News
Podcast: Tackling Gender Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Mathieu Ndongo-Koni, ABA ROLI’s Director for the Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the achievements of the legal aid and victim support program and the importance of ABA ROLI’s role in fighting gender-based violence in the DRC. Read more »»
Gender-Based Violence Program Receives Full Government Support in DRC
Mathieu Ndong-Koni became Country Director of the new ABA Rule of Law Initiative office in Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2008. He leads the effort to establish a program to give survivors of sexual violence access to justice and to fight the impunity of offenders. Read more »»
Programs
Support for the Bar Association
The Africa Division of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative will leverage and extend its long tradition of commitment to pro bono service in the DRC by working with the Bar Association of the DRC to promote public service and draw on ABA members to provide pro bono commentary and review of training materials. Read More »»
Legal Aid and Victim Support
The Africa Division will establish a free legal aid clinic in eastern Congo. The legal aid clinic will identify a national legal aid attorney to provide free legal representation to the victims of rape. This attorney will work with an investigator also housed within the legal aid clinic to ensure that the investigation and case files are prepared with the highest standards. Read More »»
Legal Education
The Africa Division will partner with NGOs, the Bar Association and the Judges’ Association to develop and implement a series of capacity building trainings for the police, prosecutors, judges and magistrates to promote more effective investigation, prosecution and adjudication of gender based violence and sexual violence cases. Read More »»
Mathieu Ndongo-KoniCountry Director
Villa106, Avenue du Rond Point, Quartier les Volcans.
Goma, North Kivu Province.
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Background
The Africa Division of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative is currently opening an office in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This project, funded by U.S. Agency for International Development, will be conducting legal aid and access to Justice programs with the purpose of combating gender based crimes and sexual violence.
Access to justice in the DRC is extremely limited, with rampant corruption and an overworked Judiciary. In order to counteract these problems, the Rule of Law Initiative will be running a legal aid center and conducting relevant training for members of the legal community. Addressing the problem of sexual violence is particularly pressing in the DRC, where the law openly treats women as second class citizens, and sexual crimes are commonplace. The ABA will also be providing support and justice to victims of these attacks while seeking reform of the DRC's laws on sexual crimes and gender rights.
