By Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON, Jun 16 (IPS) – On Jun. 19, 2008, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1820, expressly addressing the problems of sexual violence in conflict situations. One year later, three experts in the field gathered to speak at the United States Institute of Peace to evaluate the implementation of 1820 and consider how it might better prevent this widespread crime.
The resolution marked a major step forward for the U.N. in addressing the problems of sexual violence in conflict zones. Anne-Marie Goetz, a chief advisor at the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), presents it as a groundbreaking resolution, linking sexual violence to broader peace and security concerns.
“For the very first time, the U.N. Security Council recognises that systematic sexual violence can be a tactic of warfare. And because it’s a tactic of warfare, it requires a security and policy response,” said Goetz, speaking at the USIP on Thursday.
Goetz was joined by Neil Boothby, a professor of clinical population and family health at Columbia University, and Dara Kay Cohen, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of political science at Stanford University, to mark the one-year anniversary of Resolution 1820.
The resolution acknowledges that sexual violence is often widespread in conflict zones, and that this violence is not just a social problem. Rather, the resolution says that sexual violence “can significantly exacerbate situations of armed conflict and may impede the restoration of international peace and security.”
Boothby, Goetz and Cohen addressed the unique challenges of studying and ameliorating the sexual and gender-based violence situations in conflict zones. They also presented new findings about data-collection and perpetrators’ motives that promise to help reverse the trend of sexual violence within conflict zones.
All three experts emphasised the extent to which sexual violence in conflict zones is misunderstood. The prevalence of the problem is particularly difficult to estimate.
Knowing the frequency of sexual violence in any conflict zone is difficult because being the victim of sexual violence often carries with it a heavy stigma. Thus, it is often not reported to officials, U.N. observers, or researchers.
Furthermore, rape in conflict zones is not always stranger rape; it may be performed by a partner or spouse. Domestic sexual violence is not often reported because the victims fear retribution from their partners.
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