<p>In 1994, extremist Hutu rebels crossed into the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo), then named Zaire, after committing genocide in their native Rwanda. Their violent presence destabilized the region and led to two wars in the Congo between 1996 to 2003 and continued violence that still plagues parts of the east, while instability remains widespread. For more than a decade, the conflict has seen civilians trapped in the middle and specifically, women and girls have found themselves under brutal attack as fighting factions employ sexual violence as a weapon in their battles. </p> <p>The widespread, systematic and vicious sexual violence against women and girls in the Congo is being perpetrated to serve a political purpose beyond individual objectives. Sexual violence has become an effective weapon used by the fighting forces as they compete for economic and political power through the control over land, resources, and the people that occupy the territory they seek. All women find themselves under attack, especially in the conflict-ridden east. All groups, including rebel forces and state agents such as the military and police, utilize sexual violence as a tool of destruction and terror against both the females they attack and the communities ripped apart by the stigma that accompanies the womens rapes. </p> <p>An examination of the specific reasons the groups commit strategic and systematic sexual assaults against women and girls, and of the contributing political and societal factors that create a climate where the abuse can occur without recourse, help to provide an understanding as to why sexual violence is being used as a political tool in the Congo. In addition, the ongoing political struggles, especially surrounding control over land, are rooted in a century of shifting political policies by divisive, oppressive and kleptocratic leadership that worked for themselves and left little for the population. It is this history that has led to an almost inevitable conflict that sees the destruction of women and girls through rape and other violent assaults on their being.</p>

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Ultrasonic slurry sampling electrothermal vaporization dynamic reaction cellTM inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (USS-ETV-DRC-ICP-MS) has been applied to determine Cr, Cu, Cd, Hg and Pb in several rice samples. The influences of instrument operating conditions and slurry preparation on the ion signals were reported. Ascorbic acid was used as the modifier to enhance the ion signals. The background ions at the chromium masses were reduced in intensity significantly by using 0.4 ml min-1 NH3 as reaction cell gas in the dynamic reaction cell (DRC) while a q value of 0.6 was used. Since the sensitivities of Cr, Cu, Cd, Hg and Pb in rice flour slurry and aqueous solution were quite different, standard addition and isotope dilution methods were used for the determination of Cr, Cu, Cd, Hg and Pb in these rice samples. This method has been applied to the determination of Cr, Cu, Cd, Hg and Pb in NIST SRM 1568a rice flour reference material and two rice samples purchased from the market. The analysis results of the reference material agreed with the certified values. The results for the rice samples for which no reference values were available were also found to be in good agreement between isotope dilution method and standard addition method. The method detection limits estimated from standard addition curves were about 0.44, 1.7, 0.4, 0.53 and 0.69 ng g-1 for Cr, Cu, Cd, Hg and Pb, respectively, in original rice flour.Ultrasonic slurry sampling electrothermal vaporization dynamic reaction cellTM inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (USS-ETV-DRC-ICP-MS) has been applied to the determination of Cr, Cd and Pb in several plastic samples. The influences of instrument operating conditions and slurry preparation on the ion signals were investigated. NH4NO3 was used as the modifier to enhance the ion signals. The background ions at the chromium masses were reduced in intensity significantly by using NH3 as reaction cell gas in the DRC. Standard addition method and isotope dilution method were used for the determination of Cr, Cd and Pb in these plastic samples. This method was applied to the determination of Cr, Cd and Pb in two polystyrene and a polyvinyl chloride samples. The analysis results were found to be in good agreement between isotope dilution method and standard addition method. Furthermore, we digested these samples and analyzed the digested sample solutions by ultrasonic nebulization DRC ICP-MS. The analysis results were close to the isotope dilution and standard addition results. The precision between sample replicates was better than 3% with USS-ETV-DRC-ICP-MS method. The method detection limits estimated from standard addition curves were about 6.2-9.2, 1.1-1.6 and 8.4-11 ng g-1 for Cr, Cd and Pb, respectively, in original plastic samples.

Ultrasonic slurry sampling electrothermal vaporization dynamic reaction cellTM inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (USS-ETV-DRC-ICP-MS) has been applied to the determination of As and Se in soil and sediment samples. The influences of instrument operating conditions and slurry preparation on the ion signals were reported. Ascorbic acid and Pd were used as the modifiers to enhance the ion signals. The background ions at the selenium masses were reduced in intensity significantly by using 1.5 ml min-1 H2 as reaction cell gas in the DRC while a q value of 0.65 was used. Since the sensitivities of As and Se in slurry solution and aqueous solution were quite different, standard addition method was used for the determination of As and Se in these samples. This method has been applied to the determination of As and Se in NIST SRM 2711 Montana soil and SRM 2709 San Joaquin soil reference materials and NRCC BCSS-1 marine sediment reference sample. The analysis results of the reference materials were agreed with the certified values. The method detection limits estimated from standard addition curves were about 0.046-0.082 and 0.019-0.024 mg g-1 for As and Se, respectively, in original soil and sediment samples.

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This thesis examines the role of local civil society organisations (CSOs) in representing and addressing local needs in hybridized peacebuilding processes in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). To do so it examines how local CSOs contribute to peacebuilding efforts, as well as who and what influence those contributions. Further, it considers the potential reach of such interventions at the community, provincial and national levels. The research for this thesis examines three locally founded and operated civil society organisations in Bukavu, South Kivu, whose efforts directly respond to known local causes of conflict in the region. Its findings demonstrate how they translate the needs and knowledge of community-level actors to external and international partners, from whom they receive funding and knowledge that support their ability to deliver peacebuilding projects that respond to those community-level needs. While their external international partners were found to maintain material power in relation to these peacebuilding interventions, the local CSOs were shown to hold significant discursive power in this role of translators and intermediaries in these processes. These findings challenge homogenous constructions of the local presented by post-liberal peacebuilding literature. They recognize the diversity of the local including individuals or groups who have been directly impacted by an ongoing violent conflict in a fixed geographical location whose experiences of war are shaped by their identities, and who share long-term interests in potential peace. Understanding the local in this way acknowledges a spectrum of actors contributing to peacebuilding in South Kivu and invites a reconsideration of binary constructions of hybridity. Acknowledging the important role that civil society and other intermediaries play in peacebuilding offers a foundation of understanding hybridity as a process of translation rather than shock.

Magister Legum - LLM (Public Law and Jurisprudence) / With approximately 450 tribes and 250 ethnic groups in a territory of 2 345 095 km2,1the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world's largest, populous, and multiethnolinguistic countries. Since the departure of the Belgian coloniser in 1960, this Member State of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is facing a myriad of institutional crises, bloody conflicts and wars, mainly caused by the design of political institutions and the side-lining of some ethnic groups from political institutions. For many decades, Congolese provinces have seen numerous violent ethnic-driven conflicts, which led to institutional instability, political crisis, secessions, massacres and wars. The bloodiest of them all were the first and second Congolese wars. From 1996 to 2002, these so-called "African first world war" cost the DRC the lives of millions of people, divided it into many small "republics" and destroyed the few political and economic infrastructures that survived four decades of institutional instability and dictatorship.

Sweden is a developed country whereas DRC is a developing country, and both are countries of migration and immigration. Taking these two countries as a case study in migration and development brings out a better understanding that good labour migration policy facilitates all actors to realize the benefits of migrant workers through labour and remittances. DRC’s paradoxical natural resources attract many international migrants. But it faces political and economic instability which are considered as push factors for Congolese migrants to leave their country and look for asylum, and economic betterment in Africa and beyond, especially in industrialised countries. DRC is one of the richest nations in the world with about 1,100 diverse kinds of minerals, and yet it is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Using qualitative method based on historical approach, findings show that migrant workers are workforces and they contribute to economic development in both sending and receiving countries through their labour and remittances sent back home. But these findings are contested, and they bring out debate and discussions.