蘑菇视频

His Excellency, Mart铆n Garc铆a Morit谩n, Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations,

His Excellency, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon,

Under-Secretary-General, Ms. Virginia Gamba,

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

Thank you for gathering here today to commemorate the third International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Each year, we harness this occasion to spotlight neglected issues and invisible victims. This year, our focus is on the plight and rights of children born of war, who have long been a voiceless category of victims, often relegated to the shadows of society, marginalized, undocumented, and sometimes left stateless.

Such voices have rarely 鈥� if ever 鈥� been heard at the United Nations. We are therefore honoured to welcome Mr. Alen Muhic who has travelled from Bosnia and Herzegovina to share his story with us today. It is a story that moved me deeply when I first heard it on my visit to Sarajevo last year. Such personal accounts can help to build a historical record for a harm that has been omitted from official narratives of war and peace.

The International Day is also an opportunity to help bridge the academic-policy gap to ensure evidence-based responses. In this regard, I am pleased that Ms. Joanne Neenan from the London School of Economics will join us this afternoon to share new research findings on ways to close the protection gap for children born of war.

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For millennia, women and children have been deliberately targeted in wartime, as women are considered the custodians and propagators of ethnic identity, while children are seen as the future of their group. Shockingly, these tactics continue to be used in contemporary conflicts on a widespread and systematic scale.

While data is extremely limited, we know that up to 8,000 children are estimated to have been born as a result of wartime rape in Northern Uganda alone. This is by no means unique to the Ugandan conflict, but is a pattern that traverses all cultures and continents, regions and religions, throughout the long sweep of history, as part of the legacy of war.

Children born of wartime rape are today living in settings such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, Colombia, Nigeria, Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Sierra Leone, and no doubt in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox鈥檚 Bazaar, Bangladesh. In the case of Iraq, my Office has commissioned research on children born of rape, and options for their legal registration and social integration. Moreover, the Joint Communiqu茅 we signed with the Government of Iraq mentions the precarious situation of children born of wartime rape, and the importance of upholding their rights and meeting their needs. Likewise, in the case of Myanmar, we are in dialogue with the Government including on measures to address the stigma suffered by sexual violence survivors and their children.

Although rape is profoundly traumatic for both individuals and communities as a whole, little attention has been paid to the lives of children born from it.

The fate of such children is often inextricably linked to that of their mothers. The well-being and acceptance of the mother, within the family and community, is critical to the welfare of the child.

Along with their mothers, these children too often face significant challenges to accessing services and support. Due to the deep social stigma, the issue is chronically underreported, and, as a result, under-resourced and rarely addressed.

Children born of sexual violence suffer as a result of their mothers鈥� own stigmatization, social exclusion, and discrimination. They are at risk of infanticide, abuse, abandonment, rejection, marginalization and severe human rights violations.

It is often rightly said, that for women and children, war is not over when it鈥檚 over.

After everything they have endured, many survivors of armed groups such as the LRA, ISIL, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and others, face the additional heartbreak of being shunned by their own community. While rape is the action of the perpetrator, stigma is the reaction of society. Those who inflict stigma are not the enemy; they are often members of the victims鈥� family, who have come to view them as 鈥渁ffiliates of the enemy鈥�. Such women may be forced to choose between returning to their home or caring for their new child – a choice no one should ever have to make.

Children born of rape face immense social stigma and are often ostracized by families and communities. They are sometimes viewed as 鈥渂ad blood鈥�: both a painful memory of the past, and a threat to the community鈥檚 future. It is as if they are 鈥渂orn guilty鈥�: tainted by their father鈥檚 crime. As a result, they have been dispossessed of a name and a nationality, of identity and inheritance, in societies polarized by war. This, in turn, has meant that many are denied access to healthcare, education, social welfare and protection, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation, forced recruitment, trafficking, and other forms of abuse.

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The trauma of wartime rape leaves lasting physical and psychological scars that endure long after the peace accord has been signed, and the guns have fallen silent. The consequences echo across generations. They live on most tangibly in the children born of war, who are often abandoned and orphaned as the living, breathing reminders of brutality.

Indeed, the weapon of rape is consciously used to shred the social fabric and unravel kinship ties. The shame of sexual violence turns victims into outcasts. Where their biological origins show in their physical features, children 鈥渇athered by the enemy鈥� can be sentenced to a lifetime of stigma, suspicion and social exclusion. In Rwanda, for instance, the school curriculum was revised after the 1994 genocide to include specific discussion of children born of rape, to offset peer discrimination and harassment.

A child鈥檚 future can be jeopardized by the lack of a paternal clan identity and a social safety net. Without this, they risk being excluded from land ownership, which is not only a vital economic resource, but also a symbol of rootedness and belonging. The result is to disrupt and fragment the social structure across generations, by reducing their prospects for marriage and for raising a family of their own.

The plight of children born of wartime rape is both a human rights issue, and a security issue. It demands a survivor-centred, rights-based response that includes efforts to restore peace and the Rule of Law.

Justice for these crimes is critical. It tells the community that what happened was not the victims鈥� fault. For most war crimes, this would seem self-evident. But sexual violence is the only crime that stigmatizes the victim, rather than the perpetrator. Formal accountability can lift this stigma and shift it to the accused 鈥� not only in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of the local community as well.

Yet, while accountability should be the rule, it remains the rare exception. Even more rare, is the recognition of children conceived through rape, as victims before the law. Colombia is the only country that grants such children official recognition as war victims in their own right. It is important to recall that the 2014 Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence defines the crime broadly to encompass affected family members, including children born as a result of pregnancy from rape. This guidance should be followed at the national-level as a best practice.

In countries where women are denied the right to confer their nationality upon their children, the latter can be relegated to a legal limbo. Lack of formal citizenship can have long-term economic impacts if children are denied access to medical care, education, or other social benefits. Statelessness also impairs their freedom of movement, ability to receive asylum, chances of being formally adopted, and their vulnerability to trafficking. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women gives women the right to transmit their nationality to their children. This right must be respected, even in the midst of war. After all, human rights don鈥檛 end when wars begin; and displacement does not displace basic human needs and aspirations. Without targeted support, mothers and their children born of sexual violence are set on a trajectory of poverty, discrimination, violence, and mounting obstacles to living a life of dignity in which their rights are respected.

It must, therefore, be recognized 鈥� once and for all 鈥� that these children are not just the consequence of a human rights violation; they are the holders of human rights themselves. Children born as a result of war are entitled to the same rights as any other children, outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This includes the right to identity documents and services, in a way that does not further isolate or ostracize them.

The rights, needs and vulnerabilities of these children require specific understanding, attention and approaches that are both linked with those of the mother, where appropriate, as well as tailored to the individual rights and needs of each girl or boy.
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This is an emergency because lives are at stake: stigma can not only scar, it can kill. In the absence of policies or institutional mechanisms that allow children born as a result of rape to integrate into the social fabric, an entire generation of children will be considered outcasts and forced to live on the margins of society.

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Children born of wartime rape constitute an understudied and under-served category of war-victims. Though each child鈥檚 story is different and their needs are unique, all face a range of potential barriers to the realization of their human rights. Assessing and addressing these barriers should be a priority for all of us.

For my part, I remain hopeful, because I believe that through the courage of young people like Alen, the silence around this issue is being broken, and the message is being conveyed, that the existence of these children is not a taboo topic. Similarly, academic research, like Joanne鈥檚 work at LSE, can play a pivotal role in shaping Governments鈥� policies on the protection of children born of rape.

The visionary leadership of Argentina, in designating the 19th of June the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, is yet another sign of enhanced political momentum. It provides an occasion for all of us to stand in solidarity with the survivors and their children born of rape, and pay tribute to those working on the frontlines to support them.

Thank you.
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