On Wednesday 4 May 2011, there was a meeting at Portcullis House, Westminster, at which presentations were made by women from WILPF, COMMON CAUSE UK, Rape Crisis and Million Women Rise (MWR) who took part in a MWR delegation to join the Third International World March of Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in October 2010. The meeting was chaired by Jeremy Corbyn MP, a Friend of WILPF. He promised to place the recommendations before the House of Commons in the coming week.

The report of the UK Million Women Rise delegation make series of recommendations calling on the UK Government to demonstrate a political will to end the conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the consequences of which include violence against civilians, particularly sexual violence against women. See MWR Delegation to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the full recommendations and report.

Additional recommendations were agreed at the meeting. These are to call on the UK Government:

• To set up an independent unit in the DR Congo to monitor the actions of militias
• To Identify those UK based organisations that are providing arms to fuel the wars.

Please contact your MP to ask them to support the original recommendations and these two additional ones and to work towards ending violence against women in DR Congo.

It is only by ending war, restoring the rule of law through distributive justice, supporting social transformation and human development that violence against women will be effectively addressed in the DR Congo.