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Journal Article
Resources and resourcefulness: Roles, opportunities and risks for women working at artisanal mines in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Two dominant narratives have characterized the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): (1) the horrific abuse of women through sexual violence and (2) the use of “conflict minerals” to fuel the fighting. These two advocacy narratives intersect…
Journal Article
Resources and Rape: Congo’s (toxic) Discursive Complex
In the last decade, the rapes (of women) in, and the metaphoric raping (of natural resources) of, the Democratic Republic of Congo have received unprecedented attention from media, donors, and advocacy groups. Beginning in the early 2000s, these two narratives…
Journal Article
‘A Real Woman Waits’ – Heteronormative Respectability, Neo-Liberal Betterment and Echoes of Coloniality in SGBV Programming in Eastern DR Congo
Drawing on archival and field research, this article critically examines the production and distribution of gender roles and expectations in SGBV programming, in particular in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We find the underlying currents in some of these…
Journal Article
What Women Want before Justice: Examining Justice Initiatives to Challenge Violence against Women in the DRC
While the realization of women’s rights has increased significantly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese women’s struggle is often obscured by certain international actors actively pushing for social change in the region. Those who are politically active in…
Journal Article
Violence, Well-Being and Level of Participation in Formal Education among Adolescent Girls in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Role of Child Marriage
Child marriage is a well-recognized barrier to education, and exposes girls to an increased risk of violence along with other negative health and developmental outcomes. A quantitative survey was conducted with girls selected from 14 communities in South Kivu, Democratic…
Journal Article
“A Woman’s Degree Must End in the Kitchen”: Expectations of Women in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
This study draws on a qualitative approach to explore how adolescents perceive women’s and men’s roles in marriage and family life. A sample of 56 boys and girls aged 16–20 from two urban and two rural high schools in South…
Journal Article
Behind the weapon of war: sexual violence in wartime as a reflection of social attitudes towards women in peacetime
This article looks at practices of sexual violence that were prevalent during the period before the conflict in 1996 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and shows how they have contributed to war-related sexual violence. The findings are based…
Journal Article
Love, Sex, and Exchange in the Context of Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The narrow framing of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) and the United Nations Zero-Tolerance Policy inadequately accounts for the range of sexual interactions in peacekeeping contexts and obscures the wider social contexts within which sexual decision making occurs. We draw…
Journal Article
The Transitional Justice Gap: Exploring ‘Everyday’ Gendered Harms and Customary Justice in South Kivu, DR Congo
Feminist transitional justice (TJ) has greatly contributed to the study of justice in the ruins of war, notably around prosecuting wartime rape. At the same time, scholars have observed limitations to this research agenda such as externally-driven definitions gendered harms…
Journal Article
Sexual and gender based violence against men in the Democratic Republic of Congo: effects on survivors, their families and the community
Media and service provider reports of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) perpetrated against men in armed conflicts have increased. However, response to these reports has been limited, as existing evidence and programs have primarily focused on prevention and response…
Journal Article
A man never cries: barriers to holistic care for male survivors of sexual violence in eastern DRC
While we know that most male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) do not have access to care, little attention has been devoted to a systematic analysis of why this is so. Drawing…
Book Chapter
Borders, boundaries, and brokers: The unintended consequences of strategic essentialism in transnational feminist networks
Strategic essentialising around the figure of the Congolese woman has created a collective of more than 60 different women’s organisations coming from opposite corners of the DRC. There now exists an extensive grassroots community, which maintains visibility and close contact…
