What becomes very clear when you read the national plan which came out in October, is that, in fact, everything which has to do with justice for the victims—including access to legal institutions, to the strengthening of judicial capacity, as well as the presence of women in the legal system—everything which deals with supporting the legal system, and the mechanisms involved in the legal system, for example—none of this appears at all in the national plan.
Further, if you look at the proposals contained in the Belgian plan, you see that there is a big difference. The Belgian national plan sets out extremely concrete actions. It states that Belgium:
- Will support initiatives involving women with regard to access to the legal system, which will encourage women to file complaints, which will offer them protection and shelter; - Will support the strengthening of the legal system in every country where Belgium is participating in an international mission; - Will support initiatives which strengthen the position of women (succession rights, ownership, training, forced marriages, etc.) [regarding ownership]; - Will support the International Criminal Court.
These actions could not be more concrete, and this is what the Belgian government is proposing. In fact, it has already begun to implement these measures on the ground.
As far as Canada is concerned, you might know—and Ms. Leclerc from CIDA could certainly speak to this—that there is a project to address the issue of sexual violence, which has already received $15 million in funding.
However, unless I'm mistaken, this fund or program will end this year. Will it be renewed or not, and under what conditions?
The other problem with Canada's plan is that, when you look at the details of the actions which the Canadian government lays out, they mostly seem to focus on training. An inventory will be taken of the training given to people on the ground, and then it will be assessed.
We have between 8 and 11 military personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo with the MONUSCO mission. How in the world is this training going to change anything? Really, is this what is going to improve the situation and prevent sexual violence from being committed on the ground?