Thank you.
Mr. Weetman, in the e-mail that we've been discussing, you indicated issues such as “Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights, and R2P”. You gave a recent example of “a fairly extensive set of suggested revisions to a standard docket response” on the DRC and said that “the term 'impunity' in every instance” had been removed, “(eg Canada urges the Government of the DRC to take concerted measures to do whatever is necessary to put an end to impunity for sexual violence...” is changed to “Canada urges the government of the DRC to take concerted measures to prevent sexual violence”).
Now, we've heard very clearly from witnesses that the impunity piece is absolutely essential in terms of a woman's ability to confront those who have committed sexual violence and to know that they're not going to get away with it. Because women in the DRC, as you know, are most vulnerable.
It's very, very clear that there was a concern here. We know that rape is a weapon used to undermine communities and that it has been used extensively in the DRC. So what is the impact of removing the word “impunity”? Why on earth would that shift take place, since preventing sexual violence is not going to deal with the kinds of atrocities that women experience in the DRC?