Statement at the International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond

Brussels

Distinguished guests,

It is my honour to be here with all of you today.

I would like to thank the Government of Belgium and Mr. Armand De Decker, Minister for Development Cooperation, and his colleagues, and the European Commission for sponsoring this Symposium and for your commitment to this issue. This commitment is highlighted by Belgium’s support for the first national comprehensive integrated response to sexual violence in a conflict country, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is an historic event. We are gathered here for good reason: to strengthen the prevention and response to sexual violence against women in conflict and beyond. We are here today to ensure that we collectively promote zero tolerance of all forms of violence against women, including violence in conflicts.

This violence is occurring on a massive scale in conflict and post-conflict situations around the world and our response has to be commensurate to the problem. In every region—from Liberia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Colombia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from the Central African Republic to Palestine, from Indonesia to Sierra Leone, from Rwanda to Uganda, and from Sudan to Mozambique—the list goes on and on—women and many men are demanding that we unite and stand firm against injustice, building on the work that is being done by all of us, so we can take the response to the next level.

We must tap into the networks and resources of each of our respective organizations and all governments to build an effective and coherent response.

Present for this Symposium are many people from governments and civil society from conflict countries, who have come from far and wide, and who have been working hard, in many different sectors to support women and children as they heal and to bring offenders to justice. We also have our colleagues from the United Nations sister agencies, whose work is to support you in your own efforts.

Your work and your experiences are critical for justice, peace, reconciliation and the health of people and societies. We want to hear from you about your thoughts and actions, so we can better work together to end this violation of human rights as well as support survivors of gender-based violence. This symposium is about YOU and it belongs to YOU. You have to tell us how you want us to go forward together. And I hope this will be the heart of the Call to Action that is produced by this Symposium.

We are here because we believe that together we can make a difference and together we will.

We know that all forms of violence against women in conflict is an issue that has been neglected throughout history. But we are living in the 21st century where principles of human rights are the cornerstone of all conflict resolution, peace and development efforts. Our current inability to protect the health and welfare of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings represents a human rights failure of global proportions.

But things ARE changing. They are changing when a president raises this issue in an inaugural address, as Africa’s first woman President, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, did in Liberia. Things are changing when people ranging from Attorney Generals to grassroots activists, from military and police officers to Ministers of Health, are here this week to share their experiences and to build coalitions to do more.

We need action.

We have guidelines. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Affairs has produced comprehensive guidelines to address the problem in all its manifestations—from the medical management of sexual violence to psychosocial counseling and reintegration, to the collection of evidence and prosecution of perpetrators, and to shaping legal reform.

We need a sustained, multisectoral response that has good services and good programming. We need solid technical support; we need data so that we know the scope of this crime and the different needs, so that we can address them with consistent and sustained resources- human, institutional and financial.

We need stronger action for prevention—this covers many areas from curtailing the trade in small arms to protecting women as they gather food and firewood, to designing safe shelters and camps, and to promoting good governance and the rule of law. And in the United Nations, we need enforcement of the code of conduct against sexual abuse and exploitation.

We have the political framework provided in the historic Security Council resolution 1325. And now we need political will and leadership and certainly sustained action.

Political will is needed to ensure that women and girls receive real protection from gender-based violence and abuse in their homes and communities, in refugee and internally displaced persons’ camps as well as in disarmament and demobilization cantonment areas.

It is absolutely essential that police, security, judges, lawyers, peacekeeping and humanitarian personnel be trained to recognize and respond to gender-based violence. It is critical that all sectors work together in a complementary approach to produce an environment that stops the victimization of women, that is supportive of the survivors, that facilitates communities´ and families´ understanding and support for the re-integration of survivors of sexual violence in a collective healing process, and that empowers each survivor to take hold of her destiny to embark again on a new life.

Peace and security and humanitarian response remain male-dominated arenas and greater progress will be made in addressing the urgent crisis of gender-based violence if we have more women at all levels and especially in decision-making positions.

It is urgent that survivors of sexual violence receive quality reproductive health services to address the horrifying violence they have endured. It is a tragedy when a woman is raped but it is a double tragedy when the rape leads to HIV infection. And this must be urgently addressed.

Together we must ensure implementation of the minimum initial service package for reproductive health services, considered by all to be the basic standard of care in emergency situations.

There has been significant progress in the past few years in working closely with uniformed services to prevent gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. But much more needs to be done.

Together, we must take steps to ensure that incidents of such violence are recorded and evidence is gathered and preserved.

We must increase access to legal services and psychosocial services that can provide survivors with psychological help and social support for their rehabilitation and reintegration.

We must work together to provide support to communities and families of women survivors of sexual violence so that they themselves become part of the healing process and facilitate the re-integration of women among them, with full understanding of suffering and a commitment to support women as they move forward with their lives.

We must provide effective training programmes for health personnel on how to care for victims of sexual violence, and we must ensure that local organizations and women’s groups are actively involved.

We must take action to implement programmes aimed at the public, and community leaders, to fight stigma and discrimination associated with sexual violence. We must also take action to empower women and girls not only so that they can seek help and adequate support, but so they have more resources to break free from the cycles of violence that oppress them.

In post-conflict settings, we must recognize that unless economies are rehabilitated quickly, and unless women have livelihoods, they will face continuing vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, whether in the family or the larger community.

And greater political will is needed to bring the perpetrators of gender-based violence to justice.

We must do more to end impunity because this massive and systematic violation of human rights will continue as long as perpetrators remain free and have no fear of facing the consequences of the crimes they have committed. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court offers a vehicle to prosecute these war crimes and crimes against humanity.

All of these measures require immediate and sustained resources – human, institutional and financial- so that they constitute a routine and systemic response. UNFPA is committed to building on the systems and processes that are in place and pushing for stronger action and increased resources. Today most proposals to address gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict situations, both through the consolidated appeals process and transition frameworks, continue to go unfunded by the donor community, and women are paying the price.

Let me conclude by repeating what I said earlier in this statement. This conference is about you, the countries that are in conflict or post-conflict situations. We, the UN family, working together in a coherent way, are committed to working with all of you, with governments and non-governmental organizations, to support you as you implement the Brussels Call to Action, which I hope will be adopted by this Symposium.

We hope that in the coming two days we will learn from each other and have a clear plan to scale up our response and support. Working in silos, and in fragmented and competing initiatives, will only contribute to further weakening the response. I look forward to collective leadership, with each partner providing support according to what it can do best, with an open and transparent flow of information, and a truly focused vision and plan on supporting country and regional level actions with the necessary institutional, human and financial resources.

This is not an agenda for personal or institutional visibility; it is an agenda for a collective commitment to prevent and respond to violence against women in conflict and beyond. Working together is the only way forward.

I thank you.