By Jane Morse
Violence against women is not cultural but criminal, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the United Nations Security Council, and she hailed the decision of the council to unanimously adopt a resolution to protect women in conflict situations.
Clinton chaired the Security Council session September 30 when it adopted Resolution 1888, which outlines actions the United Nations and member states can take to prevent conflict-related sexual violence.
"The challenge of sexual violence in conflict cannot and should not be separated from the broader security issues confronting this council," Clinton said. "It is time for all of us to assume our responsibility to go beyond condemning this behavior, to taking concrete steps to end it, to make it socially unacceptable, to recognize it is not cultural - it is criminal."
Among the steps called for by Resolution 1888 are:
- The appointment of a special representative to lead efforts to end conflict-related sexual violence against women and children.
- The creation of a team of experts to help governments in preventing conflict-related sexual violence, strengthening civilian and military justice systems and enhancing aid to victims.
- Reports by U.N. peacekeeping missions to the Security Council about the prevalence of sexual violence.
- Consideration by the U.N. Security Council of patterns of sexual violence during the process of adopting or targeting sanctions.
- The inclusion of women's protection advisers in peacekeeping operations where it is appropriate, as determined by the U.N. secretary-general.
- The submission of annual reports by the secretary-general on the implementation of this resolution as well as more systematic reporting on conflict-related sexual violence.
Conflict-related sexual violence against women and children has been widespread and continues in many areas around the world. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, approximately 1,100 rapes are being reported each month, with an average of 36 women and girls raped every day, and the perpetrators frequently mutilate the women in the course of the attacks.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women reported that in Rwanda, up to half a million women were raped during the 1994 genocide. The numbers were approximately 60,000 in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s; in Sierra Leone, the number of incidents of war-related sexual violence among internally displaced women from 1991 to 2001 was approximately 64,000.
Addressing the council on September 30, U.N. Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon decried the targeting of civilians in conflict and said Resolution 1888 is "an ambitious platform" for intensifying the struggle against violence against women. "Sexual violence in armed conflict or, indeed, at any time, should have no place and find no haven in the world," he said.
The Obama administration has taken a strong stand to protect women, having appointed special advisers to advocate women's issues at home and abroad. Clinton, addressing female heads of state September 24, made it clear that women's issues will be "a centerpiece of my term as secretary of state."
In a statement released shortly after the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1888, President Obama applauded its language, saying it sends an "unequivocal message" that "violence against women and children will not be tolerated and must be stopped."
BEYOND U.N. RESOLUTIONS
Clinton urged the U.N. Security Council to take additional steps beyond those recommended in Resolution 1888 and others aimed at protecting women and children.
Protecting women and children should be a critical priority for all U.N. peacekeeping troops, she said. "To reflect this, new and renewed peacekeeping mandates should include language condemning sexual violence and giving further guidance to peacekeeping missions to work with local authority to end it," she said.
"We must seek to ensure that our respective military and police forces, especially those who will participate in peacekeeping missions, develop the expertise to prevent and respond to violence against women and children. And this will be helped by increasing the number of women who serve in U.N. peacekeeping missions," the secretary of state said. Clinton said that when she recently visited the U.N. mission in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she was impressed at how well integrated it was, with women representing every country.
"Let us not forget," she added, "that it is often women who lead the call for peace in communities shattered by violence. We have seen women in this role - from Liberia, to Rwanda, to Northern Ireland, to Guatemala. Even when they suffer terrible losses in conflict they had no part in starting, women have the will to reach across divisions, find common ground and foster understanding. As they speak peace, so must we, by making sure they are part of all efforts."
Clinton urged U.N. member states to ensure that their foreign assistance programs include measures to prevent and respond to violence against women and children and to ensure that women are included in designing and implementing those programs.
