GG promotes women's rights in Congo

Gov. Gen.Michalle Jean drew a boisterous reaction Monday when she addressed the issue of women's rights in Congo a country known as the rape capital of the world.

Jean spoke to an audience of more than 1,000 in the Great Hall of the People.

There were delirious cheers from the women in the chamber, while most of the men remained silent.

The country is the epicentre of a regional conflict and women's bodies are, in the words of international observers, the front line.

Armed rebels consistently rape women, even resorting at times to genital mutilation, to scare off civilians and take over villages.

National army soldiers are also thought to be partly responsible for the epidemic.

Jean applauded the country for including in its constitution the promise to punish sexual violence.

The crowd, which included national leaders and foreign diplomats, applauded her back and the loudest cheers came from women sitting high up in the public balcony.

"Give women the means to live in security and dignity," Jean told the audience.

"Give women the means to act. And, as I like to say, you will see less violence, corruption, poverty, sickness, injustice, illiteracy."

So far, only a few low-level soldiers have been punished for rape; the country's institutions are completely overwhelmed by the scope of the problem.

Canada has 12 soldiers in the country, several of them working to help build a military justice system.

There is a strong possibility that Canada will send more, as it considers an offer to take on leadership of the 20,000 UN peacekeepers already in the country.

'Anything is possible' in Canada: Jean

In her speech, Jean described Canada as a place "where anything is possible" and which wants to believe in Congo's hope of peace and justice.

And, she added in the next breath, one of Canada's most cherished values is the equality of men and women.

Congo's minister of gender, family and children sat in the crowd, beaming among her more stone-faced male colleagues.

Marie-Ange Luciane Mufwankolo said the Congolese have heard such talk before.

"[But] not with so much heart. It's like she came to lance the boil," Mufwankolo said. "This is a big problem that is killing the country's governance. It shocks us, it hurts us."

Several Congolese journalists said they were surprised to hear a foreign dignitary come to their country and speak almost exclusively about one single issue. One said the speech could have an impact because Jean herself is powerful, black, a foreigner and a woman.

As Jean noted herself, the country already has a so-called zero tolerance policy for military rape and has inscribed that principle in its constitution.

But prosecution is another matter.

With no roads in vast swaths of the country, scarce police resources, few hospitals and an overburdened legal system, international observers say many of these crimes are carried out with impunity.

Women have a hard time travelling from a village to seek treatment and report the crime, while there are almost no police vehicles available to seek out and transport suspects.

One UN official described a Canadian-funded clinic which has treated thousands of women in eastern Congo as a welcome grain of sand on a beach full of violence.