Justice, Rule of Law and Security Sector Reform

The Council has sanctions tools at its disposal to punish these heinous actors around the world, but unfortunately they are terribly underutilized. For example, last year former Special Representative Bangura proposed names to the Council of perpetrators who should be held accountable for their crimes, but nothing has been done. It is now time for the Council to use these tools to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Increased awareness about the nature of the crime, changes in taboo social perceptions, and having an efficient and reliable framework to identify sexual exploitation are necessary to establish the first step to end impunity and ensure accountability.

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.

Crises are not indifferent to gender, and armed conflicts affect mostly women and girls in particular. Mexico acknowledges the importance of including them in the mediation, peacebuilding and peace consolidation processes, and sustainability of peace, and considers its participation essential when implementing prevention actions, and advancing in national reconstruction and reconciliation. Their access to justice is fundamental.

For those conflict-affected countries for which no specific UN sanctions regime exist yet, we urge the Council to consider the adoption of targeted sanctions regimes that would allow for the inclusion of a specific designation criterion on sexual violence. Ultimately, sanctions cannot be an alternative to prosecution of crimes that are punishable under international law.

Survivors should always be provided with the option to document their cases for future accountability processes. In this regard, the role of the International Criminal Courtensuring the effective investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes cannot be highlighted enough.

The survivors of sexual violence and children born through rape must receive justice for what has happened to them. This is a critical element of our prevention efforts. There has been some important progress, for example at the Kavumu trial in DRC late last year when 11 Congolese militia members were convicted of crimes against humanity for murder and rape against 37 young children. But there is much more to be done.

Impunity is met with mechanisms that improve the preservation of evidence, as well as mechanisms that require specialized knowledge. The prosecution of two emblematic cases in the DRC, as well as the judgement by the ICC in the case of Bosco Ntaganda not only contribute to victims having greater confidence in justice, but are also a way to dissuade possible perpetrators.

At a national level, we must assist governments in strengthening accountability for these crimes. This is what we are doing with the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units in Vicenza, which provides high-quality training and specialized courses for peacekeepers on the “prevention and investigation of sexual and gender-based violence”.

In order to combat impunity for these crimes, and protect women and girls from systematic abuse, the international community needs to recalibrate its response.