Source: propublica.org

When a woman is raped, police turn to scientific evidence — semen, blood and tissue samples — to identify her attacker. The evidence is collected through a medical exam of the victim, who is not supposed to pay for this crime-solving process.

But 15 years after Congress passed a law to ensure that rape victims would never see a bill, loopholes and bureaucratic tangles still leave some victims paying for hospital expenses and exams, which can cost up to $1,200.

Congress requires state or local authorities to cover these costs, but the state legislatures that regulate the process offer piecemeal guarantees of Congress’ mandate, ProPublica and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund found. Some states allow hospitals to bill the victim’s insurer. Confusion in California and other states may cause police to occasionally ignore Congress’ rules and require victims to cooperate with an investigation before exam costs are covered. Lax enforcement of the law, victims’ advocates say, also means some hospitals in Illinois bill victims directly.

Congress created the Violence Against Women Act [2] to protect victims and encourage them to report rapes. The law, known as VAWA, has forced many states to crack down on billing problems.

But ambiguities in the law still allow a remarkable disparity in the legal system: Some rape victims, unlike victims of other crimes, have to pay for basic evidence collection.

“We never ask a robbery victim to pay for the cost of fingerprints,” said Sarah Tofte, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has been tracking how states comply with VAWA.

As a victim recovers from her assault, the last thing she needs is a bill for her exam, said Katherine Hull, a spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network [3].

After all, she said, “rape is not something you can budget for.”

Despite billing concerns, Hull and other advocates encourage victims to get a forensic exam [4]. Many emergency rooms have specially trained nurses who swab, scan and photograph victims’ bodies, hunting for evidence.

Yet states vary in how proficiently they process the evidence and medical bills that follow. As we previously reported [5], even if the state pays for an exam, there is no guarantee the evidence will be tested. There are more than 350,000 untested DNA samples backlogged in police departments and crime labs nationwide, according to federal statistics.

Kellie Greene, a rape victim who battled collection agencies in the 1990s because she refused to pay for her exam, is disappointed that victims still find themselves saddled with hospital bills and testing delays. “It’s a frightening thought,” said Greene, who runs the advocacy group Speaking Out About Rape [6].

An opportunity to strengthen VAWA will come soon because Congress must reauthorize the law before it expires in 2011. In a statement to us, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, said Congress “will need to carefully consider what can be done to improve and strengthen the Act.”

Revisions to VAWA, Leahy’s statement said, “should include providing every possible assistance to victims, regardless of where they live.”

It’s unclear whether Republicans on the Judiciary Committee would support VAWA reform. We called and e-mailed a spokesman for Sen. Jeff Sessions, the committee’s ranking Republican, and never heard back.

Enforcing the Law

Some states and police departments have a history of skirting their responsibility to pay for forensic exams, we found in an analysis of state statutes and from interviews with policymakers and victims’ advocates.

Last year’s presidential race exposed the shortcomings. During the campaign, it came to light [7] that until 2000, police in some Alaska towns charged [8] rape victims or their insurance companies up to $1,200 for forensic exams — including the town of Wasilla where vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was mayor from 1996 to 2002.

Justice Department officials also have found that, until recently, some states refused to pay for a rape victim’s exam unless she agreed to file a police report, which some victims are reluctant to do immediately after the attack.

In 2005, Congress revised VAWA [9] (PDF) to hold states more accountable. This time, Congress required state or local officials to pay for forensic exams even if a victim declined to cooperate with police. States that didn’t comply would lose federal crime-fighting grants.

The new rule [2] went into effect this January with some marked successes.

By June, only five states were still billing victims who didn’t file police reports, according to the Justice Department. By early July, that number had dropped to one. Now department officials say every state is complying.

But the department still hasn’t verified that all of the nation’s 15,000-plus law enforcement agencies are following Congress’ mandate. After hearing about complaints from victims, the department contracted an outside advocacy group to more closely track these agencies, a Justice Department official said.

One problem the agencies are facing, interviews with police officials and advocates revealed, is lingering confusion about the new VAWA changes. When we first contacted the Nebraska State Patrol, a spokeswoman said it bills rape victims or their insurance companies if victims decline to cooperate with an investigation. When we reported this to the Justice Department, it notified the Patrol and determined that the spokeswoman had been given out-of-date information and that Nebraska is following the mandate.

While California is considered in compliance with VAWA’s new mandate, the state requires law enforcement agencies to authorize and pay for exams. Even a victim who doesn’t want to press charges must report the assault to get her exam covered. If she doesn’t call the police, or if the police don’t authorize her exam because they aren’t investigating her case, hospitals will charge the victim, several advocates and a forensic exam nurse told us.

A spokeswoman for the California Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for implementing VAWA requirements, said her agency has not received any specific complaints about hospitals billing victims.

Loopholes Remain

Even states that abide by VAWA can take advantage of its loopholes, leaving victims without the full protections that lawmakers intended.

Texas authorities pay for an exam only if the victim reports her attack within four days — a time limit that could exclude some victims and viable evidence, experts say. VAWA doesn’t address how long victims have to get their exam, so technically Texas is complying with the law.

Illinois requires hospitals [10] to bill forensic exams to a victim’s insurance company, although the state covers exams for the poor and uninsured, as well as co-pays and deductibles for everyone else.

Maryland law leaves the billing issue open to interpretation, because it doesn’t explicitly prevent hospitals from billing insurance companies. Although VAWA clearly intended that states or local authorities pay for exams, both Illinois’ and Maryland’s policies comply with the law.

Kellie Greene, whose forensic exam was eventually paid for by Florida’s victim compensation fund, said insurance loopholes could discourage victims from getting exams. A young rape victim might not want her parents, who hold the insurance policy, to know she was attacked, Greene said. Cases are further complicated if a family member is named as the attacker.

Greene also noted that insurance companies could deny a victim coverage for future ailments seen as “preexisting conditions” resulting from her rape, including sexually transmitted infections.

VAWA also does not require states to cover non-forensic medical expenses, including ambulance rides, emergency room stays or treatment for injuries sustained during the assault.

At least one state, West Virginia, won’t cover [11] emergency birth control or emergency medication to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Jeffrey Kessler, chairman of West Virginia’s Senate Judiciary Committee, said he doesn’t recall any efforts to change this law and suspects the provision was included for budgetary reasons.

“It would seem to me to be archaic and something we would take a look at,” he said, adding that a victim willing to press charges could apply for assistance from the state victims’ compensation fund.

While these states are technically compliant with VAWA, they are dodging the spirit of the law, said Jennifer Pollitt-Hill, former executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which helped implement the new VAWA requirements.

“States are settling for the letter of the law rather than doing what’s best for victims,” Pollitt-Hill said.

In Illinois, a Bureaucratic Tangle

Much of the confusion over who pays for what stems from overlapping layers of bureaucracy, Pollitt-Hill said. Hospitals must navigate federal, state and local rules, causing “confusion within states about how it’s done,” she said.

In Illinois, victims’ advocates complain that some hospital billing departments occasionally send exam bills directly to victims — a problem VAWA was supposed to prevent. At least three Chicago hospitals send repeated bills to victims who don’t pay and turn over some to collection agencies, said Kris Krafka, a legal advocate at Life Span [12], a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps domestic violence and rape victims.

Part of the problem, Krafka said, is that billing departments often don’t know which patients are rape victims because hospital paperwork might not include that information.

The billing problems don’t appear to be malicious, Krafka said, but the process hurts victims nonetheless. “It’s going to keep happening unless there’s repercussions for hospitals when they do the wrong thing,” she said.

The problem has been known for years, according to Rape Victim Advocates, a nonprofit that is contracted by 12 Chicago-area hospitals to provide crisis support for rape victims.

We asked the group to review its files from this year to determine how often it gets reports of hospital billing problems. Between January and June, it received about 20 complaints from victims who were billed for hospital services, which typically include an exam, lab tests and treatment for injuries, said the group’s executive director, Sharmili Majmudar.

Once the group notifies a hospital of a billing problem, the hospital usually stops pursuing the victim, Majmudar said.

“We make every effort to ensure all [our] patients are treated in accordance with the law,” said a spokeswoman for Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, one of the city’s largest private hospitals. “If a rape victim has inadvertently been billed for a forensic exam or rape kit, we ask that they contact the hospital’s billing department [13] to have the charge removed and any payment refunded.”

Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which reimburses hospitals that bill the state for forensic exams, said the department has received only a “handful” of complaints about hospitals mistreating rape victims in the last 10 years, though she acknowledged that the department doesn’t keep a record of all the complaints it receives.

“In the rare occasion when an eligible survivor is billed for sexual assault-related services, [the department] works to quickly resolve these errors,” Thompson said.

Next Step

Victims’ advocates contend Congress needs to bolster VAWA to rid it of loopholes that make for unfair billing.

Policy experts also have suggested that lawmakers craft incentives for states to comply with VAWA rather than threatening financial cuts to law enforcement grants if they don’t.

Meanwhile, advocates and law enforcement officials agree that rape victims must not be deterred from getting an exam no matter the cost.

“An exam gives a victim more breathing space and options,” said Pollitt-Hill, the former Maryland advocate. “You might decide a week later that you don’t want to have it tested, but at least you have the choice.”

Despite Promises, Some Rape Victims Stuck Paying Exam Bills

Source: digitaljournal.com

In an effort to do more to help fight violence against women, Vice President Joe Biden recently announced the first advisor to the White House. The effort to “shine a light” on the problem is being seen as a momentous occasion in American history.
It is a problem that continues to plague the globe, killing countless women and psychologically scarring millions more: violence.

Violence against women, including date rape, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault affects millions every year, with over one in three women having been physically or sexually assaulted at some point in their life. With two-thirds of female victims being harmed by someone they know and tens of thousands dying at the hands of a husband or intimate partner, the problem is one that is very real.

The Vice Pesident on June 26, appointed Lynn Rosenthal as the first ever official advisor on Violence Against Women. In making the announcement, Biden had this to say:

“My proudest legislative achievement in the Senate was passing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). We’ve made great strides since its passage – shining a light on an all too silent issue and reducing violence against women in significant numbers. But we have to do more,” said Vice President Biden. “That’s why we’re here today – to do more. It’s an honor to announce the first ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, Lynn Rosenthal. Lynn is passionate about these issues and knows them backwards and forwards

Rosenthal has an extensive background serving those victims of domestic and sexual violence, including her advocacy role in the re-authorization of the VAWA itself. According to the National Domestic Violence Helpline (NDVH), she is currently the Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic violence and the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She has also served in the trenches as a former director of a shelter.
Her expertise in the areas of survivor-advocacy, federal policies related to violence against women and state/local community response programs will help her in her newly appointed role as advisor to both President Obama and Vice President Biden where she will do more than advise on domestic violence and sexual assault, but will:

be a liaison to the domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy community; coordinate with the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) on implementation of Violence Against Women Act programs; coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services on implementation of Family Violence Prevention Act services (including the National Domestic Violence Hotline); coordinate with the State Department and USAID on global domestic violence initiatives; and drive the development new initiatives and policy aimed at combating domestic violence and sexual assault with advocacy groups and members of Congress.

First White House advisor to address violence against women

The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today expressed her deep concern over reports that a Saudi Arabian court has ruled that the marriage of an eight-year-old girl is legally binding.

“Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child’s rights,” UNICEF Executive Director Anne M. Veneman stressed in a statement.

“UNICEF joins many in voicing concern that child marriage contravenes accepted international standards of human rights,” she added.

She noted that the right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but that “consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision.”

Ms. Veneman warned that marriage at too young an age could have long-term harmful effects on a child’s emotional, physical and psychological welfare.

Saudi Arabia: UNICEF chief voices concern over eight-year old girl’s marriage

The US First Lady choked up as she took to the stage to speak at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington, north London.

She told her audience they had “very much” in common with her as she talked about her background.

“I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them,” she said.

Michelle Obama Tells Schoolgirls ‘I do Hugs’

A decline in trade resulting from shrinking global markets may cost many women in developing countries their jobs, the head of the United Nations agency that promotes commerce to fight poverty warned today.

Governments should consider including measures to bolster women’s employment and support small businesses run by women as they craft economic stimulus packages, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said at the start of a two-day meeting of experts on the theme, “mainstreaming gender in trade policy.”

Due to rapid growth in exports at the beginning of the new millennium, women have been heavily employed in the export sector, accounting for as many as 80 per cent of the textile industry workforce in developing countries and making them vulnerable to the turmoil in global trading.

UNCTAD estimates that merchandise exports from developing countries could drop by 15.5 per cent in 2009, which Mr. Supachai said was an optimistic forecast.

He told participants at the Geneva conference that there have been documented cases where women have been penalized by trade integration.

“Trade policies have often disrupted markets where women operate. Agricultural liberalization has often meant that small-scale farmers, most of whom are women, can find it impossible to compete in international markets and be forced into subsistence activities,” he said.

“In other cases, women operating in import competing sectors and small-scale enterprises have also been unable to compete with foreign goods, thus losing employment.”

The International Labour Office (ILO) is predicting a global rise in unemployment this year of up to 51 million, some 22 million of whom will be women.

Although the crisis had its initial impact largely on male-dominated sectors such as finance, insurance and construction, it is now spreading into fields where women are widely employed, said Mr. Supachai.

He recommended that governments add special measures to protect women’s interests and to focus on women’s employment in their economic recovery plans, including support for expanding micro-credit programmes, which mostly benefit women.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted that the negative effects of discrimination are magnified by conflict, as well as natural or man-made disasters, such as the current economic crisis.

The meltdown in global markets and financial institutions and ensuing recession is likely to have a disproportionate impact on millions women, who already formed the majority of the poor and disenfranchised before the crisis developed.

“Unless gender-sensitive policies are adopted, I fear we may well witness a serious setback in areas where progress has taken decades to achieve,” she said in message for the Day, observed annually on 8 March.

Also, in an opinion piece published today in USA Today, Ms. Pillay said that growing up in apartheid South Africa as a person of colour and raised in poverty, she had experienced gender, race and class discrimination.

But, “I have seen the power of ordinary people who have stood up against injustices they faced and triumphed,” stressed the High Commissioner. “This Sunday, on International Women’s Day, I will celebrate the power of women to overcome the vulnerabilities resulting from these multiple forms of discrimination.”

In the workplace women still do not receive equal pay for equal work, do not enjoy the legal protection afforded to men, and domestic workers – especially migrants – often fall outside the scope of labour laws.

Discrimination also demonstrates itself in violence against women, which the UN regards as pandemic, warned Ms. Pillay. “I have seen firsthand the effect of this violence on women, children and families, wrecked by these crimes that are too often hidden and protected with impunity.”

Yakin Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, also marked the Day with a statement underscoring the importance for men and women to join forces in this time of economic turmoil.

“The scale and impact of the current crisis is still largely unknown, but it is expected that women and girls in both developed and developing countries will be particularly affected by job cuts, loss of livelihoods, increased responsibilities in all spheres of their life, and an increased risk of societal and domestic violence,” said Ms. Ertürk.

She highlighted the World Bank’s prediction of 53 million more people being driven into poverty in developing countries this year, bringing the total number of those living on less than $2 a day to over 1.5 billion.

“Studies have shown that violence against women intensifies when men experience displacement and dispossession related to economic crises, migration, war, foreign occupation or other situations where masculinities compete and power relations are altered in society,” added Ms. Ertürk.

Ms. Pillay noted, however, that there is a new generation of powerful women growing up around the world with a strong sense of their identity and strength.

“They say ‘no’ to harmful practices such as early marriage, female genital mutilation and sexual harassment. They want to go to school and get an education. They want to be lawyers, doctors, judges and members of parliament. They want to change the world. I celebrate these girls on International Women’s Day. They are our future.”

Source: un.org/news

The global economic crisis will plunge a further 22 million women into unemployment and make decent work for women increasingly more difficult to find in 2009, predicted a new United Nations report issued today.

The International Labour Office (ILO) launched its annual Global Employment Trends for Women (GET) report in advance of International Women’s Day on 8 March, calling for “creative solutions” to close the gender gap.

“Gender inequality in the world of work has long been with us, but it is likely that it will be exacerbated by the crisis,” warned the agency’s Director-General Juan Somavia.

“In times of economic upheaval, women often experience the negative consequences more rapidly and are slower to enjoy the benefits of recovery,” he said, adding that “before the crisis, the majority of working women were in the informal economy with lower earnings and less social protection.”

Empowering women economically boosts both gender equality and wealth of the nations. This entails enabling the women to have the capacity to control income and other key economic resources like land and animals.

In traditional Africa, women were involved in the economy since they were defacto managers of income generating activities on farms as husbands were involved on non-farm business. Then came the colonial economy which created title deeds, making men the sole owners of land, thereby  rendering women economically weak.  The colonial regime also uprooted men from villages to work in urban areas and plantations like rubber plantations in Congo, Cocoa plantations in Ghana and Coffee plantations in Kenya, amongst others. Women consequently were overburdened with running homes, making them  economically unstable.

Other reasons why Women in Africa are not empowered are poverty and negative cultural practices. Accessing credit is the major constraint on women’s ability to earn income. The Microfinance sector is now taking the African women back to their role of being involved in the economy as they were in dire need of other income generating activities to supplement their small farms which barely fed them. It is estimated that women comprise 74% of the 19.3 million of the world’s poorest people now being served by microfinance institutions.

Defining Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

MFIs  is a term commonly used to define financial institutions dedicated to assisting small enterprises, the poor, and households who have no access to the more institutionalized financial system, in mobilizing savings, and obtaining access to financial services. Through microfinance, women have been able to run small businesses which constitute a significant share of economic activity in developed and transitioning economies.

To meet the unsatisfied demand for financial services to women, a variety of MFIs have emerged over time in Africa. Some of these institutions concentrate only on providing credit, others are engaged in providing both deposit and credit facilities, and some are involved only in deposit collection. They range from non governmental organizations, savings and credit cooperatives, commercial banks and regulated specialized providers.

Examples of largest MFIs in Africa are Equity Bank in Kenya, Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (KPOSB, in Uganda we have Centenary Rural Development Bank, Uganda Women Finance and Credit Trust (UWFT), Nigeria’s Integrated Microfinance Bank (IMFB), Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN), Morocco’s Al Amana, Capitec Bank of South Africa, Amhara Credit and Savings Institution (ACSI) of Ethiopia,  Union des Banques Populaires du Rwanda (UBPR) and  Réseau des caisses populaires du Burkina (RCPB) of Burkina Faso.

Empowering Women

In Africa MFIs have recorded notable gains. The sector has transformed from an insignificant player in the national psyche to a recognized sector with potential to equitably offer financial services to the active poor women in viable micro-enterprises, empower enterprising women through financial access and skills and drastically reduce poverty.

Access to savings and credit facilities strengthens women  in economic decisions. It also improves their skills, knowledge and support networks as well as enhancing their status in the community. Increasing women’s access to microfinance has led to social and political empowerment. Poverty alleviation and women empowerment are seen as two sides of the same coin and it is the only way to bring wider changes in gender inequality. Evidence of Women empowered economically through micro finance are Pankop Women Farmers Forum in Mpumalanga, South Africa, Jamii Bora Housing Project in Kaputei, Kenya amongst others.

Women have proven to be excellent clients notably in paying back loans in a time and they are key drivers to development, investing in women has proven effective way to increase individual family expenditure on health, education, improved nutrition and food security.

Challenges

Among challenges facing microfinance industry in Africa are: High cost of service delivery with poor infrastructure, regulatory policy issues and the need to develop institutional leadership. Because infrastructure and communication technology remain largely underdeveloped in Africa, it is significantly more expensive for MFIs in Africa to operate compared to their peers in developing countries.

Another challenge in Africa is policy making and government regulations, which vary by country. In many countries, the supervisory capacity of central banks, which holds the ultimate responsibility of financial sector needs an adjustment. The countries which are able to close the microfinance demand gap most successfully will be those that improve their policy frameworks and adapt their legal and regulatory systems in line with rapidly changing industries.

Government regulations faced by MFIs are usually ambiguous and opaque. For instance in 2008, Kenya Women Finance Trust fought for increased transparency in regulatory policy by urging the government to approve and publish regulations which guide MFIs in formalization process. The microfinance Act of 2006 became operational in May 2, 2008 and allows MFIs to register under it to take deposits.

A low population density area where the number of women to form a viable group is inadequate also poses as challenge. The situation is exacerbated by the unequal distribution of the family resources, which makes it difficult for women to raise the necessary savings and participate in a group.

Some women access credit, but only to pass it onto others who are not directly accountable, leaving them with the loan repayment burden. The one year repayment period is one of the reasons for the default in repayments. Examples of such failure make other women reluctant to borrow. Because of  the society’s perception of a woman’s place in the home, some women are not aware of the existence of sources of finance.

Future of Microfinance and Empowering African Women

Developing women’s leadership is important to deliver the promise of microfinance in alleviating poverty in the continent. Increasing women representation in microfinance and helping women develop the leadership skills to become innovators in their sector is key to moving microfinance to a new level. Strategies should be put in place targeting women flexible microfinance delivery; services that complement gender; structures for participation; mechanisms for representation; inter-organisational links and  institutionalised gender guidelines gendering all policy; gender equality within institutions; incentives for equity.

The high illiteracy rate among women in Africa requires  governments and microfinance institutions to be proactive in organizing forums for educating women about their rights.To get fully empowered economically, women need to do more than just access  finance. They need gender parity, insurance, education, healthcare and housing to help them spiral upwards.

Although micro-finance can make a contribution to empowerment of women, this cannot be assumed to be an automatic outcome. There underlies the course of a good approach to solving the incapacitation of the poor women in rural and disadvantaged areas of Africa to move out of poverty. For this to materialize, the women must develop the capacity to generate and maintain their means of livelihood and produce excess that will eventually lead to savings.

Source: africanexecutive.com

“While the scale of the current crisis is still largely unmeasured, it is expected that women and girls in both developed and developing countries will be particularly affected by the potential social and economic consequences, such as unemployment, increase of responsibilities both at work and at home, decrease of income and potential increase in societal and domestic violence,” the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said today.

“In such a context, it is necessary to identify and respond to specific needs of women and girls. Gender perspectives should be taken into account in relation to the impacts of the crisis on both a long and short-term basis, including in relation to education, health, security and livelihoods,” it added in a statement issued in Geneva.

It stressed that particular attention must be paid to providing women with access to programmes aimed at immediately alleviating poverty and hunger, so as to guarantee that national and international efforts effectively reach those most in need and that funding of programmes for women’s empowerment is not eroded.

“The Committee underscores the importance of recognizing the unique contribution that women can make in the timely resolution of the crisis. It calls upon States parties to include women in the dialogue and decision-making processes around these issues,” the statement said.

It called on all States parties to the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), often described as an international bill of rights for women, to comply with all their obligations under the treaty in spite of the financial crisis.

Under the Convention, ratified by almost the entire international community, States parties are legally committed to take the necessary steps to end all forms of discrimination against women in any field – whether political, economic, social, cultural or civic.

Source:un.org

According to the UN Children’s Fund, rape has been used as a weapon of war in DRC and an estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years. While sexual violence is rampant and prevalent throughout Congolese society, the area that has been most affected has been the eastern part of the country, particularly the Kivu region.

Mr. Ban paid a visit to North Kivu, which has witnessed over six months of clashes between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the mainly Tutsi rebel group known as the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP), displacing some 250,000 people, on top of the 800,000 already uprooted in the province.

He and Mrs. Ban Soon-taek visited with women and girls at the Heal Africa Hospital in the provincial capital of Goma, which treats, among others, disabled children and female victims of sexual violence.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ban met with President Joseph Kabila and some senior officials.

Tomorrow the Secretary-General travels to neighbouring Rwanda, where he is expected to meet with President Paul Kagame, before continuing on to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an international conference on Gaza’s reconstruction.

Source: un.org