Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

"I wish to congratulate you, Madame President, on organizing this open debate of the Security Council, as well as to commend your commitment to an issue of the utmost importance to the international community.

Acts of sexual violence are horrific crimes against individuals. Women, girls and boys who are raped are not only heartlessly robbed of their basic dignity during the time of the crime, but also bear the scars of those appalling acts long after hostilities have ceased. No amount of compensation can heal those wounds.

Together, we must make clear that the international community has zero tolerance for the perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict and will bring them to justice wherever they carry out their appalling and destructive crimes.

The Secretary-General's report provides a number of important recommendations for improving the international community's efforts on this issue. There is a growing consensus about the need for timely, objective and accurate monitoring and reporting arrangements for incidents of sexual violence to ensure a coherent and coordinated approach to addressing violations and enforcing accountability.

The impact of sexual violence in conflict can be measured in the overwhelming pain it has inflicted on women and men, in the devastation it has wrought in communities and in the instability it continues to foster throughout entire regions. Israel believes that Member States, individually and collectively, must take firm action to curb this serious threat to human dignity and peace.

Israel welcomes the Secretary-General's report of 24 November (S/2010/604) and commends him for his efforts and leadership on this issue. The report documents how widespread acts of rape and other forms of sexual violence — too often committed with impunity — continue to plague many zones of conflict.

Israel strongly supports the mandate that created the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and recognizes that Special Representative Wallström will play a pivotal role in addressing the issue. The newly formed UN Women, led by Executive Director Michelle Bachelet, also has a central role to play and is well positioned to work with the entire United Nations system.

In the 10 years since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), we have seen some positive steps to prevent sexual violence in conflict. Unfortunately, overall progress is slow. Israel joined the list of sponsors of resolution 1960 (2010), recognizing the urgent need for collective action on this pressing issue. As a co-sponsor of the previous resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009), Israel remains deeply committed to their full implementation.

“Depending on the circumstances of the offence, sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, an act of torture or a constituent act of genocide” (S/2010/604, para. 4).

This is an urgent and necessary debate. Amid the glow of the holiday season, it is all the more difficult for our imaginations to comprehend the horror and brutality of sexual violence on the scale to which the Secretary-General's report (S/2010/604) attests. The contrast could not be more shocking between the civility of our lives here and the depravity of sexual violence so widely associated with conflict.