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kristen: she's led initiatives like lean in, option b. and dave goldberg scholarship program. you know her as metta's former c.o.o. where she grew the company from 150 million to $110 billion in annual revenue. while at the same time championing workplace inclusivity. her career spans google, u.s. treasury, mckenzie, and the world bank. recently she led the documentary, screams before silence, about sexual violence on october 7. this was not in the script i will give you a plug, you can get it on youtube. i'm especially proud to also introduce the next speaker as some of the mccain institute's earliest work. at mrs. mccain's leadership, on democracy and women's participation in congress go.

dr. denis mukwege founded the hospital in the d.r.c. which has treated over 8,000 survivors of sexual violence. in addition to his medical practice, his relent h*es advocacy against rape as a weapon of war, earned him a nobel peace prize in 2018 among others. please join me in welcoming sheryl sandberg and denis mukwege. [applause] sheryl: i am beyond honored to share this stage with this man. and particularly happen that we are talking about this issue here. because as dr. mukwege and i were discussing, this is not a women's issue. it's a human issue. this is not just a health issue. this is a geopolitical issue. i think that is the conversation we are hoping to have with this esteemed audience today.

thank you. dr. mukwege: thank you so much. sheryl: dr. mukwege you have devoted your life to the fight against conflict related sexual violence. you are still a practicing physician. you have treated over 80,000 survivors of sexual conflict in war. how do you get here? you won the nobel prize, but you started as a physician. how did this start? what motivated you to make this your life's work? dr. mukwege: thank you. i want to say thank you for giving me this opportunity to share this question. i find crucial. because sometimes when you are talking about sexual violence you have impressions that it's a question of christian question. a geopolitical question.

i think we need to really-tkeurpbl' very happy to get this opportunity to talk to you about this question how she's committed for what has happened in congo where we have to get opportunity to talk about. i want to say that i was -- in my life i was not thinking that one day i could be dealing with this kind of question of sexual violence. but in 1999 when i got to the hospital it was a matter of mortality. when i started at the hospital the first patient i treated she came because she was raped with

extreme violence. for me it was the first time to see these horrible things happen to women. and i just got impressions that maybe it's just mad men who do things like that. but i discovered it was -- i was receiving stories who were telling me women were raped by gang rape. so i start there. it's a new strategy in the world. sheryl: why, why is that a new strategic in the war? why use sexual violence as a weapon of war? and what impact does that have on communities? dr. mukwege: rape as a strategic of war is -- strategy of war is really a very effective weapon.

because when women are raped they are not the only victims. of course they have physical trauma. they come to the hospital with inflection. but we can see that. most of them have a lasting, long lasting trauma. and this is really destroying them and don't have the capacity to work for themselves after going through these things. also we can see the husband are also destroyed. i have seen many men who witness women raped in front of them. it's a weapon because economically it's destroying all the capacity of the local

community to work for themself. to destroy the social fabric. and the winds of population don't have social equation, capacity to organize themself. so they are not able to work for themself and produce. i think using rape it's low cost weapon. but very effective in destroying everything around the victims. sheryl: you and i were speaking backstage about how often conflict related sexual violence happens during war. i was just in israel looking at the horrible pictures of some of the violence we were just talking about. this is happening right now. right now you and i are speaking about, sudan, ukraine, ethiopia, many others. israel on october 7. you actually said that you are

now treating the grandchildren of survivors that you treated before. you have been doing this for 25 years. and you have now treated the grandchildren of original survivors. so this is multiyear, multiconflict. what are the patterns that you see? what are the similarities between all of these seemingly different situations? dr. mukwege: as you said this truth of sexual violence is a global issue. and this global issue is really destroying everything around. i can tell that. there is no border. some have the impression it's happening far away from us, but

there is no border. my impression is now, i have this impression that we can say in all the conflicts in the world we have the use of sexual violence in conflict. on october 7 i was in paris when i heard about what's -- what happened in israel. at this moment they're not talking about rape but if the true hostage something bad will happen to women. and today we know that is happening everywhere in conflict and in israel, in gaza. both sides. and i think that we need to

really to know that we have the possibility. and our responsibility is just to fight against it. to put an end to sexual violence. because it's destroying our common humanity and destroying women. we can't just take it like something that can happen. we need to be responsible for what's happening to women around the world. i was in ukraine. i talk with women, even women in colombia, africa. you have the same stories. people have destroyed sometime forever. i met women who were raped in the war setting, what touched me is that the women talking about

what's happened to them 70 years they are still talking about it with some emotion. so you could understand that all their life was completely destroyed by what's happened 70 years before. and one more 10 years ago, i feel that if i die now i die in a good condition because i got this opportunity to talk about what happened to me and get someone who can hear about what happened to me. and this was 70 years before. i think rape is not only a weapon but destroying for long term and long and lasting trauma

is one of really the result of this weapon. sheryl: your point that it's a cheap weapon, right? and very effective means it's so difficult to think through how we stop this as a world. one of the things you did, you still do, is you championed a very different approach to treating the survivors. you have had a more holistic approach than others. and you also worked hard to get that approach shared throughout the world. can you talk about that approach? dr. mukwege: when we start to take care of victims of sexual violence, we start with the medical treatment. but it was clear that after six months we discover that our treatment was not enough. women were coming again and

again complaining for many kind of complaint that have nothing to do with what happened to them. at this moment we must ask ourselves, we need to get more to the hospital, women don't want to leave the hospital because they are complaining. and as a specialist, we found someone who help us to put psychological, this was the second pillar. just after we discovered women after they go through the medical treatment and the psychological support, women were enough strong to go back home. but the big problem was that in the community they were rejected

by husband, by the community. so it was very hard for them to return in the community. then we start to support them to get possibility to get a new scene for adult and children supporting them to go back to school and help them to complete their term in school. with this, medical, psychological, and socialo economic support we could see a big -- socioeconomic support, we could see the big difference. and coming from a culture in congo, when they come out of hospital, they were so ashamed for what happened to them they could not talk freely. it was very hard for them. but after the treatment, we send them back into village, but we give them the possibility to

make soap. because in the village there is only one way to get it -- they start to make the soap in the village. six months after, they said want you to wash your hand with this soap because now in our village, rape women, now we have a new name, we are soap makers. if someone don't treat us with dignity, we can't sell her our soap. people respect us and now start to see them in the community. but when women start to feel that they have the place in the community, we saw that some of them start to come back and ask

for justice. for the hospital we are not a place to provide justice. so today we have lawyers who are making the fight and if it's needed to help women to go to justice. and i can say that sometime you have impressions that justice is only for women the way to get oppression or way -- i can say that justice is in the process of the healing process of victimization of violence. to know that the community, to know that everyone accept and recognize they are victim is very important in the process, the healing process. because to be in the society where you are rejected because you are accused to do things that you are not responsible,

most of the time when women in congo go to just justice, just giving them a small paper by the judge to say it was not your fault and we recognize that you were raped by -- they don't give them any kind of repression. but it's a small paper. you can see the life of women change. i think that is very important for women to get justice. because justice is a way to recognize them as victim and to recognize that the society didn't protect them when the society should protect them. with the four pillar we are just providing to women who have impressions that it's really for many women to go through this process, most of them, they are becoming activists fighting not

only for the right, but fighting for the right of the children, the right of the family and the community. i'm so, so surprised to see how women can be strong even fighting for the right after it was terrible things. i did some in our studies we have around 1% of men who are also victim of rape. and i can say that taking 100 times to treat men than to treat women. i have impression that women, they have really a capacity to just give the life for others. so they have this capacity to say it's happened to me, but i still have children, i still have family, and i have to take care of them. they could move forward very easily than when it's happened to men.

men have impression that everything is completely destroyed. with the four pillars we are really very happy to see what can happen to the victims of sexual violence. sheryl: it's amazing thing to think about how comprehensive the approach has to be. i have seen and a lot of us here have seen how it is replicated around the world. this is a very important proud of people who have real power and geopolitical power. what role does the u.s. government, what role does the international community play in combating this violence and supporting survivors? what policies are most effective that this group and others should be championed -- championing? dr. mukwege: i think you a lot to give me this opportunity to talk in this audience with policymakers. i think that the question was

conflict sexual violence. that we can wake up and just say we can't let our communities to be -- humanity to be destroyed by this weapon. eni think that ---and i think the u.s. can play a big role of combating sexual violence as a weapon of war. and for this, the thing to do is really the political wing. they need to really get this political wing and this political win is put this -- wing is put the question of sexual violence on the agenda of the international agenda. and this must be not -- when we

have for example rape in ukraine, talk about it, and after forget it. no. i think that it must be systematic. now we know. now we have information. we have evidence that in all wars rape has happened. we can't do it like we don't know. and we know also how effective rape is in destroying women and destroying communities. i think that to get this political will is to put this question on the agenda of the international agenda. and put it systematically. so it can be discussed in all the discussions that you can get about war. i remember 15 years ago i was invited at the security council to talk about rape.

and the ambassador, the russian ambassador, he said why you have to talk about rape in the security council? but i can see now what was done since you get the resolution about the peace and security in the security council, how things are moving. but it's not enough. today we are asking, for example, to get a red line. a red line against the conflict of sexual violence. if someone use rape in conflict, the international community should be very strong in sanction and don't accept at all. we have some leaders who are using this weapon.

we still just giving them the red carpet. it's not acceptable. i think that we should be more responsible to say this is not acceptable. when you use rape in your country or against -- in the war, you should face the consequence. this is one of the things that should be political l we need also the enforcement of law. we have many laws that are not implemented. and we have impression that to fight against impunity, the perpetrators are just have impressions that there is no consequence in raping, in using rape as a weapon of war. and the u.s. can really play a big role in just enforcement of

law. so international law. so when this happened, the international law must be respected and enforced. this can be done. and to think we have international law, why is this not used when it come to this sexual violence in conflict? the second thing that i think the u.s. can do is support financially and technical in many places when rape happened in conflict, we are talking a lot about other supports and not enough how to support women in the conflict. and we know today that the most victim of all the war are women and children. but you have impressions that

you are talking about women and children just after to talk about all other problems. we know that if we don't take care of women and children in conflict, the consequence will be far generations. we need to prevent. for this i think that the united states can do a lot in supporting the grassroots movement of women in conflict. to support the health system. to support, for example, the care you are promoting to support a quality of gender and things like that. i think that there is also the support, technical support. i visit some countries where rape is used as a weapon of war.

it's very difficult for example, for victims to access services. not because they don't -- the services don't exist, but how to recognize it, get technically that it can work to support women. and there are things that the united states has expertise. and this expertise can help many countries while in the needs. the third thing is dimcy supports. there the u.s. can do a lots. as a country sitting on the security council. things that you can see today that our testimony -- it's completely abandoned and have impression that is international law don't exist at all.

we have impression that quality security that was -- after world war ii is now completely out of use because we have, for example, the russia war who are fighting against ukraine and sitting in the security council. i think that this is very dangerous. and the united states can take a big difference in showing what should be done. the war in congo start in 1996. after 30 years of war, of aggression, congo it's clear, it's documented that congo is under aggression of but instead

still supporting military country -- there are things at issue we don't have cocoaers in decision that are taken. it would mean that we are just destroying this understanding between countries, the chatter of the united states and especially -- united nations and especially the international laws. we lose all the means. for me when i can see that, a country who is accused don't respect integrity and sovereignty of another country is still supported by the u.s. my big question is why?

sheryl: why. dr. mukwege: why? i think that the u.s. can really give an example. if you don't do it now, maybe other country will just get impression that everyone can do what they want. but in this case i think that you have destroyed what was built for 80 years now. sheryl: it's so chilling. you said in this answer many times this is women and children. and one thing that's really hard to talk about. this is a hard subject. you put this on your stage we are not just talking about women here or even girls. we are talking about babies. babies. right. six month old girls.

imagine that. this can be rape of an infant. so the political solutions you are talking about are so important when you think about the protection that child would need. what are the most critical needs in the field right now of how can this esteem group help? dr. mukwege: what you are doing at the hospital, we still have a lot of needs. if we are treating five to seven women a day, but now with what is happening in the province, a neighbor of the province, we start to feel big pressure on the hospital. coming to the north 6 our

hospital -- of our hospital. today we have a need to get the system for the care they are giving to the patient and care at the hospital. this is really needed. but also we need the support. if there is no justice, this case will just go coming to the hospital. we are doing that focus against rape as a weapon of war. i think it's very important to go with this, we need to really get strong support from people who are here. when it come to democratic republic of congo, the big move is to stop this war. i think that there are many

possibilities to stop this war. i can remember in 2013 a telephone call, the president of the states, they were already iy a telephone call. my question is now, on the ground, we have seven million of internment displaced people. we have at this moment million of women who are victims of rape. we have 25 million, a quarter of the population, are starving. at the beginning of this year,

appeal for $2.6 billion to support children. support to the congo. at the end of -- 16%. it mean they need to choose who we get the support and who will just there. seven million possibility to work f they don't have food, what would happen for them? i think that this kind of congo is neglected. the norwegian refugee council -- i think that for us today we need your voice. we need you.

to talk about many 245 million of people -- 25 million of people who are starving. and the welfare program can't help them because they have only 16% of the money that they need to give them food. and this is really a big need for the democratic republic of congo when it come to humanitarian situation. and of course i think you are herep, i said about a call by your president to stop the war, but also i think that sometime if people don't want to, sanctions can make a big difference. i'm sure that this will not change anything when it come to

the strategy in the region. sheryl: thank you for your tireless advocacy. for recognizing the destructive power of sexual violence. for bringing such a ho*lissic approach -- whistic approach -- holistic approach. as i looked around the audience, i could see so many people nodding in agreement. understanding how important the issues you work on. we are all indebted to you for your life's work and we are all here to support you as you continue this very, very critical fight. everyone, please. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] dr. mukwege: thank you. >> on this early monday afternoon the house has gaveled out and is in recess until this

afternoon. members will returand continue work on several measures, including a bill that would require any member of the national security council to alert the president and congressional leaders in the evt of a medical emergency. this bill was introduced in the wake of defense secretary lloyd austin's secret hospital stay. later today congressman elect tim kenny will be sworn into the house after he won a special electi to replace congressman brian higgins. this week ewee can also see georgia republican representative marjorie taylor greene tbring up a motion to remove house speaker mike johnson. live coverage when members return right here on c-span. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more. including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? no. it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with a thousand community centers to create