Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie and British Foreign Secretary William Hague make an unlikely combination. But they are campaigning together to stop rape being used as a tool of war. Last week they visited the Democratic Republic of Congo together to raise awareness of the issue on an international level.
How serious is the use of sexual violence in conflict?
The figures from Bosnia illustrate the nature and extent of the problem: up to 50,000 women are estimated to have been raped during the 1992-95 conflict; but there have been only 30 prosecutions specifically for sex war crimes.
The Rwanda genocide was even worse: the UN estimates that at least 250,000 women were raped. And in one recent period, of the thousands of rapes in the DRC, up to 50% of all survivors were under 17 and 10% were under 10.
The fact is that wars are not fought in battlefields but are often played out in urban settings. Margot Wallstrom, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict has commented that:
“Wars have entered the marketplaces where women trade; they follow children en route to school; and haunt the prison cells where political activists are detained.”
Rape is used to terrorise, intimidate and humiliate innocent women and children.
The use of sexual violence is now widespread in Syria. Indeed, evidence gathered by the International Rescue Committee found that it is one of the main reasons why so many women and children are fleeing to neighbouring countries like Jordan. Both the regime and the rebels are accused of using rape as a weapon.
This is not a comfortable subject to talk about. Many people would prefer to shy away from it. But the true horror of the way rape is used was brought home to me by one of the cases mentioned in a recent IRC report. A father from Syria admitted that he had shot his own daughter rather than risk the disgrace of her being raped.
This case highlights one of the greatest injustices: that the victims are subject to lasting stigma and shame while the abusers usually enjoy impunity. This situation needs to be reversed. The victims of rape will always be victims but need support and counselling for their emotional scars.
Their dignity needs to be restored and their innocence needs to be accepted by society. They need to feel confident about speaking out and demanding respect for their rights.
On the other hand, the perpetrators need to be actively pursued and systematically brought to justice. As William Hague said in the DRC:
“We want to see a significant increase in the number of successful prosecutions so that we erode and eventually demolish the culture of impunity.”
One important step is to gather evidence of these crimes as early as possible. William Hague has formed a rapid deployment unit of experts drawn from the police, forensic experts and lawyers to be sent to war zones at short notice whenever there are signs of sexual abuse on a large scale.
Changing attitudes and perceptions takes time. But we owe it to the victims to ensure that their abusers are brought to justice.