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STORY: UN / WALLSTRÖM
TRT: 2:01
SOURCE: UNTV / FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 APRIL 2010, NEW YORK / FILE
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
2. Wide shot, Security Council chamber
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“Rule by tape is used by political and military leaders, to achieve political, military and economic ends. Politically-motivated rape is a disturbing trend witnessed in the wake of Kenya’s contested elections, and more recently, in broad daylight on the streets of Guinea. Such crimes present a security crisis that demands a security response.”
4. Cutaway, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“History des not repeat itself, people repeat history. I therefore welcome the expansion of the “list of shame” on groups that recruit child soldiers to include groups credibly suspected of patterns of sexual violence.”
6. Cutaway, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“Sexual violence remains a dominant, even escalating, feature of the conflict. The refrain I heard from women across the Kivus was “if only it were not for the war…” Recent reports suggest that 60 percent of victims surveyed in the Kivus were gang-raped by armed men. More than half of these assaults took place in the supposed safety of the family home, at night, often in the presence of the victim’s husband and children. I heard evidence that four out of five women seeking care from health centers claim to have been raped by men in uniform.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council chamber
FILE – MONUC - 21 FEBRUARY 2007, BUKAVU, SOUTH KIVU PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
9. Various shots, female victims of rape at Panzi Hospital
FILE – MONUC – MARCH-APRIL 2004, SONGO MBOYO, EQUATEUR PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
10. Wide shot, MONUC human rights officer leading group of rape victims out of the forest
11. Various shots, rape victims
Fresh from her visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which she described as the “rape capital of the world,” a senior United Nations (UN) official today (27 April) urged the Security Council to make the prevention of sexual violence a top priority, and stressed the need to end impunity for the scourge.
UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallström said that “rule by tape is used by political and military leaders, to achieve political, military and economic ends.”
She warned that politically-motivated rape is a disturbing trend, witnessed in the wake of Kenya’s contested elections, and more recently, in broad daylight on the streets of Guinea. Such crimes, she said, present a security crisis that demands a security response.
Wallström welcomed the expansion of the “list of shame” on groups that recruit child soldiers to include groups credibly suspected of patterns of sexual violence.
She said she is haunted by what she heard in the DRC that women are still not safe, under their own roofs, in their own beds, when night falls.
“Sexual violence remains a dominant, even escalating, feature of the conflict,” in the DRC where recent reports suggest that “60 percent of victims surveyed in the Kivus were gang-raped by armed men and more than half of these assaults took place in the supposed safety of the family home, at night, often in the presence of the victim’s husband and children,” she added.
According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), more than 8,000 women were raped in the DRC during fighting between warring factions last year. The UN mission in the country (MONUC) has been trying to combat the problem by developing a greater presence on the ground, escorting women going to market or fetching firewood or water, developing early warning systems, and working with local mayors.
Ending impunity is one of the five priorities Wallström, who was appointed in February, has set for herself, in addition to empowering women, mobilizing political leadership, increasing recognition of rape as a tactic and consequence of conflict, and ensuring a more coherent response from the UN system.
