Kinshasa, September 18th, 2025 (CPA).- The submission of a plea for access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been announced on Friday at the Ministry in charge of Justice of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH-RDC), CPA has learned on Thursday from an administrative source.« The plea for access to justice for victims of gender-based violence (GBV), conducted by the CNDH and its civil society partners, under the supervision of UN Women with the support of the European Union, as part of the ‘United for Gender Equality’ project, is already ready and will be filed tomorrow, Friday, September 19th, 2025, to the Minister of State, Minister in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, » has declared Christian Ciniama, advisor to the office of the National Commissioner for Women and Children of the CNDH.
He has remembered that a preparatory meeting for this appeal has been held on September 11th at the headquarters of the CNDH, where representatives of civil society organizations have been asked to join this citizen institution to amend and validate the appeal.
It is therefore this appeal that will be submitted to the Ministry in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, he has added. During this preparatory meeting, he has said, Ms. Gisele Kapinga, National Commissioner for Women and Children, had specified that this was the second phase of the “United for Gender Equality” project, which involves collecting and documenting cases of GBV in five provinces, namely: Kinshasa, Kasai, Ituri, Nord-Kivu (Beni), and Sud-Kivu (Uvira).
It should be noted that the CNDH is one of the partners implementing the “United for Gender Equality” project in its first phase (January 1st to March 31st, 2024), which was implemented in the provinces of Kinshasa, Nord-Kivu, and Ituri, where numerous cases of GBV have been collected and documented.
It is in this context that President Paul Nsapu had argued during the preparatory meeting that this project has laid the foundations for strong, inclusive advocacy focused on concrete solutions to ensure better care for victims and strengthen existing protection mechanisms, has concluded Mr. Ciniama.
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