Statements

I welcome the news that a Guinean court has filed charges against Lieutenant Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara for the atrocities including mass rapes that took place in Conakry on 28 September 2009. Lieutenant Colonel Camara, Director of the National Agency for the Fight against Drug Trafficking, Crime, and Terrorism, is the highest-ranking official yet to be charged for his role in the massacre. Justice in Guinea has been delayed, but this signals that it cannot be denied.

Your Excellencies, In the past, it has been said that women’s concerns are ‘cultural’, while men’s concerns are ‘political’. Accordingly, rape has been regarded as private and cultural, rather than criminal and political. The Great Lakes Conference, however, treats women’s rights and the prevention of sexual violence as central to its peace, security and development interests.

It has been brought to my attention that militia commander Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, indicted for crimes of sexual violence and with an active arrest warrant issued by Congolese authorities in January 2011, has recently been campaigning for elections in Walikale. This is completely unacceptable.

Today, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I ask people to stand in solidarity with the survivors of sexual violence in conflict throughout the world.

As part of an official visit to West Africa, I am currently in Sierra Leone -- a post-conflict country -- to gather a better understanding of how sexual violence during the war has influenced the society after the guns have fallen silent.

Two years ago, the atrocities including mass rapes perpetrated against peaceful protesters in Guinea-Conakry by security forces shocked the world. Its legacy is far from over. There remains today an urgent need to assist the survivors and bring the perpetrators to justice.

I am deeply concerned about allegations that Congolese migrants continue to be the targets of serious human rights violations as they are expelled from Angola. These allegations include rape, beatings, looting and torture by security forces of the Government of Angola. The most recent incidents would have occurred in the village of Tshiambi in the Republic of Angola between 4 and 7 October 2011 along the common border with Kasai Occidental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

I welcome the conviction today of Sasa Baricanin, who has finally been brought to justice for acts of rape, murder and enslavement. Yet 16 years after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is still no justice for the vast majority of the tens of thousands of women who were subject to sexual violence. To date, there have been just 30 convictions in response to an estimated 50,000 rapes during the years of war. While it is a positive step that the War Crimes Court in Sarajevo has reached this verdict, the pace of justice for sexual violence survivors has been painfully slow.

I warmly congratulate the three laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize today. President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen are amazing women leaders, whose work continues to motivate us all. If only three of the world’s women can achieve all they have, imagine what can be done if half of the world’s population is allowed the rights women are entitled to.

Two years ago today, the massacre of peaceful protesters by security forces in Guinea-Conakry shocked the world. Women were particular targets of the violence. Dozens of public rapes and gang-rapes of women in broad daylight dramatically showed that sexual violence is not only a weapon in times of war. Whether it serves as a tactic of conflict or part of the repertoire of political repression, the effect is the same: to silence, intimidate and punish the victims.