‘Trauma that echoes across generations’: UN highlights weaponisation of sexual violence

The mandate was established through Security Council resolution 1888 (2009) which called for appointing a Special Representative to lead UN efforts to address rape during conflict, among other actions.

“It recognized that like bullets, bombs and blades, the widespread systematic use of sexual violence decimates communities, drives displacement and inflicts trauma that echoes across generations,” said Pramila Patten, the UN expert working to eradicate this crime.

Women under the gun

Sexual violence in conflict is as old as conflict itself and is used to instill fear, to dominate and to displace populations. Women and girls are disproportionately affected.

The commemoration was held amid growing global unrest, with conflicts at their highest since the Second World War.

Last year, over 170 conflicts were recorded worldwide and global military expenditure surpassed $2.2 trillion.

Today, more than 612 million women and girls live under the shadow of conflict, including in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti.

© UNFPA Ukraine / Isaac Hurskin

Justice for survivors

Survivors and advocates attending the event shared their testimonies.

Lyudmila Huseynova from Ukraine spoke about the torture and sexual violence she endured during more than three years under Russian captivity following the 2014 war in the east.

She was kidnapped in 2019 and released in an October 2022 prison exchange. Since then, she has been working with an organization that advocates for Ukrainian women still held by Russia.

“There are thousands of them suffering unimaginable horrors, separated from their children, without access to medical or legal aid,” she said through an interpreter.

In paying tribute to survivors, Ms. Patten stressed that they “need decisive action to turn resolutions into results through enhanced service delivery, economic opportunity and access to justice and redress”, but above all they need peace and peace of mind.

“No amount of protection, assistance or accountability after the fact is a substitute for peace,” she said.

Hold perpetrators to account: UN deputy chief

The “heinous crime” of sexual violence in conflict is not only a gross violation of human rights but also a formidable obstacle to peace, security and development, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed added, saying it has never been more urgent to end the scourge.

“We must hold perpetrators accountable, but equally, we must innovate to prevent these atrocities in the first place,” she said in a video message.

“We must identify innovative and creative strategies, not only to respond to conflict related sexual violence, but to prevent it, and finally, consign such violations to the annals of history once and for all.”

More progress needed: Hillary Clinton

Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who presided over the Security Council meeting where resolution 1888 on ending sexual violence in war settings was unanimously adopted, delivered the keynote remarks.

“We knew this mandate would be just one step on a long journey, and in the years since there has been progress, but not enough,” she said.

As ending conflicts is the most certain path to stamping out wartime rape, "pursuing peace must be our highest priority," she said, highlighting the need to support survivors and listen to them.

The international community must also support reparations for survivors, while legal recognition of them as civilian victims of war is essential. This status should also include children born of wartime rape.

Appeal for accountability

“Fourth, and perhaps most importantly of all, accountability is crucial, and it begins with those at the top - those who order attacks on civilian populations, and those who carry out the attacks using systematic rape, they are guilty of crimes against humanity and must face consequences,” she said.

“That's why today I am calling for Russia to be added to the UN Secretary-General's list of shame,” she continued.

“I am under no illusion that shame alone will stop the Kremlin's bloody war - a war that is not only carried out by emptying its prisons, dragooning its own civilians off of streets to be pressed into war, but is now about to use soldiers from North Korea to continue this bloody, unjustified, unprecedented invasion.”

UN report

The most recent UN report on conflict-related sexual violence, which covers 2023, spans 21 settings of concern.

The Annex to the report lists 50 State and non-State armed groups who are credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.

Among them are Da’esh in Iraq and Syria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and the two rival militaries fighting the brutal war in Sudan.

Many of the groups in the Annex have been repeatedly listed for several years as violations continue.