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December 10th is Human Rights Day, but for many women around the world, the road to recognition of their rights is still long. UN Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, recognized the crucial role of women in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and the protection of human rights. Yet even today, these goals remain largely unmet. Women are excluded from negotiating tables, political decisions, and peace processes. However, the marginalization to which women are often relegated can also be a space for resistance, creativity, and transformation.
Women are not only victims of unjust systems; they are also protagonists of profound change: they build solidarity networks, educate, provide care, and speak out with great courage, often risking their own safety. Their daily actions are political, even when they have no voice in the media or parliaments.
Justine Masika fought for years in eastern Congo, providing medical, legal, and psychological support to thousands of women survivors of violence. She denounced war crimes, testified before the International Criminal Court, and faced threats, attacks, and exile. Recognizing the value of the actions of women like her means finally giving substance to Resolution 1325, transforming international treaties from unfulfilled promises into concrete tools capable of recognizing and integrating women’s leadership in building peace and human rights.
BIBLE VERSE
“ Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)
COMMENTARY
This verse, with verbs conjugated in the imperative, clearly reflects God’s requests. The first is: “Learn to do good!” It does not arise spontaneously, therefore; preparation, a habit, is necessary: educating the heart and mind to recognize evil and build good. The invitations to seek justice, to lift up the oppressed, to do justice to the orphan, and to defend the widow’s cause concern practical life and everyday processes and remind us that God sides with the vulnerable.
In today’s society, the orphan and the widow have many faces: women victims of violence, war, trafficking, exploitation, discrimination, the poor and marginalized.
Today, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose anniversary we are celebrating, also challenges us not to stand still and to transform the words of law and justice into action. It is an invitation to care for the victims, to educate in a culture of respect, to not remain silent and to actively intervene. It’s a commitment that starts with language, with everyday gestures, with the choices we make together.
LIBRO: Femme debout face à la guerre, Justine Masika Bihamba, Edition de l’Aube, 2024.
The book, available only in French, is a powerful denunciation of the systematic use of rape by armed groups as a war strategy.
This is an extract from a booklet by the FDEI that is available in various languages:
English
https://cloud.eud.adventist.org/s/C25rAR8gK8RnXpi
German
https://cloud.eud.adventist.org/s/nsw6NEQ5c6PtaFk
French
https://cloud.eud.adventist.org/s/HJ9Ss8HRGcSz2YR
Spanish
https://cloud.eud.adventist.org/s/x2xnZms28L7GC9P