Despite 15 Years UN Resolution on Women’s Rights: Sexual violence in war remains major threat for women and girls

15 years after the adoption of UN Resolution 1325, which focuses on the protection of women in war, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has drawn a sobering balance: “Dozens of states disregard the UN Security Council’s groundbreaking resolution. Their soldiers or allied militias use rape as a weapon of war or deny victims of sexual violence adequate care. In addition, the perpetrators are often not punished. Thus, sexual violence in armed conflicts is still a major threat to women and girls,” the human rights organization criticized in Göttingen on Thursday. The situation is especially disastrous in Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and Burma. “The millions of women living in warzones don’t need lip service. In the scope of foreign policy, sexual violence in armed conflicts must be internationally condemned,” says the STP. UN Resolution 1325 was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council on October 31, 2000.

“There must be better medical and social care for victims of sexual violence in wars, urgently! In all conflict regions, there is a lack of financial means to provide adequate trauma work for the women concerned,” said the STP’s Africa-expert, Ulrich Delius. “In addition, women must finally be properly involved in peace negotiations, as governed by the UN resolution. So far, the question who is able to participate in peace talks is mostly a matter of guns and power.”

Even after the recent peace talks in southern Sudan, the international community is still ignoring this. According to the United Nations and the African Union, the local conflict parties are using sexual violence as a weapon of war. Women and girls are abducted, raped by individual perpetrators or whole groups, held as sex slaves or forced to marry fighters. The youngest victim was only two years old. Many of the victims are minors, and there have even been assaults on nuns. Regularly, the perpetrators remain unpunished.

In neighboring Sudan in Darfur, women are systematically raped by the “Rapid Support Forces (RSF)” who officially report to Sudan’s National Security Service (NISS). The Sudanese government has promised to put an end to the violence against women in Darfur for the past twelve years – but there are new crimes every week, and they go unpunished. Thus, six women and girls were raped by militiamen in the region East Jebel Marra (Darfur) on Monday of this week. The international community largely ignores the continued violence against women in Darfur.