Implementation

We must move from expressing outrage to taking decisive action. The following are some concrete measures that the Security Council and each Member State can undertake.

First, they can apply a comprehensive rights-based approach focused on the needs and experiences of victims. Ensuring human rights, especially the right to freedom from violence and to sexual and reproductive health and rights, remains essential. Sexual violence in all its forms is prohibited in armed conflict under international humanitarian law. Perpetrators must be held accountable.

Secondly, they can make conflict-related sexual violence a priority issue in monitoring the implementation of Security Council mandates. To that end, we need improved data, including sex-disaggregated statistics, as well as accurate accounts. That is why we strongly welcome briefings by civil society to the Council, such as that made by Ms. Mina Jaf today. We also welcome the use of conclusions submitted by the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and the summaries of the Informal Expert Group on Women and Peace and Security.

Thirdly, the Council and Member States can use all of the Council’s tools to combat sexual violence in conflict, including sanctions. Resolution 2339 (2017) on the Central African Republic introduced the first-ever separate designation criteria on conflict-related sexual violence in a sanctions regime. Let us work to include similar criteria in all relevant sanctions regimes.