The UN Security Council on Thursday demanded an end to persistent sexual violence during armed conflict, calling it a war crime and a component of genocide.
Approved by all 15 members, Council Resolution 1820 “demands the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians with immediate effect.”
It also urged that “all parties to armed conflict immediately take appropriate measures to protect civilians, including women and girls, from all forms of sexual violence.”
Chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the council said “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.”
It indirectly threatened suspected wartime rapists with prosecution before The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
The resolution was quickly welcomed by Human Rights Watch.
“The UN Security Council’s new resolution on sexual violence is a historic achievement for a body that has all too often ignored the plight of women and girls in conflict,” the rights group said in a statement.
“Human Rights Watch applauds the council for setting out in the resolution a clear path to systematic information-gathering on sexual violence,” it said.
Before the vote, in the day-long debate called by the US, this month’s council chairman, Rice spoke strongly.
“Rape is a crime that can never be condoned. Yet women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence,” she said.
“Today’s resolution establishes a mechanism for bringing those atrocities to light,” the US chief diplomat said.
She stressed the resolution directs the UN secretary-general to prepare an action plan for collecting data on the use of sexual violence in armed conflict and then reporting that information to the council.
Rice cited the example of Myanmar where she said “soldiers have regularly raped women and girls even as young as eight years old.
“What is tragic also in that country is that instead of being allowed to take the office as the elected leader of Burma’s government, [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi is marking her [63rd] birthday this very day under house arrest,” the US chief diplomat said.
“We cannot forget, as we examine this issue, other women activists who struggle for freedom under violent environments,” she said.
Rice also referred to widespread acts of sexual violence in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.
The US diplomat highlighted acts of sexual violence perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in several countries around the world.
“As an international community we have a special responsibility to punish perpetrators of sexual violence who are representatives of international organizations,” she said.
In his remarks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the world body was “profoundly committed” to its zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation or abuse by our own personnel.”
“Violence against women has reached unspeakable and pandemic proportions in some societies attempting to recover from conflict,” he said.
“We have to view this problem in the broader context of women’s empowerment ... We must do far more to involve women in conflict prevention, peace negotiations and recovery after the guns fall silent,” he said.
French Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama Yade said those responsible for sexual violence amid armed conflict should be hunted down and brought to trial before the ICC.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home