General Women, Peace and Security

To conclude, the Security Council's debate on sexual violence may only take place once a year, but our work to end that barbaric practice — that crime — must be a daily commitment and attract our serious attention across the whole of our agenda. The Council must take every opportunity available and use every tool it has to end that abhorrent crime and provide survivors the justice and services they need to rebuild their lives.

Specific actions to prevent sexual violence must be included in security sector reform, rule of law initiatives and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. As resolution 2117 (2013) recognized, the misuse of small arms and light weapons exacerbates sexual violence, and we call on all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty.

As Ms. Misaka reminded the Council this morning, it is crucial that survivors have quick access to comprehensive services, including sexual and reproductive health services and psychosocial, legal and livelihood support. We must confront the issue of pregnancy as a result of rape, particularly where abortion services are illegal and the health consequences of unsafe abortion and a lack of maternity care are dire.

Empowering survivors with their own economic future can be a transformative way to reconstruct their lives. Obviously, accountability is centrally important. States must accept their primary obligation to investigate and prosecute sexual violence crimes, provide support for survivors and protect witnesses who testify. Teams of experts working to support local justice mechanisms can have lasting impacts.

Australian Foreign Minister Bishop announced in Jordan this week a $20-million contribution to the United Nations “No lost generation” initiative to support Syrian refugee children, including child survivors of sexual violence. Sexual violence is a persistent and deliberate feature of the conflict in Syria, brutalizing civilians and displacing populations, and is a constant threat in the refugee camps, themselves.

The international prohibition on sexual violence in conflict is long-standing, but our plan for combating it has not previously been laid out. That is why the advances last year were so important. Those include the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013), setting out a comprehensive prevention framework, and the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, signed now by over 140 nations.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that acts of sexual violence against women are crimes against humanity when they are used as weapons to inspire terror. It has defined sexual violence as any physical or mental abuse committed as an act of violence and also characterizes it as a crime of torture. Sexual crimes against women are now internationally codified.

The Belém do Pará Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women says that it is not only an offence to human dignity but also a violation of human rights. Let me speak not just about what the justice system has said, the words I have just read out. Justice in fact now says that because the victims had begun to be heard.

Sexual crimes reported by victims in their testimony were not subject to punitive action until Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, until the initiatives undertaken in our own countries, because they remained invisible. They were part of war, the spoils that came with vengeance and hate that targeted women's bodies.

Secondly, there is also reason for optimism owing to the international tribunals, such as those for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Today, the International Criminal Court and those tribunals have been building a clear definition of sexual violence as a war crime and as a crime against humanity. Certain countries in my region of Latin America and the Caribbean are also doing so.