Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues and Guests good morning.听听
It is an honor to be here to deliver the keynote address at PRIO鈥檚 event marking the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Jan Heiret, the director of the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies. Introduces the State Secretary and the Director of the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security Torunn Tryggestad for your leadership and organisation of this gathering, as well as State Secretary Kravik for his, and the Government of Norway鈥檚, steadfast commitment to the conflict-related sexual violence mandate and the Women, Peace and Security agenda.听听
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We are gathered today in a stark reminder of the unspeakable horrors the world witnessed in Rwanda in 1994.听听听
In less than three months, a million people were deliberately and systematically killed 鈥� lives, dreams and aspirations were cut short as hate speech fuelled violent action targeting the Tutsi population. In that same period, between 100,000 to 250,000 women were estimated to have been raped and survivors of that violence left with little to no support from the international community.听听
The silence and inaction from the global community, however, later ignited progress towards accountability, fostering peace and stability, and promoting reconciliation in Rwanda when in 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda determined conclusively that a genocide was committed against the Tutsi.听听
This was the first international court to recognise rape and sexual violence as a component of genocide under international law, signifying conflict-related sexual violence as an integral part of the process of destruction. Additionally, the Court found that acts of rape and sexual violence may amount to crimes against humanity, marking an important milestone in addressing impunity for acts of sexual violence, including as a means of perpetrating genocide and related crimes.听
A few years later, the world responded to the widespread and systematic sexual violence in Darfur and Eastern DRC in a similar act of political will to create my mandate through the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1888 in 2009.听听听
The atrocity crime of conflict-related sexual violence has been called 鈥�history鈥檚 greatest silence鈥�, and remains one of the most frequently committed, yet least condemned crimes of war. Indeed, every new wave of warfare brings with it a rising tide of sexual violence. The ancient trilogy of wartime terror 鈥� looting, pillage, and rape 鈥� which should long ago have been consigned to the history books, remains in our daily headlines.听
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Let us be clear: Unpunished crime is repeated crime. It is starkly evident across the warzones of the world that lawlessness is tantamount to 鈥�license to rape鈥�. Accordingly, the central challenge of my mandate is to convert the vicious cycle of violence, impunity, and revenge into a virtuous cycle of reporting, resourcing, and response, including in terms of protection, assistance, and accountability.听听听
At the 2005 World Summit, States unanimously endorsed the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity when the international community was reeling from atrocities in the Balkans and Rwanda, which had shocked the conscience of humanity. It was there that then Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the gathering, in no uncertain terms: 鈥�You will be forced to act if another Rwanda looms鈥�.听听
Today, 30 years on, we meet at a moment of great global turbulence, where conflicts are raging, tensions are rising and coups are erupting. As we speak, we have turned back the clock on women鈥檚 rights from Sudan, to Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East. Displacement is at a record high; global military expenditure is at a record-breaking USD 2.2 trillion, and more than 600 million women and girls are currently living in conflict-affected countries.听听
In April, the Secretary General published the 15th annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, which is compiled by my Office. This report brings to light the stark and disturbing reality of conflict-related sexual violence across 21 situations of concern.听 In 2023 we documented a dramatic increase of over 50 percent verified cases compared to the previous year. This spike is particularly alarming in a global context where humanitarian access remains severely restricted and constrained; therefore, we know survivors are not receiving the urgent and critical comprehensive assistance they require.听听
In this climate of extreme uncertainty, it is not an overstatement to ask whether international law is an empty promise; whether our collective responsibility to protect is more honored in the breach than the observance; and whether ensuring and achieving accountability for some of the worst crimes imaginable is within our reach.听
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The international community has already set the normative framework by which CRSV should and can be prevented.听听
听In 2008, the Security Council adopted the breakthrough resolution 1820, which elevated this issue squarely onto its agenda, recognising that sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, and/or a constituent act of genocide, depending on the facts of the case. This ushered in a historic shift in paradigm and perspective, from sidelining sexual violence merely as the 鈥�random acts of a few renegade soldiers鈥�, an 鈥�inevitable byproduct of war鈥�, or form of 鈥�collateral damage鈥�, to addressing it with greater alacrity as a self-standing threat to collective security and an impediment to the restoration of peace. This sent a clear signal that sexual violence 鈥� even in the midst of war 鈥� is preventable, not inevitable. It recognised that sexual violence is used and commissioned as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, terrorize, disperse, and forcibly displace members of a targeted community or ethnic group, shredding the social fabric that binds people together, with corrosive effects on social cohesion.听听
The Security Council mandate on conflict-related sexual violence was built on the Women, Peace and Security agenda which affirmed that no conflict or crisis is gender neutral and no effective response can be gender-blind. Nearly a quarter of a century since its adoption, efforts to successfully link equality, social stability, and durable peace in the context of atrocity prevention remain hindered.听
听For example, gender equality is today recognised as the number one predictor of peace 鈥� more than a nation鈥檚 level of development, democracy, or religious and ethnic identity. This means that we can no longer treat the subjects of world peace, and women鈥檚 rights, as separate conversations. Crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, therefore, can no longer be siloed from discussions of mass atrocity crimes. The Women, Peace and Security agenda is not solely the statement of a problem, but also the expression of a transformative solution, and an alternative vision to the seemingly endless cycles of conflict, militarized masculinity, inequality, and entitlement.听
Of course, there are challenges inherent in foregrounding gender in our analysis of atrocity crimes. The 鈥�tyranny of the emergency鈥� prompts many actors, at a time of acute crisis, to argue that women can wait, and to dismiss gender as a 鈥�soft issue鈥� that is secondary to 鈥�hard security鈥� matters. That is why it cannot be left, in an ad hoc manner, to the goodwill of individuals, but must be systematized through training, mainstreaming, resourcing and accountability.听
听As such, there are some striking and instructive parallels between the trajectories of these two agenda, as seen in progress assess in three key respects, namely in terms of normative evolution, institutional capacity, and operational impact.听听
听Firstly, the normative force of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine has been widely felt in international relations, and global standards have been set, and become well-established, notably of sovereignty reconceived as responsibility, primarily to citizens, but also to the international community writ large. The doctrine has been invoked in numerous Security Council resolutions since 2006, and has influenced innovations such as the responsibility of permanent members of the Council to refrain from using the veto when confronted with atrocity crimes. Likewise, successive Security Council resolutions have made it clear that, as a crime of concern to the international community as a whole, sexual violence must be addressed in transitional justice processes, and excluded from the scope of amnesty provisions. Both agendas remind us that the normative framework is robust: what is needed now, is not new standards of behavior, but better adherence to those that exist.听听
Secondly, in terms of institutional arrangements, advancements around atrocity prevention and the responsibility to protect has catalysed more organised and structured attention to atrocity prevention across the United Nations system, spearheaded by the Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, and through the Global Network of R2P Focal Points. Similarly, the United Nations is today equipped, as never before, with the infrastructure to prevent and respond to the historically hidden crime of conflict-related sexual violence, under the strategic leadership of my mandate. This includes the multisectoral, interagency coordination network that I Chair, known as 蘑菇视频 Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict; a Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, which aims to strengthen institutional safeguards against impunity for these crimes at the national level; and through Women鈥檚 Protection Advisers (or WPAs) who are deployed to the field to enhance our monitoring, reporting, and response, as an evidence-base for advocacy and action.听听
Turning to the vexed, but critical, question of operational impact: I would note that both agendas are, first and foremost, prevention agendas, which aim to reduce the risk of atrocity crimes before they occur, including by ending the culture of impunity that fuels violations, and emboldens their authors. In both agendas, we are at an inflection point: How can we translate commitments into compliance, and resolutions into results? How can our collective responsibility yield a real-time collective response? The normative frameworks and institutional arrangements exist for rapid and coordinated action to react swiftly to imminent abuses, incitement, and hate speech, before nations and peoples are plunged into crisis.听听
On a positive note, there is no doubt that the United Nations system is today reaching and supporting thousands of survivors of wartime sexual violence, who had once been invisible and inaccessible. Peacekeepers are now systematically trained to detect, deter, and respond to sexual violence as part of their operational readiness standards to protect civilians. The mandate authorizations and renewals of peacekeeping and special political missions include directives on sexual violence prevention and response. Specific designation criteria on sexual violence have been included in 7 United Nations sanctions regimes, which I brief on a regular basis, as part of leveraging behavioral change, and opening space for a protection dialogue with belligerent parties, backed by the credible threat of enforcement measures. Dedicated experts on sexual and gender-based violence are routinely deployed to international monitoring and investigative mechanisms, and there is an ever-growing cadre of specialists in this field. The operational arms of my mandate are delivering concrete projects on the ground to support survivors, funded through our dedicated CRSV Multi-Partner Trust Fund.听听
We also have on the public historical record, 15 annual Reports of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which not only document incidents, patterns, and trends of sexual violence employed as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism, reprisal, and political repression, but also lists or 鈥�names and shames鈥� the parties responsible, including both State and non-State actors. Furthermore, the Secretary-General has, also since 2009, published annual reports on the responsibility to protect, which have explored various dimensions of the issue, including in 2020, the nexus with the Women, Peace and Security agenda. This report noted the need to deepen understanding of the gendered drivers and dynamics of atrocity crimes, in order to help States, regional organizations, and other actors more effectively and holistically discharge their responsibility to protect.听听
As part of our operational methodology, which focuses on anchoring commitments at the national level, my Office has signed a dozen Joint 颁辞尘尘耻苍颈辩耻茅蝉 and Frameworks of Cooperation to prevent and address conflict-related sexual violence, with almost all of the countries that fall within my remit. This aligns closely with the primary obligation of individual States to prevent atrocity crimes under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and overall international human rights law treaties. As the United Nations, we can support, but can never supplant, the primary responsibility of States to protect their populations.听听
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In my role as Special Representative, I have repeatedly called for swift and rigorous investigations to ensure accountability as a critical pillar of prevention, deterrence and non-repetition. The failure to acknowledge and address atrocities is the surest sign that they will continue unabated.听听
Ensuring accountability is essential to prevent genocide and related crimes, laying grounds to address root causes, reinstate the rule of law and re-establish solid foundations for the future. This is paramount and non-negotiable. Accountability mechanisms and processes provide victims and survivors with the justice they deserve, while honouring their dignity by meaningfully engaging them and ensuring their voices are heard. While not an easy feat, accountability as a means for atrocity prevention is a long-term undertaking that must be complemented by immediate actions to collect and preserve potential evidence and treat urgently the immediate needs of survivors, so they can start to heal and recover.听听
As Secretary-General Guterres has stated: 鈥�When we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself鈥�.听 Next month I plan to visit Chad and Port Sudan to meet with Sudanese refugees and Chadian returnees that have fled Sudan since the start of the hostilities in April 2023. What we are again witnessing in Sudan, including in the Darfur and Khartoum regions, is unspeakable levels of conflict-related sexual violence being perpetrated against mainly women and children and other acts of grave human rights violations with prevailing signs and risk factors for genocide and related crimes.听听
The unacceptable cyclical nature of violence in Sudan makes it abundantly clear that no amount of protection or assistance is a substitute for peace. The aim of my mandate, and that of the wider Women, Peace and Security agenda, is not simply a war without rape, but a world without war, and the people of Sudan have been crying out for peace now for over a decade.听听
For those that work in this field, there is agreement that prevention is the best protection. In order to enhance structural and operational prevention of atrocity crimes within the context of the WPS agenda, there are four key observations and recommendations to chart the way forward:听
- Firstly, the absence of women from genocide and related crimes鈥� prevention efforts is deafening. We can no longer treat women as only victims when in many contexts, from Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine, Afghanistan and elsewhere, women are active agents of prevention and accountability efforts. It is our responsibility, as the international community, to ensure that peace works equally for women and that we take seriously women鈥檚 engagement as the co-creators of holistic solutions.听听
- Secondly, amplifying the voices of survivors and affected communities in prevention efforts, is essential. In this respect, we must protect women human rights defenders, many of whom are bringing gender-based atrocity crimes to the attention of the world. Their role in prevention efforts must be supported within the communities and space they operate it. The safety of victims and witnesses who bravely come forward to testify must be guaranteed, as well as that of journalists who risk their lives to share these stories with the world.听
- Third, we must be reminded that past instance of genocide, including the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, demonstrated that these crimes do not happen in a vacuum 鈥� they are duly planned and coordinated meaning that there are identifiable early signs, risk factors and indicators of genocide and related crimes that make it possible to take action to prevent them. 蘑菇视频鈥� Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes and my Office鈥檚 Framework for the Prevention of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence both provide the basis to detect these risk factors and inform early warning.听听
- And finally, accountability efforts need to be bolstered. This includes through the promotion of the universal ratification of the Genocide Convention and other relevant international treaties, followed by their full domestication at the national level such as the adoption of relevant legislation to criminalise the prohibited conducts and allow for the investigation and prosecution by domestic courts.听听
- At the individual level, building an environment that encourages women to come forward and report atrocity crimes is also tied to such accountability efforts. While we have seen, in recent years, a number of gender justice milestones, in Guatemala, the DRC, Colombia, in third States pursuant to the principle of universal jurisdiction, and in the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court, the fact remains that the pace of justice is painfully slow, and many women have survived wars only to die waiting for their day in court, or for the delivery of reparations. We need to improve the quality of justice, not just the number of prosecutions, to ensure it is timely, accessible, and empowering.听
In short, we must bring all political, diplomatic, humanitarian, economic, coercive, and non-coercive tools to bear to avert atrocities. In this regard, the aims of my mandate, and that of prevention of atrocity crimes, are mutually-reinforcing.听听
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听Excellencies, Colleagues,听听
The bandwidth of our international community is limited, but even as the eyes of the world are fixated on the horrors in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, we cannot avert our gaze from other entrenched conflicts, where the needs of survivors and populations at risk remain unmet. From Yemen, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Sudan, Syria, Mali, Myanmar, the refugee camps of Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Bangladesh, to Ethiopia where cases of conflict-related sexual violence were the highest in 2023 鈥� nowhere is the level of political resolve and resources equal to the scale of the challenge.听听
At this moment, several States are making deep cuts to their Official Development Assistance (ODA), even though sustainable and inclusive development is the surest way to prevent conflict, preserve peace and promote women鈥檚 rights. We must recognise that there is no other way to close the protection gap than by first closing the funding gap. And yet, both gaps continue to grow.听听
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We know that preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity is an ongoing process that requires sustained effort over time to build the education and resilience of societies. Ensuring that the rule of law is respected and that all human rights are protected without discrimination, establishing legitimate and accountable national institutions, eliminating corruption, managing diversity constructively, and supporting a strong and diverse civil society and pluralistic media, are just some ways that we as an international community can come together to guarantee prevention as protection under the Women, Peace and Security agenda.听
We need to bring the full repertoire of skills and perspectives to bear in confronting the challenges of our time. We know that local women are often the first to raise the red flag about rising extremism and radicalisation; hate speech; the accumulation of small arms and light weapons; and the mobilisation and recruitment strategies of armed groups; and yet, they are the last to be heard and heeded by security stakeholders. Security policy is still a male-dominated domain, despite clear and compelling evidence linking gender equality and women鈥檚 participation with durable peace.听听听
Now is the time for unity to replace impunity. Impunity is rampant, affecting individuals, communities and whole nations, further fueled by toxic masculinity, misogyny, patriarchy, autocracy, and gender apartheid. Even when we听 prevent atrocity crimes, protection gains will not be sustainable in the absence of equality, empowerment, accountability, and the Rule of Law.听听
We must confront a better society where no military or political leader is above the law, and no woman or girl is beneath the scope of its protection. It means silencing the guns, and 鈥渦nmuting鈥� the voices of women. Peace is not a passive state; it must be proactively waged, because what is at stake for all of us is the quiet miracle of an ordinary life, a life free from violence.听听
I would urge each one of us to reflect on what we will make of this moment. 30 years later, what would we say to Laurence Niyonangira, who survived the Tutsi genocide where 37 of her relatives were killed, who has said: 鈥淭hose who killed innocent people got nothing from their crimes. No one can think about doing it again鈥�.听听
Will the injunction of 鈥�never again鈥� continue to ring hollow? Will humanitarian action and civilian protection go down in the history of ideas as a long litany of 鈥渢oo little, too late鈥�? And will international law, and the multilateral system, be able to deliver on the commitments to protect civilians from heinous and violent acts?听听听
In these uncertain times, I believe that doubt is justified, but despair is not.听 Process is not progress. Norms have no power unless they are respected, implemented, and enforced. If we are to truly meet our responsibility to protect, then none of us can rest until every woman and girl, every innocent civilian, can sleep under the cover of justice and peace.听听
Thank you.听听
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