Kinshasa, 3 July 2012 – The Gender Affairs Section of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has just concluded a series of workshops throughout the country.

These workshops, which mainly targeted judges, addressed the issues of gender, justice and fight against impunity for sexual violence.

The workshops were respectively organized in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, then in Bukavu (Sud-Kivu province), Bunia, Kisangani (Province Orientale) and Goma (Nord-Kivu province); with a high attendance by female and male judges. In Kinshasa, the meeting took place on 21 and 22 June 2012 and was formally opened by Ms. Leila Zerrougui, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations in DRC, the Minister of Gender, Family and Children, and the Minister of Justice and Human Rights.

Following these workshops, the main recommendations included measures to promote the number of female judges within the Congolese judicial system, and the efficient implementation of a network of focal points on sexual violence in charge of monitoring the cases of abuse, and ensuring the implementation of national and international law and legal tools.

Toral Pattni/ MONUSCO