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STORY: UN / SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICTS
TRT:5:50
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
24 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Pramila Patten, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict:
“We meet at a time when the pursuit of peace and gender equality has once again become a radical act. The essential, existential task we face is to silence the guns and amplify the voices of women as a critical constituency for peace.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Pramila Patten, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict:
“Women and girls face heightened levels of sexual violence in displacement settings, as returnees, refugees and migrants. For instance, in eastern DRC, the climate of interlinked physical and food insecurity has driven many displaced women and girls into prostitution out of sheer economic desperation. In Ethiopia, reports surfaced of sexual exploitation in exchange for food, as well as continued sexual enslavement in Tigray, in proximity to the compounds and barracks of arms bearers. Moreover, in many contexts, women with children born of wartime rape are often accused of affiliation with the enemy, excluded from community networks, and plunged into poverty.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Pramila Patten, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict:
“This year’s report highlights an unprecedented level of lethal violence used to silence survivors in the wake of sexual assault. In 2023, reports of rape victims being subsequently killed by their assailants surfaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, demonstrating the need to strengthen forensic capabilities, investigations, and accountability processes that ensure the protection of victims and witnesses. Frontline service providers and women human rights defenders were not spared. Armed actors threatened healthcare workers in Sudan, and reprisals against human rights defenders were reported in South Sudan, the DRC and elsewhere.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Pramila Patten, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict:
““It is critical to ensure coherence between the list of implicated parties and the measures imposed by UN sanctions regimes. We must use these tools to stop the flow of weapons into the hands of perpetrators of sexual violence. There could be no more direct and effective way to disarm the weapon of rape and, ultimately, to prevent and eradicate these crimes.”
10. Med shot, Ahmadi speaking at the Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group:
“The grassroots and women led organizations continue to be the lifeline for their people. They are helping their communities, documenting atrocities, and ensuring that international community keeps his eyes on Sudan. It is indeed their bravery that draws the line between hope and despair.”
12. Med shot, Ahmadi speaking at the Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group:
“It is worth noting that without the spread of weapons, the levels of sexual violence we are currently seeing in Sudan would never have occurred. As a point of expert reported to you, the warring parties in Sudan and the external enablers have continued to violate the Security Council arms embargo on Darfur.”
14. Med shot, Ahmadi speaking at the Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group:
“Unless the Security Council calls out those who undermine the measures it has put in place, you're signaling to perpetrators that they can continue to violate international law without consequences.”
16. Various shots, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Danai Gurira, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador:
“The point is that reversing the upward trajectory of military spending would be a way of reducing the number of victims in need of support in the first place. The point is working on arms control and ammunition management is also working to prevent conflict related sexual violence.”
1. Various shots, Security Council
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Danai Gurira, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador:
“The issue of impunity, the knowledge that one can rape a mother, a daughter, a son, a child and get away with it feeds the pathology that keeps this issue dire and growing. We seem to not have found a way to create a deterrent that truly alters its perpetuation, and we know such deterrence exist. But the complicity around sexual violence being a spoil or inevitable consequence of war seems to deter various structures from truly holding parties accountable.”
21. Wide shot, Security Council
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Danai Gurira, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador:
“I'd like to speak to the governments here today who allow this to occur within their borders with impunity if you refuse to protect your most vulnerable but allow their bodies to be a spoil of your political conflicts, you should be held accountable, and you should not be in a position of leadership.
23. Wide shot, Security Council
24. Wide shot, ambassadors gathering at the Security Council press stakeout
25. SOUBDBITE (English) Chris Fearne, Deputy Prime Minister, Malta:
“We urge all States to leverage the potentials of conventional arms control and disarmament treaties, instruments and measures to prevent conflicts related sexual violence.”
26. Wide shot, ambassadors at the podium
Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, told the Security Council, “The essential, existential task we face is to silence the guns and amplify the voices of women as a critical constituency for peace.”
The Special Representative today (24 Apr) on the 15th annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.
Patten informed the Council that the report provides a global snapshot of incidents, patterns and trends of conflict-related sexual violence across 21 situations of concern. It records 3,688 UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence committed in the course of 2023, reflecting a dramatic increase of 50 per cent as compared with the previous year. This spike in recorded cases is particularly alarming in a global context where humanitarian access remains severely restricted and constrained.
In terms of global trends, the report documents how sexual violence has curtailed women’s access to livelihoods and girls’ access to education, amid record levels of internal and cross-border displacement.
She said, “Women and girls face heightened levels of sexual violence in displacement settings, as returnees, refugees and migrants. For instance, in eastern DRC, the climate of interlinked physical and food insecurity has driven many displaced women and girls into prostitution out of sheer economic desperation.”
In Ethiopia, Patten said, “reports surfaced of sexual exploitation in exchange for food, as well as continued sexual enslavement in Tigray, in proximity to the compounds and barracks of arms bearers.”
She added, “Moreover, in many contexts, women with children born of wartime rape are often accused of affiliation with the enemy, excluded from community networks, and plunged into poverty.”
The Special Representative also said, “This year’s report highlights an unprecedented level of lethal violence used to silence survivors in the wake of sexual assault.”
In 2023, reports of rape victims being subsequently killed by their assailants surfaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, “demonstrating the need to strengthen forensic capabilities, investigations, and accountability processes that ensure the protection of victims and witnesses,” she added.
Patten also said, “Frontline service providers and women human rights defenders were not spared. Armed actors threatened healthcare workers in Sudan, and reprisals against human rights defenders were reported in South Sudan, the DRC and elsewhere.”
The Special Representative also informed that Council that the report lists 58 parties that are credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of sexual violence in situations on this Council’s agenda, the vast majority of them being non-State actors. Over 70 per cent of listed parties are “persistent perpetrators”, meaning they have appeared on the list for five or more years without taking the requisite remedial or corrective action.
Pattern reiterated, “It is critical to ensure coherence between the list of implicated parties and the measures imposed by UN sanctions regimes. We must use these tools to stop the flow of weapons into the hands of perpetrators of sexual violence. There could be no more direct and effective way to disarm the weapon of rape and, ultimately, to prevent and eradicate these crimes.”
Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group, also spoke to the Council Member.
She said, “The grassroots and women led organizations continue to be the lifeline for their people. They are helping their communities, documenting atrocities, and ensuring that international community keeps his eyes on Sudan. It is indeed their bravery that draws the line between hope and despair.”
Ahmadi also noted that “without the spread of weapons, the levels of sexual violence we are currently seeing in Sudan would never have occurred. As a point of expert reported to you, the warring parties in Sudan and the external enablers have continued to violate the Security Council arms embargo on Darfur.”
“Unless the Security Council calls out those who undermine the measures it has put in place, you're signaling to perpetrators that they can continue to violate international law without consequences,” she concluded.
For her part, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Danai Gurira said, “The point is that reversing the upward trajectory of military spending would be a way of reducing the number of victims in need of support in the first place. The point is working on arms control and ammunition management is also working to prevent conflict related sexual violence.”
The Zimbabwean American actress and playwright told Council Members, “The issue of impunity, the knowledge that one can rape a mother, a daughter, a son, a child and get away with it feeds the pathology that keeps this issue dire and growing.”
“We seem to not have found a way to create a deterrent that truly alters its perpetuation, and we know such deterrence exist. But the complicity around sexual violence being a spoil or inevitable consequence of war seems to deter various structures from truly holding parties accountable,” she added.
The UN Women Goodwill Ambassador said, “I'd like to speak to the governments here today who allow this to occur within their borders with impunity if you refuse to protect your most vulnerable but allow their bodies to be a spoil of your political conflicts, you should be held accountable, and you should not be in a position of leadership.
Earlier today, Chris Fearne, Deputy Prime Minister of Malta, spoke to reporters together with Women Peace and Security Shared Commitment Signatories. The Member States are Malta, Ecuador, France, Guyana, Japan, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Malta is also holding the presidency of the Security Council for April.
The Deputy Prime Minister said, “We urge all States to leverage the potentials of conventional arms control and disarmament treaties, instruments and measures to prevent conflicts related sexual violence.”
