Hold our leaders accountable!

Add your name to this petition to ask our next president to announce his administration’s initial plan to end the scourge of violence against women and girls in eastern Congo on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2009, and then report back on his progress toward this goal one year later.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is host to the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Congolese women and girls in particular bear the vicious brunt of this crisis. Eastern Congo right now is perhaps the worst place in the world to be a woman. Used as a weapon of war, rape in Congo exists on a scale seen nowhere else in the world.

Often successful in its intent to destroy and exterminate, rape as a weapon of war is causing the near total destruction of women, their families, and their communities. Efforts to protect women and girls in the Congo are failing spectacularly. It is time to get serious about ending the conflict and protecting and empowering Congo's women.

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Print out the petition and sign-up sheet and collect signatures from your coworkers, friends, classmates, and family members. Take it to your local grocery store, park, or mall and collect signatures. Help us make a strong statement to the president!

TEXT OF THE PETITION

Dear Mr. President:

I urge you to take immediate action to end the suffering of women and girls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since 1996, eastern Congo has been the epicenter of the deadliest war since World War II, and it remains a place where combatants on all sides routinely use rape and sexual violence as a weapon to destroy women, families, and communities. I ask you to announce your administration’s initial plan to end the scourge of violence against women and girls in eastern Congo on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2009, and then report back on your progress toward this goal one year later.

We ask you to embrace a comprehensive approach that promotes peace, protects people and punishes perpetrators by:

• Promoting Peace: Lead aggressive diplomatic efforts to forge an inclusive peace deal between the Congolese government and rebel groups, remove Rwandan rebels from eastern Congo, and end the illegal exploitation of Congolese natural resources — a major driver of the conflict and violence.

• Protecting People: Ensure that UN peacekeepers aggressively patrol areas where women are most vulnerable, increase support for UN and charitable programs responding to sexual violence, and urge Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act (S. 2279).

• Punishing Perpetrators: Call for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into rape as a war crime in eastern Congo, work with the Congolese government to increase rape prosecutions in Congolese courts, and aggressively enforce existing UN sanctions.

I urge your administration to take strong action to protect and empower Congolese women and girls and promote peace in eastern Congo. Thank you for your urgent attention to this continuing tragedy, and I look forward to your announcement on March 8, 2009.