David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of my colleagues and welcome the Minister of State's reference to using our positions in the EU Presidency and the UN Human Rights Council. The mandate for peacekeeping missions needs to be expanded to include this issue specifically. I hope the Minister of State will make that a target.

I referred to 14 points that emerged from a report, entitled "Now, the world is without me". The title comes from the moving and tragic story of a victim of rape. The first point relates to attacks on people in their own houses. We were aware of opportunistic attacks, but individual houses are now being attacked. Gang rape has been mentioned, but we did not get into the sexual slavery element. Sometimes, people are ransomed back after being turned into sexual slaves.

Rape in the presence of family and friends is another issue. This is intended to demean and to remove people's power and status. The next issue is forced rape between victims. In this appalling crime, family members are made to interfere with one another sexually. The next issue is the rape of pregnant women, which almost invariably leads to miscarriages or spontaneous abortions. The next issue is the rape of people who, terrified of being attacked, have gone into hiding.

It is appalling that there has been a shocking mutation, particularly as recorded in a report by Dr. Denis Mukwege. He was threatened but, luckily, he escaped with his life.

The statistics indicate that the incidence of military rape has decreased but it has migrated into the civilian area and there has been a seventeenfold increase in such activity leading to loss of virginity, pregnancy from rape and loss of family members. Some 1% of spouses accompanied wives to hospital. There is also fear of sexual infection and despair following rape.

I indicated that I would record some of the testimony. It states:

My husband and I were at home when the attackers broke down the door and entered the house. They tied up my husband and demanded money from him. As he did not have any money they put a knife to his face and turned it several times in his cheek. Then they stabbed him in the chest at the level of the heart and he died. They cut off my husband's sex and put it in his mouth, even though he was already dead. They also cut my children. All of them died and I was left alone. Then the three assailants took turns raping me. I came to Panzi hospital to receive care.

I will end on a note of hope, despite all this awfulness and testimony to the capacity of the human animal for wickedness and cruelty. On 21 February last year, for the first time the authorities in Congo indicated they were taking this issue seriously because of the kind of pressure that the Minister of State and his colleagues may be able to bring to bear through the international community. A high-ranking commander and some of his men were convicted and given heavy sentences for rape in Congo. We must encourage such legal victories and celebrate them. Ms Margot Wallström argues that these sentences sent a strong signal to all perpetrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo that conflict-related sexual violence is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. It also indicates that accountability for sexual violence is possible and we must make people accountable.

I thank Senator van Turnhout and everybody else who spoke, particularly in maintaining a lack of gender specifics. It is just as appalling for men and boys to be raped as for women.