On 8 March 2007 - International Women’s Day - IRIN launched ‘The Shame of War: sexual violence against women and girls in conflict’ simultaneously in New York, Nairobi and Geneva. This publication is a reference book as well as photo essay of portraits and testimonies of the sexual violence women suffer when men go to war, and is now available online to IRIN readers. The photographs are also available to download in PDF format.
This In-Depth examines the scope, nature and perpetrators of sexual violence during war. It considers how the international community is addressing sexual violence against women and girls during and after conflict. Above all, the aim of the In-Depth and book is to inform, to shock and to join the voices saying ‘Enough’! Sexual violence against women and girls does not have to be an inevitable consequence of war.
“Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women's lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence - yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned,” said Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on 7 March at an informal General Assembly debate on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
This year, International Women’s Day was marked by nine UN agencies with the joint initiative, UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict.
UNDP, OHCHR, UNHCR, OCHA, UNIFEM, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA and DPKO joined forces to improve the quality of programming to address sexual violence, to increase the coordination of efforts for comprehensive prevention and response services, and to improve accountability. Numerous non-governmental agencies are also taking up the issue of sexual violence in war.
Despite the efforts of the UN system and its partners to stop sexual violence during and after conflicts, the problem is growing. The UN Action initiative launched this year is designed to highlight and create awareness of these abuses and, ultimately, end sexual violence, to make the world safer for women and girls.
“The brutality and viciousness of the sexual attacks that are reported from the current conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Iraq and Sudan, and the testimonies from past conflicts in Timor-Leste, Liberia, the Balkans and Sierra Leone, are heartbreaking. Girls and women, old and young, are preyed upon by soldiers, militia, police and armed thugs wherever conflict rages and the parties to the conflict fail to protect civilian populations,” writes Yakin Ertürk, Professor of Sociology and UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in the preface to ‘The Shame of War’.
“We need to wage a different war, one against violence against women and girls and against the culture of impunity that protects the perpetuators and their accomplices. To some extent, this battle is already under way, but it is in its very early days. People around the world, shocked at the revelations from conflict zones, are becoming motivated and engaged to look for ways to end impunity and create effective legal mechanisms that protect women and deny perpetrators sanctuary from prosecution and punishment,” she writes.
‘The Shame of War’ is IRIN’s second publication on gender-based violence. ‘Broken Bodies, Broken Dreams: violence against women exposed’ was released in 2005 and in 15 chapters of text and more than 170 photographs tracks different aspects of violence threatening women and girls. The issue of sexual violence in war is one chapter that has been reproduced and expanded in this new publication and advocacy report.
In addition, IRIN has made two short documentaries on the issue of rape in war (Our Bodies… Their Battleground) and female genital mutilation (Razor’s Edge) that are linked to this IN-Depth.
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