From Nobody to Somebody: The Future of Human Rights
| DOI | 10.1177/016934411203000410 |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Part C: Appendices |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 30/4, 509–517, 2012.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 509
PART C: APPENDICES
FROM NOBODY TO SOMEBODY:
THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
F H
SIM PETER BAEHR LECTURE1
At the beginni ng of this year I visited t he eastern part of the Democ ratic Republic of the
Congo, one of the most beautiful plac es on earth. Crossing the border from Rwanda,
the Kivu la kes stretch out before you, mist rises from the water, and everywhere you
look you see mountains covered in t ropical forests. e land is wild and i mpenetrable,
but also so and romantic bec ause of the many owers and trees f ull of fruit that you
can see.
If you did not know any better, you would thin k of a touristic yer, of the inland
of Bali, of watching monkeys and of all inclusive package deals. It is what the artist
Armando once cal led a “guilty landscape”, referring to the natu re around Auschwitz:
the woods, the trees, they simply keep on growing and erase the traces of what
happened there; nature refuse s to bear witness.
Indeed, there are few places on earth where people have su ered as much in the
past decades as in thi s region. A er the genocide in Rwa nda, Hutu murderers crossed
the border into Congo, to the Goma refugee camp, where they found international
security and protection. From there they moved into the woods, where they met
Congolese bandits, lawless armed groups and rebels, and unscrupulous traders in
natural resources w ho were prepared to pay generously for armed protection. Lacking
central authority, North and South Kivu in Eastern Congo have become a lawless
region, with an unpa ralleled culture of violence.
When I was there, at a time of relative peace, I met inhabitants who, year a er
year, had ed their homes a nd villages, which they had o en just rebuilt a er the la st
attack. I met people who could test ify to the systematic rape of women and children,
the large-scale murders of ma le villagers. I visited a small hospita l where traumatised
and physically broken women and young girls were being patched up. Women who
had not been raped once, but countless times , and who had become outcasts for that
reason. In recent years, I have visited more t han one con ict zone and crisis area, from
1 Femke Halsema pre sented this speech at the a nnual lecture in honour of Peter B aehr organised by
the Netherla nds Institute of Hum an Rights (SIM) in Ut recht, the Netherl ands on 27September 2012.
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