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Helping Women Abused in War

To the Editor:

Re "Congo's Warring Factions Leave a Trail of Rape" (news article, June 9):

Gender-based violence, like rape and exploitation, is a part of virtually all conflicts today, with those most at risk – refugee and internally displaced women and adolescent girls – often remaining unprotected.

Survivors of gender-based violence are often identified through reproductive health services, and it is by way of these programs that their trauma is addressed.

Without these services and the recognition of the basic rights that underpin them, the world's most at-risk population would lose basic protection and care; this would have a devastating effect on efforts to eliminate violence against them.

The United States has been withdrawing its support for international reproductive health services for women worldwide; the retraction of $34 million in financing for the United Nations Population Fund last year is just one example.

As the violence in Congo shows, we should be doing more to protect women around the world, not less.

Megan McKenna
Acting Director of Communications
Women's Commission
for Refugee Women and Children
New York, June 9, 2003