Your Excellency Ingrida Šimonyte, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, Your Excellency Monika Navickiene, Minister of Social Security and Labour, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to begin by sincerely thanking Lithuania for its steadfast commitment to the cause of eradicating conflict-related sexual violence. Lithuania has been a powerful voice in Security Council debates on this subject, together with regional partners representing the Baltic States, and, last December, became our newest donor to the UN Action window of the Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Multi-Partner Trust Fund.
I would also like to commend Lithuania’s leading role in providing support to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine, and to those who have sought and found refuge here, following Russia’s military invasion of their homeland. Today’s conference, hosted by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, reflects the critical challenge we face in preventing the occurrence and recurrence of sexual violence with each new wave of warfare, and connecting survivors with services and redress. This is vital to the credibility of the multilateral system and rules-based international order, and of existential importance to civilians and communities in countless war-torn corners of the world.
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Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The use of rape as a tactic of war, torture, terror, and political repression has been one of the most hidden crimes in history. It has been called the ‘world’s least-condemned crime of war’ due to chronic underreporting arising from fear of reprisals, profound trauma, inadequate legal protections, lack of tailored support services, and often the absence of capacity, political will, and resources to respond. Conflict weakens national institutions, often leaving powerful perpetrators, such as military officers or heavily-armed militias, beyond the reach of the Rule of Law. Harmful social norms and cultural conditioning have led to victims being blamed, shamed, and stigmatized, perpetuating the silence that has made rape war’s ultimate ‘secret weapon’. For too long, these crimes have been considered unspeakable, unprintable, and therefore unpunishable.
Against this backdrop, my Office compiles annual Reports of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which have helped to build a public historical record of these crimes and the parties responsible. In this way, we are working to give rape its history, in order to deny it a future. The latest annual report, debated at the Security Council on 14 July, paints a grim picture of the situation across 20 diverse conflict-affected countries. It records 2,455 UN-verified cases committed in the course of 2022, 94% of them targeting women and girls; 32% affecting children. For every survivor who comes forward, humanitarians in the field estimate that 10 to 20 others are never able to reach a health clinic or service-provider.
To cite just a few examples from these reports that illustrate the gravity and severity of this scourge:
In northern Ethiopia, a young Tigrayan woman was raped by 27 Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers. Many survivors in the region have contracted HIV as a result of rape and now face a lifetime of stigma and health challenges;
In Ukraine, a 4-year-old girl was raped by a Russian soldier in front of her parents, and a 12-year-old girl, who was also raped by several Russian soldiers, is now pregnant;
In the Central African Republic, a woman was raped to death by members of an armed group, who accused her of having a relationship with a member of the national armed forces;
In Iraq, hundreds of female Yazidi survivors who returned from Da’esh captivity remain in displacement sites, grappling with chronic health and socioeconomic challenges. Children born of rape are still unable to obtain birth registration and identity documents, as Iraqi law requires proof of paternity;
In Myanmar, women political activists who protested the military coup have been sexually assaulted as a form of reprisal to silence their dissent;
In Haiti, women have been raped by gang members in front of their children after witnessing the execution of their husbands. Many victims were forced out of vehicles at gunpoint, robbed, and brutally gang-raped in broad daylight with total impunity; and
In Bosnia, we reported the case of a woman who was raped in 1995 and is still seeking justice, over a quarter of a century since the guns fell silent.
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These incidents form part of the long litany of battles fought on the bodies of women and girls.
It is in the name of victims and survivors such as these, that we gather here to find ways to ensure a more robust and effective system of prevention, protection, and assistance. The lived experience of survivors must shape the global search for solutions. After centuries of suppression and denial, we must draw attention to the ground truths, and navigate a way forward that is guided by the survivors as our moral compass.
At this moment of great global turbulence, marked by the highest number of conflicts since the Second World War, levels of forced displacement reaching a record high of 110 million displaced persons globally, increasing militarization, backlash on gender equality, and an epidemic of coups that have turned the clock further and further back on women’s rights, trendlines for conflict-related sexual violence also continue to worsen. New threats have emerged from the largely ungoverned digital space, and climate-driven displacement and insecurity have exacerbated competition for scarce resources, in turn increasing intercommunal violence, including sexual violence. We cannot allow the plight and rights of sexual violence survivors to be eclipsed beneath the shadow of deepening global crises.
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To continue to shine a spotlight on this scourge, I visited Ukraine as soon as the first reports of sexual violence surfaced last year, and returned again this March. I heard firsthand the searing stories of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian soldiers, including as a form of torture to extract confessions, and to punish and intimidate men and women in places of detention. The ages of the victims ranged from just 4 to 84 years old. Essential civilian infrastructure has been decimated, making hospitals and health clinics least accessible, just when they are needed most. I was struck not only by the occurrence of sexual violence in conflict zones, but also by the acute vulnerability of millions of women and children forced to flee. When I visited reception centers in Poland and Moldova, I witnessed first-hand the vulnerability of women and children to predatory criminal and trafficking networks, for whom the exodus is not a tragedy but an opportunity for exploitation.
In Sudan, since the conflict erupted on 15 April between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), sexual violence against displaced and refugee women and girls has dramatically increased. Last month, I visited the border area of Aweil, in South Sudan, where I met a 7-year-old girl who, after fleeing across the border with her grandmother, was raped in the refugee camp, where conditions remain crowded and precarious, and assistance is limited.
In June, I carried out an urgent mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following alarming reports of a spike in sexual violence in the east of the country due to the resumption of hostilities involving the M23 armed group. Many of the women and girls I met had been recently raped and were visibly traumatized and receiving treatment. They stressed the daily risk of sexual violence while undertaking livelihood activities around the camps, such as searching for food, or collecting wood and water. These women and girls face an impossible choice between economic subsistence and sexual violence – between their livelihoods and their lives. Another disturbing trend was the proliferation of brothels in and around IDP camps. I was shocked by the extent of sexual exploitation, including forced prostitution, into which women and girls are driven by economic desperation, simply to survive another day. We cannot underestimate the nexus between women’s physical and economic security, including food security.
In May, I visited Colombia, where historic progress is being made in terms of transitional justice. I heard from survivors of wartime sexual violence about the transformative power of official recognition, acknowledgment, and justice, including reparations and guarantees of non-repetition.
Over the past three years, the war in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, has been one of the deadliest conflicts on the planet. Sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery, mutilation, and forced pregnancy have been used as tactics of war and terror on a widespread and systematic basis. According to the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, the conflict has left more than 10,000 survivors in need of assistance and redress, yet access to the region remains severely restricted.
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Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In all of these diverse settings, conflict-related sexual violence profoundly affects the physical, psychological, sexual, and reproductive health of the victims – women, girls, men, and boys. It destroys family and community cohesion, and reduces the prospects for reconciliation and lasting peace. Its consequences echo across generations, including through the fate of children born of rape, who face stigmatization, abandonment, rejection, and heightened risks of stateless and exploitation. We must take every opportunity to recall that being born of a crime is no crime.
While for centuries looting, pillage, and rape were a pervasive trilogy of wartime terror – with the capture of women, territory, and resources, considered well within the rules and customs of ancient warfare – today, the prohibition on sexual violence is clear and categorical. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognized that sexual violence can, depending on the elements of the offense, constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, and/or a constituent act of genocide.
Building on the firm foundations of international law, in 2008, the Security Council recognized that sexual violence, including when used as a tactic of war, can threaten international security, and impede the restoration of peace. In 2009, the Council established my mandate through the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1888. The most recent resolution in this series, resolution 2467 of 2019, marked a turning point by recognizing for the first time the need to adopt a ‘survivor-centered approach’ that respects survivors’ rights, needs, and wishes, and ensures their full and meaningful participation in policy and decision-making processes.
In the 15 years since the advent of this agenda, significant progress has been made, including a radical shift in paradigm and perspective. Sexual violence is no longer considered an ‘inevitable by-product of war’ or mere ‘collateral damage’, but rather a serious crime of international concern that is preventable and punishable. This shift has given peace and security actors new roles and responsibilities, and survivors new avenues for accountability and action. It has engaged core security stakeholders, including those responsible for imposing sanctions on perpetrators; framing the mandate authorizations of peacekeeping and special political missions; sponsoring peace talks; monitoring the implementation of ceasefire agreements; establishing Commissions of Inquiry and hybrid tribunals; and referring situations to the International Criminal Court. Crimes of sexual violence have become an integral part of international criminal investigations, as well as the pre-deployment training of peacekeepers, who are now taught to detect, deter, and respond to sexual violence as part of core operational readiness standards. Today, the United Nations system is reaching and supporting thousands of survivors who had once been invisible and inaccessible.
Through effective partnerships with national authorities, civil society organizations, grassroots practitioners, service-providers, and survivors themselves, it is possible to deliver justice, protection, and assistance to help rebuild lives and livelihoods in the wake of these crimes.
But fundamentally, the promise expressed by the Security Council in its resolutions is prevention: namely, a commitment to bring all tools to bear to end the seemingly endless cycles of sexual violence, impunity, and revenge.
It is therefore critical to harness the preventive power of the Rule of Law and build the capacity of national institutions to guard against the risk of ‘rule of lawlessness’. Until we raise the costs and consequences of committing, commanding, or condoning sexual violence, we will never stem the tide of brutality. Sanctions, if applied in a timely and targeted manner, can change the calculus of parties that operate on the assumption that rape is ‘cost-free’ – or even profitable – in the political economy of war, in which women are trafficked, traded, and sold. Today, we know more than ever before about the dynamics and drivers of sexual violence, and the interventions required by survivors. It is essential to ground prevention efforts in this enhanced understanding, which is reflected in the Prevention Strategy that my Office launched in September 2022, and is working to disseminate and roll-out in the field.
Our singular focus now must be to bridge the gap between resolutions and realities, between our highest aspirations and operations on the ground. We must ensure full implementation of existing frameworks, while adapting our actions to the continually changing face of war, including threats arising from the largely ungoverned digital space, from climate-related insecurity, and from the new array of battlefield actors, including mercenaries and private military and security companies.
Despite the progress made, sexual violence remains an unremitting reality in our headlines, not just our history books. This is largely due to the fact that impunity remains the norm, and accountability the rare exception.
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When I first took up this office in 2017, I set out three strategic priorities for my mandate, which remain as valid and urgent as ever:
Firstly, to convert cultures of impunity into cultures of prevention and deterrence through justice and accountability;
Secondly, to address structural gender-based inequality as the root cause and invisible driver of sexual violence; and
Thirdly, to foster national ownership and leadership for a sustainable, holistic, and survivor-centered response that empowers civil society and women’s rights defenders.
Every year that I have served as Special Representative, the number of Member States requesting our assistance has increased, and the geographical scope of the mandate has expanded. And yet, the level of human and financial resources allocated to this agenda has not kept pace. Unless our rhetoric is matched with resources, we risk merely paying lip-service to this urgent issue. Both my Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and UN Action coordination network are compelled to rely solely on voluntary contributions, despite ever-growing demands.
Survivors need more than our solidarity. They need tangible support in the form of services, justice, reparations, socioeconomic reintegration, as well as significant investments in structural prevention.
United action in this area will show survivors that their lives matter, and will signal to perpetrators – past and potential – that the world is watching. In terms of the way forward, we must continue to support gender-responsive justice and security sector reform; to strengthen holistic, multi-sectoral services; to curtail the flow of small arms and light weapons; and to scale-up political and diplomatic engagements to address sexual violence in ceasefire and peace agreements.
While the consistent, rigorous prosecution of these crimes can translate into deterrence, lack of political will to enforce the law sends the opposite signal, emboldening perpetrators and demoralizing survivors, by implying it is futile, and even dangerous, to report. Unpunished crime is repeated crime. And we know that sexual violence offences have the highest global rates of impunity and recidivism. Sexual violence attacks the physical integrity and agency of survivors. The goal must therefore be to empower them at every step. A safe and supportive environment is foundational to enabling survivors to come forward. This entails meeting basic needs, such as safe shelter, food security, medical care, sexual and reproductive healthcare, trauma counselling, and psychosocial support, as well as livelihood and reintegration assistance. Adequate material assistance can double as a form of protection, in terms of reducing exposure to risk and exploitation.
During the recent United Nations General Assembly, my Office convened an event focused on strengthening each link in the justice chain, from safe and ethical documentation at point of service-delivery, including the collection of medical and forensic evidence, to investigation, law enforcement, prosecution, corrections, compensation, remedies, and reintegration support. The justice chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We must therefore mobilize concerted, multistakeholder action to replace impunity with unity. This begins with breaking the chains of silence and denial that have sentenced survivors to life-long trauma, fear, and ostracism, while the perpetrators walk free.
Where there is political will, backed by credible, capable national institutions, meaningful change is possible. By building effective systems, and fostering synergy of action, we can create an environment that both inhibits sexual violence in the first instance, and enables survivors to safely report and seek redress in its wake. It is our action or inaction now that will determine whether future generations are spared from this scourge.
I will continue, in my advocacy role, to galvanize the international community to give this cause the attention and investment it deserves. We must spare no effort to ensure that the stories I have shared here today, of horror and heartache, will be replaced by a new chapter of history, one of healing and hope.
Thank you.