Guest of Honour Pr. Dr. Denis Mukwege

Registration is free of charge but compulsory so you can receive the necessary Zoom codes by email:
https://warmem2020.sciencesconf.org/registration

 
The international conference "War Memories 2020/21" is delighted to welcome (virtually) Pr. Dr. Denis Mukwege as a Guest of Honour.

On Tuesday 22nd June 2021, Pr. Dr. Mukwege will deliver a speech entitled Le viol comme arme de guerre en République Démocratique du Congo: De la prise en charge holistique à la justice transitionnelle.

His talk will be completed with a round table with:

Daniel Palmieri (International Committee of the Red Cross) and Christine Seisun (ICRC Addressing Sexual Violence Manager for the ICRC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), « Aujourd’hui, je ne suis plus de ce monde » : Les humanitaires et les violences sexuelles en temps de guerre. L’exemple du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge.

Nathalie Sierra-Scroccaro (psychologist, University Hospital, Laval, France): Les mutilations sexuelles féminines : une approche psychologique.

Jean-Philippe Harlicot (gynecologic surgeon, University Hospital, Rennes, France)

“Towards the end of the 1990s, war took on a new face, that of pure barbarism, of gratuitous cruelty. First targets and main victims: women. They are mutilated, clitoris are cut, breasts severed. The rapes which husbands, neighbours and children are often obliged to witness, take place without any other motivation than to cause suffering, humiliation and terror... In the Congo, the woman's body has become the battlefield of a ‘low intensity’ war!

For almost twenty years, Denis Mukwege, chief medical officer at the hospital in Panzi (South Kivu), has faced a never-ending emergency: women, still in the same numbers, come to him, broken, torn apart by so much savagery. Destroyed vaginas and dead souls…”

Source: Foreword by Marc Schmitz (Groupe de Recherche et d’Information sur la Paix et de la sécurité), in Colette Braeckman, L’homme qui répare les femmes – le combat du Docteur Mukwege, Bruxelles, GRIP, 2016, page 5.

Photo John Estey

“From September 1999 to August 2018, the Panzi General Reference Hospital treated 54,471 survivors of sexual violence and 41,637 patients with gynecological pathologies...”

“The holistic healing model internationally recognized four pillars of the Panzi Hospital and the Foundation aims to meet all the needs of victims of sexual violence, women victims of complex gynecologic trauma and vulnerable populations in South Kivu.”

“We create a safe space and conducive to healing, which promotes not only physical healing women, but promotes their emotional recovery, helps them to rebuild their livelihoods and contributes to the sustainable restoration and long term their communities...” 

Sources: https://www.hopitaldepanzi.com/ et https://fondationpanzirdc.org/panzi-model/.

A member of the editorial board of the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, Colette Braeckman was first a reporter covering several conflicts and crises in Southern Africa, Central America, the Middle East, Angola, Zimbabwe and Cambodia before specializing in Central Africa, in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi. She has thus followed the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, before, during and after the event, covered wars and rebellions in the Congo and dedicated several books to this region of the world, among them "Rwanda Histoire d'un génocide" (Fayard), and several books on the DRC such as "The Man Who Mends Women, The Story of Dr. Denis Mukwege" (GRIP), the film adaptation of which, bearing the same title, was co-produced by her, and has received numerous awards.

Colette Braeckman still works for Le Soir and other publications; she is still a frequent visitor to Central Africa.

http://blog.lesoir.be/colette-braeckman /

Benaouda LEBDAI (France)

Benaouda Lebdai is Professor at the University of Le Mans, specialising in African literature. He has published extensively about the relationship between literature, history and memory. He also write literary reviews for Point Afrique, Revue des Etudes Africaines, El Watan and Jeune Afrique. Amongst other things, he has participated in the "Ateliers de la Pensée" forum held in Dakar (Senegal).

Michel Prum is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris. He founded the Group of Research on Eugenics and Racism (GRER) in 1998, with a fortnightly seminar on the questions of ethnicity. He founded the book series ‘Racism and Eugenics’ in 2003 (for l’Harmattan publishers) and has edited or coedited many books on ‘race’ (as a social and historical construction), on the abolition of slavery, on feminist men, etc. He co-organized several international conferences in France and in Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Kenya and Senegal) on various subjects: "ethnic visibility/invisibility", "war and race", "hybridization", "thinking diversity in society", "missions and colonialism", "race, identity, globalization".

 Daniel PALMIERI (Switzerland)

Trained as historian (University of Geneva; Graduate Institute) and journalist by profession, Daniel Palmieri is working for the ICRC since 1995, first as press officer for several ICRC field operations. Since 2002, he is in charge of the historical research at the ICRC. He is the author of many works dealing with the history of the ICRC, of humanitarianism and the history of war. Last publications: « Humanitarianism on the screen: The ICRC films, 1921-1965 », Johannes Paulmann (ed.), Humanitarianism and Media. 1900 to the present, Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York, 2018; « Se souvenir pour oublier : La politique mémorielle du CICR »,  Vincent Négri, Isabelle Schulte-Thenckhoff (éds.), Normer l'oubli, IRJS Editions, Paris, 2018.

 Christine SEISUN (Suisse)

Christine Seisun is the Addressing Sexual Violence Manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Democratic Republic of Congo. She provides technical and field support, analysis, guidance and coordination between all the operational departments of ICRC DRC to ensure multidisciplinary support to victims/survivors of sexual violence. Ms. Seisun has also occupied the same position in South Sudan from 2019-2021. During her time with the ICRC she has also worked in Cote d’Ivoire and Iraq as a protection delegate.

She has multiple years of professional experience working on gender and gender-based violence in the humanitarian and development sectors and has significant experience working in conflict and post-conflict environments.

Prior to working with the ICRC, Christine worked with organizations including Banyan Global, Mercy Corps, Open Society Foundations, The Carter Center and Amnesty International. Her work has taken her across the globe including to Central African Republic, Haiti, Jordan, and Mali. She has a master’s in international law from SOAS University in London and has been trained as rape crisis centre advocate.

Nathalie SIERRA-SCROCCARO (France)

Nathalie Sierra-Scroccaro completed a PhD in psycology and is now a clinical psychologist. She has a private practice in Rennes and also works at the university hospital of Laval (France)

Son intervention aborde quelques repères pratiques pour la clinique auprès des femmes excisées, l’idée étant d’inscrire la problématique des mutilations sexuelles féminines dans une logique de parcours d’exil et de présenter des temps différenciés d’accompagnement psychothérapeutique autour de ce qui peut faire trauma, réparation et reconstruction.

 Jean-Philippe HARLICOT (France)

Dr. Jean-Philippe Harlicot has been a gynecologic surgeon at the University Hospital of Rennes (France) for about 15 years.

In parallel, he regularly takes part in development and training missions in Africa and Asia, mostly with the NGO Gynecology without Borders. Since 2011, he has been helping women who were victims of genital mutilation (FGM).At the University Hospital of Rennes, he works with two midwives, a psycologist and a legal pediatrician, and his team offers a holistic approach to women victims of FGM.

https://drharlicot.wordpress.com/author/drharlicot/