Refugee Rights News
Volume 4, Issue 4
June 2008
Calling for an End to the Violence against Women through Film
In conflicts around the world, tens of thousands of women and girls are systemically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a heart-wrenching and appalling example. United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes has said “sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world, ... [t]he sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.” The United Nations says that 27,000 rapes were reported in 2006 in South Kivu province alone. That is an average of 74 women per day, and points to a tragedy of untold proportions considering that violence extends beyond the province and that most women do not report violence against them.
Emmy-Award winning filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson, a survivor of gang rape herself, set out for the DRC in 2006 to document the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Seventy-six minutes of chilling testimonies by survivors intertwine with interviews of several indifferent and unabashed rapists, former militia members who have now been integrated into the Congolese army.
One of Jackson’s objectives in making the film was to “expose an unimaginable and growing humanitarian crisis” to the outside world. That goal has certainly been accomplished. Produced in association with HBO Documentary Films and the Fledgling Fund, the film has had widespread attention at numerous film festivals around the world. It won Special Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, and Best of Fest at the London Human Rights Watch Festival two months later.
Jackson’s personal story and openness in discussing her own ordeal with the survivors of rape in the Congo add an immense personal element to the film. Whereas she favors herself to live in a society relatively more accepting of what happened to her many years ago, she feels for the Congolese women whose culture offers neither solace nor justice.
The rape victims who agreed to tell their stories on camera recount wrenching testimonies of unthinkable mutilation and shaming. The physical and emotional traumas these women go through are unthinkable. Girls and women are raped, often by gangs, or butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, damaging their reproductive and digestive systems to be beyond repair. Many return to their villages, pregnant, to be left fighting on their own when husbands divorce them.
Numerous survivors tell Jackson their personal stories, showing resilience, resistance, courage and grace. A particular intense moment is when a woman steps forward and tells her story during a gathering at a community support center for women in eastern Congo. She speaks of her horrifying ordeal in front of at least 100 women crammed into a tiny classroom. The overwhelming number of victims is what astonished Jackson when first traveling as a one-person crew to the DRC in spring 2006, and the scene in the community center shows the extent of the human rights violations against women more plainly than any words or statistics could ever describe.
Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics in eastern Congo, treated roughly 8,000 sexual violence cases in 2007. The organization said that in the town of Shabunda 70% of the women reportedly had been sexually brutalized. Law enforcement is near to non-existent. One of the characters portrayed in the film is a female police officer who represents, on her own, the entire sex crimes police force. And, as if that were not enough, the same police officer is also responsible for child protection. Needless to say that rape victims receive woefully inadequate support, and perpetrators have free reign. As reported in a New York Times article in October 2007, Panzi Hospital located in the epicenter of Congo’s rape crisis sees at least 10 new women and girls each day. Dr. Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, says that “one thing is clear, these rapes take place to destroy women.” But not only do they cause the destruction of women, they also destruct their families and entire communities.
During the post-screening discussion at the New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival on June 17, Jackson informs a sold-out theater that the film will be shown on Congolese television later in the year. For many in the Congo, this may be the first time that they are forced to publicly confront an issue considered taboo.
Not only does “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo” succeed in showing the sheer extent of the crisis it also accomplishes its goal of giving a voice to the victims in a way that explores, witnesses and contributes to these women’s healing through the empowerment of personal narrative. Jackson respectfully brings the Congolese rape victims out of the shadows, and assigns the film catalyst status in focusing world attention on the women’s plight, “bringing opprobrium upon those in power who are complicit or who turn their backs, and sparking conversations and policy change concerning the fate of women and girls in a world consumed by armed conflict.”
Her dedicated effort to show the world the fate of Congolese girls and women must be applauded, but not just for the duration of the film. Human Rights Watch has incorporated this film not only its annual film festival, but also in its advocacy efforts to ensure that the international community more fully addresses the question of rape and sexual violence. Screening the film for representatives at the UN was one tool used to push for a special day-long meeting at the Security Council on women, peace and security.
At the end of the session, the Council adopted Resolution 1820, which affirmed that sexual violence could exacerbate conflict and that measures to address it "can significantly contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security." In other words, addressing violence against women is a legitimate concern of the Security Council, and the Council is committed to taking action. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, who represented the United States at the session, reflected that there had previously been a question as to whether sexual violence was really a matter for the Security Council, saying “I am proud that, today, we respond to that lingering question with a resounding ‘yes!’" The Resolution also reiterates the status of rape as a war crime and affirms the readiness of the Council to consider the use of sexual violence as a ground for sanctioning regimes and imposing other punitive measures.
Lisa F. Jackson has been involved in documentary filmmaking for over 30 years. She received three Emmy nominations, two Emmy awards and four CINE Golden Eagles.
“The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo,” by Lisa Jackson, United States, 2007, 76 mins, in English, French, Swahili, Lingala and Mashi with English subtitles.
