Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

In closing, I want to commend the excellent work Special Representative Bangura and her staff are doing, and urge the entire UN system to give due attention to prevention efforts and facilitate the deployment of necessary expertise to conflict areas.

Encouraging parties to conflict to discuss sexual violence within their ranks, though challenging, is another critical avenue of prevention. The agreements that Special Representative Bangura brokered in the Central African Republic are models of this engagement.

But the spectrum of action for countering sexual violence must not be limited to the conflict and its conclusion. It must be prioritized throughout peace processes, including in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration phase and in security sector reform. Rigorous vetting should ensure that perpetrators and those who have directed sexual violence are denied entry to the security sector.

Bringing deeper gender expertise to UN field missions is essential for enhanced prevention of sexual violence. UN leadership in New York and in the field should commit to greater presence of gender experts and women protection advisors in UN missions. Furthermore, the deployment of such experts should be routine in UN technical assessment missions.

Madame President, we welcome the Secretary General's report on sexual violence in conflict. Tragically, the report and today's briefings remind us that this issue is a global problem. It is also complex and multifaceted, from sexual violence used as a tool for coercive population displacement to forced marriages by armed groups to the challenges of widespread unreporting of abuse and the plight of children born out of rape.

Impunity of that nature is a great challenge to our collective resolve. It is in clear contempt of the values we have committed to uphold. We must do more at national, regional and international levels to end impunity, by demonstrating to perpetrators that such crimes will not go unpunished.

Perpetrators of sexual-based violence must be prosecuted and tried by competent national courts or tribunals. Where that is not feasible — as is often the case in conflict and most post-conflict situations — the States concerned should be willing to surrender suspects to international criminal courts and tribunals to face trial.

While prosecution is critical in ending impunity, we must also continue to address its root causes. We must resolve conflicts by reconciling warring parties and encouraging dialogue, rather than by employing military solutions. If necessary, negative forces must be neutralized, demobilized and reintegrated into society.

We must find effective ways to respond to the needs of the survivors of sexual violence. The United Nations Action multi-partner trust fund is pivotal in that regard. We encourage Member States and other partners to contribute to the fund.

The international criminal justice system, despite its shortcomings, has had its merits, including offering an elaboration of sexual violence as capable of constituting a crime against humanity, a war crime and an act of genocide.