Preamble

We, heads of State and government of the Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region;

Considering our Declaration on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes Region adopted and signed on 20^th November 2004 in Dar-es-Salaam, particularly Article 6 under which the Member States expressed deep concern for sexual violence and the exploitation of women and girls and their use as sexual slaves;

Reaffirming our commitment to its implementation on behalf of our peoples, particularly its Article 67 under which the Member States committed themselves to set up, amongst other things, regional mechanisms aimed at providing legal assistance to women and girls who are victims and survivors of rape as well as other acts of sexual violence and exploitation;

Expressing our commitment to comply with Resolution 1325 of the Security Council of the United Nations with respect to the protection of women and children during armed conflict;

Conscious of the high prevalence and widespread incidence of sexual violence in the Great Lakes Region and its destructive impact on the lives, health, physical, sexual, psychological, social, and economic well-being of women and children;

Deeply concerned by the context in which sexual violence is perpetrated in the Great Lakes Region by deliberately targeting women and children as a means of projecting the motives of armed conflict which has a spill over effect in the region;

Mindful that sexual violence is a form of gender-based violence which seriously inhibits the ability of women to contribute to, and benefit from, development, and to enjoy human and peoples rights and fundamental freedoms, in private or public life, in peace time or during situations of armed conflict contrary to the relevant international instruments, including the Charter of the United Nations 1945, Security Council Resolution 1325, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1979, General Recommendation 19 on Violence Against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Children 1989, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 2000, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa 2003;

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