Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, committee members, good afternoon.
It is a pleasure to be with you today to talk to you about sexual assault on women and children during peacekeeping operations in fragile states and in situations of conflict.
In the first part of my 10-minute testimony, I would like to briefly outline the consequences of sexual assault on women, both individually and collectively. Then I would like to describe the reasons why sexual violence is used as a weapon of war and to explain to you why, once hostilities have ended, women continue to be victims of sexual violence
In my last point, I would like to shed light on the exploitation of sexual abuse committed by UN peacekeeping troops and humanitarian personnel when deployed on peacekeeping missions.
First, I will provide a brief overview of sexual violence. In 2008, at a high-level conference on the role of peacekeeping missions in the struggle against sexual violence, the former assistant commanding officer of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—MONUC—Major General Patrick Cammaert, said that it was more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unfortunately, the DRC is not the exception, but the rule. Seventy per cent of current victims of conflicts are civilians, not combatants, and the majority of those victims are women and girls. A disproportionate number of women are still dealing with this type of violence. Some 60,000 women were raped in Bosnia-Herzegovina, between 250,000 and 500,000 during the genocide in Rwanda and more than 64,000 during the conflict in Sierra Leone. It should also be noted that these figures are estimates because most rapes are not reported by the victims.
Sexual violence can take several forms. These include rape, sexual assault using foreign objects, mutilations of the breasts or genitals, forced marriage or forced pregnancy, torture and sexual slavery. They involve all women, regardless of age, social status, nationality, ethnic group or political affiliation. Incidentally, a recent study has shown that, in sub-Saharan Africa, the age of the victims of sexual violence is constantly declining, particularly as a result of the fact that attackers fear they will contract AIDS. As a result, 68% of the victims in DRC are 11 to 18 years old.
For thousands of women, rape is a life sentence. Lacking psychomedical care, shelters and accommodation, reintegration assistance and legal aid, rape victims will have to live with the psychological and physical after-effects for the rest of their lives. In many cases, as a result of the brutal nature of sexual violence, women may develop physical consequences such as infertility, fistulae and incontinence. They develop health problems for life.
Another aggravating factor is that rape is still a taboo in a number of societies. Rape victims will often be ostracized and ultimately find themselves outside society. In Somalia, for example, a married woman who reports that she has been raped is guaranteed that her husband will seek a divorce because she has shamed him and her family. Out of fear of reprisals, out of fear of AIDS, as they have dishonoured their families, members of the immediate and extended family, spouses and entire communities frequently reject the victims of sexual violence.
The second point I would like to address is the issue of sexual violence as conflict. Sexual crimes against women and girls are not committed in a particular type of conflict. Whether it be a war of secession, genocide, an ethnic cleansing campaign or an inter-state war, sexual violence is committed against women. Nor is it committed by any specific armed group. Soldiers of national armies, militia members, paramilitary troops and mercenaries commit these crimes. Rape is a weapon of war because it is used deliberately and systematically against civilian populations. Rapes are planned in advance, and they take place in public areas, on roads or in fields, in view of the family and community. Their purpose is to control, humiliate and establish a climate of terror in communities. It is a very effective weapon, as it were, because the terror it causes pushes local and community populations to flee by road and to take refuge in camps or elsewhere.
It doesn't affect just women; it disrupts entire communities.
I would like to add that the end of hostilities does not mean an end to violence against women. In states emerging from armed conflict, the influx of refugees and displaced persons, the presence of a large number of demobilized former combatants, often without job prospects, and the massive presence of firearms are all factors contributing to persistent sexual violence against women. The judicial and political systems of most fragile states are not functional. In fact, that, in a nutshell, is the definition of a fragile state. These women therefore have no recourse to regular law enforcement. In other words, most sexual violence remains unpunished.
Lastly, the general deterioration of social standards caused by years of conflict, chronic insecurity and poverty fosters the development of fundamentalist movements, religious in particular, but others as well. These harm women and leave them more vulnerable to sexual violence.
With respect to sexual violence committed by peacekeepers, this is not new. Cases of abuse have previously been reported in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kosovo. However, the media coverage of sexual abuses recently committed by Indian contingents in the DRC have made the problem more visible and resulted in greater concern by the UN and international NGOs.
MONUC has an office that establishes guides and prevents sexual abuse cases. In addition, the UN secretary general has established a zero tolerance policy and a code of conduct prohibiting personnel from engaging in immoral acts of violence or acts of sexual, physical or other types of exploitation against civilian populations. However, despite these preventive and restorative measures, sexual violence cases persist. Here we're talking about the emergence of sex industries, trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual slavery, as well as the increase in the incidence of HIV among populations welcoming peacekeeping operations.
The sexual abuses committed by peacekeepers and other humanitarian personnel have often been treated as collateral damage. This, in a way, is a cavalier manner of saying that "boys will be boys" and that, where there are soldiers, there will necessarily be prostitution. However, it is crucially important to emphasize that certain conditions make this kind of wrongful behaviour possible. Let's not forget that peacekeeping operations are generally conducted in circumstances of extreme poverty in which the rule of law is considerably weakened. This context results in significant disparities of status between personnel deployed in the field and local populations. This unequal relationship fosters an increasing incidence of sexual behaviour and abuse by peacekeepers.
In the DRC, the sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers essential consists in an exchange of money and material or other property for sexual favours. There is therefore a real market for sexual favours near the camps of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In conclusion, I would say that sexual violence in times of armed conflict is a universal weapon that enables those who use it to strip their victims of their dignity and destroy their self-respect. By destroying women's bodies, sexual violence reduces women's ability to play an active role in restoring societies after a conflict or in restoring a society within a fragile state.
Thank you very much.