Women, Peace, and Security: Facts

-Sexual violence is an overarching term used to describe "any violence, physical or psychological, carried out through sexual means or by targeting sexuality". Sexual violence includes rape and attempted rape, and such acts as forcing a person to strip naked in public, forcing two victims to perform sexual acts on one another or harm one another in a sexual manner, mutilating a person's genitals or a woman's breasts, and sexual slavery. (HRW)

- Womens bodies have become part of the battleground for those who use terror as a tactic of war. Women are raped, abducted, humiliated and made to undergo forced pregnancy, sexual abuse, and slavery. The 1998 Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first treaty to expressivly recognize this broad spectrum of sexual and gender-based violence as among the gravest breaches of international law. (UNIFEM)

- Sexual violence during or after armed conflict has been reported in every warzone, including: Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Darfur, Sudan, Northern Uganda, Colombia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Chechnya/Russian Federation, and the former Yugoslavia. (UNIFEM)

-In Rwanda it is estimated that half a million women and girls were raped during the genocide in 1994. In the Democratic Republic of Congo 200.000 cases of rape have been documented since 1996; the actual numbers are considered to be much higher. (UNIFEM, UN Women)

-Protection and support for women survivors of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict areas is woefully inadequate. Access to social services, protection, justice, medical resources, and places of refuge is limited despite the vailant efforts of numerous local NGO's to provide assistance. A climate of impunity further exacerbates the situation for women in conflict, and serves as an incentive to ongoing violence. (UNIFEM)

- UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security of 2000 calls for women's equal participation in peace and security issues. Ten years later it is evident that much more effort is needed to strenghten mechanisms to prevent, investigate, report, prosecute, and remedy sexual violence against women in times of war, and to ensure their voices are heard in building peace. (UNIFEM)

- In 2010 Margot Wallström of Sweden was appointed Special Representative to the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Margot Wallström have stated: " I'm often told sexual violence in war and conflict is unavoidable, that it should be considered collateral damage. People say it is nothing new and point to anecdotes from the IIliad, the Bible and all the way up to the countless examples among the conflicts of the past several decades. But I want to say we cannot and should not accept this. Sexual violence in conflict is neither cultural nor sexual, actually; it is criminal. No other human rights violation is routinely dismissed as inevitable." (IPS News)

WELCOME TO MY BLOG "Women, Peace, and Security"

In 2009 I interviewed a woman about her experiences during the post-election violence in Kenya. The woman's name was Amina, a thirty year old mother of two. During the interview Amina described the night that changed her life:

"Me and my husband were walking home in the dark, it was the election night, when we were attacked by an angry mob. I recognized some of them as my neighbours. They separated us and started beating my husband and raping me. I don't know how many they were, after a while I lost count and became unconcious.

When I woke up I was in pain and bleeding. I found my husband who had been beaten to death, his dead body was lying on the ground covered in blood. After the rapes and murder of my husband, I was tested positive for HIV. I feel very weak and have a hard time supporting my two sons. In the community people look down on me, they think I killed my husband by giving him HIV and they say that I'm a bad woman for sleeping with all those other men."

Unfortunatly, Amina is not alone; women and girls often suffer sexual violence in conflict. Tens of thousands of women were raped in Bosnia, half a million during the Rwandan genocide, and every day women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Behind every statistic are stories like Amina's.

Last year the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallström visited the Congo and was told by a survivor that: "A dead rat is worth more than the body of a woman." This blog has been created to raise awareness of sexual violence in conflict and to empower women to work towards a better future were a woman's body is worth more than a dead rat, a future were women are not mere victims and survivors, but also leaders and respected members of their communities.

Together we can raise the awareness about sexual violence in conflict and push our governments to act. We all have a voice; we just have to make ourselves heard. So Please spread the word to friends and family and use facebook, twitter, and other social networking sites. My hope is that you will find this blog interesting and relevant and get back to me with tips, ideas, and comments.

Women build bridges of peace!

Emmicki Roos

Pages

Facts