In July of last year, on the occasion of the 1st International Conference, we came together in Seoul to deliver on the promise of Security Council resolution 2467 (2019), which called for a survivor-centered approach to inform all prevention and response efforts. Such an approach recognizes that survivors are not just stories or statistics; they bring lived experience that must inform the search for solutions, including decisions about policy, programming, and resource allocation.
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This is an approach that empowers survivors by prioritizing their rights, needs and aspirations, and safeguards them from re-traumatization or reprisals. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, women鈥檚 rights and needs cannot be put on pause, and neither can our response.
Last year in Seoul, I outlined the major advances of the past decade to combat sexual violence as a tactic of war and terror, a tool of political repression, and a driver of forced displacement. These include: the evolution of a robust normative framework; the establishment of effective institutional arrangements; and enhanced operational impact, which has enabled us to reach and support thousands of survivors who had once been invisible and inaccessible. I took stock of the range of commitments made by affected countries, and a number of non- State armed groups, in the framework of my mandate. 聽These followed political engagements and field missions to settings such as the Central African Republic, the DRC, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
One year on, where do our efforts stand? Recent months have seen a number of significant developments, including a convergence of milestone anniversaries.
In October 2019, I commemorated the 10-year anniversary of my mandate by holding a Survivors鈥� Hearing at United Nations Headquarters, in the spirit of bridging political leaders on the world stage with frontline actors in theatres of war, and connecting the treetops of high diplomacy with women at the grassroots. This event demonstrated that our greatest models of political courage are often those who have the least access to power and resources, and face the highest risks.
One survivor, who spoke at the event, an indigenous woman from Guatemala, said: 鈥淲e do not want history to repeat itself. We are working for progress, so that our children and grandchildren never have to experience what we suffered鈥�. A survivor of ISIL captivity from Iraq said: 鈥淭hese criminals were not held accountable…I described their faces, I gave their names…but they were not prosecuted. I feel fear knowing that they are still free鈥�. A survivor from the DRC noted that: 鈥淲e often hear that educating a woman is educating the whole nation. But have we understood that destroying a woman means destroying the whole community?鈥� In shaping my agenda, I stand guided by their perspectives, and will continue to amplify their voices.
This year on 19 June, we marked the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict with a commemoration focused on the impact of COVID-19 and how 蘑菇视频 actors in the field have adapted and innovated to meet this challenge.
Three key recommendations emerged, which remain urgent in the COVID era and its aftermath:
鈥� Firstly, all parties to conflict must immediately cease all forms of sexual violence, as part of the Secretary-General鈥檚call for a global ceasefire;
鈥� Secondly, sexual and gender-based violence response聽services must be designated as essential services, in order to prevent their de-prioritization and de-funding; and
鈥� Thirdly, efforts to address sexual and gender-based violence should be integrated into national COVID-19 response plans, including proactive measures to broadcast information to the most vulnerable.
Women鈥檚 groups around the world were among the first to echo the call for a global ceasefire to focus on public health. Yet, we continue to invest far more in the instruments of war, than the聽foundations of peace and human welfare.
This October, we marked the 20th anniversary of the foundational resolution on Women, Peace and Security: resolution 1325 (2000). The adoption of this framework forever changed the face of peace and security. It forced us to recognize that no crisis is gender neutral, and no effective response can be聽gender-blind. This framework not only set out a problem, but also presented a transformative solution. It recognized that inclusive peace is sustainable peace. It recognized that gender equality bolsters social stability, whereas sexual violence聽normalizes and entrenches aggression, setting back both the cause of equality and the cause of peace. On this occasion, the emphasis was rightly placed on accelerating implementation: turning aspirations into obligations and resolutions into results.
In 2020, we also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the 75th anniversary of the United Nations itself, with its founding Charter promise of equality between women and men. These occasions brought into focus many areas of 鈥榰nfinished business鈥� 鈥� such as gender-responsive security sector reform, access to justice and reparations, comprehensive service-delivery, and shifting harmful social norms around stigma, shame and victim-blame. It also became clear: we cannot be bound by 鈥榖usiness as usual鈥�.
Building back better in the wake of this crisis will require an inclusive, intersectional, and gender-informed approach that leaves no one behind. This will mean considering the diverse realities of refugees and IDPs, ethnic minorities, indigenous and rural communities, people living with disabilities, LGBTQI individuals, and other marginalized groups, while restoring faith in national institutions and in multilateral cooperation.
As abhorrent and anachronistic as it sounds, sexual violence and sexual slavery persist as part of 21st Century wars. Spoilers to the peace continue to treat women鈥檚 bodies as the spoils of war. Rape is still characterized by staggering rates of impunity and recidivism, which breeds further violence, and corrodes social cohesion.
It is time to move from commitments to compliance. It is time to ensure survivors can shape their own future, and participate fully in political, economic and social life.
Yet, as I have seen firsthand in remote, war-torn corners of the world, too many women and girls remain unsafe under their own roofs when night falls. As former United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan said so rousingly in 1997, in calling for the establishment of an International Criminal Court: 鈥淲e will do our part, and ask that you do yours, in the struggle to ensure that no ruler, no State, no junta, and no army anywhere can abuse human rights with impunity. Only then will the innocents of distant wars and conflicts know that they, too, may sleep under the cover of justice鈥�.
Let us join hands, and join forces, to bring that vision into reality for survivors of wartime sexual violence everywhere.
Thank you.
Tuesday, 24 November 2020
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