We live in a world today where rape is used as a weapon of physical, psycholo...

We live in a world today where rape is used as a weapon of physical, psychological and social destruction, a world where in some places where women's bodies have become a real battleground. Such sexual violence committed in conflict should in no way be forgotten or go unpunished, and that is what we have come here to say today. The international community, of course, has been dealing with this question for some 10 years now, through the Council's adoption of resolution 1325 (2000) and succeeding resolutions, and that has led to commendable progress — condemning such violence unanimously, calling for the intensification of efforts aimed at better protecting women and, of course, at combating impunity, but also by establishing an important principle that I would like to recall here, that of women's equal participation in the reconciliation and reconstruction process. We must not forget that the best way of protecting those women is by making them stakeholders, rather than only subjects.