This study focuses on sexual violence in Goma and aims to study the significance of women, and perpetrators' mentality. To conduct this study, I have used a narrative method, and collected my data through several interviews and healthcare documents. The data consisted of narratives from rape survivors in Goma. This study has answered two research questions, RQ1: Do the women convey their stories in such a manner that gives indications of insignificance? RQ2: Could this mentality have existed before the First Congo War starting in 1996, and not only, as a consequence of the conflict? These questions are based on two hypotheses, H1: Women’s lives in Goma are seen as insignificant and H2: The mentality of seeing women as insignificant in Goma, existed before the First Congo War in 1996. Based on my data, I have concluded that these hypotheses have evidence to be true, with H1 having the most evidence. That said, there is still evidence that H2 is true, but I believe that further research is required to gather more detailed and reliable evidence. Previous research focused on the mentality during the conflict in Goma, and argued that this mentality emerged as a consequence of the conflict, whereas I have argued that the mentality existed before. The rapes in Goma are complex, and there is reason to believe that the topic is in a need of a study that will, at a fundamental level, analyse the lived lives of the women, and when a mentality that claims them not to have it, emerged. Therefore, the hypotheses and research questions were studied based on three main concepts: insignificance, lived life and mentality.

Review

This thesis explores the poverty alleviation and peace-spoiling power of the mineral extraction sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to arrive at a set of strategic goals for the country moving forward. Although subterranean minerals are often a source or perpetuator of violence, the potential to lift the country’s rural communities out of extreme poverty makes the mining industry an essential part of the nation’s development strategies. Lessons from Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and Sierra Leone to arrive at best practices for increasing the multiplier effect of large-scale mining, formalization, beneficiation, capital resource development, stakeholder harmonization and conflict control. The study also finds that in order to smoothly construct and implement new programs, the traditional roles and positioning of government, corporate and community stakeholders must change toward increased inclusion.

Le dimanche 1er janvier 2012, la République Démocratique du Congo devenait le 48ème Etat africain sur 54 à se doter de la TVA. C’est une ordonnance –loi, du 20 août 2010, prise sur habilitation législative et complétée par un décret du 22 novembre 2011 qui a fait de ce pays le dernier géant du continent à opérer la transition fiscale voulue par le FMI. Il a fallu dix ans de travaux au sein de la DGI, en participation avec les professionnels et sous le contrôle permanent d’un représentant à demeure du FMI et de missions semestrielles de contrôle, pour que cet impôt s’applique au total à 5600 contribuables ayant plus de 80 000 dollars de chiffre d’affaires, avec une espérance d’arriver à 15 000 assujettis dans un pays aux60 millions d’habitants.Par conséquent, si l’élaboration progressive et participative de cette TVA est une réussite intégralement administrative, puisqu’à part une brève consultation du Sénat, le Parlement n’ a pas eu la possibilité d’émettre un consentement, même après sa réélection en 2012, lorsqu’il a fallu compléter le régime initial , avec un droit d’option par exemple, au bout d’un an d’une gestion qui a posé les difficiles problèmes attendus, pour le traitement comptable des remboursements de crédits d’amont, une question iconoclaste reste posée : était ce vraiment une nécessité que d’avoir une TVA dans un pays où la guerre endémique sévit à l’Est ? Certes les autres pays africains l’ont. Le modèle RDC de la TVA introduite, s’inspire d’ailleurs largement de ce qui se fait dans le continent, avec des seuils d’imposition, des exonérations et une unicité de taux que l’on retrouve en d’autres pays et qui est conforme aux prescriptions de directives harmonisatrices d’unions régionales . Mais mis à part la contrainte du FMI quine laisse pas le choix, même avec des rentrées fiscales nettement améliorées, par rapport à celles de l’ancienne taxation du chiffre d’affaires,n’aurait il pas été plus efficace d’aller à l’audace d’une mutation de la technologie des droits de douane , pour les rendre déductibles, tout en les conservant, au lieu de s’aligner sur la solution classique de leur réduction et de leur suppression, avec en compensation l’introduction précisément d’une TVA ? C’est ce changement de paradigme dans la politique fiscale que cet ouvrage propose en final d’un bilan critique de l’introduction de la TVA. / Sunday 1 January 2012, the Democratic Republic of Congo became the 48th African state of 54 to adopt VAT. This is an order-law of 20 August 2010, taken on enabling legislation and supplemented by a decree of November 22,2011 that has made this country the last giant of the continent to the transition tax required by the IMF. It took ten years of work within the DGI, in participation with professionals and under the constant supervision of a representative of the IMF andremains biannual mission control for this tax applies to all taxpayers in 5600with more than 80 thousand dollars in revenue, with a hope of reaching15,000 subjects in a country with 60 million inhabitants.Therefore, if the progressive development and the participatory VAT isa full administrative success, since a part from a brief consultation with the Senate, Parliament has not been able to issue a consent, even after his reelection in 2012 when it came to complete the original plan, with a right ofoption for example, after a year's management who posed difficult problems expected for the accounting treatment of loan repayments upstream,iconoclastic a question remains unanswered: was it really a necessity to havea VAT in a country where war rages endemic to the east?While other African countries have. The DRC model of VAT introduced alsodraws heavily on what happens in the continent, with tax thresholds,exemptions and uniformity of rates found in other countries and complies withguidelines harmonizers’ regional unions. But apart from the stress of the IMFleaves no choice, even with tax revenues significantly improved compared tothe old taxation revenue, would not it have been more efficient to go to the audacity of a changing technology tariffs to make them tax-deductible, while keeping them instead to align itself with the classical solution of their reduction and deletion, with the introduction of compensation precisely a VAT?This is a paradigm shift in fiscal policy that this book offers a critical final of the introduction of VAT.

Cette thèse propose une analyse des projets intégrant la conservation de la nature et le développement en République Démocratique du Congo sur la partie orientale du Kivu, dans la mouvance des approches participatives qui se sont développées à partir des années 1980 au sein des projets de coopération multilatérale. Nous mettons en évidence les espaces à enjeux de conservation qui font l’objet d’une conservation intégrée et concentrent une diversité d’acteurs autour de la gestion des ressources naturelles. Ces articulations se focalisent sur les espaces riverains aux parcs nationaux des Virunga et de Kahuzi Biega particulièrement dans les chefferies de Bwisha et de Kabare. Toutefois, ces régions font face à plusieurs situations aggravantes : la forte densité démographique, les difficiles conditions socioéconomiques dans lesquelles les populations vivent, caractérisées par le manque de terres et la pauvreté. Les acteurs de la conservation doivent prendre en compte ces facteurs puis les différentes formes de conflits qui peuvent concerner les périphéries et les espaces protégés. La conservation est organisée autour d’une opposition de type centre/périphérie entre les espaces naturels protégés à conserver, et les zones riveraines propices aux activités humaines. Cependant, elle engendre des modalités de gestion, de développement parfois en décalage avec les populations, et notamment les pratiques foncières locales, ce qui peut être à l’origine de rapports de force, de conflits dans la gestion des espaces protégés et constituer des obstacles à la participation des populations locales aux activités de conservation. L’étude de la conservation intégrée mise en valeur dans les parcs nationaux et des dispositifs d’aménagement qui en découlent sont au coeur de cette recherche. / This thesis proposes an analysis of projects integrating nature conservation and development in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the eastern part of Kivu, in the movement of participatory approaches which have developed since the 1980s within multilateral cooperation projects. We highlight the areas with conservation issues that are the object of integrated conservation and focus a diversity of actors around the management of natural resources. These articulations focus on the waterfront areas of the Virunga and Kahuzi Biega national parks, particularly in the Bwisha and Kabare chiefdoms. However, these regions face several aggravating situations: high population density, difficult socio-economic conditions in which people live, characterized by a lack of land and poverty. Those involved in conservation must take into account these factors and then the various forms of conflict which may affect the peripheries and protected areas. Conservation is organised around a central/peripheral opposition between protected natural areas to be conserved, and riparian areas conducive to human activities.However, it engenders methods of management, of development sometimes out of step with the populations, and in particular local land practices; this can be at the origin of power relations, conflicts in the management of protected areas and constitute obstacles to the participation of local populations in conservation activities. At the heart of this research is the study of integrated conservation in national parks and the associated management arrangements.

"Although the United Nations (UN) has often been pivotal in forging the international response to serious human rights crimes in such settings, the justice gap in countries such as the Democratic Republic [of] Congo (DRC) (the focus of this study) underscores the need for more systematic UN efforts. The war in the DRC has resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis with over 3.4 million displaced persons scattered throughout the country. An estimated 3.5 million people have died as a result of the war. The armed conflict has been characterised by appalling widespread and systematic human rights violations, including mass killings, ethnic cleansing, rape and the destruction of property. The most pressing need to be addressed is the question of justice and accountability for these human rights atrocities in order to achieve a durable peace in the country and also in the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Angola and the DRC, to name just a few). In this respect, this study will address the grave human rights violations committed in the DRC and the mechanisms for dealing with them. It is particularly true in post-conflict situations where justice systems have been either partially or completely destroyed, that national courts are not capapble of arriving at a uniform stance, or willing to provide justice for atrocities in the immediate future. As a result, international justice seems to be a crucial and last resort that must continue to be fortified against efforts to undermine it. ... Chapter one will set out the content of the research, identify the problem and outline the methodology. Chapter two will discuss the state obligations in international law to prosecute gross violations of human rights and gives a summary of the human rights violations situation during the Congolese war. Chapter three will discuss the available naitonal mechanisms for accountaiblity in the DRC. It will discuss if national courts and TRC are able to deal with these atrocities committed in the DRC. Chapter four will analyse the extent to which the ICC could deal with the Congolese case and challenges. Chapter five will discuss the trends towards accountability in the DRC and the way forward. Chapter six will draw a conclusion on how to break the cycle of impunity in the DRC." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Boukongou Jean Didier and Dr. Atangcho Akonumbo at the Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Review

Abstract in English / Mathematical modeling of the spread of infectious diseases in a population has always been recognized as a powerful tool that can help decision-makers understand how a disease evolves over time. With the evolution of science and humanity, it has become evident that Mathematical models are too simplistic and have some limitations in modeling environmental phenomena, such as the spread of epidemics in a population, when they are applied without combining them with other sciences. In understanding the dynamics of epidemics in a population, the weakness of these models is their difficulty in grasping the complexity inherent in the spread of diseases in real life because, life is supported by human interactions and behaviors that are understood through networks of social and spatial interactions. Modeling the spread of epidemics which takes this reality into account requires the implementation of new tools to refine the results already obtained by mathematical models. The aim of this thesis is to explore and attempt to extend new developments in mathematical modeling of the spread of infectious diseases by proposing new tools based on mathematical models from differential equations and agent-based models from intelligent agents derived from artificial intelligence. To achieve this objective, the study starts from a comparative study of two ways of modeling and simulation of the spread of infectious diseases in the population, namely mathematical modeling and agent-based modeling with a concrete case study of the spread of tuberculosis based on data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Then comes a coupling study of these two approaches in a single model and its implementation in a multi-scale environment. The results show that the coupled model is more realistic compared to mathematical models generally implemented in the literature. Four case studies are presented in this thesis. Mathematical modeling based on differential equations is used in the first and second cases. The third case is based on intelligent agents model while the last one is based on the coupling of mathematical models and agent-based models. Application of implemented models to the spread of tuberculosis reveals that detection of people with latent tuberculosis and their treatment are among the actions to be taken into account in addition to those currently carried out by the Congolese health system. The models assert that the current TB situation in DRC remains endemic and that the necessary measures need to be taken to reduce the burden of TB, especially to control it, through the tuberculosis elimination strategy and its elimination in the future in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals. Our hybrid model benefiting from the advantages of EBM and ABM confirms that taking the individual into account as a fully-fledged entity and managing their behavior gives the microscopic aspect of the model set up and brings it closer as much as possible to reality. Mathematical management of the spread of the disease in cities gives a macroscopic aspect to the model. Numerical simulations of this last model on a multi-scale virtual environment affirm that the mobility of individuals from city to city has a significant impact on the spread of tuberculosis in the population. Controlling the rate of population mobility from one city to another is one of the most important measures for large-scale disease control. This model therefore draws its richness from this dynamic at two different scales (two time scales modeling approaches: at the microscopic/individual level (ABM) and macroscopic/city level (ODE)), which gives the emergence of the model at the global level. As a result, it seems that the coupling of mathematical models to agent-based models should be applied when the dynamics of the complex system under consideration is at different scales. Based on our research results, it seems that the choice of an approach must depend on how the modeler would like to achieve the expected results. Mathematical models remain essential due to their analytical and synthetic aspect, but their coupling with intelligent agent-based models makes it possible to refine known results and thus reflect the reality of real life, because the resulting model integrate interactions of individuals and their heterogeneous behaviors that are necessary for understanding the spread of infectious diseases in the population that only mathematical models based on differential equations can not capture. / Mathematical Sciences / Ph D. (Applied Mathematics)

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This thesis explores the Mbuti Pygmies, a sub-group of the Pygmy peoples, one of the main ethnic groups of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Mbuti Pygmies are settled mostly in the Ituri rainforest, and are, with regard to Christian mission, still unreached and unchurched. The oversight of the churches vis-à-vis these people is highlighted, through this thesis, as a challenge to Christian mission. This challenge is a result of the way Christian mission is understood and undertaken in DRC, namely in the selective and exclusive way of missioning, according to which some peoples are targeted and others forsaken. Churches in the DRC shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies probably because, on the one hand, these forest dwellers belong to the group of Pygmies whose existence as full human beings is enigmatic and very controversial. Because of the uniqueness of the Pygmy peoples in terms of physical features, culture, and way of life, on the other hand, the non-Pygmy peoples, including Christians, suffer from a kind of complex of superiority that creates in them a spirit of discrimination against the Mbuti Pygmies. As the Mbuti Pygmies are discriminated against even by Christians, it is very difficult for them to be taken into account within the mission agendas of the churches. This challenge to Christian mission is highlighted by two facts. Firstly, Christian mission is designed for all the nations to which the Mbuti Pygmies belong. Secondly, the churches, with their missional mandate to all the nations, shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies as if these people were outside the scope of Christian mission and, thus, unworthy of God’s grace and love.To remedy this challenge, with the aim of implementing Christian mission in the DRC, this study suggests a missional encounter as a way forward to addressing the Mbuti Pygmies. In practice, this may be implemented through the missionary conversion, the right perception of the Mbuti Pygmies as being fully made in the “image of God” and fully part of the “all nations”, promoting formal education among the Mbuti Pygmies, and sustaining the churches by an integrated theological education. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)