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1. Introduction

• Thank you for attending today’s briefing and for your interest in covering this critical, but too often silenced, subject.

• This is my first mission to South Sudan, and I came as part of a United Nations – African Union solidarity visit led by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed. Given that South Sudan is one of the priority countries for my Office, I remained for 3 additional days following the departure of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ-AU team, to engage all the key stakeholders on the mandate for which I am responsible, namely prevention of conflict-related sexual violence.

• I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of South Sudan for receiving me and my team at this critical moment in the peace dialogue. When we talk about peace, we have to remind ourselves that durable peace depends on stopping conflict-related sexual violence as well as bringing justice and redress to survivors. We cannot afford to view this issue as a collateral consideration to the peace process.

• The basis for my visit is the Joint Communique signed by President Salva Kiir and my predecessor in the role of Special Representative, which outlines a number of prevention and response measures to address conflict-related sexual violence.

2. Mandate and Strategic Priorities

• I assumed office as United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, appointed by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in June of last year.

• My mandate, which is from the United Nations Security Council and outlined in resolutions 1820, 1888, 1960 and 2106, is to serve as a high-level political advocate, and to provide coherent and strategic leadership in the global effort to prevent and address conflict-related sexual violence.

• My role is to engage with parties to conflict to prevent sexual violence. It is also to give a voice to the survivors, who often suffer in silence and shame. One of my strategic priorities, therefore, is to adopt a ‘survivor-centered approach’ in all aspects of this work. I also believe it essential to convert the prevailing culture of impunity for crimes of sexual violence into a culture of prevention and deterrence through justice and accountability. Thirdly, in order to eradicate this crime once and for all, I believe it necessary to address its root causes, which incliudes gender inequality and discrimination.

3. Purpose of the Visit and Engagements

• The purpose of my visit to South Sudan is to better understand the nature, patterns and trends of sexual violence related to the conflict, and also to support the Government, United Nations system and other stakeholders in the implementation of the concrete commitments outlined in the Joint Communique to which I have referred. These commitments include accountability through the prosecution of perpetrators, as well as ensuring that the health and other critical services that survivors require and deserve, are met.

• During the course of my visit, I met with senior government officials, including Minister in the Presidency and the Ministers of Justice, Defense and Gender; the Deputy Chief of Defense Forces and a group of his senior officers responsible for Military justice, operations, intelligence communications and administration; and the Inspector General of Police and his senior team. I also met with international and national NGO representatives and civil society, the South Sudan Council of Churches and Islamic Council, as well as Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ agencies and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵMISS leadership.

• I visited POC sites in Malakal and Juba speaking with women and girls who survived sexual violence and who are still living in situations of acute vulnerability inside and outside the camps.

• I also heard directly from caseworkers and other service-providers about the overwhelming challenges they face in meeting the needs of women and girls who bear the profound physical and psychological scars of war.

4. Preliminary Findings

• Even though I had constructive discussions with the national authorities in which they acknowledged ‘massive sexual violence’ and reaffirmed their commitment to address this problem, the situation remains dire for women and girls. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are a consistent feature of the conflict, and have been used as a war tactic.

• The most recent attacks in Unity between 16 April and 24 May, exemplify the scope and character of sexual violence in the South Sudan conflict, including abduction and rapes or gang-rapes of women and girls, including pregnant women, lactating mothers and girls as young as four years old.

• I met survivors in Juba who described the sexual violence they had endured between 2013 and 2017. Their experiences had similar characteristics: many of them were stopped at checkpoints, when they left camps or homesteads to collect firewood or find food; they were raped by multiple soldiers, and often left wounded. Out of shame, they did not seek medical assistance. Some of these abuses happened five years ago, yet to this date, due to the lack of adequate care, they suffer the physical and psychological trauma from their abuse.

• All of the women I spoke with said that they wanted to see the perpetrators punished. They all- without exception – demanded justice.

• I also met with service providers, who stressed the enormous stigma that obscures the reality that men and boys also experience rape. This was confirmed by doctors during my visit to the Juba Teaching Hospital.

• Sexual violence in South Sudan, on which the United Nations has reported consistently since 2012, is being perpetrated by all the parties to the conflict, and has assumed a clear and deadly ethnic character.

5. Preliminary Observations and Recommendations

• Against this backdrop, it must be recognized that sexual and gender-based violence services are life-saving. From the service providers I heard that there is a massive gap and challenge in terms of access to services especially in remote areas, exacerbated by the conflict. Service providers face tremendous challenges to reach deep field locations including due to extortion by armed actors. Those that report sexual violence, can face threats, intimidation or even attacks.

• A central aspect of our overall strategy to address sexual violence in South Sudan must be to secure and nurture the space for civil society. I intend to establish a civil society advisory group for South Sudan to guide our action, and to serve as a ‘guarantor’ and ‘arbiter’ of progress by the national authorities and other stakeholders.

• Addressing the stigma of sexual violence is one of the most pressing priorities, one for which every stakeholder bears responsibility and has a role to play. Victims may survive rape, but succumb to the stigma that follows in its wake – dying from the immediate wounds of such attacks; from HIV/AIDS, fistula and other health complications; or from sheer poverty as they are ostracized in their communities losing access to means of livelihood. I believe that traditional and religious leaders, and communities of faith, have a special and indispensable role to play to help to shift stigma from the survivors to the perpetrators, where it belongs. To ensure that the survivors are embraced, not shamed and shunned, in their communities.

• Sexual violence is fueled and exacerbated by impunity on a massive scale; hence addressing impunity is an immediate priority. The resolve of the national authorities to secure peace and ensure accountability for sexual violence – which was expressed by President Kiir in his meeting with the Deputy Secretary-General, and to me personally by all the Government officials, police and military leaders whom I met – represents a light of hope. Everywhere we see that the first impediment to eradicating this crime is a deep-seated culture of denial that often surrounds it. Therefore, I was encouraged by the determination expressed by national authorities at the highest level. But ‘actions speak louder than words’, and my message to the national authorities is that the United Nations and International community stands ready to support with technical expertise and resources if the intent to ensure accountability is serious and genuine. We can begin, for instance, by mapping the most serious incidents of sexual violence that have occurred, and selecting a number of emblematic cases for prosecution. In this regard, the Terain Hotel case represents an important ‘mile-marker’ on the road to addressing systematic impunity, and I urge the authorities to deliver the judgment expeditiously.

• Ensuring justice and accountability requires the strengthening of key aspects of the legal framework, and capacity building of the civil and military justice systems. In addition, certain realities of the traditional justice system, which prevails in many parts of South Sudan due to the absence of formal courts, must also be addressed. This includes the adjudication of crimes of sexual violence by traditional leaders in ways that further devastates victims, including the pronouncement of a ‘life-long sentence’ on survivors as they are compelled to marry perpetrators as a form of ‘compensation’ to families. The Ministry of Justice must enforce existing legislation which provides that rape should not be dealt with by traditional courts.

• The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) and South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) have been listed among the worst perpetrators by the Secretary-General in his annual report on conflict-related since 2013. The SPLA and SSNPS leadership expressed to me their committment to address sexual violence being perpetrated by their forces, which is the condition for their de-listing. We have agreed that my Office will deploy a technical team in the coming weeks, to work with senior focal points in SPLA and SSNPS to finalize and launch their action plans to prevent these crimes.

• In addition, I call on SPLA-IO, who are also listed by the Secretary-General, to live up to the commitments as out lined in the unilateral Communique to Prevent Sexual Violence issued by Dr. Riek Machar in 2014. I acknowledge some of the progress that SPLA-IO made in implementing the Communique, until the renewed crisis of 2016. My Office stands ready to re-engage with the leadership of SPLA-IO, to support the implementation of specific measures as outlined in their Communique, which are in line with Security Council resolution 2106.

6. What do the women want?

During all my field visits — from the Middle East, to Asia, Europe and Africa — I always ask the survivors what they want. The women and girls I spoke with were crystal clear on the South Sudan they want:

– They demand not only peace, but that it be durable. Therefore, the negotiating parties must not only ‘speak the words of peace’, they must act in good faith and conscience to make peace a lasting reality.

– They want a seat and a voice and at the peace table, in order to shape the future of South Sudan for their children according to their vision of security, community healing and prosperity.

– They want justice, as a means to ensure that sexual violence will never again happen in their land; and, they want reparations for the heinous crimes that have been committed against them, because it is what they deserve and require to pick up the pieces of their lives

These demands and aspirations must form an integral part of any peace agreement.

• Finally, the men and boys of South Sudan bear a special responsibility, to mobilize as champions, to stand-up-and-be-counted in what is an existential battle for the protection and dignity of their mothers, sisters and daughters. Therefore, this is also a ‘call-to-arms’ to men and boys.

Thank you all for being here, I will be pleased to take your questions.

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