Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess
Royal Highnesses
President of the Parliament
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Champion for the Fight Against Sexual Violence in Conflict
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Friends,
Thank you for gathering here this evening to help shine a spotlight on a subject that has been called “history’s greatest silence” and the “world’s least-condemned war crime” – the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence.
This is a crime that is difficult, and in many parts of the world, dangerous to openly discuss. Throughout history, it has been the crime of war that no world leader wanted to confront. Rather than face this painful truth – which lays bare the horrors and human costs of conflict – it was shrouded in a conspiracy of silence: dismissed as “an inevitable by-product of war”, “the spoils of the conqueror”, or mere “collateral damage”. As a result, the perpetrators were shielded from justice, and the survivors were side-lined. The plight and rights of women were accordingly omitted from official records of war and peace.
Yet today, we are here in the knowledge that nothing in human history can be changed, that is not first confronted. In that spirit, Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has refused to shy away from the harsh reality of women’s bodies being used as part of the battlefield. She has refused to turn a blind eye to the countless cases that go uncounted, and unaccounted for. She has recognized that silence kills. Stigma kills. Shame, isolation, abandonment, and untreated trauma shatter lives and livelihoods. Her Royal Highness reminds us that every survivor counts. She has sounded the alarm that indignation is not enough, and inaction is not an option, when innocent lives are at stake.
Chère Maria, c’est une noble cause à laquelle vous adhérez. Je vous félicite d’avoir choisi pour mission la lutte contre les violences sexuelles liées aux conflits. Merci de me soutenir dans mon combat contre les violences sexuelles dans les conflits qui est un combat contre l’impunité et de prêter votre voix à ce plaidoyer. La violence sexuelle dans les conflits, qu’elle soit à l’égard des femmes ou des hommes, des filles ou des garçons, est inacceptable. Le silence doit être brisé. Nous ne pouvons pas rester indifférents quand une cruauté aussi répandue est infligée à des innocents.
Today we gather because we know that these crimes and their perpetrators must be kept in the spotlight of international scrutiny. Equally, the survivors must be seen by their societies – their neighbours and governments alike – as the holders of rights that will, ultimately, be respected and enforced. Instead of standing by as lives are broken by silence, it is time to stand up for survivors and empower them to break the walls of silence that surround them. This starts with knowing they are not alone. As advocates, it is our sacred duty to remind the world that these crimes attack our collective conscience and our common humanity.
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I am here in Luxembourg to honour the conviction and commitment so powerfully demonstrated – in word and deed – by a leading advocate of this cause, Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess, and to launch a new chapter in our collaboration. This builds upon my last official visit to Luxembourg in March 2019, to participate in a landmark international forum hosted by Her Royal Highness as part of her signature initiative known as “Stand, Speak, Rise Up to End Sexual Violence in Fragile Environments”. This was no ordinary forum. It was an exercise in empathy, solidarity, and in giving survivors centre stage to be heard by policy-makers and members of the donor and diplomatic community. It exemplified the survivor-centred approach, which I have also made a priority of my mandate since I took office in 2017, by ensuring that first-hand, front-line perspectives inform the search for solutions. The reflections and debate at the 2019 forum were centred on, and shaped by, the experience of survivors, to enhance their influence in global decision-making.
This forum, which brought together over 1,200 participants, including 50 survivors of wartime sexual violence, marked the beginning, not the end, of the “Stand, Speak, Rise Up” initiative. It has since become an association that funds tangible projects in conflict-affected settings. For instance, in 2020, through the Fondation du Grand-Duc et de la Grande-Duchesse, funding was provided to a project aimed to economically empower survivors of gender-based violence in Somalia. This project has provided more than 40 survivors with skills training and start-up funds to initiate income-generation schemes.
Altesse Royale, en tant que nouvelle voix sur la scène, vous avez les moyens de changer la vie des milliers de femmes et de filles. Je vous félicite de l’audace dont vous faites preuve en cherchant à attirer l’attention politique sur la question et à agir concrètement en faveur d’une approche centrée sur les survivantes les plus exclues et les plus vulnérables.
Her Royal Highness has also long been a staunch supporter of women’s economic empowerment, girls’ education, and the use of innovative microcredit tools to fight the feminization of poverty, including as a UNICEF Eminent Advocate since 2007 and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 1997. She has helped to make visible the invisible roots of violence, namely discrimination, harmful social norms and stereotypes, and systems built on gender-based asymmetries of power. It is clear that women can have no physical security without economic security. It is also clear that violence begins in the mind: we must demobilize the misogynistic mindsets that breed extremism and normalize gender-based violence.
Chère Maria, en utilisant votre plateforme de Grande Duchesse, comme «voix des sans-voix», vous pouvez lutter contre des préjugés profondément enracinés en vous opposant à la stigmatisation de ces groupes vulnérables.
Je sais que la presse présente ici cet après-midi vous posera certainement la question « mais pourquoi ce combat? ». C’est aussi la question que je vous ai posé quand on s’est rencontrée pour la première fois au Pays Bas en 2018. Chère Maria, je me souviendrai toujours de votre réponse qui fut une citation de Mme Eleanor Roosevelt, première dame des États-Unis, qui a aussi été une championne infatigable de diverses causes de justice sociale, et qui avait dit: « Rester à l’écart n’est pas une solution. C’est une lâche évasion ».
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This evening, it is my great honor and pleasure, on behalf of the United Nations and my Office, to name Her Royal Highness, Maria Teresa, a ‘Global Champion for the Fight Against Sexual Violence in Conflict”. I extend this nomination in tribute to the commitment and dynamism with which she has taken up this cause and worked to accelerate action. She is a true humanitarian who has always made the choice of service. As Global Champion, Her Royal Highness will dedicate particular attention to the critical issue of improving service-delivery for survivors. She will lend her voice to calls for enhanced resourcing for comprehensive, quality service-provision, as part of efforts to foster an enabling environment in which survivors can safely come forward to report violations and seek justice,reparations and redress.
Too often, survivors are twice victimized: once by the crime itself, and again by the system that fails to respond.
Too often, this crime turns innocent victims into social outcasts.
And too often, the perpetrators walk free, while the survivors walk in fear.
As wars grind on, they grind down the hopes of entire generations, including children born of rape. My Office has been mandated to produce a special report on this subject to address the neglect and knowledge gap that hampers our response. Her Royal Highness has also devoted specific attention to this voiceless category of war victims, who risk being relegated to the shadows of society, marginalized, undocumented, and sometimes left stateless.
That is the challenge before us, and I have no doubt that Her Royal Highness will help us to rise to this challenge, with her characteristic combination of passion and compassion.
Chère Maria, je n’ai aucun doute que vous saurez défendre les causes qui comptent le plus pour vous. Permettez-moi de vous dire, qu’avec votre personnalité unique, vos convictions et compétences, vous disposez d’une capacité unique à inspirer le changement et à défendre les droits de toutes ces victimes de violences sexuelles qui sont socialement marginalisées. Vous êtes motivée par votre optimisme quant au fait que des changements peuvent se produire. La violence sexuelle liée au conflit n’est pas un phénomene inévitable de la guerre. Elle n’est jamais un accident. Elle est évitable pour ces personnes vulnérables.
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Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
My Office launched the ‘Global Champions for Change’ initiative in October 2019, to mark the ten-year anniversary of the creation of my mandate by the United Nations Security Council. Building a Circle of Champions will expand the constituency for action; mobilize greater media attention and public awareness; as well as opening doors and unblocking political impasses. Within their respective regions, sectors and spheres of influence, the Champions will help to generate political resolve and resources to meet the scale of the challenge.
La collaboration est une force vitale pour le changement et, chère Maria, votre podium de Grande Duchesse est un catalyseur de changement.
Tonight, I would also like to acknowledge a very special person – Mr. Martin Chungong, Secretary-General of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) a Global Champion whom I nominated last June. I am grateful Martin that you kindly agreed to join us this evening. Mr. Chungong was nominated as a Global Champion, in recognition of his important work in the promotion of gender equality. Secretary-General Chungong is using his platform and influence to activate parliamentarians, particularly those in countries affected by conflict, to strengthen domestic legislation so that survivors have a firm and comprehensive foundation for seeking justice.
In this effort to end the reign of impunity and indifference, we are only as strong as our partnerships.
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Slowly but surely, we are expanding the circle of champions, allies, and stakeholders.
Slowly but surely, we are matching commitments with compliance, and resolutions with solutions and resources.
Your Royal Highness, in these disconnected days of lockdowns and remote working arrangements, I am delighted to be here in person to bestow this honor upon you. The pandemic has made clear that, in this era, our destiny is shared.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
I am proud to stand alongside Her Royal Highness Maria Teresa in rising up to consign this atrocity to the history books, once and for all.
Moving forward, we will join hands and join forces in a concerted effort to co-create solutions with survivors and to build, as one survivor wrote in the Digital Book I launched in June, “a world without sexual violence and injustice”.
Altesse Royale, j’ai le grand plaisir, au nom des Nations Unies et de mon Bureau, de vous décerner une distinction d’honneur et d’excellence en vous désignant comme « Championne globale pour la lutte contre les violences sexuelles liées au conflit ».
Merci.