"We cannot lock ourselves inside a laboratory to restore and recognize w...

"We cannot lock ourselves inside a laboratory to restore and recognize women's human rights or to build a genuine rule of law. In that connection, I would like to end with the testimony of women from various parts of the world. In this century, in one country in Africa, 1,152 women were raped every day — that is 48 every hour or four every five minutes. In another area of that continent, a woman reported that, when women tried to escape, their children were killed. She said that they raped lots of women and girls and were happy when they raped them. They even sang while they raped them and told them they had the right to do whatever they wish with women. In another country, a women's organization told us that the criminal code there still interprets rape as a form of adultery. If a women cannot prove that there was no consent and if there are not at least four witnesses who confirm her testimony, women are punished for adultery by whipping or stoning. In a country in Asia, we heard recently from a group of women who were subjected to sexual torture. Their genitals were burned, they said. They were forced into prostitution by security forces, rebel groups and members of peacekeeping missions. In Europe, a women from the former Yugoslavia testified that in the camps the soldiers raped her all day long. She would fall asleep, but when she awoke a different soldier would be in her bed."