At a special human rights day event, on December 10th, at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Ambassador Wim Geerts announced his government’s initiative to create a new Dutch Human Rights Tulip Award to honour people who take great risks to defend human rights. The first person to receive this award is Ms Justine Masika for her fight to help the thousands of rape victims in eastern Congo.

Rape has become a weapon of war in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are no official figures as to the number of rapes, but according to the United Nations, in 2006 27.000 women were sexually abused in one province alone. Shortly after watching the documentary on sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Auditorium of DFAIT, Ambassador Geerts informed the audience of this Dutch Human Rights Day award, established to shine a spotlight on the important actions of human rights defenders.

The Human Rights Tulip award is a beautiful tulip statue designed by Dutch artist Huub Kortekaas. In addition the winner will receive the sum of 10,000 Euros and funding to finance a project of 100,000 Euros from the Human Rights Fund, to support his/her work. Justine Masika deserves this Dutch award because of her actions in helping victims to deal with their physical injuries and psychological traumas.

She also helps to re-integrate them into their families and communities who often reject them and she provides them with legal assistance. A never-ending stream of women and girls arrive at her office, but there is one case in particular which will always haunt her. Justine Masika has tried to file charges against the men involved in this particular crime, first in a Congolese military court, and then with the United Nations peace-keeping force (MONUC) in the region. But because of corruption and incompetence, more than a year later, the perpetrators are still free.