Kisangani, 31 May 2013 – "Police responsibility and fight against violence on women and young girls in DRC" is the theme of a sensitization campaign for the Congolese National Police Force (PNC) organized in Kisangani on Thursday 30 May 2013 by the Gender Office of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) and the Congolese Police. The campaign was officially opened by the vice-governor of Orientale province.

The sensitization campaign was aimed at getting the PNC police members to increase awareness of their critical role of protecting the vulnerable persons, enforcing the Rule of Law as well as their responsibility in implementing protection mechanisms and fighting violence against women.

The sensitization session focused mainly on diagnosing the laws on the protection of women and young girls by the police force, the innovations brought by the 2006 and 2009 laws within the framework of the fight against violence on women and children; the psychological, health and economic implications of the violence against women and children, the psychological and health assistance for cases of rape.

For Aissetou Sanogo, chief of the Justice Support Section in Kisangani, this activity is "an additional contribution by MONUSCO to peace consolidation, stabilization as well as for the promotion of a violence-free environment and the rule of law in the DR Congo."

In Orientale province, many women are still subjected to inhuman and degrading treatments due to socio-cultural factors, acts of vandalism or irresponsibility by a category of men.

We must put an end to such activities by strictly implementing a zero-tolerance policy through the Congolese laws and legal instruments on the fight against violence on women," said the vice-governor, Pascal Mombi Opana, in his opening remark, expressing the hope to see such initiatives proceed in favor of the PNC in other communities of the province.

Codjo Houegniglo/ MONUSCO