UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations - Combating Rape as a Weapon of War
Team: Jihane Ben Khedher, Alisha Banji, Haruka Ishii, Mayuri Saxena, Karin Smith, Nicole Weitzner
Semester: Spring 2009
Combating Rape as a Weapon of War
Rape has been usedindiscriminately as a weapon of war and evidence suggests an increase in thescale of sexual violence. Such widespreadand systematic sexual abuse has heightened insecurity. In Resolution 1820/2008 (Women, Peace and Security)adopted 19 June 2008, UN Security Council noted that "women and girls areparticularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic ofwar to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocatecivilian members of a community or ethnic group." The resolution demandedthe "immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict ofall acts of sexual violence against civilians."
Rape is a war crime,a crime against humanity. While sexualviolence has been a focus in Congo (DRC) because of its widespread abuse, rapehas been used as a tactic of war in Liberia, Sudan and Rwanda and for ethnic cleansingin Bosnia. The available statistics areinadequate as they only reflect recorded incidents. Hundreds of rape incidents go unnoticed becausevictims prefer to suffer in silence forfear of retaliation or social ignominy. While the victims remain quiet the criminals go unpunished. "When alleged perpetrators are notprosecuted and brought to justice, the rule of law is undermined and impunityreigns." Warring groups have usedrape as a weapon with the intention not only of humiliating but destroying communities. "It is more dangerous to be a woman thanto be a soldier right now in Eastern DRC". Acts of sexual violence often involve gang rape committed in front of husbandsand children to make the act more degrading for the victims and their families.
The Project: This developing trend in armed conflicts is an important subject and there is pressurefrom the civil society and other humanitarian organisations in the internationalcommunity to act and to act fast. Besides collecting the requisite data it would be interesting to suggestmeasures to be adopted by the United Nations multilaterally and individualstates on their own to provide protection to girls and women against sexualviolence especially in war zones. Similarly, the culture of impunity allowing the rapists to walk withoutany fear of punishment and without any sense of guilt must end. Severe actionbe taken against those guilty of these criminal acts. Also, an assessment could be made of theability of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations to provide specialprotection to the girls and women from all forms of sexual violence and also toensure that the guilty do not go unpunished. Another question to be examined: Would the June 2008 resolution be ableto achieve its objectives? Is there thewill among the member states to act or is the resolution going to meet the samefate as so many other UN Resolutions including Resolution 1325 where highsounding statements are made without any follow up action.
The Group involved in this study had meetings with the Gender Adviser in the United NationsDepartment of Peacekeeping Operations and other officials concerned. Similarly meetings were arranged at the United Nations with representatives of DAW (Department for the Advancement of Women as well as with UNIFEM (TheUnited Nations Development Fund for Women/ French "Fonds de développementdes Nations unies pour la femme") and OSAGI (Office of the Special adviseron Gender Issues). Any meetings being held in the United Nations to discuss subjects relating to sexual violence were also attended by this Group.
Faculty Supervisor: Ambassador Rafat Mahdi, former Pakistani ambassador to the European Union,Zimbabwe, and Canada. He has also occupied key posts at the United Nations,including Senior Political Affairs Officer for the Iraq Team of the Departmentof Political Affairs, Senior Officer for the Department of Economic and SocialAffairs, and Senior Political Affairs Officer for the Department of PeacekeepingOperations. Ambassador Mahdi was also Pakistan Chef de Cabinet to the ForeignMinister, and Director General for the Americas at the Pakistani Ministry ofForeign Affairs. In the early 1990s, Ambassador Mahdi was in charge ofPakistan's liaisons with the South African Government and made Pakistan's firstofficial contact with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. Mostrecently, from 2007-2008, Ambassador Mahdi served as Senior Advisor to theChairman of the Group of 77 at the United NationsCore Documents
Terms of Reference
Timeline
Final Presentation
Additional Documents
UNIFEM Final Paper.pdf
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