Security Council Adopts Resolution 1888: Women and peace and security

On 30 September 2009, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1888 (SCR 1888) that aims to further strengthen the efforts of the international community to combat sexual violence in armed conflict. The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 60 UN Member States, calls on the UN Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative to intensify efforts to end sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations and who should engage on a high level with military and civilian leaders.

SCR 1888 builds on two earlier resolutions: SCR 1325, adopted in October 2000, which provides a political framework that makes women and a gender perspective relevant to all aspects of peace processes; and SCR 1820, adopted in June 2008, which recognizes the links between sexual violence in armed conflict and its aftermath, and sustainable peace and security. SCR 1820 commits the Security Council to considering appropriate steps to end sexual violence and to punish the perpetrators and requests a report from the UN Secretary-General on situations in which sexual violence is being widely or systematically employed against civilians and on strategies for ending the practice. Through SCR 1888, the Special Representative would coordinate a range of mechanisms and oversee implementation of both SCR 1325 and SCR 1888.

Other provisions of the text include identifying women’s protection advisers among gender advisers and human rights protection units; the strengthening of monitoring and reporting on sexual violence; the retraining of peacekeepers, national forces and police; and calls to boost the participation of women in peacebuilding and other post-conflict processes.

“With its resolution … the Security Council is sending an unequivocal message a call to action,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said immediately following the text’s adoption, expressing also regret that previous responses to sexual violence had not been able to “stem the scourge.” He pledged to continue to ensure effective follow-up by the UN system, saying that the new gender entity recently agreed upon by the General Assembly should strengthen the work for women’s empowerment.

Speaking as the current chair of the Security Council, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “We are here to address an issue that has received too little attention, not only in the Council but also by all governments around the world.” She stressed that the “dehumanising nature of sexual violence does not just harm a single individual or a single family or even a single village or a single group – it shreds the fabric that weaves us together as human beings, it endangers families and communities, erodes social and political stability, and undermines economic progress.”

Ms. Clinton noted the gravity and brutality of sexual crimes committed in North and South Kivu, the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 1,100 rapes were reported each month with an average of 36 daily. More than 10% involved children 10 years old or younger. Sexual violence has worsened since the beginning of this year in areas controlled by both the insurgent Force dèmocratiques de libération du Rwanda and the Uganda-based Lord’s Resistance Army, as well as in areas of deployment of the recently integrated Congolese Army.

While the DRC and the Darfur region of Sudan are perhaps the most widely publicised examples, rape as a tactic of war has been and is still used in war zones across the world such as Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad and Burundi, she stressed, adding that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks.

According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), while overrepresented in numbers of victims and underrepresented at the peace negotiation table, women have successfully led grassroots peace movements in communities shattered by violence, from Guatemala to Northern Ireland. However, women have been largely neglected as third-party mediators and even as representatives of the UN in conflict-affected countries. The UNIFEM representative noted that a group of women’s activists from the eastern DRC seeking to participate in peace talks was excluded from the process.

Bedouma Alain Yoda, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, said sexual crimes created long-lasting enmity between peoples, making it hard to bring about peace. Degrading the dignity of women reduced their crucial ability to contribute to peacemaking.

Jorge Urbina (Costa Rica) said the proposed Special Representative would play a strategic role in giving visibility to the issue of sexual violence and help to organize concerted action to combat it. It was necessary to harmonize that provisional mechanism with the new gender entity established by the General Assembly in resolution 63/311. To avoid duplication, it was important to define the way in which the Special Representative would be integrated into the new entity and to preserve the coordination, roles and responsibilities of agencies on the ground, in particular with regard to protection, he stressed.

Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation) said that while sexual violence was an appalling crime that required harsh punishment and condemnation, attention to other violations of women’s rights should not be weakened. Sexual violence should not be considered separately from all other issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment, including their fully fledged participation in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction. Through joint efforts, the number of sexual violence incidents during conflict could not only be decreased, but progress could also be made towards ensuring gender equality, he said.

For related information, see also:

UNIFEM’s portal on Women, Peace & Security: http://www.womenwarpeace.org

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security: http://www.womenpeacesecurity.org

International Women’s Tribune Centre (IWTC) blog on SCR 1820: http://www.iwtc.org/1820blog/?p=311#

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