Editor,

The conference on the ‘Role of Security Organs in Ending Violence against Women and Girls’ that kicked off today is timely.

It’s high time that the UN started implementing solutions to end violence against women and girls that has for so long affected our sisters in the great lakes region, most especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Recent reports that in July, over 200 women and children in Luvungi, were raped by Congolese rebels in spite of the UN peacekeepers being just a stone’s throw away are simply devastating. This of course doesn’t augur well with the UN‘s image but should at least lead to some solutions for the eastern DR Congo women.

In line with this, I hope the ongoing conference in Rwanda will somehow find a way of addressing this great dilemma. It would be sad that such monstrous acts continue to give rise to policies and plans with no evident action.

I welcome the efforts that UNIFEM has undertaken to work on the organizational structure of the UN-Women which is based on looking on the functions and analysis on how women will cooperate as an organization to advocate for other women in the country.

Just as Gregory Sachs in "Common Wealth” asserts: "The United Nations serves three vital roles: as a meeting ground for world’s governments, as a kind of secretariat for global goals and treaties, and a provider of urgent public goods when national governments cannot or do not provide them (such as emergency relief operations and peacekeeping when national governments have collapsed or are overwhelmed by conflict or national disasters.)

In the United States, the face of the UN is mainly in its first role, as a debating shop in the UN Security Council. In fact, the UN’s most powerful contributions probably fall into the second and third category…” p 335.

This statement should be put into reality because it seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way.

Francine Kamugisha
Kigali