Democratic Republic of the Congo: Preventing and Punishing Sexual Violence: The Work of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region

Efforts to build lasting peace at regional level involve multiple strata of actors, institutions and processes. Regional organisations that are in search of shared peace and security must take cognisance of the various layers of political and social history of many sovereign states. These bodies must accommodate different economies, legal systems and security capacities, cultures and confl icting interests. Challenges such as these are particuraly acute for new regional institutions, especially when they ambitiously set out to solve newly-defi ned problems. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is an example of this new terrain.