Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

The full enjoyment of human rights has been a priority of the Human Security Network since its inception. The protection and promotion of rights are a shared responsibility and can be achieved with the firm commitment and action of the United Nations, Member States and other actors.

Furthermore, in September 2017, we concluded a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and the Silatech Institution in the State of Qatar with a view to boosting youth capacity in Arab and Islamic countries, providing rehabilitation and launching projects to protect youth from violent extremism.

Some legal and social remedies undertaken by the Government include the diligent prosecution of more than 200 detained Boko Haram terrorists in competent courts of law, as well as reintegration, reorientation and rehabilitation programmes and psychosocial programmes designed to meet the needs of each victim of sexual violence.

Seventh, we stress the need for concerted international efforts to build the capacities of local and religious leaders to raise awareness in societies and communities on the need to eliminate the stereotype and stigma of victims of sexual violence and their children. It is the perpetrators who should bear that stigma instead. The victims should not be criminalized.

Iraq expects from all of its international partners to continue providing support for the reconstruction process, as well as for the rehabilitation and empowerment of victims with a view to their reintegration into society.

The Secretary-General in his report this year (S/2018/250) mentions that the past few months have seen positive developments, the most important of which was the release of many women and girls by armed terrorist groups. However, those developments are coupled with challenges, the most important of which is the need to rehabilitate and reintegrate those women and girls into their societies

Women need to become self-sufficient. Whether before, during or after conflict, strengthening basic capacities of women, such as reading, writing and economic skills, can go a long way. Training should focus on developing skills that would help women build a structured livelihood to obtain a steady income.

We advocate continued support for the various components of the United Nations architecture to combat sexual violence in armed conflicts and for collaboration among them and United Nations agencies for counterterrorism, organized crime, humanitarian response and sustainable development, in order to safeguard the recovery and reintegration of victims, especially children born of sexual violence and women who have survived such assault.

We reaffirm the critical need to ensure that those responsible for such acts of violence are held accountable before the justice system and to eliminate all structural obstacles that hamper investigation and prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Moreover, due attention to and the rehabilitation of the victims are critical to any process of building sustainable peace.

Sexual violence affects every aspect of a survivor’s life. The Secretary-General’s report underscores the fact that conflict-related sexual violence leads to the stigmatization of victims and the devastation of physical and economic security, especially of displaced, minority and rural women. Therefore, as Ms.