Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

I conclude this intervention with a word for the victims and the survivors of sexual violence. There is a need for recognition and reparation. There is a crucial need to extend affordable and accessible health services to survivors. Our aim is, certainly, to bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice; but also to bring justice and adequate care to the survivors and victims of such hideous crimes.

Anther promising tool at the disposal of Member States that could be further engaged is the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict. The lack of capacity at the national level to investigate and prosecute sexual violence remains the main obstacle to ensuring accountability, and leads to the prevalence of impunity.

Security Council resolutions over the years have established that systematic sexual violence, used as an instrument of war, is a grave threat to international peace and security. By now, we have developed a strong normative and institutional framework to fight that scourge. The erroneous thesis that sexual violence in armed conflict is a cultural phenomenon has been rejected.

Resolution 2106 (21303), adopted today, will have an impact on implementation as it translates the Secretary-General's recommendations into concrete decisions. The Security Council, by today's resolution, calls for targeted sanctions against perpetrators. It equips different bodies and entities with tools to oppose impunity, empowers women to seek redress, strengthens international political response and fosters national ownership.

Other forms of violence — sexual slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced pregnancies and enforced sterilization — are rampant. Such violence assaults human dignity, ruins the lives of survivors and their families, and subjects communities and societies to torture and trauma.

As the briefers have substantiated once again today, the vile crime of sexual violence in armed conflict is a growing phenomenon. Women, girls, men and boys are all targeted, but women bear the brunt of sexual atrocities in wars and armed conflicts. They are harassed, molested, raped, maimed and disabled.

We also highlight the important role that non-governmental organizations and civil society groups can play in drawing attention to some of the worst abuses, and their related role as an important part of the accountability landscape — sometimes, as the representative of Germany has pointed out, by putting themselves at considerable special risk.

We also encourage the Council to include this topic in its annual consultations with the African Union's Peace and Security Council. The perspectives and expertise of regional organizations are valuable in developing comprehensive strategies for addressing accountability for sexual violence in conflict.

Next, accountability for sexual violence does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all approach. The Council must be agile, inclusive and open to considering alternative courses of action. Presidential and public statements from the Council give voice to the international community's abhorrence for sexual violence and send a very strong signal that it will not be tolerated.

As my delegation said in the April debate on sexual violence in conflict during the Rwandan presidency (see S/PV.6948), it is vitally important that the Council send a clear message on the issue of sexual violence to the entire international community and that it does so through, inter alia, the strong statements made in debates like this.