Violence Against Women
(11 years ago)
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Baroness Gould of Potternewton
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address violence against women in countries experiencing conflict.
Baroness Gould of Potternewton (Lab)
My Lords, it is a tragedy but a reality that violence against women and girls, be it sexual assault, domestic violence, FGM or forced marriage, is seen by far too many women as part of normal existence. In discussing the question of rape as a weapon of war, I want to concentrate on sexual violence in conflict, although the other issues around violence against women are extremely important.
The United Nations Security Council has declared that the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of warfare is a threat to international peace and security and it has passed several resolutions mandating states to take specific measures to end impunity for war rape and to address gender inequality. The question that must be discussed today is what the result of these initiatives is. At this point, I must declare an interest as co-chair of the UK branch of the Global Justice Center.
Rape as a particularly serious form of sexual violence qualifies in international law as a form of torture designed to destroy communities through terror and humiliation. As a weapon it is used more than any other prohibited weapon of war, including starvation, herbicides or dum-dum bullets, yet somehow the degradation and sexual assault of women are not seen as such a significant crime and worthy of prosecution. It can be extremely violent and dangerous. It is psychological warfare designed to humiliate and it is used systematically as a tactic of war.
Girls and women are now at a high risk of physical, sexual and emotional violence from regular soldiers, non-regular army groups and militia, and non-combatants. This risk is compounded by the breakdown of structures of authority, displacement, and the rupture of communities and their coping strategies. Women and girls are often the most vulnerable when humanitarian emergencies occur, but they are often not accorded enough priority by donors at the onset of a humanitarian crisis. It must also be understood that women are not a homogeneous group. Attention has to be given to the fate of the large number of widows, for instance, and their children, as well as all women at risk.
Sexual violence has wide-ranging negative consequences: physical trauma, disease, HIV/AIDS, psychological trauma, unwanted pregnancy, maternal mortality and the risks of resorting to non-sterile or unsafe methods of abortion, thus perpetuating the physical and psychological effects of the injury. The horror of rape can lead to severe health implications or death. In many societies, the shame of rape is a burden for the survivor, causing the woman to become a social outcast and frequently obliging her to leave her family and community, which may lead to poverty and often to prostitution.
Whether it is in the iconic square in Cairo, or during the 100 days of the Rwandan genocide, when it is alleged that 400,000 women were raped, or in Bosnia, where it is estimated that 200,000 to 250,000 women were raped—with only perhaps 50 prosecutions, I should add—or in the Central African Republic, where campaigning militia and government forces alike continue to rain terror over the population by the systematic use of rape, even though a hearing is being conducted against a military commander, the war rape continues, and women and girls made pregnant by such rape are denied access to abortion due, directly or indirectly, to the US abortion ban on humanitarian aid. There is evidence that in Libya, in 2011, Gaddafi deliberately used rape as a punishment. Today, in Colombia, sexual violence is perpetrated by armed actors, both state and non-state, but it is the state security forces’ involvement in sexual violence that has a particularly devastating effect since those forces are mandated to protect the Colombian population. A woman from Colombia said to me, “Their uniforms should symbolise security, discipline and public service, but instead they symbolise the fear of rape”. Amnesty International reported the terrible situation of women in Syria in fear of sexually based violence fleeing to camps where they cannot go out at night because of that continuing fear of sexual violence, when they thought that they were going to safety.
Girls and women raped in situations of armed conflict are considered the wounded and sick. That means that they have absolute rights to non-discriminatory medical care and attention under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which states that no adverse distinction should be made on any grounds other than medical ones. However, because of the restrictions placed on the use of aid for the purpose of abortion, non-discrimination might signify that the outcome for each gender must be the same, but the treatment is not and should not be identical. Consequences—most notably pregnancy—necessitate distinct medical care, including the option of abortion. Denying abortion to female victims of war rape who are forced to bear the children of their rapists violates Common Article 3, the prohibition against torture and cruel treatment.
The UK’s partner of choice for humanitarian aid to persons wounded or sick in armed conflict is the International Committee of the Red Cross. Despite the UK’s explicit policies on safe abortion and gender equality, the ICRC, which receives more than 20% of its annual budget from the United States, operates under the US abortion ban, stating in its internal operational guidelines that,
“the ICRC’s general position … is that its medical staff do not perform abortions”.
The ICRC further advises that such medical care is governed by domestic abortion laws, not the medical needs of the patient as required by the Geneva Convention. Nearly all of the UK’s humanitarian aid for victims of armed conflict is given to humanitarian aid entities that discriminate against female rape victims by denying them medically needed abortions.
This is in no way to diminish the important role that the Government have played in highlighting this crucial issue. It was encouraging to hear this statement in the Queen’s Speech:
“My government will work to prevent sexual violence in conflict worldwide”.
They have increased efforts to tackle this issue through the Foreign Secretary’s preventing sexual violence initiative, which aims to increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice and is signed by 120 member states. Perhaps the Minister can update us on what progress has been made on that initiative. Importantly, it was supported by the G8 Declaration on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict this year and I am sure that we all look forward to the outcome of the proposed global summit.
Resolution 2122, which supports abortion access for survivors of rape in war, noting the need for,
“access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including regarding pregnancies resulting from rape, without discrimination”,
is in line with the Government’s announcement on 9 January this year that the option of abortion is a necessary component of medical care for women and girls impregnated by war rape. This resolution represents a step forward in recognising the rights of female victims of war, so my question to the Minister has to be whether this policy has now been incorporated into relevant DfID policies. Has there been a revision of the safe and unsafe abortion practice paper that limits the provision of DfID support for abortion services strictly to situations where abortion is legal under national laws? Those actions are vital if we are to make change happen.
Further initiatives that might be followed by the Government are to remove any barriers to the implementation of the important Security Council Resolution 2106 by the UK making a bilateral request for the US to remove its abortion ban on humanitarian aid and publicly to support access to safe abortions for female war victims. How do the Government intend to follow through the recommendation of the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development that all UK aid partners should inform girls and women raped and impregnated in armed conflict of their rights under international humanitarian law, including their right to abortion as a component of non-discriminatory medical care? The UK has the power to ensure that its aid complies with the Geneva Conventions and the Security Council resolutions.
Effective responses to sexual and gender-based violence have to ensure medical, psychological and material support, as well as access to justice for survivors. This requires strong political commitment and leadership at both national and global levels. If we are to look forward to the future, we really have to see a reduction, if not the elimination, of these terrible atrocities against women and girls.
Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)
I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, on raising this subject for debate today, because the situation of women in conflict is so often overlooked. For most people in the UK, war is viewed through the media with images of young men—soldiers, rebels, fundamentalist groups, freedom fighters. What is hardly ever shown are the pictures of the women in these countries who die as civilians, or those who are raped violently and repeatedly as a strategy of modern warfare. Over the past century, wars have shifted from battlefields to communities, and today it is estimated that 90% of casualties are civilians, mostly women and children. In terror, women often flee, trying to take their families to a safer place, sometimes making themselves even more vulnerable.
Of the 42 million refugees and internally displaced people today, 80% are women and children. These stark figures do not reveal the suffering that lies behind them. What happens to families when a mother is killed? What about the heartbreak of leaving your home with nothing, to ensure your family’s survival? This anguish was very much brought home to me when I met Syrian refugees in Lebanon in May. Being the poorest in these countries makes women especially vulnerable in conflict, not only because they are less physically able to defend themselves but because their cultural norms and status in society often put them at particular risk. The destruction of services and infrastructure during conflict means that there is no support to turn to, and it is not just by the enemy that women will be attacked. When a conflict starts, levels of domestic violence spiral out of control.
As the noble Baroness has highlighted, women frequently become prime targets. Too often today, rape is used as a weapon of war; raping a woman in front of her family effectively disarms the men. UN special representative Zainab Bangura describes it as “History’s greatest silence”. Accurate data from conflict countries are hard to obtain but the estimates are truly terrible: 50,000 women systematically raped in the camps in Bosnia; around 400,000 women raped in Rwanda; 400,000 women raped in the DRC in the years 2006 and 2007 alone; 500,000 women raped in Colombia. One could go on—Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, women being gang-raped in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and it is happening right now in Syria today. In spite of this, the conviction rates up to now have been pitifully small: none after World War II, 29 in Bosnia, 11 in Rwanda and six in Sierra Leone.
I pay enormous tribute to the Foreign Secretary for his initiative to prevent sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict countries, which was launched in May 2012, and I am enormously proud to be on the steering board. There has been outstanding progress, and I am sure we will hear more on this from the Minister: 137 countries have endorsed the declaration—that is 70% of all the members of the United Nations. In the words of the Foreign Secretary:
“We want to bring the world to a point of no return, creating irreversible momentum towards ending warzone rape and sexual violence worldwide”.
In time, this will change the lives of millions across the world.
As the noble Baroness said, women are not a homogeneous group. No data exist on the millions of widows and wives of the disappeared, who are particularly vulnerable and may be targeted within their families and the wider community. According to Widows for Peace through Democracy, it is suggested that there are over 2 million widows in Iraq; more than 50% of all women in eastern Congo are widows, and there are 2.5 million in Afghanistan, with around 80,000 in Kabul alone, often having to resort to begging on the streets to support their families.
“Wherever there is conflict, women must be part of the solution”,
said Michelle Bachelet, the former head of UN Women. Women are hit hardest by war, yet it is an irony that they are excluded from national peace talks and plans. Over the past 25 years, only one in 40 peace treaty signatories have been women, and between 1990 and 2010 only 12 out of 585 peace accords referred to women’s needs in rehabilitation or reconstruction.
Failing to recognise the different experiences of women and men threatens to erode women’s rights and puts them at increased risk. For women, violence continues after the fighting stops, when there will be many armed men and usually fragile or non-existent transitional justice systems. In post-conflict countries, a culture of normalised sexual violence can continue. When I visited Liberia, we were told that girls had to engage in “transactional” sex to survive, with even the girls in the university having to exchange sex for grades.
There has been little real progress on including women at the peace table in spite of seven UN resolutions, starting with 1325 and ending with 2122, to address this, through lack of global implementation. Over the past few years, one only has to look at the way in which Afghan women have been excluded from the London Conference, the Bonn II Conference—where a woman from civil society was allowed to speak for three minutes—and the Chicago NATO summit.
You cannot have real and lasting peace without considering and including women, who are half the population, and it is certainly not peace for the women if domestic and sexual violence is raging unabated and there are no institutions to deal with this. Surely it is just as much a right for women to help to decide the future of their country and that their diverse experiences are integrated into all peacebuilding, peacemaking and reconstruction processes. When that happens, peace is more likely to last. I particularly ask the Minister to ensure that, where the UK is involved in peace negotiations, women in civil society are included.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, I endorse and support what my noble friend Lady Gould said about the right of women raped and impregnated in conflict to abortion under the Geneva convention, and indeed international humanitarian law.
Last year, as rebels captured the main towns in Mali, we heard that girls as young as 12 had been forcibly taken to military camps, gang-raped for days and then abandoned. Earlier this year Ban Ki-moon visited Congo, where he met women who had a condition called traumatic fistula. I have also met women who, to put it in plain language, had had their insides torn out, were unable to control their bladder or bowels and were in constant pain. In Darfur I met a 16 year-old girl who, after being raped, was rejected by her family and fiancé, and endured additional abuse at the hands of police. Her child was then two years old and she was left isolated and alone. It is usual for these women and girls to be ostracised and rejected by their families.
Just imagine an orphanage where 300 children conceived when their mothers were raped had been abandoned. Imagine a town where in the past year 11 infants between the age of six months and one year had been raped. Of the thousands of reported rapes in Congo, up to 50% of all survivors were under the age of 17, and 10% were under 10.
Sexual violence in conflict is a security, development and human rights challenge. It is indeed an extremely effective weapon of war that creates enduring ethnic, religious, family and community divides. Violence against women is increasingly used as a way to humiliate, attack and undermine enemy male combatants. Women are raped and impregnated or infected with HIV as a part of efforts to destabilise their communities. It is also important to recognise that, as the excellent NGO, Womankind, points out, attention to the impact of war on women has failed to address domestic violence in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and that in such conditions it is often the case that women suffer violence from partners and family members.
How, in policies, programmes and funding, do the Government seek to address domestic violence in fragile and conflict-affected states? Is it not clear that, whether in the form of beatings, bullying, forced marriage or female infanticide, violence is used as a tool to subordinate women? The tragedy is that too often violence against women is tolerated, justified and overlooked, and there is an unwillingness to acknowledge that social norms and the widespread prevalence of patriarchal attitudes and beliefs determine the status of women.
The UN Security Council has said that it,
“remains seized of the matter”,
so why are gender perspectives not mainstreamed through all the UN work on conflict-affected and fragile states? The NGO, Saferworld, which has real expertise on peace and security matters, has pointed out that while we have a large number of international agreements on addressing sexual and gender-based violence, little progress has been made on implementing them, so I do not expect to hear from the Minister that everything is fine and going well.
We have the Beijing Platform for Action and United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888, 1960, 2106 and 2122. Surely we have enough information to act on. It is good to have these progressive policies, of course, but if they are not translated into action, we will not see real change for hundreds of thousands of women, men, girls and boys whose life chances are so threatened by sexual and gender-based violence. Furthermore, even with that solid framework of UN resolutions already in place, we see that Mary Robinson is the first and only lead mediator in the peace process, when over half the world’s population are women. Plainly, we need to see many more women who are civil society leaders, with decades of experience on peace and security issues, holding key positions in peacekeeping operations.
It occurs to me that as the number of resolutions increases, and while the focus on protecting women from sexual violence is welcome, it seems that little is being done to plan for more women’s participation in decision-making. Resolution 2122, agreed in October, represents some progress but there is still a long way to go. Surely it is time to recognise that there is an urgent need to support women’s efforts to address their own security needs, and that they should have a central role in efforts to respond to conflict—and indeed to help with the prevention of conflict.
On the preventing sexual violence initiative, the priority has to be preventing violence in the first place. Focusing simply on prosecution fails to acknowledge the daunting barriers to justice that women face. Indeed, a World Bank report found that apart from lack of education and a limited awareness of their rights, the main reason that women do not seek help is the perception that violence is normal and somehow justified, and that it remains the case that women are too embarrassed and stigmatised to seek redress. We identify the fact that there are grave problems with impunity in conflict-affected states. This reinforces and reflects the widespread social convention that serves to marginalise women. Is it not time to shift the balance of shame from the survivors to the perpetrators? Will the Minister confirm that the planned PSVI conference will include a focus on primary prevention and survival services as well as on increasing prosecutions?
Violence against women is increasingly recognised as a threat to democracy, a barrier to lasting peace, a burden on national economies and a truly appalling violation of human rights. Protection and prevention are within the grasp of our generation. We should ensure that both are applied with rigour.
Lord Hussain (LD)
I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, for raising this important issue. We often hear about violence and rape against women from many parts of the world, and we all stand united in condemning those acts. However, we very rarely discuss such issues taking place in many countries that are more friendly to the United Kingdom, such as India. Recently some cases in the capital and other areas have been reported widely in the press, but the case of gang rape in the Indian capital has remained the focus for almost all the print and electronic media in the country. This has been followed by violent and angry protests at India Gate in the heart of New Delhi. Not only the residents of Delhi but also the whole of India has condemned these crimes. Living their own life of peace, far from turbulent Kashmir, the young generation of the city have rarely witnessed such protests, yet they arose in anger to protest against this brutal incident. People all over India have condemned the brutality of the crime and demanded a harsh punishment for the culprits. Cries of justice for the victim have echoed in many quarters.
However, this has also exposed the duality of attitude of the majority of Indians. If an incident of gang rape against a medical student on a moving bus in the capital is a matter of grief and sorrow for India, provoking it to demand justice, what about Kashmir, where many such cases of rape against innocent girls involving forces have come to the fore? These have been overlooked by the majority of Indians and the rest of the world. Why has not the rest of India demanded justice for these girls? The residents of Kashmir, which is claimed by India as an integral part and is still considered the most militarised part of the world, where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act gives extraordinary powers to the military forces and where protests against alleged human rights violations take place on a daily basis, have cried themselves hoarse demanding justice in a number of rape cases against innocent daughters of the state.
The major rape case in the history of Kashmir and indeed the whole of India is the Kunan Poshpora mass rape incident. On 23 February 1991, Kunan Poshpora, a village in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir, witnessed incidents of the alleged mass rape of 20 women by army troops in one night. The incident drew the attention of national and international media. However, this was soon forgotten and the womenfolk of the village landed in unending troubles. Women who deserved the respect and honour of society were not secure any more from the cruel face of the armed forces. A number of other cases of rape and enforced disappearances have come to the fore in the past three decades. Another case that shook the region was the 2009 Shopian rape and murder case, which resulted in protests that rocked the whole valley, with several families losing their loved ones in the agitation.
Shutdowns, curfews and protests, unimaginable for Indians, are not new to Kashmiris. Importantly, womenfolk have become the victims of sexual abuse in the state. Several decades have passed but Kashmir is still fighting to restore its internal peace by achieving justice for its loved ones, who have been subjected to enforced disappearances, and its womenfolk, who have been subjected to senseless violations of their dignity.
The root of the problem, as pointed out by many, is the existence of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which grants special powers to the armed forces deployed in Kashmir. According to the law, the forces have the power to,
“enter and search without warrant any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to recover any person believed to be wrongfully restrained … or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances”,
and seize it. Does this imply that in a crackdown, the forces can take away all the male members of a community and do whatever they wish with the womenfolk left behind? Kashmir has witnessed too many such incidents.
On 31 March 2012, a UN official asked India to revoke AFSPA, saying it had no place in a democracy such as India. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, visited the region and said:
“During my visit to Kashmir, AFSPA was described to me as ‘hated’ and ‘draconian’. It clearly violates international law. A number of UN treaty bodies have pronounced it to be in violation of international law as well”.
I will cut short my speech because I can see that my time is nearly up. A Kashmiri newspaper recently reported that the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, asked the Sri Lankan Prime Minister to ensure a “credible, transparent and independent” inquiry into alleged war crimes. Will the Foreign Secretary ask the Indian Government to ensure a credible, transparent and independent inquiry into the alleged gang rapes in Kashmir at the hands of the security forces, and to bring those responsible to justice?
Baroness Coussins (CB)
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate, and will focus my remarks on Colombia and Peru. I declare my interests as president of the Peru Support Group and as a volunteer with VSO’s parliamentary volunteering programme in Peru two years ago, where I worked with various NGOs concerned with sexual violence and held meetings with members of the then new Government, as well as the police, judiciary and British companies operating in Peru. I am also associated with the ABColombia Group in the UK and a few days ago chaired its conference on Women, Conflict-Related Violence and the Peace Process in Colombia, which was attended by the representatives of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the acting Colombian ambassador and some brave victims of sexual violence, who flew over especially, and about 100 activists, academics and others.
It is important to understand the social and cultural context of sexual violence in conflict zones. Women face historical, ingrained attitudes of gender discrimination and economic, social and political marginalisation, as we have already heard. This creates a permissive context for violence against women, which is exacerbated by conflict. We see this today in Colombia, and it was a major issue in the Peruvian conflict between 1980 and 2000. Both conflicts have made widespread and systematic use of women’s bodies as a weapon of war, particularly affecting poor, indigenous and Afro-descendent women.
In Colombia, sexual violence is perpetrated by all armed actors in the conflict, both state and non-state forces. The Constitutional Court of Colombia and the International Criminal Court have expressed grave concerns about the high levels of conflict-related sexual violence, describing it as,
“habitual, extensive, systematic and invisible”.
There is almost total impunity for this type of violence. One survey covering a nine-year period from 2000 estimated that nearly 13,000 women were victims of conflict rape; more than 1,500 were forced into prostitution; and there were more than 4,000 forced pregnancies and nearly 2,000 forced abortions. Yet only 18% of Colombian women actually report this crime, and there is very little hope of that improving, given the dangers that they face, the social stigma and the involvement of the security forces.
As we know, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 states that conflict-related sexual violence should be on the peace process agenda from day one; yet it is still not on the Colombian agenda, despite peace talks having started there in November 2012. In Peru, we have also seen the systematic nature of sexual violence committed by both state forces and Shining Path rebels during the internal conflict. The perpetrators could have been tried for crimes against humanity, but instead the judicial system has chosen to treat it as a common crime. Although the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that military commanders were responsible for the majority of conflict-related sexual violence, these crimes remain unpunished.
None of the 538 cases documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has reached trial. The military refuses to release information that could be used as evidence, while the police and judiciary are inefficient and underresourced. Impunity for conflict crimes contributes to the sustained high levels of violence against women today. Most of the victims were members of marginalised indigenous communities, indicating the links between violence, poverty and racial discrimination. These same groups were also the main victims of a mass programme of sterilisation without consent during the 1990s. As yet, there has been no redress for that to the estimated 200,000 victims.
At least one case awaits trial at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning the arbitrary arrest, rape and torture by state agents of Gladys Carol Espinoza in 1993. This case was referred after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that the Peruvian state had failed to meet its obligations to prevent and punish torture. Would it be possible for Her Majesty’s Government to do more to press Peru to comply with the rulings of the Inter-American court?
I welcome the Government's PSVI programme, but ask that a special effort be made not to overlook Colombia and Peru and elsewhere in Latin America. I was disappointed that Colombia was not designated as a priority country when the PSVI was first announced. I would appreciate it if the Minister could say something about how the UK could support the survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in these countries, including support for the human rights defenders who try to help them on the ground but who themselves are so often also in jeopardy.
At the conference here last week, we were pleased to hear the Foreign Office representatives announce a government conference for next June on this whole subject. I congratulate the Government on that initiative, but could they commit to ensuring that there will be speakers from civil society women’s organisations and guarantee that Colombia and Peru will be explicitly covered on the agenda?
I want to make a brief point about how the issue of sexual violence relates to the recent free trade agreement between the EU, Colombia and Peru, which was debated in this Room only last week. In the light of today’s debate, would the Minister undertake to press for a gender perspective to be adopted in the monitoring and implementation of the human rights and labour standards elements of the trade agreement, given the levels of discrimination arising from sexual violence in these countries?
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, I also thank my noble friend Lady Gould for initiating this important debate. I, too, welcome the Government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and the Foreign Secretary’s work in raising the profile of this issue on the international stage. However, as we have heard in this debate, not only must we be tough on the crime; we have to be tough on its causes. We must tackle the underlying problem of a lack of empowerment, education and inclusion. The FCO, DfID and the MoD are jointly responsible for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and for delivering the UK’s national action plan on the resolution. The Government’s progress on the plan is reported in the third annual review and, as my noble friend Baroness Kinnock has already indicated, many of the positive aspirations unfortunately have yet to be translated into reality.
Challenging attitudes and beliefs around gender-based violence is critical, alongside the implementation of effective legislation. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, I welcome the decision to host a global summit in London next year, co-chaired by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ special envoy Angelina Jolie. Campaigning organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Saferworld and others have made a vital contribution to help to advance this cause over many years. I, too, ask the Minister to assure the Committee that these organisations will be able to be active participants in the summit. The UK commitment to increase funding to the UN Secretary-General’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict is also welcome and I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us whether other countries have followed suit and what the Government are doing to ensure that they do so.
As we have heard in this debate, despite its prevalence, sexual violence in conflict has remained an invisible crime, ignored or dismissed as an inevitable consequence of war. As my noble friends highlighted, 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped during the 1992-95 conflict in Bosnia, yet only 12 attackers have been tried to date. In Rwanda, 500,000 women were raped in 100 days of conflict, yet only 3% of the genocide trials that followed contained any convictions for sexual violence.
The Government are right in saying that this is the time for the international community to step up its efforts to respond to these crimes. Will the Minister set out how many UK personnel have been deployed in post-conflict areas, as part of the UK team of experts, to help to improve local accountability structures since the initiative was first launched? Will he set out what discussions he has had with international partners on contributing their skilled and experienced staff to an international team of experts that can be deployed more widely?
There are a number of priority areas that I would like the Minister to specifically address in his response today. First, what response have the Government received from the Sri Lankan authorities since the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on the offer to help to bring perpetrators to account, and how do they plan to take this work forward? In respect of the work that is being done by the UK’s team of experts on the Syrian borders, are there plans for support to be given to those in need in Syria itself?
As my noble friends have confirmed, the global community commitment to protect girls and women raped in armed conflict is made clear by the UN Security Council’s seven resolutions addressing sexual violence in armed conflict. We heard from my noble friends that the denial of safe abortion to war rape victims is deadly, inhuman and cruel. Resolution 2106’s mandate to provide comprehensive and non-discriminatory health services seeks to end this wrong against those victims. I am aware that the Government have made their policy position clear on the provision of safe abortions, but will the Minister make strong representations to those Governments that, as we have heard, continue to make aid and support conditional, urging them to adopt the same approach as us?
We had an excellent debate recently in this Room in Grand Committee on women in Afghanistan post-2014, initiated by the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson. The debate highlighted that over 4,000 incidents of violence against women in just six months this year were documented by the independent Afghan Human Rights Commission. I am aware of the substantial funds allocated to development aid in Afghanistan by DfID, but what training is being given to the Afghan army so that, particularly post-2014, it sees protecting women from sexual and other forms of violence as part of its role? What protection is being given there to women human rights defenders?
Lord Bates (Con)
My Lords, I join all noble Lords in paying tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, for securing this debate and for the way in which she introduced it. I will preface my remarks by making two points. The first is to pay tribute to her and other Members who have spoken today, particularly the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, and my noble friend Lady Hodgson, for the tremendous work that they have done in this field to bring light to a subject that has often been swept under the carpet. The declaration, now on the international agenda, that violence against women and girls is no longer acceptable is surely something that we want to hear.
Secondly, contributions to the debate have been helpful in crystallising matters. We heard the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, refer to Colombia and Latin America and the noble Lord, Lord Hussain, talk about India and Kashmir. We heard my noble friend Lady Hodgson and the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, talk about Africa and the Middle East. The noble Lord, Lord Collins, spoke about Bosnia. This reminds us that this is not something that is restricted to a particular place or geography. It is endemic in warfare and needs to be tackled with the utmost severity. In response, finally, to the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, who understands well the briefings that one might receive ahead of debates like this, I can say that there will be no complacency. Of course we will seek to inform Members about what the Government are doing, but in no way are we saying that it is enough: it is simply the start of taking action in this important area.
The Government have put women and girls at the heart of their international development work. Our vision is set out in our strategy on delaying first pregnancy, support for safe childbirth and preventing violence against women and girls. We recognise that such violence is widespread, highly prevalent and has devastating consequences. It has been hidden and accepted for far too long. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development has made it clear that tackling violence against women and girls is a central part of the UK’s development policy. My honourable friend Lynne Featherstone continues her active efforts to be a champion for combating violence against women. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary, as a number of noble Lords and noble Baronesses have mentioned, has made prevention of sexual violence in conflict-affected countries a priority.
Violence affects about one-third of women and girls in the course of their lifetime. Preventing violence against women is a development goal in its own right and is a key to achieving other development outcomes, including educational attainment, maternal health and economic activity. The impact of violence and rape does so much to erode and destroy those in the human lives concerned. Evidence shows that in emergency situations, including times of conflict, the risk of violence to women and girls is exacerbated. Existing social structures and networks that can protect women are often weakened or destroyed. Inadequate facilities and limited resources reduce women’s options and increase the risk of economic and sexual exploitation. The violence perpetrated is not always sexual violence—evidence shows that in times of conflict, the incidence of domestic violence also increases. The use of sexual violence against women and girls in wartime is well documented. It is used for many reasons: to inflict injury, to degrade, to intimidate and to force a population to flee. Estimates of the scale of violence against women and girls during conflicts in the 1990s demonstrate large-scale targeted abuses, which have been placed on record here this afternoon.
The consequences of violence against women and girls in conflict situations are stark. Sexual violence causes physical and psychological damage to thousands of women and girls, and in the worst cases results in the loss of life. Some survivors will be faced with an unwanted pregnancy, and the choices they face are often limited and harsh. They risk death from an unsafe abortion or face social exclusion and destitution. Every year, 47,000 women and girls die as a result of unsafe abortions and millions more are permanently injured. Improving access to safe abortion is challenging, and I am proud that the UK is one of only a handful of donors willing to take on the challenge. Given the scale of the problem, it is important that the international community works to ensure that the needs of women and girls are prioritised and that action is taken to protect and support women and girls affected by violence in conflict zones.
I am pleased to reassure noble Lords that the Government have been leading the international community in addressing the challenges of violence against women and girls in conflict situations. Just last month, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development hosted Keep Her Safe, a high-level event attended by senior representatives from the Government, the UN, NGOs and civil society. The point has been made from across the humanitarian system, and that will continue in future meetings. They agreed a fundamental new approach to protecting girls and women in emergency situations. They recognised the need for comprehensive services for sexual reproductive health, psychological health and mental health for women and girls affected by crisis. The event secured £40 million in pledges from the international community to support this work in emergencies. We will track the progress of these commitments, working very closely with the US, which takes the lead on this initiative in 2014.
In another major step, the Foreign Secretary launched the preventing sexual violence initiative in May 2012. It aims to address the culture of impunity by increasing the number of perpetrators brought to justice both internationally and nationally, strengthening international efforts and co-operation, and supporting states to build their national capacity to deliver justice and services. In April this year, G8 Foreign Ministers adopted a historic declaration on preventing sexual violence which committed countries to use all measures—political, practical and legal—to ensure that there are no safe havens for the perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. Last week, the Foreign Secretary announced that he would co-chair an international summit in the UK which would aim to take further the commitments already made.
In the remaining time, I will address as many of the questions raised as possible. The noble Baroness, Lady Gould, asked what actions were being taken following the UNGA ministerial meeting in 2013, when the Foreign Secretary launched the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. I will refer to some specific elements. The first is eroding impunity, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, referred. The 137 endorsing countries have agreed that no peace agreements should give amnesty to people who have ordered or carried out rape. The second is protecting civilians. Every UN peacekeeping mission should now automatically include provisions for the protection of civilians from sexual violence in conflict. The third is eradicating safe havens for the perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict. Suspects wanted for war-zone rape can now be arrested in any of the countries that have signed up—a number that is growing. We need to see an increase in the number of prosecutions, something referred to by my noble friend Lady Hodgson and the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock. Only that will really underscore the determination of the international community to stamp out this wicked and heinous crime.
A new international protocol will be launched next year which will improve global standards for documenting and investigating conflict-zone sexual violence and improve accountability. There will be new global efforts to ensure support and justice for survivors of rape. A number of speakers referred to the shame and stigma felt by people who have been victims and the need to ensure that that is squarely put on the shoulders of the perpetrators.
The noble Baroness, Lady Gould, was concerned about some attitudes towards abortion among the donor community. DfID welcomed recent UN Security Council Resolution 2122, which said that women ought to have,
“access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including regarding pregnancies resulting from rape, without discrimination”.
That is a very clear statement and something that this Government support and acknowledge. We will uphold that and encourage other donors to equally respect and uphold it.
The noble Lord, Lord Hussain, referred to events in India. Priorities for DfID’s work in India include tackling violence and investing in girls’ education. As for his specific point about whether we would raise this directly with the Government of India, I shall take that back and report to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State and see what action we might take to ensure that the horrific cases that he brought to our attention are acted upon.
The noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, asked for examples of perpetrators being brought to justice. As I have mentioned, that was a key element of the G8 and UN General Assembly declarations on the subject. One additional element is that we will not hesitate to arrest and transfer fugitives required to appear before these courts who come to the UK. That is an important addition that should go without saying. It is something that all agencies and departments are signed up to.
I am running out of time so will just refer to some closing remarks in my brief. I will write to those noble Lords and noble Baronesses whose questions I have not addressed and give them the best possible answers that I can to the points that they have raised. I conclude by saying that this is something that the Government take with the utmost seriousness. We believe that progress is being made on it in the international community. We acknowledge that it has been referred to as “history’s greatest silence”. Along with the actions that are taking place, this debate today is giving a voice to the victims. We can all be proud of that, but there is a lot more to do.