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| Mireille Kahatwa Amani, an ABA ROLI program director, is being featured in the documentary "The Prosecutors" for her work combating sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Footage by Michael Christopher Brown, directed by Leslie Thomas, produced by ART WORKS Projects. |
2019 has been a busy year for Mireille Kahatwa Amani, an ABA ROLI program director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Amani was one of several lawyers who worked to convict warlord Marcel Habarugira Rangira, lieutenant colonel of the Congolese armed forces, of war crimes before a military tribunal in Goma, in the eastern DRC. After years of work, on February 1, 2019, a military tribunal condemned Habarugira for the war crimes of rape, and of recruitment and use of child soldiers in Goma. The "historic decision" is the first time an individual has been held legally responsible for the conscription and use of child soldiers in the DRC.
On International Women’s Day 2019, “The Prosecutors” documentary, which chronicles Amani’s work on combating sexual violence, was screened at International Criminal Court Offices in the Hague, Netherlands. A few weeks later, the documentary was also screened at an event hosted by the War Crimes Research Office and Ferencz International Justice Initiative of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at American University in Washington D.C.. Most recently, Amani shared her fight for justice in the new ABA Abroad column in the ABA Journal. Read her full piece here.
“The Habarugira trial is a lesson and a model for future decisions; yet it continues to highlight the difficulties of giving justice in the DRC. The essential question remains and our struggle continues: How can we ensure that victims of serious human rights violations obtain justice?” - Mireille Kahatwa Amani
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