Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The United States welcomes this opportunity to reaffirm the indispensable role of women in bringing peace and security to countries embroiled in conflict or emerging from it. Women's active, indeed integral, involvement in peace processes and transitional justice mechanisms, including to address sexual violence, is critical to laying the foundation for lasting peace.

The Security Council must continue to treat this threat to international peace and security with the utmost gravity. Sexual violence in conflict cannot and must not be viewed narrowly as just a women's issue, since it remains a horrific weapon of war that destroys individuals, devastates communities and even destabilizes countries. Above all, let us remember that sexual violence is not cultural, it is criminal.

We have indeed made strides in addressing sexual violence in conflict, but there is still a long way to go. More countries should criminalize conflict-related sexual violence. Provisions that prohibit amnesty for perpetrators must be put into ceasefire and mediation agreements.

We need to home in on lack of accountability as one of the root causes of rape and sexual violence in conflict, but at the same time not forget that women's political, social and economic empowerment across all societies is essential and that our goal must be the full implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

We can and must do all those things but must never lose sight of our overriding objective: to consign the use of rape as a weapon of war to the pages of history. I believe that has to begin, above all, with a focus on ending impunity and by bringing to bear the weight, authority and leadership of the Security Council.

Today we face another burning need to unite to improve the condition of humanity; together it is time to say that rape and sexual violence used as a weapon of war is unacceptable, that we know it can be prevented and that we will act now to eradicate it, shouldering our responsibilities as national Governments, and collectively as the Security Council.

These and other steps listed in the resolution, if fully implemented, will represent vital new advances. But it is only a beginning. We need action on all fronts, from the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole, and from Governments in conflict-affected countries. We need to begin to demolish impunity, create a new culture of deterrence, and at the same time focus on long-term care and support for survivors.

The resolution also recognizes that effective investigation and documentation of sexual violence in armed conflict is vital to bringing perpetrators to justice and ensuring recourse to justice for survivors, and I hope that the new international protocol will be able to make a difference in that area.

Resolution 2106 (2013), which we have just adopted today, sends a powerful signal to the world of leadership from the Security Council. It recognizes the commitments made in the G-8 declaration, which will add to the international momentum that has begun to gather but which must now become unstoppable.

Like others here I have witnessed the terrible life sentence of trauma and illness inflicted on victims, and the devastating impact on their families and communities.