Justice, Rule of Law and Security Sector Reform

“But what is truly intriguing is the fact that no decent country has yet advocated the need to promote inquiries that would ascertain the origin of the weapons used in the massacres of civilians, particularly women and children, so as to identify the true beneficiaries of this world crisis, who are the ones selling weapons to uncontrolled bands throughout the world.”

”Of further significance, in April 2012, Parliament passed the End Violence Against Women Legislative and Policy Reform (2012). Aware that by itself, the passage of a law is insufficient to change society's entrenched cultural attitudes and practices, we are also embarking on public education and on strengthening the capacity of government departments and more.”

"The National Congress of the Republic approved in April of this year the Law Against Human Trafficking, which becomes a measure of compliance by the State of Honduras to important recommendations on trafficking have been made by international human rights organs."

Fiji was also present at the June review conference of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court held in Uganda and is of course supportive of the work of the ICC. Reforms taking place in our laws and in our outlook help us to comply with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“We have implemented for the first time a comprehensive law against domestic violence to be consistent with our international obligations and protect the welfare of women and children. We now have child welfare laws which compel the reporting of violence against children or suspicion of abuse of minors.

Over the past year, the Fiji government has effected a number of legal changes that have not only modernized our laws and brought about gender and social parity, but has also ensured compliance with international conventions. These changes include but are not limited to the Crimes Decree, which removes archaic rules in respect of rape trials.

First, the prevention of armed conflict-related sexual violence must be addressed at its root cause, that is, the prevention of armed conflicts itself. Mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution must be implemented.

We therefore call for strengthening the jurisprudence of criminal law as well as existing international legal and judicial mechanisms, including the role played by the International Criminal Court, to identify gaps and develop a robust legal framework for preventing sexual violence during conflict.

The United Arab Emirates strongly condemns the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war in Syria, and declares its support for all efforts being made to collect data on these crimes in the pursuit of justice at a later stage.

Secondly, national authorities must be strengthened in the areas of legislation and security sector reform, to ensure their ability to meet the requirements necessary for preventing a culture of impunity and the promotion of the culture of deterrence, accountability and achieving justice and the rule of law. That should lead to a perception of women as agents in the campaign against sexual violence, not only as victims.