Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

It is clear that the proliferation of sexual violence against women and girls is often aimed at marginalizing their contribution to society. It deliberately degrades the role that they can play in restoring the fabric of peaceful communities. So, in addition to the appalling human cost, there is a deeply damaging impact on societies as a whole.

If we are going to resolve and prevent conflict effectively, we must help to protect women from violence, particularly sexual violence. That understanding is now fundamental to the way that the Security Council approaches its responsibilities.

I would like to take a moment to highlight the significant steps forward that we have taken today with resolution 1960 (2010). First, it contains a new provision to identify parties to armed conflict that is credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for acts of rape and other forms of sexual violence. That will help our efforts to tackle impunity for crimes of sexual violence and conflict.

I would also like to pay special tribute to Special Representative of the Secretary-General Margot Wallström. In less than a year, she has had a great impact. Her global advocacy role has given this issue prominence in public debate, pushing for an end to impunity, including in relation to the Walikale mass rapes.

I thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive and ambitious report (S/2010/604). I am pleased that the Council has welcomed the report as a strong signal of our intention to support and assist in the eradication of sexual violence as a tactic of warfare. This terminology and its consideration by the Council are relatively new, but the tragic reality is not.

We also welcome the inclusion of women in peacekeeping missions in civil, military and police functions. Ugandan women, and particularly those in military and police forces, are currently engaged in peacekeeping missions in the region and around the world. We are convinced that, wherever they are based, their presence has a positive influence and may encourage women from local communities to report all acts of sexual violence.

Uganda considers sexual violence as a serious health, human rights and development problem. There can be no peace, security or sustainable economic development in societies that deny human rights, including the human rights of women.

Uganda also welcomes the idea of establishing monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence, including rape in situations of armed conflict and post-conflict, and other situations relevant to the implementation of resolution 1888 (2009).

Those instruments complement other national, regional and global policy and legal frameworks to which Uganda is a party. They serve to emphasize that such sexual violence is not a new or unknown phenomenon that has been ignored, but that the region is determined to put an end to such cowardly acts.

The Government of Uganda is committed to the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), and 1889 (2009), as well as the Goma Declaration on Eradicating Sexual Violence and Ending Impunity in the Great Lakes Region (2008).