Time to act Ban Ki-moon!

Organised sexualised violence against women continues unabated in the world

Organised sexualised violence against women continues unabated in the world's conflict zones. Violence, and the threat of violence, restricts women's freedom of choice and the attainment of their human rights on the same conditions as men while those who commit these war crimes are free to walk the streets. It is a dark picture that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paints in his first status report to the Security Council on the use of sexualised violence in armed conflicts.   

A year ago the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 urging all parties to prevent and stop the use of sexualised violence in conflicts. Thus far the international community has failed. Ban Ki-moon describes how sexualised violence has been used as a weapon in conflict zones in all parts of the world. He underlines the risk of the violence prolonging conflicts and instigating a vicious circle of attacks and counterattacks. Also, according to the report, it is normal for the rape culture to spread into civilian society.   

The status report points to the difficulties in compiling facts relating to sexualised violence and places the emphasis on the need to compile more statistics and information, something that the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation is critical of.  

"It is political action we need, not statistics. We know that rape is used as a weapon of war. It is now up to the UN to get things moving on the ground," says Lena Ag, President of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation.  

Despite the Secretary General emphasising the necessity of combating impunity and providing various forms of support to women who survive sexualised violence to enable them to live a dignified life, he fails to name those who are in the forefront of leading this work.   

"It is objectionable that the work of women's organisations is not brought to the forefront. Our and others' experiences show that these organisations play a significant role in the work against sexualised violence. They should get much more support and acknowledgement," continues Lena Ag.  

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation is also critical to Ban Ki-moon's findings not providing a concrete recommendation that would increase women's participation in peace processes.   

"As long as men have full control over the negotiating table and security policies, the violence will continue and the perpetrators will be free to walk the streets," explains Lena Ag.   

Prior to the review of Resolution 1820, the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has put together 20 concrete recommendations to the international community. The recommendations focus on getting sexualised violence onto the peace talks agenda and suggest ways of increasing women's participation. A study recently conducted by UNIFEM of 22 peace processes since 1992 shows that only 7.5 per cent of negotiators and fewer than two per cent of mediators were women. Of 300 peace agreements from 45 conflicts mediated since the cold war, only ten mention sexualised violence.   

The report and Resolution 1820 are due to be debated by the UN Security Council in the autumn. Lena Ag feels that as EU Presidency country, Sweden can play a role in ensuring that the issue does not remain at the development assistance stage:  

"Rape is used as a weapon, which makes it a foreign policy issue. Mass rape is a weapon of mass destruction."        

Annika Flensburg