1. NEW UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
A new UN Security
Council resolution on sexual violence is currently being discussed by NGOs,
UN member states, and UN agencies. This new resolution, which is expected
to be debated and voted on by the Security Council on June 19, 2008, would
require the Council to analyze and address the occurrence of sexual
violence in all conflict-affected situations on its agenda. The Security
Council has been the subject of criticism - especially from women's rights
advocates - for failing to respond to the issue of sexual violence in a
consistent and systematic manner. It was only recently that it issued
strong statements on the appalling levels of sexual violence in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Cote d'Ivoire.
The Security Council
is mandated by the UN Charter to address situations that threaten
international peace and security, including violations of international law
such as rape. Resolutions adopted by the Security Council carry force
of law. The Security Council is composed of China, France, Russia, United
Kingdom, and the United States - the five permanent members; and Belgium, Burkina
Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Indonesia, Italy, Libya, Panama, South Africa
and Vietnam - the non-permanent members.
2. ARRIA FORMULA
MEETING ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT-AFFECTED COUNTRIES
In the lead-up to
the Security Council discussion on the resolution on sexual violence, the
United Kingdom Mission to the UN hosted an Arria Formula meeting to bring
to the Council's attention the outcomes of the recent Wilton Park
conference (May 27 - 29, 2008) on the role of military peacekeepers
alongside other actors including NGOs, UN and government agencies, in
addressing the sexual violence in conflict-affected countries. An
Arria Formula meeting is an informal event that allows for more interaction
between the Security Council members, civil society, UN agencies and other
sectors on international peace and security issues.
While panellists
speaking at the June 11 Arria came from a cross-section of the peace and
security community, they all emphasized the need for more coherent,
coordinated and robust approach to ending sexual violence in conflict
situations. They said that while peacekeepers already address the threat
and effects of sexual violence, the response is often ad hoc. The
NGOs at the meeting underscored the need for more systematic quality and
comprehensive data collection on sexual violence, the need to ensure
accountability, and the need to ensure women's participation in discussions
on sexual violence as well as in designing and implementing actions to end
it.
3. OPEN DEBATE/
MINISTERIAL MEETING ON THE NEW SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON SEXUAL
VIOLENCE
On June 19, 2008,
the US mission - which holds the presidency of the Security Council this
month - is hosting a Ministerial Meeting/open debate on the relevance of
sexual violence in conflict to its work. It is hoped that the outcome
of the debate will result in the adoption of the resolution on sexual
violence.
A draft of this
resolution on sexual violence is being circulated by the US and following
are some of the points it addresses:
- The recognition that sexual violence, when used as
a weapon of war, can significantly exacerbate armed conflict and,
therefore, effective steps to prevent and respond to such violence
would contribute to the maintenance of international peace and
security;
- The demand that all parties to armed conflict
should immediately cease acts of sexual violence against civilians and
take measures to protect civilians including women and girls;
- The recognition that sexual violence can constitute
a war crime, a crime against humanity or a constitutive act with
respect to genocide and the need for the exclusion of sexual violence
crimes from amnesty provisions in conflict resolution processes and
that ending impunity for such acts is important;
- The intention to consider targeted and graduated
measures;
- A request to the Secretary-General to develop and
implement training programs for police, security, peacekeeping, and
humanitarian personnel deployed by the United Nations to help them
better prevent, recognize and respond to sexual violence;
- A request to the Secretary-General to develop
mechanisms to increase peacekeeping operations' ability to protect
civilians including women and girls from sexual violence, including in
refugee and internally displaced persons camps, as well as in all
UN-assisted disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes
and in security sector reform efforts;
- The call to all parties including concerned Member
States, UN entities and financial institutions, to support the
development and strengthening of the capacities of national
institutions, in particular of judicial health systems, and of local
civil society networks in order to provide sustainable for assistance
to victims of sexual violence; and
- A request to the Secretary-General to submit a
report to the council by 31 June 2009 on the implementation of this
resolution, including an action plan for a mechanism to collect
information on sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.
A number of high
level government ministers are expected to be at this meeting.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to chair the debate. UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro,
Liberia Foreign Minister Olubanke King-Akerele and Major General Patrick
Cammaert (former Force Commander of the UN Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (MONUC)) are expected to brief the Council.
4. NGO WORKING GROUP
ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY RESPONSE TO THE RESOLUTION
The NGO Working
Group on Women, Peace and Security (NGOWG), a coalition of NGOs and women's
groups advocating for the full implementation of Resolution 1325, sent a
letter to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the Permanent U.S. Representative to
the United Nations, stressing the importance of highlighting women's
capacity as active agents of change in any new Security Council resolution
on sexual and gender-based violence. The NGOWG also expressed that it is
crucial to ensure that sexual violence not be seen as an isolated issue but
as integral to the issue of women's full and equal participation at all
levels of decision-making on peace and security issues. The NGOWG added
that any resolution adopted to better protect and promote women's human
rights in conflict-affected situations, should at a minimum:
- Recognize that sexual and gender-based violence in
conflict-affected situations is relevant to the maintenance of
international peace and security and therefore the Security Council
should ensure systematic monitoring and analysis of such violence and,
where appropriate, take timely action;
- Require that the Secretary-General systematically
include comprehensive information on acts of sexual and gender-based
violence against women and girls in all of his reports on
conflict-affected situations and to report to the Security Council on
ways to improve the level and quality of such reporting;
- Require the Secretary-General to report to the
Security Council on ways to improve the UN's response, in particular
at the highest levels, including at the Security Council, to stop
gender-based violence in conflict-affected situations. Such a report
should draw on the full capacity and expertise of all experts
including the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and
relevant non-governmental organizations and women's groups at the
local and global level. An independent expert could be appointed to
lead this study; and
- Require that women's groups at the local level
actively participate in the design and implementation of strategies
and programmes to meet their security needs and concerns.
Additionally,
members the NGO Working Group sent a letter to all permanent members of UN
Member States and the General Assembly highlighting the above points and
demanding an end to impunity for perpetrators of sexual and gender-based
violence. Click here to access the NGO Working Group letter
5. WOMEN'S
NGOS FROM AROUND THE WORLD OFFER MIXED RESPONSES
Meanwhile, other
NGOs assert that the new resolution should have clear benchmarks,
commitments, directives, programming and resources that build on progress
that has been made, particularly through the UN Security Council Resolution
1325, on Women, Peace and Security. Sanam Anderlini, one of the original
members of the NGOWG, believes that the new resolution proposed by the US
government does not strengthen 1325. Anderlini is concerned that
political posturing and talk about bringing depth to SCR 1325, would
actually serve to only re-open negotiations on a resolution that has
already been negotiated by member states including some who sit on the
Council today. "1325 did not come easily, there was and still is much
resistance to it. But it exists. It is international law, and those who
claim to support it, should focus on implementation, not on new words and
more rhetoric," she added.
Overall, some NGOs
are concerned that the new resolution on sexual violence does not
sufficiently strengthen Resolution 1325 provisions and that it does not
offer clear measures to end impunity for sexual violence. IWTC has received
a number of comments and statements about the new resolution from women's
organizations around the world. Click here to read more
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