A/HRC/30/32 victims and witnesses of serious human rights violations who faced risks of reprisals for testifying in trials, as well as to human rights defenders and journalists who received threats owing to their work. It thus dealt with 138 cases of threats and human rights violations against 86 human rights defenders, 16 journalists and 36 victims and witnesses of human rights violations throughout the country. 18. Despite extensive advocacy by representatives of NGOs and human rights defenders in recent years, no significant progress has been made towards the adoption of the bill on the protection of human rights defenders. On 1 November 2013, with the support of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office, human rights organizations, parliamentarians and representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights held a technical workshop, during which participants agreed to changes in the draft legislation. However, the draft was not submitted to the National Assembly because parliamentarians argued that some of their peers would consider that it would only grant protection to human rights defenders as a specific category of people. Consequently, members of civil society have commissioned a study on the constitutionality of the draft legislation with a view to persuading parliamentarians to adopt it. The conclusions of the study were presented to the Platform of Human Rights Defenders on 27 March 2015 and to a larger group of human rights activists and partners on 17 April in Kinshasa. B. Sexual violence 19. For many years, successive High Commissioners for Human Rights and international human rights mechanisms have urged the Government to take more effective measures to combat impunity for sexual violence. During the universal periodic review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2014, it was recommended that the Government improve the implementation of national legislation on sexual violence and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice (see A/HRC/27/5, paras. 134.60 and 134.85). The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended that the Government ensure access to justice for all women affected by sexual violence during conflict by providing appropriate funding to military jurisdictions. It also recommended that the Government ensure that the justice system be responsive to gender-based violence, including by increasing the number of women judges dealing with cases of sexual violence in conflict-affected areas and of judges and prosecutors specialized in sexual violence (see CEDAW/C/COD/CO/6–7, para. 10 (c)). Other recommendations have been made to improve victims’ access to comprehensive medical treatment and psychological support (ibid., para. 10 (f)). 1. Current situation and action taken by the Government 20. Sexual violence remains a major concern in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as parties to the conflict continue to use rape as a weapon of war. During the reporting period, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office documented 550 cases of rape throughout the country. Approximately 81 per cent of them (448 victims) were raped in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale. Over 44 per cent (243 victims) were allegedly raped by State agents, including members of FARDC (165 victims), the Congolese national police (72 victims), the National Intelligence Agency (2 victims) and other State actors (4 victims). Armed groups were responsible for raping approximately 56 per cent (307 victims) of the total. Among the armed groups, the main perpetrators were Mai Mai Simba/Lumumba members, who had been identified as responsible for the rape of 80 victims. 21. Survivors of sexual violence still do not have access to legal services, reparation and remedy. There are no life-saving health and psychosocial services, such as fistula surgery, 7