Parliamentary Questions Dec 2009

The APPG met with Congoloese Human Rights Defender,  Mathilde Muhido, to discuss sexual  and gender-based violence. Mathilde was in the UK to receive the Human Rights Watch prize for extraordinary activism which was presented at a dinner in London's Natural History Museum. The award is in recognition of her work on sexual and gender-based violence in eastern DRC. Sexual violence remains endemic in eastern Congo and is accompanied by wide spread impunity. The situation has worsened of late as a result of current military operations called Kimia II being undertaken against the Rwandan rebel group, the FDLR. Mathilde was a member of the transitional parliament of the DRC until 2006 and was influential in putting in place the law which made rape illegal in the DRC. 

 On 16 November 2009, the APPG hosted a joint event with the APPGs on Genocide Prevention and the United Nations, and in association with the Aegis Trust and United Nations Association UK, with Dr. Francis Deng, UN Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention.  Prior to his appointment in 2007, Dr. Deng was the Director of the Sudan Peace Support Project.  He has held Professorships at various prominent universities, and was Director of the Africa Programme at the Brookings Institute, which he ran for 12 years. He has served as Sudan’s ambassador to various countries around the world, and also as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Dr. Deng was an influential figure in developing the responsibility to protect, which the UN has been trying to take forward in recent years.

Parliamentary Early Day Motion 21 Oct 2009