Good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity to address the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development as part of your study on women, peace, and security.
Amnesty International is a global movement of over seven million people in more than 150 countries working together to protect and promote human rights. We do not accept government funding to support our work.
Amnesty has extensively documented the violation of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in conflict, post-conflict, and peacetime environments around the world, and I will focus my remarks on this issue.
Our concern over the scale of these rights violations is so great that three years ago we launched our My Body My Rights campaign calling for an end to the control and criminalization of sexual and reproductive rights by states and non-state actors.
Amnesty is a member of the Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada.
Globally, in times of peace and in times of conflict, women and girls experience gender-based discrimination, violence, and barriers to realizing their sexual and reproductive rights. The gender inequalities at the root of these human rights violations are heightened in conflict situations. The consequence is all too often an increase in sexual and reproductive rights violations.
Amnesty fervently advocates for the protection of civilians in armed conflict situations. These protections must include concrete measures to safeguard the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls as identified by women and girls themselves.
Sexual and reproductive rights are the rights to make decisions about our bodies. They include the right to receive accurate information about sexuality and reproduction; access sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis; choose if, when, and whom to marry; and decide if, when, and how many children to have. They also include the rights to live free from all forms of sexual violence including rape, female genital mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization.
Laws, policies, and practices violate the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in conflict and non-conflict situations. In addition, particular types of sexual and reproductive rights violations are often experienced by women and girls living in or fleeing from armed conflict situations.
The closure of schools often leads to a lack of access to education about sexuality and reproduction. Service reductions or closures of health clinics and hospitals create barriers to accessing contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections, safe abortion, prenatal and postnatal care, and other services.
When women are on the move fleeing conflict both within and outside their country's borders, they face barriers to accessing everything from menstrual products to contraception to prenatal and postnatal care and birthing facilities.
Women on the move are often in situations where they are at a heightened risk of experiencing sexual violence, and sexual violence, as we know, is all too often used as a weapon of war with devastating consequences for women and girls.
I will give some examples of sexual and reproductive rights violations that Amnesty has documented in relation to the armed conflict in Syria. I have focused my remarks on the Syrian conflict, but in the question period, I will be happy to share examples drawn from our work in other parts of the world.
Access to education and health care, including information and services related to sexuality and reproduction, are limited in Syria. The IS closed health facilities and reportedly barred women medical workers from working in areas it controlled curtailing civilians' access to medical care.
Government forces have repeatedly bombed hospitals and other medical facilities, barred or restricted the inclusion of medical supplies and humanitarian aid deliveries to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, and disrupted or prevented health care provision in these areas by detaining medical workers and volunteers. Almost 700 medical workers were killed in Syria between 2011 and 2015—almost 700.
Even after women and girls have fled Syria, many remain at risk of sexual and reproductive rights violations in refugee camps and communities in neighbouring countries.
International organizations have been reporting for several years on instances of child marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Refugee families struggling to pay for rent and food may see the marriage of a daughter as one way to reduce their financial difficulties. Marriage is also sometimes seen as a means of “protecting” girls from sexual harassment and violence. One Syrian refugee woman told Amnesty, “When we came to Lebanon my children couldn't continue their education.... Since she was a young girl and a stranger, young men would harass her verbally even when she was with me or her uncle. We couldn't protect her from this sort of harassment. She wanted to get a job but my brother refused and he beat her. As a reaction to this beating, when my brother's wife said that she knew of an old man who wanted to get married, my daughter agreed. My daughter was 16 years old when she got married to a man 20 years older than her. Now she suffers a lot of problems because of this.”
Syrian refugee women and girls have spoken with Amnesty about their fear of being attacked and raped while moving around Zaatari camp in Jordan, and in particular, when using unlit communal toilets. As a result, women at the camp were avoiding using the bathroom at night, and doctors confirmed treating urinary tract infections resulting from women restraining themselves from urinating. The cost of health care in Jordan also creates an access barrier for Syrian refugees, including pregnant women and girls.
Refugee women and girls travelling through Europe may not have access to menstrual products or contraception. Pregnant women have described a lack of food and basic health care. Women and girls are reported being sexually harassed in European transit camps. Others have reported being afraid to sleep or go to the bathroom in facilities shared by women and men. Amnesty has called for, at the minimum, the setting up of single sex, well-lit toilet facilities and gender-segregated safe sleeping areas to help protect women and girls from sexual violence. When refugee women and girls are raped, as a mobile population they have very little access to testing for sexually transmitted infections, post-exposure prophylaxis, safe abortion services, and other sexual and reproductive health care services.
Women who stand up for human rights often do so at great risk to themselves and to their families. Next week, the family of Syrian women human rights defender and lawyer Razan Zaitouneh will gather in Ottawa for a vigil to mark another birthday without her. On December 9, 2013, Razan, her husband, and two other colleagues were abducted by armed men during a raid on their offices near Damascus, and they haven't been seen since. Amnesty believes Razan's abduction was a direct result of her peaceful work to defend political prisoners and support civil society groups in Syria. I could give you an endless list of women human rights defenders who have been similarly targeted for their work.
Women and girls experience violations of their sexual and reproductive rights in peacetime, and more so in armed conflict situations. They are best placed to identify concrete solutions to the rights violations impacting them, and must be meaningfully involved in the planning and implementation of projects to prevent sexual and reproductive rights violations and to support survivors. They need an equal voice in peace negotiations to identify the rights violations experienced by women during armed conflict and to help craft solutions that will lead to a lasting peace. The courageous women who stand up to human rights violations must be protected from threats and violence. There can be no impunity for those who perpetrate acts of violence against women human rights defenders.
As the committee moves forward with its study of women, peace, and security, Amnesty would like to encourage Canada, as a country committed to promoting gender equality, and as a country that has provided a home to so many women and girls who have experienced rights violations during armed conflicts, to: become a global leader in promoting the women, peace, and security agenda by committing significant human resources and investments; articulate a clear goal and outline and focus priorities, with measurable targets, in a robust national action plan accompanied by a strong cross-departmental implementation strategy, and led by a senior-level champion; and promote protection of sexual and reproductive rights, and the women, peace, and security agenda more broadly, in all multilateral and bilateral fora, and call on states to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. Amnesty also encourages Canada to: use Canada's new role on the Commission on the Status of Women as an opportunity to advocate for the adoption of special measures to protect women human rights defenders; make sure that women are meaningfully involved in all peace negotiations; continue to prioritize women at risk and girls at risk of human rights violations and LGBTI individuals for resettlement in Canada; fund the work of women human rights defenders and women's organizations; and last, support projects that support a comprehensive tool kit of sexual and reproductive health information and services to women and girls.
What has changed in the last 15 years for women and girls as a result of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security? Not much.
We challenge Canada in the next 15 years to make a measurable difference in the lives of women and girls. We know that there can be no peace until the guns stop, but for women and girls, there can be no true recovery from armed conflict until they have control over making the most basic decisions about their bodies and their lives.
Thank you.