Distinguished members of the Mauritian Bar Association, conference participants, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you today, and to Natasha for this question about my work with the United Nations as Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and the strategic priorities of my mandate.
At this time of great global turbulence, when conflicts rage, coups erupt, and tensions rise across the world, the credibility of the multilateral system, and the body of international law on which it is based, are increasingly called into question. We are witnessing the highest number of conflicts since the close of the Second World War, with over 110 million people displaced globally, and more than 600 million women and girls living in areas affected by armed conflict. For the individuals behind these statistics, international law is of existential relevance. Indeed, the values of the 蘑菇视频 Charter, and of customary and conventional humanitarian and human rights law, are more important 鈥� yet more imperiled 鈥� than ever.
Cascading crises are turning the clock further and further back on women鈥檚 rights, and leaving survivors of sexual violence further and further behind. Militarization is on the march, and democracy is in retreat, with women鈥檚 rights under attack, as well as the courageous individuals and organizations that defend them. The global trend of backlash on gender equality is manifest in rising reprisals against women鈥檚 human rights defenders and journalists who bring atrocity crimes to the attention of the world. Against this backdrop, it is critical to demonstrate to survivors that international law is not an empty promise, and to perpetrators and potential perpetrators, that it is not an empty threat.
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When I was appointed to serve as Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict in 2017, I made justice and accountability one of my top priorities, in order to convert the age-old culture of impunity surrounding these crimes into a culture of prevention and deterrence.
Indeed, sexual violence in conflict has been called 鈥渉istory鈥檚 greatest silence鈥� and the 鈥渨orld鈥檚 least-condemned crime of war鈥�. Due to chronic underreporting, most cases never reach a clinic, let alone a courtroom. Many survivors are silenced by the fear of reprisals and retaliation; by the limited availability of support services; and by the misplaced blame, shame, and stigma that is borne by the victims, rather than the perpetrators. Sexual violence crimes have been viewed through the prism of cultural taboos, as unspeakable, unprintable, and therefore unable to be punished.
From the wars of antiquity to the complex security landscape of the 21st Century, women have been treated as the 鈥渟poils of war鈥�, with sexual violence used to shred the social fabric; dominate and displace targeted populations; crush morale and the will to resist; and secure a reproductive and demographic advantage for the aggressor. Century after century, mass rape was met with mass impunity, barely receiving a line in war reporting or courts martial.
In response, the international community has built a robust normative framework, including the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the statutes and jurisprudence of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts of Cambodia, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone; the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; and a dedicated series of Security Council resolutions on Women, Peace and Security since the year 2000, and on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence since 2008. Globally, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is instrumental in safeguarding women鈥檚 rights to equality and lives free from violence, with the CEDAW Committee鈥檚 General Recommendations 19 (1992) and 35 (2017) addressing sexual and gender-based violence, and General Recommendation 30 (2013) underscoring the application of these norms to conflict prevention, conflict, and post-conflict situations. Additionally, a range of regional instruments have introduced positive obligations to prevent and address these crimes, such as the Maputo Protocol, the ICGLR Protocol, the Istanbul Convention, and the Inter-American Convention, with the legal standards overseen by regional monitoring bodies and mechanisms.
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Every year, my Office reports thousands of 蘑菇视频-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence corresponding to the elements of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and constituent acts of genocide. Yet, these allegations translate into just a handful of prosecutions annually. Accountability remains the rare exception, rather than the rule. My mandate also supports the listing (or 鈥渘aming and shaming鈥�) of some 49 implicated State and non-State parties, the majority of which are 鈥減ersistent perpetrators鈥�, or repeat offenders. This list provides an important basis for targeted action by multilateral and bilateral sanctions regimes, as well as by international, regional, and domestic courts and tribunals.
The persistence of sexual violence as a tactic of war, torture, terror, and repression, is not due to a lack of normative frameworks. It is due to the fact that existing norms are inadequately respected, implemented, and enforced. The prohibition on sexual violence under international law is clear and categorical, yet norms have no power unless they are known. My Office accordingly works to disseminate the law and ensure it is reflected in military manuals, codes of conduct, and training curricula for all levels of the chain of command.
A critical focus of my work is to bridge the gap between political aspirations, legal obligations, and operations on the ground. States bear the primary responsibility for protecting their citizens, yet conflict decimates the very institutions charged with delivering services, security, and judicial redress. My Office therefore provides technical and strategic support at the national-level to advance gender-responsive justice and security sector reform, and to strengthen institutional safeguards against impunity, pursuant to a dozen framework agreements signed with affected States. In this regard, we have developed a range of practical tools to build the skill and the will for effective action, notably Model Legislative Provisions and Guidance on Investigation and Prosecution of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, to help States harmonize national laws with international standards.
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There are currently more than 20 conflict situations within the remit of my mandate. In each of these contexts, I use a combination of public advocacy and direct diplomacy to galvanize action, accountability, and compliance with international law. It is vital to let local realities shape the global search for solutions and for international approaches to be informed by the 鈥榞round truths鈥� of survivors themselves who are the 鈥榤oral compass鈥� guiding my mandate.
To that end, I visited Ukraine as soon as the first reports of sexual violence surfaced last year, and returned this March. I heard firsthand the searing accounts of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian soldiers, including as a form of torture to extract confessions, and to punish and intimidate both men and women in detention. The ages of the victims ranged from just 4 to 84 years old. In a historic shift, efforts have been made to support effective investigation, prosecution, and adjudication from the onset of the conflict, before the evidence trail goes cold. In July 2022, the neighboring Baltic States sent a strong signal when they declared an intention to launch universal jurisdiction cases concerning war crimes resulting from the military invasion of Ukraine. This is in addition to the 43 States Parties to the Rome Statute that referred the situation to the International Criminal Court last April. When I visited refugee reception centers in Poland and Moldova, I witnessed the vulnerability of women and girls, who comprise the vast majority of the nearly 8 million refugees, to predatory criminal and trafficking networks. For these actors, the forced exodus was not a tragedy, but an opportunity, for exploitation.
In Sudan, since the conflict erupted in April, sexual violence against displaced and refugee women and girls has spiked. In September, I visited the border area, where I met a 7-year-old girl who, after fleeing with her grandmother, was raped in the refugee camp, where conditions remain precarious due to being over-crowded and under-resourced. In Darfur, women鈥檚 bodies are part of the battlefield 鈥� targeted for rape, gang-rape, abduction, and sexual slavery on the basis of ethnicity. Impunity for war crimes in this region since 2003 has emboldened perpetrators, silenced survivors, and undermined prospects for peace.
In June, I visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a dramatic increase in sexual violence due to the resurgence of armed groups in the East. Many of the women I met had been recently raped while undertaking livelihood activities, such as gathering firewood, food, and water, and were visibly traumatized. These women faced an impossible choice between economic subsistence and exposure to sexual violence 鈥� between their livelihoods and their lives. Many had been driven into prostitution out of sheer economic desperation. Congolese courts have awarded millions of dollars in reparations to survivors of sexual violence, yet none have been disbursed to date. My Office is working to support the national authorities to establish and administer an effective reparations program, noting that material assistance, including in the form of compensation, can reduce further exposure to risk.
Over the past three years, the war in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, has been one of the deadliest on the planet. Rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy, have been used as tactics of war and terror on a widespread and systematic basis. More than 10,000 survivors remain in desperate need of assistance and redress, yet due to restricted international access, and the shield of State sovereignty, they remain isolated and left to suffer in silence.
One of the few bright spots on the horizon in terms of transitional justice is Colombia, where historic progress is being made. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace has opened a dedicated case on sexual and gender-based violence, including reproductive coercion, known as 鈥楳acro Case 11鈥�, following concerted advocacy from women鈥檚 civil society activists who are leading the charge for change. In May, during my official visit, I heard from survivors of sexual violence about the personally and socially transformative power of recognition and reparations in the wake of war.
There are also signs of legal progress in Guinea, where a former Head of State and 10 senior officials are currently standing trial before domestic courts for crimes of sexual violence committed as part of the repertoire of political repression, used to quash a pro-democracy protest in Conakry in 2009. As a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Guinea over a decade ago, I helped to create a historical record of these crimes, and have continued to monitor the investigative and trial phase, noting that 鈥� as is so often the case with atrocity crimes 鈥� the pace of justice is painfully slow.
Last week, I visited the Central African Republic, where sexual violence by armed elements is widespread, in a climate of collapsed Rule of Law and a society awash with small arms and light weapons. My Office has helped to advance the adjudication of sexual violence crimes through the various transitional justice mechanisms that have been established, including a Special Criminal Court.
In relation to the escalating violence in the Middle East, since the 7th of October attacks, I have requested 蘑菇视频 partners on the ground to remain alert to the risk of sexual violence, which we know is often invisible and chronically underreported. We are aware that disturbing allegations, including forced nudity, have surfaced in the context of abduction and hostage-taking. As always, we call for such incidents to be independently investigated, with a view to ensuring that survivors have access to specialized services and justice. As always, we call for the parties to abide by international humanitarian and human rights law, which exist to restrain violent excess, even in the midst of war.
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Even as entrenched cycles of violence remain unbroken in many war-torn corners of the world, new threats continue to emerge. For instance, gender-based harassment and hate speech are surging in the relatively ungoverned digital space, deepening the gendered digital divide. An array of new and non-traditional actors, such as mercenaries and private military and security companies, are complicating attribution and accountability on contemporary battlefields. Climate-driven insecurity and displacement is exacerbating competition over scarce resources, increasing intercommunal violence. Moreover, the security umbrella for civilian protection, human rights monitoring, and humanitarian assistance is closing as United Nations peacekeeping missions withdraw from Mali, Sudan, and the DRC.
Despite the gendered ideology driving violent extremism and terrorism, national counterterrorism legislation has classically been gender-blind. In Iraq, even though several members of ISIL or Da鈥檈sh have been charged under counter-terrorism legislation, no cases have included specific charges of sexual violence. Even where survivors of sexual slavery testified in court, their evidence was not used as a basis for conviction, which was secured on the narrow grounds of affiliation with a terrorist group or network. This was a missed opportunity to set a new precedent on sexual violence as an act of terrorism. By contrast, in Nigeria, in 2022, sexual violence was included for the first time ever, in an indictment against Boko Haram, contributing to evolving jurisprudence on the gender dimensions of terrorism.
Universal jurisdiction is becoming an increasingly important avenue for transcending national judicial boundaries and replacing impunity with unity. For instance, under the auspices of universal jurisdiction, a former Syrian official, Anwar R., was convicted in a German court for crimes against humanity, including acts of sexual violence, committed in 2011 and 2012.
In recognition that survivors are not a homogenous group, the approach to delivering justice and redress is become increasingly intersectional and tailored. For instance, in 2021, a trial in Guatemala delivered justice for sexual violence crimes committed against indigenous Maya Achi women by members of a paramilitary group during the civil war in the 1980s.
My mandate has also drawn attention to the plight and rights of children born of wartime rape, noting the need to reform discriminatory nationality laws and practices in order to reduce the risk of statelessness and socioeconomic marginalization, and to grant women the right to confer their nationality upon their child, in line with Article 9 of CEDAW.
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Next year will mark the 15-year anniversary of the establishment of my mandate by the United Nations Security Council. This provides an opportunity to look back at the evolution and trajectory of this agenda, in order to inform the way forward. Fifteen years is, in fact, a short time in the history of warzone rape, which was first prosecuted by a military tribunal in the year 1474. Five and half centuries later, the international community has written a new norm, drawn a 鈥榬ed line鈥�, and built a new global response architecture. Today, the United Nations is reaching and supporting thousands of survivors who had once been invisible and inaccessible. Political leaders, parties to conflict, and spoilers to the peace, have been put on notice that the rules have changed. Holistic approaches to human security and transitional justice have replaced narrow notions of national security premised on military might and absolute sovereignty. Today, it is not possible to imagine a Security Council debate or international criminal justice process in which these crimes were not taken seriously and condemned.
Sexual violence is no longer side-lined as mere 鈥渃ollateral damage鈥�, an 鈥渋nevitable by-product of war鈥�, or a 鈥渓esser crime鈥�. As a rape survivor testified before the Yugoslav Tribunal in the 1990s, the first court to recognize rape as capable of political direction and thus a crime against humanity: 鈥淭hey have taken my life without killing me鈥�.
Today, 9 of the 15 蘑菇视频 sanctions regimes include sexual violence as part of their designation criteria. Leveraging the credible threat of sanctions has begun to change the calculation of parties to conflict that operated on the assumption that rape was 鈥渃ost-free鈥� or even profitable in the political economy of war, in which women and girls are trafficked, traded, and sold. In 2021, the sanctions committee on Libya listed the de facto manager of a notorious detention center for sexual violence, and the sanctions committee on Yemen cited a Houthi security official for sexual violence targeting women active in public and political life as a tool to silence them. Imposing sanctions on this basis sends a powerful political signal.
Ultimately, the aim of my mandate is not a war free of rape, but a world free of war. No amount of protection, assistance, or accountability after the fact is a substitute for peace. Ending sexual violence, and sparing succeeding generations from this scourge, is one of the great peace, security, and Rule of Law challenges of our time. As practicing lawyers, judges, magistrates, and experts, all of us gathered here share a common commitment to the Rule of Law, rather than the 鈥榤ight makes right鈥� logic of warfare. Bar Associations and their Members have a role to play in advancing the cause of gender justice, whether through your pro bono work, or mentoring and experience-sharing with Bar Associations in conflict-affected and fragile settings. By advancing the equitable administration of justice, and reinforcing a rules-based international order, our profession helps to foster an environment in which no military or political leader is above the law, and no woman or girl is beneath the scope of its protection.
At a time of fierce backlash against gender equality, it is critical to recall that whatever new obstacles are mounted, whatever rights rescinded, opportunities erased, reprisals inflicted, or degradations imposed, no one can ever take from the survivors of sexual violence the justness of their cause. It is thus with absolute moral and legal clarity that we continue in this fight, and must not rest until every survivor, every civilian, can sleep under the cover of justice.
Thank you.