INTERNATIONAL: United Nations Launches Booklet on How to Deter Sexual Violence

The United Nations on Wednesday launched its first compilation of the best practices for its peacekeepers and other workers to prevent, deter and respond to the use of rape as a war tactic.

The booklet, titled: "Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence - An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice", was launched at the UN headquarters in New York, US.

Speaking at the event, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Margot Wallstrom, said: "This is practical information to move from words to deeds.

"In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, the peacekeeping mission known as MONUC, has provided escorts for women to resume trading at the local markets, which has improved their sense of security and their economic development."

She also said that, "in Kosovo, peacekeepers noted that unannounced, random foot patrols and checkpoints kept perpetrators off balance, while in Liberia night patrols have been deployed around camps for the displaced.

"From the moment their boots touch the ground, tomorrow's peacekeepers will have a reference that explains this issue (prevention of sexual violence) in operational, not theoretical, terms," Wallstrom said of the plastic-covered booklet, which is designed to be easy to read.

Also speaking on behalf of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Major General Abhijit Guha, Deputy Military Adviser to the Under Secretary-General, said that the nature of conflict required changes in peacekeeping practices.

"The Analytical Inventory is part of our efforts to adapt to the evolving requirements of peacekeeping and supports our new military guidelines on gender," he said.

The inventory includes a 10-item checklist of emerging elements of an effective response.

Items include consultations with all segments of community, particularly women, to hear what they need and how they move and enhanced training starting with the practical and moving to the theoretical.

Others are role modelling to help leave a legacy of security for women and girls.

It also addresses potential ways to mitigate risk, such as working with civil society groups to provide fuel-efficient stoves in Somalia or Darfur to prevent women from having to walk far to collect biofuels.

Such stoves would also support environmental sustainability and alleviate some related illnesses, which are part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which world leaders hope to achieve by 2015.

Released by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Stop Rape Now campaign, UN Department of Peacekeeping (DPKO) and the Australian Government, the idea is for the booklet to be distributed to peacekeepers on the ground to be used for training and as an education tool.