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Great Lakes Region of Africa: The Challenges Facing Civil Society

For immediate release – Montreal, January 18, 2008 – The indispensable contributions of civil society organizations struggling against sexual violence and unregulated mining operations in the Great Lakes Region of Africa will be the focus of a three day series of public conferences in Montreal on January 22 to 24. The conference series will hear testimonies from representatives of organizations based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda as well as experts on Canada’s involvement in the troubled African region.

On Tuesday, January 22, the first conference will begin with an assessment of civil society’s response to sexual violence in the Great Lakes Region and efforts to see its perpetrators brought to justice. A special evening session on the topic of sexual violence will hear from Yakin Ertük, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, and Soyata Maïga, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes region is the focus for discussions on Wednesday, January 23. Representatives of Canadian and US civil society organizations concerned with foreign investment in the Great Lakes Region will join their counterparts from African civil society in a day-long assessment of the resource extraction industry.

The discussion on Thursday, January 24, will focus on civil society’s role in democratic development efforts and the effectiveness of international assistance in this domain.

This conference series will draw attention to the crucial contributions that civil society organizations in the DRC, Burundi and Rwanda have made to efforts to build more democratic institutions and societies after more than a decade of bloody wars and difficult political transitions to peace and national reconstitution.

Over the course of these three days, the Canadian public will have a unique opportunity to learn about strategies adopted by these civil societies in response to:

• persistent impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence;
• fierce competition to access and exploit mining resources;
• democratic participation in the development of their country.
  

Members of the public will also have an opportunity to gain a better understanding of Canadian involvement in these issues, including:

• The Canadian International Development Agency’s cooperation programme in the region, which prioritizes support for the promotion of democratic governance;
• A $15M Canadian programme under way to support women victims of rape in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo;
• Twelve Canadian mining companies that have holdings worth an estimated $1.4 billion in the DRC,  holdings that are forecasted to double in the next three years.

The conference is organized by the members of the Round Table on the Great Lakes Region, under the auspices of L’Entraide missionnaire: Amitiés Canada-Rwanda, Development and Peace, CECI, Terre sans Frontières, Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (Anglican Church of Canada), Jeunesse du Monde, KAIROS (Toronto), Justice and Liberation (Kisangani), Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique (GRAMA-UQAM), Rights & Democracy, Les Religieux de St-Vincent, Les Missionnaires du Christ Roi, Espace Avenir.

Complete details on the conference, speakers and registration can be found at: