"Justice is for Everyone," Says New Film Featuring ABA ROLI Lawyers in DRC

Screen still of Amani Kahatwa during the 2013 Minova trial by Michael Christopher Brown

ART WORKS Projects will soon be releasing The Prosecutors, a new film featuring the work of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) staff in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The film chronicles the work of, among others, Congolese ABA ROLI attorney Amani Kahatwa (above) and program-partners at  Avocats Sans Frontières. Our program team is "working together with civil society, the UN, and the DRC government to support the ability of the Congolese judicial system to meet the needs of those whose bodies have been the battleground for war," according to the film's promotional materials.

Since 2008, ABA ROLI has implemented an array of programs in DRC aimed at combating systematic rape and other forms of sexual violence used as a tactic of war and at bringing perpetrators to justice. Among other activities, 22 ABA ROLI-supported legal clinics have provided legal and psychosocial services to more than 20,000 sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors and helped to file tens of thousands of cases with local authorities, resulting in thousands of concluded trials and convictions. ABA ROLI has also established an early warning system to prevent mass sexual violence and deployed mobile investigation teams, clinics and courts to address SGBV in hard-to-reach villages.