On the repression of sexual violence:

Notwithstanding the progress made in the protection of children in the DRC, several challenges remain with regard to the effective legal protection of children. Among these challenges, criminal protection is problematic. In the analysis of rape between minors, it is difficult to distinguish between the perpetrator and the victim of the acts because both do not have the legal capacity to consent to a sexual act. As a result, it is almost impossible to establish the material element (which includes the sexual connection and the absence of consent) of this offence, in that the legislator (and often the judge) simply transposes the elements of the offence of rape to the offence of rape between minors, without taking into account the particular nature of minors. Hence the need to examine the establishment of rape between minors and to propose reforms, de lege ferenda, according to the particular situation of the child.