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8234th Security Council Meeting: Women and Peace and Security Part 2
Member States had “not yet moved from resolutions to lasting solutions”, when it came to addressing the scourge of sexual violence in conflict, the Security Council heard today during an all-day open debate addressing that issue.
Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary‑General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefed the Council, stressing that while significant normative and operational progress had been achieved, it was clear that words on paper had not yet been matched by facts on the ground. In that context, the Council must urgently consolidate progress by ensuring accountability or risk a reversal that would result in wartime rape being once again normalized.
Summarizing some of the findings of the Secretary‑General’s report on sexual violence in conflict, she said the crime continued to be employed as a tactic of war and a tool of political repression, attacking and altering the ethnic or religious identity of persecuted groups and changing the demographics of disputed regions. The threat drove forced displacement, inhibited the return of uprooted communities and, through trafficking and sexual exploitation, fuelled a wartime economy, generating revenue for combatants and armed groups.
Meanwhile, she said, stigma and victim blaming gave the weapon of rape its uniquely destructive power, shredding the social fabric, turning victims into outcasts and leaving children conceived as a result of wartime rape at risk of being stateless and susceptible to recruitment, radicalization, trafficking and exploitation.
Also briefing the Council, United Nations Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed said progress had seen sharp reductions in reported cases. However, more must be done, as sexual violence had been one of the major drivers of forced displacement in Myanmar and many other countries in 2018.
Elaborating on the plight of Rohingya women and girls in Myanmar and those fleeing to Bangladesh, Razia Sultana, senior researcher at Kaladan Press, briefed the Council on recent developments. Sharing her own findings that Government troops had raped 300 women and girls in 17 villages in Rakhine State with impunity, she said there was strong evidence that such crimes had been systemically planned and used against her people. Women had been gang raped, tortured and killed by State armed forces for no other reason other than being Rohingya.
Delegates drew attention to some recent positive developments. Various armed groups in Mali had signed a joint communiqué pledging not to employ sexual violence as a weapon, and a similar agreement had been signed in Iraq. In addition, women’s protection advisors deployed to United Nations peacekeeping operations were helping to shape inclusive new policies and laws.
The issue of accountability featured prominently throughout the discussion, with several speakers highlighting access to justice was a means of prevention. Several speakers drew attention to the central role of the International Criminal Court in the fight for accountability as well as the essential duty of Member States to prevent and investigate cases and prosecute perpetrators.
Meanwhile some speakers, including the representative of Canada, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends of Women, Peace and Security, called on the Council to include sexual violence as a designation criterion within sanctions regimes, as well as greater efforts to ensure that survivors had access to the full range of livelihood, social, legal, psychosocial and non‑discriminatory medical services to promote rehabilitation and reintegration.
Other delegates voiced concern about the impunity enjoyed by terrorist groups such as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), in which sexual slavery played a major role. In that connection, a number of representatives expressed dismay that to date no member of Boko Haram or ISIL had yet been prosecuted for such crimes.
Kuwait’s representative noted that the retreat by such armed groups had created challenges in liberated areas, including the reintegration of survivors. In that connection, his Government had pledged $1 billion of assistance in Iraq in the form of loans and investment to rehabilitate areas liberated from ISIL.
Sharing the perspective of a country that had successfully tackled sexual violence in conflict, Côte d’Ivoire’s delegate outlined the progress made after his Government had prioritized the issue, establishing a national strategy and recruiting women to high‑level positions in the armed forces. As a result, the number of cases of sexual violence by national forces — which had once numbered over 100 per year — had dropped to zero in 2017.
Underscoring what was possible when political will and institutional structures were put in place, other speakers cited examples of progress in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a former parliamentarian in South Kivu had been convicted in 2017 for the rape of 39 children, as well as legal reforms in Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan that had delinked rape from adultery.
Offering yet another glimmer of hope, the representative of Colombia explained that the role of women had been vital in the implementation of her country’s peace agreement. She highlighted the steps her Government had taken to ensure that women’s autonomy and empowerment were achieved to shatter cycles of violence, including setting up a group to investigate all cases of sexual violence in conflict and providing reparations to thousands of victims.
Also speaking today were the representatives of Sweden, United States, Ethiopia, France, Bolivia, Poland, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, China, Netherlands, Equatorial Guinea, Peru, Liechtenstein, Brazil, Spain, Turkey, Pakistan, Norway (for the Nordic countries), Japan, Mexico, Estonia, Slovakia, Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia, Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Lithuania, Iraq, Nigeria, Jordan, Portugal, Germany, Qatar, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, Slovenia, Israel, Sudan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Ireland, Paraguay, Botswana, Croatia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Syria, Bahrain, Morocco, Mali (on behalf of the Human Security Network), Maldives and Argentina, as well as the European Union, African Union, Holy See, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The meeting began at 10:11 a.m. and ended at 6:16 p.m.
Opening Remarks
AMINA MOHAMMED, Deputy Secretary‑General of the United Nations, said sexual violence had been one of the major drivers of forced displacement in Myanmar and many other countries in 2018. The tactic was also used as a weapon of war and a common method of torturing detainees. While both genders suffered from such crimes, women and girls were most affected, with those at the lowest levels of wealth, health and education being most at risk. Survivors were often forced to live with the resulting health effects and social stigma, and when some bore children resulting from rape, those children were in turn shunned from society.
Describing sexual violence in conflict as a deliberate tactic aimed at undermining social cohesion, she called on Member States to work to prevent such crimes through accountability and deterrence efforts while also recognizing the important role of survivors as agents of change. In that vein, she drew attention to some positive developments, recalling that various armed groups in Mali had signed a joint communiqué pledging not to employ sexual violence as a weapon, and that a similar agreement had been signed in Iraq in March. In addition, women’s protection advisors, deployed to many United Nations peacekeeping operations, were engaging parties to conflict to uphold their commitments on that issue and were helping to shape inclusive new policies and laws. Concluding, she emphasized that resolution 2106 (2013) called on all actors — the Council, Member States, parties to conflict and others — to redouble their efforts to address such horrific crimes.
PRAMILA PATTEN, Special Representative of the Secretary‑General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said the Secretary‑General’s latest report on the issue served to measure progress and to inspire and accelerate it. Since the adoption of resolution 1820 (2008), the issue had been systematically included in peacekeeping mission mandates, sanctions regimes and ceasefire agreements while being excluded from amnesty provisions. While significant normative and operational progress had been achieved, it was clear that words on paper had not yet been matched by facts on the ground. “We have not yet moved from resolutions to lasting solutions,” she said, adding that the Council must urgently consolidate progress by ensuring accountability or risk a reversal that would result in wartime rape being once again normalized. Over the past decade, enhanced political momentum to combat sexual violence had coincided with a confluence of global crises, including mass migration, rising violent extremism and terrorism, the spread of conflict and the proliferation of arms.
Summarizing some of the report’s findings, she said sexual violence continued to be employed as a tactic of war and a tool of political repression, attacking and altering the ethnic or religious identity of persecuted groups and changing the demographics of disputed regions. The threat drove forced displacement, inhibited the return of uprooted communities and, through trafficking and sexual exploitation, fuelled a wartime economy, generating revenue for combatants and armed groups. Early marriage spiked where families lacked means of protecting their daughters, leading to further repression. Indeed, sexual violence arose from and reinforced unequal gender relations. Meanwhile, stigma and victim blaming gave the weapon of rape its uniquely destructive power, shredding the social fabric, turning victims into outcasts and leaving children conceived as a result of wartime rape at risk of being stateless and susceptible to recruitment, radicalization, trafficking and exploitation. Despite some landmark cases, mass rape continued to be met with mass impunity, she said, perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence and revenge in many war‑torn nations.
However, country‑level progress had been achieved, she continued, citing examples. No new cases involving members of the armed forces of Côte d’Ivoire had been recorded in 2017, demonstrating what was possible when political will and risk‑mitigation measures were put in place, and several States continued to implement action plans, including the Central African Republic, Guinea, Iraq, Somalia and South Sudan. Colombia had elevated gender justice to the heart of its peace process and ensured that thousands of survivors received reparations. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a former parliamentarian in South Kivu had been convicted in 2017 for the rape of 39 children, committed by his militia. Congolese authorities had also undertaken hundreds of prosecutions. Legal reform in 2017 had delinked rape from adultery and morality crimes, as seen in Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan.
The international community could not lose focus at what was a critical juncture, she said, urging them to keep the “searchlight of international scrutiny” on a historically hidden crime. In that vein, she called on the Security Council to consider establishing a reparation fund for survivors of conflict‑related sexual violence. She also asked members to take a more operational response to alleviate stigma and to adopt a sustained political resolve and resources equal to the scale of the challenge.
RAZIA SULTANA, senior researcher at Kaladan Press, told the Council that she had been working directly with Rohingya women and girls in refugee camps in Bangladesh since 2014. Speaking on behalf of her people, she said women were fleeing from situations where others had been gang raped, tortured and killed by Myanmar’s armed forces for no other reason other than being Rohingya. Since August last year, more than 670,000 Rohingya had fled Myanmar, the largest refugee movement since the Rwanda genocide. While she was grateful to Bangladesh for opening its borders, the international community, especially the Security Council, had failed her people. If the warning signs had not been ignored since 2012, the crisis could have been prevented. Since then, State security forces had committed human rights abuses against her people, limiting their movement and restricting their access to their livelihoods, health care, food and education. Such discrimination against her people had begun in 1982 when they were stripped of citizenship rights, she said, adding that other ethnic minorities had also faced decades of entrenched discrimination, rape and other human rights violations.
The Myanmar army was raping ethnic women with impunity, she said, sharing her own findings that provided evidence of Government troops having raped 300 women and girls in 17 villages in Rakhine State. That was likely only a fraction of the number of women raped. Sexual violence involved hundreds of soldiers across Rakhine State, with strong evidence that the crimes had been systemically planned and used against her people. Genital mutilation was used to terrorize and destroy their means of reproduction, having horrifying implications for the safety of women and girls around the country. The international community and humanitarian agencies needed to scale up protection services to support Rohingya refugees, including mental health care services, sanitation and water conditions. The provision of safe abortions and emergency contraception was also critically low in camps. Highlighting that young women, some as young as age 12, were being trafficked, she said the international community must work to stop trafficking and pressure Myanmar to work with the United Nations fact‑finding mission and provide humanitarian access across Rakhine State.
International pressure was needed to end impunity and support legal reforms for all ethnic people in Myanmar, she said. Moreover, the Government of Myanmar must address the issue of Rohingya citizenship and freedom of movement. Her people must be guaranteed a safe return. Finally, the Security Council must refer the situation to the International Criminal Court without delay for its horrific crimes against Rohingya and other ethnic groups. At the same time, it was hypocritical to express horror at violence while also selling arms to Myanmar and seeking licenses to mine its natural resourc