* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Elizabeth Cafferty, Senior Advocacy Officer, Women's Refugee Commission
Today the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative (SRSG) for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Bangura, released her annual report on sexual violence perpetrated in conflict and post-conflict situations. And while I reminded myself that it is major step for this office to exist, and this report to be issued at the request of the Security Council itself, I could not help but be depressed and disturbed as I read it.
The report paints a troubling picture of how rape and other forms of sexual violence are used as tactics of war against the most vulnerable. It also states, for the first time, that the SRSG’s office views displacement of civilian populations as an emerging area of concern. It notes the troubling high number of women and girls who are attacked as they flee conflict or where they have resettled—the very place where they thought that they would be safe from harm and violence.
The SRSG’s office recognizes that their report is only part of the story. It notes that the UN and its humanitarian partners are blocked from accessing some conflict areas, including Syria and parts of Myanmar (Burma), where it is believed that high levels of sexual violence are occurring. The report also acknowledges that sexual violence is notoriously underreported. Survivors are ashamed, fear reprisal and even worry about their families rejecting them. And as my colleagues in the humanitarian sector and gender-based violence community know, even if survivors in these situations are brave enough to speak out, they face enormous difficulties trying to access care. Imagine choosing not to go to the emergency room after being raped because it is too far away, or you are afraid you will encounter someone with little training and even less sympathy for you. So survivors simply stay silent.
But the new SRSG is particularly attuned to this troubling reality. Zainab Bangura, who assumed her position in September 2012, was most recently Minister of Health in Sierra Leone. As a Minister of Health and a woman who grew up in poverty, Bangura was determined to visit even the most remote health facilities and prioritize improving the quality of care available to all citizens.
She is now looking at the situation globally, including for over 42 million people displaced by conflict from Afghanistan to Colombia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. And women who are the most vulnerable—displaced, young, living with a disability—are at the greatest risk of being targeted for violence.
At the end of the report, the SRSG calls for an end to sexual violence in conflict. She also appeals for an end to impunity for perpetrators, and for health and mental health services to be provided immediately and to be tailored to the distinct needs of women and girls—and men and boys who are victimized as well.
The Women’s Refugee Commission has long been calling for the same. The last in our series of reports on adolescent refugee girls—also released today—highlights their heightened risk, and experience of, gender-based violence. In these reports, we have called attention to the needs of displaced adolescent girls and steps that should be taken to include girls themselves in efforts to end violence. During our research, one female community leader in Tanzania told us, “If I had the means to keep my girls safe, I would. But I don’t have the means. All I can do is try to keep the girls busy at home with as much to do as possible during the day so that they don’t go out. And at night I force them to stay inside so they’re not exposed.”
This is not an acceptable solution. And the SRSG’s office cannot go it alone in the fight to end sexual violence. All members of the international community—UN agencies, UN Member States and NGOs—must do more to help women and girls stay safe. Together with the women, girls and local communities, we certainly have the knowledge and the resources to do so. It is just a matter of us deciding when enough is enough and we agree that conflict and war do not have to be fought on women and girls’ bodies.
