Today, we're going to spotlight Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to examine the brutal sexual violence that women around the globe are subjected to during conflict. As you will hear from our distinguished panelists, violating a woman in this manner often goes far beyond mutilating her body. It is an effort to destroy families, communities, and entire societies.

I keep coming back to a passage from a report issued by Refugees International because I think it captures best what is going on in Darfur, Sudan. Rape, it says, is "an integral part of the pattern of violence that the Government of Sudan is inflicting upon the targeted ethnic groups in Darfur. The raping of Darfuri women is not sporadic or random, but is inexorably linked to the systematic destruction of their communities."