Barack Obama today published an editorial in The Chicago Defender on his continued efforts to address violence against women in the Congo. Obama also worked on domestic violence legislation during his time in the Illinois State Senate.
He wrote:
President Bush has an opportunity to assert America’s moral leadership in the aftermath of Friday’s meeting with President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). President Bush should seize it by stepping up efforts to stop the epidemic of sexual violence in the DRC - an epidemic that is similarly devastating places like Darfur, where rape is the weapon of choice.
In recent years, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped, tortured, and assaulted in the DRC by disgruntled soldiers and bands of marauders. One expert says this is so common in some places that it is “almost normal.”
The decision to stop the violence rests with the Congolese, but the United States has a number of options - many of which were included in legislation I helped pass last year and addressed in a letter I sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month. These options range from making U.S. support contingent on Congolese efforts to stop the violence and care for the victims to building a coalition of donor nations to pressure the DRC into action. President Bush should make it clear that no diplomatic option is off the table.
But asserting America’s moral leadership abroad requires more than strong, principled diplomacy. It requires setting a better example by stopping the violence that’s committed against women here at home. One in four women suffers from domestic violence in her lifetime. In 2005, over 175,000 women reported being victims of rape or sexual assault. These statistics are numbing; they are also heartbreaking.
And yet, they only dimly reflect the full scale of the problem. Too often, women fear their stories of abuse will not be believed or blame themselves, and as a result, they don’t come forward. But while a crime can go unreported, its consequences cannot be undone.
Read more.
Also read Obama’s full plan to combat domestic violence here.
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Also See Related Articles:
- Obama Statement on Bush Meeting with President of Congo
- Obama Asks Rice To Address Violence Against Women in the Congo
- Obama, Brownback, Durbin Introduce Comprehensive Legislation on the Congo
- Barack on Faith and Climate Change, Educating Women
- Video: Obama - What Kind of America Are We Leaving for Our Daughters?
