End sexual violence in conflict

Lazarus Sauti

News that Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, appeared visibly moved and close to tears at the recently held ‘End Sexual Violence in Conflict’ summit in London, which she co-hosted with United Kingdom Foreign Secretary William Hague should move governments in African countries to also act and stop sexual violence in war.

According to media reports, Jolie’s eyes welled up as she listened to victims of sexual assault speak about their experiences and spent time with them afterwards, discussing the issues they face.

Struggling to contain her emotions, Jolie also dedicated the conference to a rape victim she recently met in Bosnia.

“She (the victim) felt that having had no justice for her particular crime, in her particular situation, and having seen the actual man who raped her on the streets free, she really felt abandoned by the world,” Jolie said.

Zainab Hawa Bangura, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, believes sexual violence in conflict is widespread but largely invisible. To prove that this crime is widespread, statistics show that up to 50 000 women were victims of sexual violence during the war in Bosnia, while the number of victims in some African countries from Sudan to Egypt will be unknown, as most of the victims choose to keep silent, which leads to perpetrators remaining at large while victims and their families break down.

Because of this, sexual violence – a powerful weapon and tactic for war that has been successfully used to terrorise, dehumanise, and break down individuals, families and communities – in conflict zones is a serious crime and can no longer be treated as an unfortunate collateral damage of war.

Because of this, the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Deborah Bronnert, recently said the use of sexual violence in war is one of the utmost injustices of our lifetime. “Sexual violence in war zones is one of the greatest injustices of our lifetimes. It is hard to document, let alone to investigate,” said Bronnert, adding that “perpetrators of sexual violence in war do not discriminate, because it is not about sex, but violence, terror, power and control”.

A Congolese doctor, Denis Mukwege, agrees: “Sexual violence in war is as destructive as the use of chemical weapons. It is not only sexual relations without consent. It is an act of destruction. It is an act, which results in the negation of the other’s humanity, and it is done to not only destroy people, but the community.”

Sadly, for victims, rape is often a life-long trauma, yet perpetrators rarely face justice. Because of this reason, it carries a corrosive after-effect that lasts a lifetime: an unjust and destructive shame for the victims and their families.

The United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict – an international body within the United Nations system, established to unite the work of 13 United Nations entities with the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict, noted: “Even after conflict has ended, the impact of sexual violence persists, including unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and stigmatisation.

“Widespread sexual violence itself may continue or even increase in the aftermath of conflict, as a consequence of insecurity and impunity,” explained the United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Sharing same views, Mukwege says: “You can destroy the demography in the same way as throwing a bomb. Many women have been gang-raped publicly in front of their husbands and children. Sometimes the rapists mutilate or destroy children’s and women’s genitals by shooting into them or using bayonets.

“A man who sees his wife or his daughter raped and who cannot do anything…these men are the first to leave because they are so humiliated that the only solution is to (run away). After the men leave the women follow with their children.”

Mukwege goes on to say: “The father will not feel a father anymore because he could not protect his wife and daughter; the mother who has been raped will feel stigma and shame; and the kids will believe ‘my parents were not able to take care of me’. If you destroy the family you destroy the whole community.”

Sexual violence in conflict zones leaves many women unable to bear children; others may become infected with HIV.

Also critical to note is the fact that the massive scale of sexual violence has led to large number of children born out of rape, and sadly these children are often shunned by society.

With this cancer of sexual violence in conflict zones ravaging the world in general and Africa to be specific, it is an issue of utmost urgency that needs to be stopped. The continent of Africa therefore needs a serious action to document cases of rape in conflict zones and, also prosecute the perpetrators of such crimes.

The action further requires an integrated linkage between political and security activities related to development and human rights, including gender equality, the rule of law and justice.

Mukwege believes the international community must establish a red line for the use of rape in war in the same way it had done for the use of chemical weapons, and African governments should collaborate with the international community to make rape in conflict zones a thing of the past.

As some African countries are drowning in conflict, national governments must also support the African Union in its endeavor to exercise its principal legal and moral responsibility to protect the continent of Africa. This means countries within the African continent must closely join forces with the African Union to implement the recently adopted United Nations-African Union Framework of Cooperation to End Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Africa.

This also means national governments and all stakeholders in Africa must work together to strengthen collective action to end impunity, boost services, improve the global response, ensure women’s participation and empowerment, and enhance the role of the military and other security sector actors – including United Nations peacekeepers – to prevent conflict-related sexual violence.

Basing on abundant natural and human resources, countries in Africa have the tools, political momentum and clarity of purpose to turn the tide on this crime. They simply need to tap from the United Nations’ strategic leadership to rid the world of this heinous act.

The good news for the continent of Africa, however, is that the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the worst perpetrators of sexual rape in Africa, is developing new legal structures to end the practice.

Together with Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo has shown commitment at the highest level to end sexual violence, including signing joint communiqués with the United Nations.

Accordingly, other African countries should use their vast resources and strongly support countries in conflicts to end sexual violence.