Danai Gurira on preventing conflict-related sexual violence

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Eighty cents. When was the last time you handled  80 cents? Paid for something and that was all it   cost? It is not even enough to buy a packet of  gum in this day and age. But it can buy you a   child to rape at a so-called Maison de Tolerance  in a camp for internally displaced people in   Eastern DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo]. That is the world that we are still in,   where conflict zones are terror zones for women,  and children. My first exposure to this dire   issue came when I, as a playwright, started to  seek to create a narrative that would amplify   the voices of women and girls caught in the  crosshairs of war. It was the Liberian civil   war. I was seeking their unheard voices. It would  become my Broadway play Eclipsed . With the help   of a friend at the UN who worked then in  the Children and Armed Conflict Office,   I visited Liberia and spent time with women  who had experienced unthinkable atrocity, who   wished to be heard, to participate in the change  process, to have a chance at a fulfilling life and   heal from all that had been taken from them, who  wanted justice. I am sad to say, 17 years later,   the change we d all hoped for has not been won. What shocks me is how these crimes are being   committed all around the world, how vast and  widespread the issue has become. The report covers   25 situations: from Colombia to the Ukraine, to  Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,   Haiti and, closer to home for me, as a Zimbabwean,  DRC, Ethiopia, Central Republic of Africa,   and Sudan. This issue has now become  prevalent for more countries, not fewer.   The media is our primary filter for shaping our  perception and understanding of the scale and the   scope of these violations, yet the reality of our  news media is that they focus on some places and   certainly not the places where women look like  me. This debate has to be a time when we hear   from the courageous Sudanese peace builders like  Niemat Ahmadi, when we hear and see the girl tied   to a tree in Ethiopia. This debate is for that  child in the brothel near the IDP [internally   displaced persons] camp in Eastern Congo. We must acknowledge women and survivors all   over the world. Nothing is more dangerous  than crimes that are not acknowledged,   crimes that are unseen and allowed to persist. I am here today to amplify the voices of those   who are never seen and heard, to acknowledge  their suffering, and to make sure they are   not forgotten. And to hold those that are  allowing this to continue, responsible.   Almost exactly a year ago, a civil war broke out  in Sudan, during Ramadan, on April 15th. In this   Chamber, a remarkable Sudanese woman called Hala  al-Karib told you that the first report of gang   rape by armed men was reported at noon on that  very first day, in a woman s home in Khartoum,   and quickly followed by two more in that same area  of the city. And since then, the reports of sexual   violence and sexual slavery have not stopped. Although the Democratic Republic of Congo   has featured in annual reports  and annual debates every year,   the number of victims and survivors continue  to rise. Service providers and Doctors without   Borders have been assisting as many as 70 victims  every single day from the IDP camps near Goma.   In 2020, only five days after my first briefing  with this Council, civil war erupted in Ethiopia,   where atrocities are shocking, with both Eritrean  and Ethiopian soldiers ruthlessly gang raping   women, often in public, exhibiting them there,  tied to trees. And impunity is pervasive. The   common result: no justice for the survivors, none.  Estimates are that 10,000 survivors of sexual   violence sought care in health centres, which is  already a fraction of the total number of victims,   because many survivors never seek care, and many  others want to but cannot find it. Khartoum,   once a thriving city for African women  professionals, now reports sexual violence   targeting of women activists, professors,  health care providers, and students.   How do we effectively combat this issue? Malta has  invited us to consider something that is part of   the answer to the question: the guns. There  are more services for survivors than before,   more people working on this than before,  but we are merely swimming against the tide,   getting nowhere. And that tide is emboldened  by nine consecutive years of increased military   spending, reaching an all-time high of more than  2.4 trillion dollars. The actors committing sexual   violence at such high rates in Sudan, the DRC,  Ethiopia, or Haiti, to name a few, are armed to   the teeth, flagrantly violating arms embargoes.  We hear so much about disruptions to the global   supply chain, but the weapons keep flowing. When you set the stage, the players will   come. I as a theatre maker know this well. The  military economy sets the stage. The players are   well supplied and play their roles. Sexual  violence is horrifyingly and intrinsically   embedded in the stage directions of war. Why does it feel like things are getting worse,   even as the UN ramped up its efforts to address  conflict-related sexual violence over the last   decade and a half since I wrote Eclipsed ? How can your words in this chamber   or the UN s small programmes in conflict areas  compete with 2.4 trillion dollars of military   spending and record weapons sales? When we  take all bilateral aid supporting feminist,   women-led, and women s rights organizations  and movements in conflict-area countries,   we do not get to 150 million dollars for the last  year for which we have data. Put another way, less   than 0.01 per cent of global military spending. The point is that reversing the upward trajectory   of military spending would be a way of reducing  the number of victims in need of support in the   first place. The point is, working on  arms control and ammunition management   is also working to prevent conflict-related  sexual violence. Arms are part of the root of   enabling these crimes that is undeniable. But I must put forth: fewer weapons doesn   t get at the heart of the psychosis of  those who use this kind of violence.   Diminishing its occurrence is not just  about guns, though they definitely play   a role that must be addressed. Simply put: sexual violence in   conflict existed long before semi-automatic  weapons. It has been used to break, dominate,   and take power and control, and to destroy since  time immemorable. The pathology of it is an   expression of a deeper complexity and layers we  have to target it at all levels and at all times.   The issue that strikes me, shocks me, and  always stood out as the one that requires   far more strident steps than it currently has,  as mentioned, is that of impunity. We see the   documentation across the Secretary General s  report, across so many testimonies from brave   survivors: about the commander who committed the  act, and he was let off, due to his political   power, his money, his intimidation; the soldiers  who terrorized a home, a school, a community,   with no consequence; governments allowing  their soldiers free rein to terrorize. This   happens more times than we can count. As well  as a gun issue, we have a deterrence issue.   The issue of impunity, the knowledge that  one can rape a mother, a daughter, a son,   a child and get away with it, feeds the  pathology that keeps this issue dire and   growing. We seem to not have found a way to create  a deterrent that truly alters its perpetuation.   Now, we know such deterrents exist. But  the complicity around sexual violence   being a spoil or inevitable consequence of war  seems to deter various structures from truly   holding parties accountable. Even though the ICC  [International Criminal Court] has taken up some   cases of sexual violence, it is still largely  cost-free to rape in the chaos of conflict.   I d like to speak to the Governments here  today who allow this to occur within their   borders with impunity. If you refuse to protect  your most vulnerable and allow their bodies to   be a spoil of your political conflicts,  you should be held accountable. And you   should not be in a position of leadership. Cultures of impunity I can do this because I   am likely to get away with it, because it is the  expected practice of war must end. They need to be   put through courts of justice: accountability must  be a given. We also need change of male-dominated   cultures, where men are not holding themselves  or each other accountable for committing these   kinds of crimes, where leaders and their  militaries condone this atrocity on their   own citizens. For all the efforts to achieve  gender justice over the past two decades,   the shameful truth is that almost all perpetrators  still feel they can get away with it. And the   overwhelming majority of survivors never  seek justice because justice is rarely ever   there for them. Leaders of their own countries  are not standing up for justice, they are not   even condemning this horrific practice and seeing  justice be served. We still haven t fundamentally   changed the perverse equation that assigns more  consequences to the survivor than the tormentor.   Until we make it clear there are  consequences for rape real, dire   consequences we will never turn the tide of it. I want to ask Member States in this room where   this atrocity occurs, those Member States whose  own State soldiers perpetuate these occurrences:   Is this a default mechanism in conflict? Is  fighting your wars on the bodies of your most   vulnerable a tactic of war? What is being done,  truly done, to prevent it, to bring justice,   to deter future acts of atrocity? You must  answer to this and to the girl in Ethiopia   right now who doesn t know if she will make it  through the week without being tied to a tree.   Right now, a child in Eastern Congo needs us  to keep attacking this issue in multiple ways,   including disarmament and impunity. And  bringing truth to power. She needs us to be   relentless and unstoppable. Or she continues  a life of unspeakable suffering. Sold for a   night. For just 80 cents. Thank you.
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Channel: UN Women
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Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)
Published: Tue Apr 23 2024
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