Coline Rapneau (Master in International Law, '04) is the Sexual Violence Advisor at the Directorate of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a recent TedX presentation, she revealed how an encounter with a victim of sexual violence in the Northern part of Kivu, in DR Congo, changed her life and enabled her to break through her own fears and taboos around talking about sexual violence.

Coline Rapneau introduced her talk by highlighting that her job is to talk about sexual violence in times of war: rape, forced pregnancy, forced prostitution, sexual enslavement; and also mostly to break the taboos that too often prevent people from acting.

Her interest in the issues began when she was a student, writing her Master’s thesis on rape and forced pregnancy as international crimes. She then spent over two years working at international tribunals – first for former Yugoslavia, and then for Rwanda.

One day, during an ICRC field visit in Congo, she had an encounter that changed everything, in particular her understanding of how and why it is so important to talk about sexual violence.

Discover Coline’s experience in a personal and uplifting talk, delivered at the recent TedX Place des Nations event.