“You’re never going to end the war in the Congo
until you prevent the violence to the women.”
Stephen Lewis is the former UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa and founder of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. He says, “The most important thing is to talk with the women of the Congo, particularly the women who have been raped and subject to sexual violence. There is a tendency, particularly from the United Nations, to deal only with the men with guns and think that if they can stop the shooting they’ve ended the war. But there’s another component to the war. And it’s called rape. And the raping has never ended (In the DRC) from 1996 to this day. And you’re never going to end the war in the Congo until you prevent the violence to the women. And therefore you’ve got to involve the women in the peace negotiations. And incredibly enough, they have never been involved.” Playwright Eve Ensler is the founder of V-Day – a global movement to end violence against women and girls that has raised nearly $70 million dollars.
Click on this link to read an article on what they said or to download audio files of their interviews: Stephen and Eve in Toronto.
