From protection to Empowerment: Civilians as stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Exploring the role of civilian stakeholders in the DRC peace process, with particular emphasis on women, children, refugees and displaced people.

This paper explores the role of civilian stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo peace process, with particular emphasis on women, children, refugees and internally displaced people. The aim is to promote the view that war victims must be treated as peace stakeholders in order to break the cycles of exploitation, marginalisation and violence that have characterized the conflict in the DRC. In this sense, ‘mainstreaming’ should be seen as a political commitment to making all aspects of the peace process relevant to vulnerable groups: from civilian protection to longer-term policy reforms. 

Authors

Vanessa Kent is a senior researcher and training coordinator at the ISS.

Angela McIntyre is a senior researcher and the project leader of Interact.