An international truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) on violence against women in armed conflict ”as a step towards ending impunity” is one of the key recommendations in a United Nations (UN) report launched recently in Parliament.
The Report of the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) is entitled ”The Independent Expert’s Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building — Women, War and Peace”.
It says such a commission, to be convened by civil society with support from the international community, will fill the historical gap that has left these crimes unrecorded and unaddressed.
Violence against women in conflict is one of history’s great silences.
”We were completely unprepared for the searing magnitude of what we saw and heard in the conflict and post-conflict areas we visited,” say the report’s authors.
”Women raped and tortured in front of their husbands and children. Rifles forced into vaginas. Pregnant women beaten to induce miscarriages. Foetuses ripped from wombs. Women kidnapped, blindfolded and beaten on their way to work or school.”
The report says violence against women during conflict has reached epidemic proportions, but little is being done to prevent this or to support and protect women.
Among other things, greater specificity is needed in codifying war crimes against women and in recognising the distinct harm, such as forced pregnancy, that results from violations.
Procedures and mechanisms to investigate, report, prosecute and remedy violence against women in war must be strengthened. Otherwise, the historical refusal to acknowledge and punish crimes against women will continue, it says.
Because the legal and political recording of war crimes has so often omitted the crimes committed against women, an international TRC process would correct the historical record, and generate knowledge about the magnitude, severity and patterns of war crimes against women.
It would also educate the legal, political and activist communities on the definitions and procedures outlined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court relating to gender and sexual violence, the report says.
Other recommendations include targeted sanctions against trafficking of women and girls, including gender experts and expertise in all levels of peace operations, and a review of training programmes on and approaches to the gender dimension of conflict resolution and peace-building for humanitarian, military and civilian personnel.
The UN secretary general should also increase the number of women in senior positions in peace-related functions, and gender equality should be recognised in all peace processes, agreements and transitional governance structures, the report recommends.
The report was compiled by two independent experts — Elisabeth Rehn, former Minister of Defence and Equality Affairs of Finland and former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former member of the Organisation for African Unity’s Panel of Eminent Persons investigating the genocide in Rwanda, and a candidate for the Liberian presidency.
The report concludes it is the women who are keeping the ideals of justice and peace alive. It also details new evidence that while women are effective agents of peace, they have little access to power and peace negotiations.
It follows a UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security which called for further study on the subject. Unifem appointed the two experts to travel to 14 conflict countries and territories to interview women and bring their concerns to the attention of the UN and the world. – Sapa