On Monday 14 July, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Seeds of Hope, a documentary which focuses on the effect of rape in Eastern Congo, where it has become a widely used weapon of war. The film centres around one woman, Masika, who is herself a victim of rape, and her determination to provide a centre for recovery and sanctuary for other women who have been raped, as well as taking in many children who have either been orphaned or rejected due to their violent origins.

Director Fiona Lloyd-Davies speaking at the Frontline Club.

The film opens with a shocking statistic: 48 women are raped every hour. Seeds of Hope attempts to humanise this figure by documenting the lives of women living in Masika’s centre. The centre is a shelter for victims and, over time, has managed to develop livelihoods for the women who live there, in the forms of farming and sewing.

The film reveals how endemic rape has become in the Democratic Republic of Congo and during conversations with members of the military explains not only how they use rape as a weapon, but also how it has become an almost standard part of military practice.

Director Fiona Lloyd-Davies described how, as a filmmaker who has covered different wars, the use of rape in conflicts was not new. She was, however, shocked by “the frequency, the violence, the level of violence against women” when she visited the region. She described how, when she first visited in 2001, rape was frequent, but did not seem to have a structure or real pattern, and was still random. By the time of a next visit in 2005, she was appalled by the accounts she heard:

“Very organised rape camps. . . . It seemed to have shifted and become much more organised, . . . they talked about having name calls . . . and it seems that many girls get taken and they’re led into the forest for several weeks to quite remote areas where the militias have got their camps, and they’re kept there until they escape.”

Lloyd-Davies explained to the audience that many soldiers had been arrested and put on trial in November 2013 in Minova for the charge of rape. Out of the 40 that were originally charged, one soldier died before the trial and five never appeared in court as they were still able to work, and were deployed with their units. The final verdict took place in May 2014, where only two soldiers were found guilty of rape as a war crime. She described this lack of justice as “virtual impunity”. As the risk of punishment is so low, there is no deterrent for soldiers to stop committing these crimes:

“If they know that they (may have) done it before, they may not have; they may have seen, or heard of friends do it before [or] their colleagues in the army, and with so little justice and with this virtual impunity, there is a sense . . . that they can get away with it.”

One audience member enquired after the director’s personal safety while making this film; as a low budget documentary the crew was very small, and she was filming in a dangerous and violent area. Lloyd-Davies explained that 2011, when she did most of her filming with Masika in Minova, was a “very quiet time”, and that she was staying at a priest’s house. She then told the audience that she had been attacked in Minova, but went on to say that she has been back to Minova since then, and intends to go back again.

She also discussed how the situation is improving in terms of the stigma attached to rape and the treatment of rape victims. The film discusses how many of the women were rejected by their families after they were raped, which is the reason that many of them found their way to Masika’s centre. One of the questions from the audience was whether any improvements or developments have been made, and Lloyd-Davies described the work that many NGOs are carrying out within villages, working with village elders, to address the stigma and encourage communities to view rape victims differently, which has meant that more rape victims have been able to come forward and receive the help that they need.

Information on future screenings of Seeds of Hope can be found on the film’s website here.

In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Masika Katsuva, herself the victim of multiple rapes, has rescued some 6,000 women and children. Her centre provides medical and psychological help, and she also works with the women to cultivate maize and bean crops to have an independent life.

Filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies follows Katsuva and the centre’s inhabitants, as they reshape their lives to build a new future. The film also speaks with the perpetrators, among them soldiers from the Congolese army, who give extraordinarily open testimony as to why they rape and their attitudes toward their horrific acts.

Directed by Fiona Lloyd-Davies
Duration: 71′
Year: 2013

On 10 June, world leaders and NGOs will gather in London for a global summit with the aim to create “irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground”. Ahead of the summit, we will be joined by a panel of speakers who have been working towards this aim for many years. They will be discussing what needs to be done to make it a reality.

The eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been described as the “rape capital of the world”. Increased cases of sexual violence against women in DRC coincided with the emerging armed conflicts of the early 1990s. Although Congolese law criminalises many forms of sexual violence, these laws are often not enforced.

With a particular focus on the DRC our panel will be mapping out what is being done to help individuals and societies affected by sexual violence and what more needs to be done. We will be asking what measures can be put in place to help victims bring the perpetrators to justice.

Chaired by Liz Ford, deputy editor of The Guardian’s Global Development website.

The panel:

Doctor Juliet Cohen is head of doctors at UK-based charity Freedom from Torture. She specialises in the examination of victims of torture, domestic violence and trafficking and has written over 1000 forensic reports documenting the psychological and physical sequelae of torture, including rape, for use in international protection claims. In 2012 she provided an expert witness statement on late disclosure of sexual violence for the European Court of Human Rights and is a commentator to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the new International Protocol on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Fiona Lloyd-Davies is an award winning filmmaker and photojournalist who has worked in areas of conflict for over 20 years. She’s been working in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2001 making films for the BBC, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 News and France24. In recent years her work has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and led to the completion of Seeds of Hope – a feature length documentary that tells the story of women survivors of sexual violence in Eastern DRC through the extraordinary life and work of multiple rape survivor, Masika Katsuva. Seeds of Hope will be shown as part of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, details here. She has just finished a film about the Minova rape trial which will be shown on BBC Newsnight.

Serge-Eric is a co-founder and member of the Survivors Speak OUT! (SSO) network. SSO is a group of torture survivors and former clients of Freedom from Torture who draw on their lived experience of torture and seeking protection through asylum in the UK, to influence decision-makers and raise public awareness of the challenges facing survivors trying to rebuild their lives. The network has worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the development of a new International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Sarah Cotton is the public affairs and communications advisor for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mission in the UK and Ireland. She leads the work of the ICRC with Parliament and works in both the UK and Ireland to communicate ICRC policy, operations and concerns. She also works to develop and disseminate ICRC policy on sexual violence and violence against healthcare. In this capacity she travelled to Lebanon in April 2014 to join an assessment of sexual violence in Syria.

Photograph: Andrew McConnell, 2008. A woman who was raped by a government soldier recovers at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma. Sexual violence has become systematic in DRC with the brutality of attacks often leaving the victims with severe damage to reproductive organs, resulting in multiple fistulas and incontinence. An average of 1,100 rape cases are reported each month.