Rape is a Public Safety Issue

The Aspen Institute recently hosted an event on rape as a weapon of war entitled, Ending the Atrocity, Stop Rape Now: UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, which I attended.  The speakers included The Honorable Margot Wallström (visit her blog), Vice President of the European Commission and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders’ Ministerial Initiative, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues and Co-founder of Vital Voices Global Partnership.  The event was chaired by Ms. Inés Alberdi, Executive Director of UNIFEM. 

I directly encountered the impact of rape on communities during my time in both Sierra Leone, where an estimated 64,000 women were raped during the 11 year civil war, and in Rwanda, where approximately 500,000 women were raped during the genocide.  I follow this issue closely, but I am continually dismayed by the lack of action on the part of the international community to seriously engage member states on addressing issues of gender-based violence.  

 
The eloquent remarks of the speakers focused on the progress and setbacks the international community (UN, US, and EU) has made, mentioning often the recent passing of Security Council resolution (S/Res) 1820 (2008), which declares rape a weapon of war, and the upcoming 10th anniversary of S/Res 1325 (2000), which calls for gender parity in peacebuilding operations.  The speaker presentations also sought to identify the needs of women and girls in conflict zones, and highlighted ways the international community is attempting to address these concerns. 

While the atrocity of rape continues to knowingly ravage Eastern Congo (read TIME article by Ben Affleck), Sudan, and now also Afghanistan and Iraq, interest in addressing these issues remains relatively isolated to a group of inspired women activists, the likes of which were present in that room.  This is representative of the lack of interest violence against women receives from the international community.  The need to involve men in developing ways to counter violence against women was a point raised during the discussion. 

In Sudan, the crisis of rape has been recently documented by Physicians for Human Rights in their recent report, Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support, and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women.  Included in this is The Farchana Manifesto (in Arabic, French, and English), which gives voice to the women of Darfur. 

Another topic discussed with the audience was the need for enhanced communications technology to give women access to information about where violence is occurring, and what services are available, such as medical, psychosocial, and legal, once rape has occurred. 

One dimension of the issue that was overlooked is the link between insecurity as a result of conflict, public safety, and violence against women.  Focusing on women alone often alienates and distracts attention away from dealing with the existing environment of impunity and insecurity that puts women at risk in the first place.  Most international efforts fail to emphasize prevention and policing as part of an integrated strategy to combat violence against women, and as a result, tend to contextualize the needs of women apart from the security needs of the community.  There is currently no prevention strategy for rape in conflict, and as a result, NGOs struggle to provide adequate services to a volume of victims that exceeds their means. 

A public safety strategy for dealing with rape might create new opportunities to address the issue as a threat to the livelihoods of communities at risk without the stigma of dealing with rape as a unavoidable consequence of war. 

Currently, the PCR Project is looking at ways to improve public safety by harnessing tools and resources available in the diapora, such as new communications and web-based technologies, collaborative public-private partnerships, and capacity building for local security forces through language and literacy training, to expand the international community’s thinking about dealing with insecurity.  The report will be available online in September of this year and this research has been made possible by the generous support of the Compton Foundation. 

 Flikr photo by United Nations Photo used under a Creative Commons license.