UN report on sexual violence highlights worst offenders
New York, 24 Feb – (ANA) - The annual United Nations report documenting conflict-related sexual violence around the world has named for the first time some military forces, militia and other armed groups suspected of being among the worst offenders. They include the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the Central African Republic (CAR) and in South Sudan, armed militia groups and former armed forces in Côte d’Ivoire, and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The report provides examples of how sexual violence has threatened security and impeded peace-building in post-conflict situations, such as in Chad, CAR, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and how it has been used in elections, political strife and civil unrest in Egypt, Guinea, Kenya and Syria, among others. “Conflict-related sexual violence is not specific to one country or continent: it is a global risk. The terror of unarmed women facing armed men is age-old and universal,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Margot Wallström, who presented the report to the Security Council in New York. The report stresses that over the past year there have been several new and ongoing armed conflicts where sexual violence was widespread and, in some instances, may have been systematically targeted at civilians by armed forces and armed groups with the intent of punishing, and humiliating the population.
The report highlights the need to put measures and frameworks in place not just to address sexual violence in conflict but to prevent it, and outlines various UN initiatives that seek to identify early warning signs of sexual violence, and to ensure that peace agreements address this issue so it is not repeated in the future. (ANA)
FA/ANA/24 February 2012--------