Statement by Ambassador Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations at the Security Council Open Debate "Women, peace and security: sexual violence in conflict
(23 April 2019)
Mr. President,
We thank Germany for convening today's open debate on this important issue.
We also thank the Secretary General and other briefers for sharing their insights.
Mr. President,
Almost two decades have passed since the adoption of landmark resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security by the Security Council, which mobilized global efforts to eliminate the scourge of conflict related sexual violence.
Since then, we have collectively made significant progress in establishing and strengthening the legal and normative framework to address this challenge. The international will to investigate conflict-based sexual violence is also much stronger today than ever before.
Yet in many conflict situations around the world, women, especially young girls, continue to carry the main brunt of both physical and psychological abuse and trauma.
From Myanmar to my country's neighborhood, the world continues to watch in horror as rape and sexual abuse is employed with impunity as a deliberate means to oppress entire populations and to humiliate and terrorize them.
As the Secretary General has noted in his recent report, sexual violence continues to be employed as a broader strategy for repression, domination and subjugation to deliberately harm and scar defenseless and vulnerable communities.
Mr. President,
Our fight against impunity for conflict related sexual violence must continue with greater commitment to hold aggressors to account, and to never allow political or geo-political interests to constrain or compromise our efforts.
By focusing on creating an enabling environment for more meaningful participation of women, and by securing their seats at the table as true partners and stakeholders in all matters related to peace, mediation and reconciliation, we can give peace efforts a much better chance to succeed.
Here I would like to make six specific points:
- One, while the Security Council has led the way in drawing international attention to such horrific crimes it also needs to focus on addressing the root causes of conflicts, most notably, the protracted disputes of Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine. After all one of the most effective ways to prevent conflict-based sexual violence is to eliminate the breeding grounds that are spawned by unresolved disputes. By leaving disputes unaddressed the Council runs the risk of acting selectively and displaying a blind spot for some of the most vulnerable women who suffer disproportionately from violence perpetrated by foreign occupation;
- Two, national governments have a critical role in securing accountability for sexual violence and abuse. Only by strengthening national criminal justice systems and enacting strict victim and witness protection laws can the impunity be effectively denied to perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
- Three, real justice to the survivors of sexual abuse in conflict situation does not end with the prosecution of the perpetrators; it also requires concerted efforts to restore the dignity of victims and ensuring their honorable reintegration in the community by shielding them from any consequent stigma and victimization.
- Four, by enlisting faith leaders and respected figures from within communities, we can further promote efforts to mitigate the stigma suffered by survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and ease their reintegration.
- Five, we also need to enlist more women in peacebuilding and mediation processes to take advantage of their unique skillsets. We are encouraged that women's protection advisors have been deployed in seven UN peacekeeping operations for convening the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence in the field. At the same time, there is a need to appoint more women in leadership roles especially as special envoys and special representatives.
- Six, gender perspectives need to be fully integrated into the peace-building paradigm. This would greatly enhance women's role in peace accords, as well as in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction phases. Pakistan, as one of the leading troop contributing countries to the UN, is deploying a female infantry engagement team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo next month. We have also recently achieved the goal of deployment of 15% female staff officers in Peacekeeping Missions, thus fulfilling our responsibilities in accordance with the uniformed gender parity strategy and Security Council Resolutions.
Mr. President,
Pakistan has always remained a resolute supporter of global efforts to protect the vulnerable, including the women and children.
Our professional peacekeepers to the UN, including our female peacekeepers, continue to set the highest standards in fulfilling peacekeeping mandates, and protecting all vulnerable segments of the population, including women, from violence in some of the most dangerous and complex conflict situations around the world.
I thank you.