP, the Democratic Republic of Congo is reported to be the “rape capital of the world” with an estimated 15,000 rape cases in the Congo’s eastern provinces alone. Rape is a tool of war used by the various armed forces in the Congo in order to “create instability in

Formerly known as Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DROC) is located in the center of Africa bordered by nine different countries and one territory. (Lerner, 10) The bordering countries are Central African Republic and Sudan at the northern boarder, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi on the eastern boarder, Zambia and Angola directly South of DROC and Congo on the Western boarder.

Another negative effect of gender inequality is the increased fear of violence for women. Women are often portrayed as weak and helpless beings that can easily be taken advantage of. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states that, “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence –yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned” (Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Violence against women in the form of rape, spousal abuse, child abuse or spousal killing has become routine behavior over the years, so it rarely even makes the news anymore. “Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data”( Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Women are often blamed and questioned about their actions if they become the

On October 30th, 2014, over 220 women were raped in less than 36 hours in Tabit. The HRW (Human Rights Watch) had been following the case with caution. Although the Tibet government has been trying to hide this terrible case, a man told the HRW, “They said if I talked about Tabit again that I was going to be finished. They kicked me. Tied me and hanged me up. They beat me with whips and electric wires” (Human Rights Watch). This mass rape was claimed to be a “deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town’s women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur” (Human Rights Watch). The Sudanese armed forces caused a mass rape of over 200 women as a political statement in war. One of the soldiers told a mother “You killed our man. We are going to show you true hell” (Humans Right

It focuses on examining how violence impacts members of a specific gender, but most often focuses on its unique impacts on women. Authors such as Moon focus on how prostitution (including cases of forced prostitution in Japan) impact women specifically, as well as Moon and MacKinnon pointing to rape as a specific and horrific example of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). However, as Jones notes, gendering genocide has specific implications for men as well. We find that men of “military” age are proportionally more often the victims of direct violence, particularly as it pertains to our two cases in Serbia and

Mukwege wants the men and women of his country to participate in ending the struggle of gender-based abused in his country, in every hour 48 women are then raped in Congo, Dr. Mukwege's home country. He is doing his best for his country’s safety; this is why Dr Mukwege wants the men and women of his country to contribute in his own community for this sexual violence to end. He is not just referring to his country but everywhere else in the world, he wants and we want this sexual violence act to end immediately for the country’s

When compared to the living standards of people in so-called ‘first-world countries’ such as the United States of America or Australia, the trauma that the people of Haiti undergo in their everyday existence should be universally recognised, and humanitarian intervention should not be an option but rather a requirement. In an ethnography delving into the violence and trauma affecting the citizens of Haiti (James, 2010), anthropologist Erica Caple James provides an in-depth description of the suffering that Haitians endure, as well as the consequences of their social, physical, and psychological oppression. In an attempt to improve the way of life of the population of Haiti and combat the country’s corrupt social order (Gordon, 1996:52), a humanitarian

Almost three years after long waits for medical appointments for veterans exploded into a nationwide scandal, the Phoenix VA hospital at the center of the crisis still is not providing timely care, a watchdog group documented Monday.

If not blamed on ‘male nature’, the fault is on commanders and managers that did not efficiently implemented UNSCR 1325. But the persistence of SEA cannot be blamed on isolated cases, and underlying patriarchal values seems to be a valuable alternative explanation to the dominant discourse. The UN discourse in these peacekeeping missions clearly embodies characteristics of rape culture including biological explanation, women objectification, victim blaming and lack of accountability. This is associated with a general unwillingness to implement reforms, or cultural resistance. The UN has a tendency to blame its failure on states and individuals. But as shown previously, the UN has the ability to held UN civilians accountable and fails to do so. By ignoring the roots of the problem, namely its internal patriarchal culture, the UN only perpetuates the mechanisms that cause SEA; and allows SEA by peacekeeping personnel to some extent. Until the reforms aims at ‘ the dismantling of violence-producing masculinities’ (Enloe, 2005: 283) the problem of SEA will persist, undermining the organisation legitimacy and authority as an actor in women’s