Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We've had a number of witnesses before us here. One of the things that seem to comes through in the testimony we have received is that in conflict or wars where sexual assaults are a tool of war, they also seem to spread into society. In many of the societies we've heard about, women in particular are demeaned in those societies prior to any of this.
It sounds, too, as if in some of the conflicts, the military leadership is at least ignoring if not encouraging this activity, because of the stain it puts on another tribe or group. It was noted at a previous meeting how women were targeted.
Well, I would suggest that it's the men who are actually targeted and it's the women who are the vehicle through which others can get to the men in a community. If you have a society where the women are shunned following an attack on them that's no fault of their own, there is nobody is there to catch them.... Listening to the testimony here today about the efforts made to help them at that point, I'm really quite curious as to the other side.
What efforts are being made to change the thinking, both at the military level and at the societal level, to, first of all, valuing women? I would suggest to you that putting women into positions as you're referring to is certainly a part of that process, but it sounds to me like it has to be a much broader educational process.
Would anybody like to comment?