Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. It was an honour to testify before you today and I feel it is my duty to describe what is happening. My work is to break the silence. There is nothing I can do but break the silence. I have no solution or advice to offer, but I at least want people to know wh

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, absolutely. This is one way of completely terrorizing the population or of deterring it from rebelling. It permanently scars the families. Le Monde entitled its article, "Weapon of Mass Destruction". However, it is also a ticking time bomb because children who have seen thei

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That is a very good question. All the women who may be identified as lawyers, academics, intellectuals or journalists and who have taken a position against the regime of Bashar al-Assad are of course systematically the first ones targeted. Then those whose husbands, fathers or b

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, sir.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Could you please repeat your question?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Oh là là! It is hard for me to say what the international community can do. I limit my role to that of a journalist who is here to break the silence. Silence is the executioner's best ally. On their own, these poor women cannot say what they have experienced because they would be

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is hard to say. Rape has always been viewed as an opportunity for soldiers to do what they want or as a wartime reward. That is the conventional view. However, I believe that, given the way it actually happens, it cannot be seen as a reward for soldiers who can then do what

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is true that this is a Muslim society. However, it is hard to attribute this entirely to religion. The opprobrium is virtually the same in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have not heard of any fathers who killed their daughters in Congo because they had been rap

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I personally did not go to Syria. As you know, the situation is very complicated. Some of my colleagues have been kidnapped and we have not heard from them for nine months. That is why I have been unable to go there. My convictions are based on the witnesses with whom I spoke di

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That is a very important question indeed. I was told that, and I was told exactly the same thing in Libya, where I conducted this type of investigation. It was infuriating, as it was for the International Criminal Court, which was obviously looking into the rapes since it opened

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Je vous comprends. I understand. It's more difficult for me maybe to make a testimony in English, but I understand the questions.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As you want.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Of course it would be better if I were able to make my testimony completely in English, but I'm afraid of not being precise enough in English, so I would feel more comfortable.... If you don't find him, I would do it in English, of course.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That is very good.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I travelled to Jordan. My decision to go to Jordan was influenced by various firsthand accounts of activists and people I had met via Libya, a country where I have done a lot of work. It so happens that I wrote a book on the rapes committed by the dictator