Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, April 2018: Austria (Extract 3)

Austria wants to see all perpetrators, including Da’esh and Boko Haram fighters, held accountable for their repulsive acts of violence against women and girls. As SRSG Patten said today, only by truly fighting impunity will we achieve a deterrence effect. In order to help establish accountability, Austria has supported and contributed financially to the creation of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to assist in investigating and prosecuting international crimes committed in Syria. We also expect that the Investigative Team to support domestic efforts to hold Da’esh accountable by collecting evidence in Iraq will soon generate actionable results.