Human Rights and Conflict in the Congo
Vital Voices Global Partnership is an NGO that identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs. Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards honors courageous international women leaders who have expanded democracy at the grassroots level, promoted legal reforms and human rights, triumphed over tragedy and barbaric social practices against women, and symbolized the progress that societies can achieve when women's vital voices are allowed to be heard.
2009 Global Leadership Award Honorees
Ms. Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu received the award for her work in Bukavu, in South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through her radio broadcasts, Chouchou shines a spotlight on women's issues, especially in the rural areas. She has brought the plight of Congolese women to an international stage, recently traveling to the Hague in December 2007 to plead the case of Kivu's women at the International Court of Justice, where she denounced without fear the impunity in which some major rebel leaders thrive and flourish.
Ms. Somaly Mam, born into the poverty and chaos of Cambodia in the 1970s, was sold into a life of sexual slavery as a young teenager. With other girls, she was forced to work in a brothel, suffering daily beatings, torture, rape and humiliation at the hands of her bosses and clients. Somaly managed to escape and has made rescuing other girls and young women from lives of sexual slavery her life's work. She has created a non-governmental organization AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Precaire), which employs holistic victim services and sustained mentorship to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate girls who are forced into prostitution. Somaly's courage and commitment have garnered enourmous international attention, including recognition as a CNN Hero and Glamour magazin's Woman of the Year. She continues her work through the US -based Somaly Mam Foundation.
