Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Peter Miller. I'm a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer presently working with the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. My comments will be based not only on my experience with the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, but also on my experience as a former police officer who served in three United Nations missions.
The subject today is sexual gender-based violence. From my perspective of having lived it and seen it on a day-to-day basis in missions since about 1996, I'd like to say that I sure wish we were doing a lot better now. I sure wish I'd be seeing progress today, compared to 1996 in Haiti and 2001-03 in East Timor. We still see many of the problems that existed back then.
Despite the passing of various Security Council resolutions, women continue to be sexually abused. Children are abused when they're walking to school, and women going to get water are being abused. They can't carry out some of the basic daily necessities without their lives being at risk or being sexually assaulted.
It doesn't only happen in those countries I mentioned; it's happening all over the world where there is conflict. In Sierra Leone, for example, they estimate that between 50,000 to 64,000 women and children have been sexually assaulted, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 20,000 to 50,000. In Rwanda, between 250,000 to 500,000 people, women in particular, have been sexually assaulted.
The problem is not getting better, and I think one of the big issues there is the lack of the presence of women in police forces. The lack of women in the whole security sector is another issue and is a major problem as well. Women don't have a voice in the whole justice system, in the security sector, so there is a distinct need on that side in terms of integrating women into those processes.
Although attempts have been made to improve the representation of women, there is still less than 10% of them amongst police officers serving in UN missions. According to my colleague, I believe there's around 8% participation of women in peace operations today as police officers. The UN has set a target of some 20% by 2014, which will be a step in the right direction. However, there's a need for legislation in these countries, for laws to protect women and children, and we're just not there yet.
With respect to some of the other key issues, in Haiti right now, where I did serve previously, there are about 1.3 million people who have been displaced and are presently living in IDP camps. When women and children are living in IDP camps, they are even more vulnerable than when they're in their regular houses.
It's an epidemic. Haiti in particular is in crisis right now--it's no secret. And something needs to be done to address this. There are women and children being raped every day. As we're sitting here, somewhere in the world there's most likely a woman being raped right now.
With that, I'll turn things over to my colleague, who will add a few comments.