WOMEN AND ARMED CONFLICT DISCUSSED BY EXPERT PANEL IN STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION

WOM/1036
4 March 1998


The ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia had revealed how gender-based violence could be used as an instrument of torture, humiliation and destruction, the Commission on the Status of Women was told this afternoon, as it heard an expert panel discussion on women and armed conflict.

Bernard Muna of Cameroon, currently serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said the traumatic experiences of women in conflict situations left lifelong scars. Sexual violence during combat should be recognized as a crime against humanity. There should be justice for women, and a permanent international criminal court must be established to prosecute perpetrators of such crimes.

The theme of women and armed conflict is one of the four critical areas of concern the Commission is addressing during the current session. Panel discussions on the themes of "human rights of women" and "the girl child" were held yesterday and this morning. The final panel on violence against women will be held tomorrow.

Another expert, Helga Hernes of Norway, Ambassador for Peacekeeping Operations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the United Nations and governments worldwide should do more to secure women's equal participation in peace processes, administration of refugee camps, and in all conflict resolution and negotiation processes. The Secretary-General should appoint more women as special representatives. In addition, more women should be recruited to leadership positions in the Secretariat, and in peacekeeping and civilian operations.

The two other experts on the panel this afternoon were Hina Jilani of Pakistan, Advocate to the Supreme Court, and Rafiga Azimova of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences in Azerbaijan.

In comments and observations from members of the Commission and non- governmental organizations, speakers addressed the suffering of women under foreign occupation; the role of non-governmental organizations in the search for peaceful resolutions of conflicts; and the need to fight against all forms of fundamentalism. They also stressed the need to take account of local initiatives taken by women in Africa to prevent war and conflicts; and to establish mechanisms to address abuses perpetrated by United Nations peacekeepers.

The Commission will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 5 March, to review gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system and emerging issues affecting the situation of women.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon to hear an expert panel discussion on women and armed conflict. It will consider this theme as part of its review of four priority themes identified in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995). The other three areas of concern before the current session are: the girl child; women and human rights; and violence against women.

Panel Discussion

HELGA HERNES, Ambassador for Peacekeeping Operations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, said that small arms were often used by soldiers and men in general to force themselves on women sexually. Small arms were the weapons used most often in conflicts in poor countries and were the major security threat in the developing world. The arming of children and young people meant problems for many years to come.

Women's potential was not fully utilized in peacekeeping operations, she said. While the United Nations was committed on paper to increasing the role and number of women on all decision-making levels, the results were not very good. Governments and the United Nations must counteract negative attitudes towards women in peacekeeping operations. Women were needed in peacekeeping operations for a variety of reasons, including the fact that peacekeepers themselves had been accused of sexual abuses against women and children. More female peacekeepers in the field would lead to better protection for the rights of female refugees. Rape, which had become a strategic weapon, was common in refugee camps.

She then stressed the importance of educating security forces on their role in developing a more democratic society. Training was needed for women police. The United Nations and governments worldwide should do more to secure women's equal participation in peace processes, administration of refugee camps and in all conflict resolution and negotiation processes. The Secretary-General should appoint more women as special representatives. In addition, more women should be recruited to leadership positions in the Secretariat and in peacekeeping and civilian operations.

BERNARD MUNA, of Cameroon, a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, outlined four areas where women might be vulnerable to violations in conflict situations: as combatants, in occupied territories, as asylum seekers and as refugees. As combatants, women found themselves exposed to the danger of being abused by their own comrades and, in cases where they were held prisoner, of being abused by the enemy. Women in occupied territories were particularly vulnerable and were usually a target of the occupying forces, who saw them as a means of humiliating the enemy, terrorizing them and using them as part of their war tactics. Women in such situations were forced to perform humiliating acts, forced into sexual slavery and prostitution, and subjected to forced marriages or pregnancies, tortured or killed. They were often separated from their families and their properties were seized. Such traumatic experiences left lifelong scars. In the cases of Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic cleansing was employed in which women were the primary victims. Refugee women were also subjected to enslavement and other forms of exploitation. Asylum seekers found themselves in unfamiliar environments, with neighbours they hardly knew.

Short- and long-term solutions were needed to deal with the problems suffered by such women, he said. In camps where there were thousands of refugees, structures similar to those in towns and cities, such as police stations, schools and other social structures, should be created. There should be awareness of dangers women faced in conflict situations. There should be laws which would bring to justice people who committed violence against women.

He said sexual violence during combat should be recognized as a crime against humanity. The ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia had revealed how gender-based violence could be used as an instrument of torture, humiliation and destruction. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had established that sexual violence during armed conflicts could amount to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. There should be justice for the women, and a permanent international criminal court should be established to prosecute perpetrators of such crimes.

Regarding trauma faced by women after conflicts, he said it had been estimated that in Rwanda, of the women forcibly abducted in 1994, more than 15,000 women and girls were raped. Of that number, 1,100 gave birth to unwanted children, who, to them, would be a constant reminder of their trauma. A total of 5,200 had abortions. Since 10,000 pregnancies were recorded, it had not been established, for certain, what had happened to the rest. Concrete measures had to be taken in the long term through education on the need to prevent conflicts. Prosecution was part of the healing process, he said, and added that victims needed to see that justice was done.

HINA JILANI, Advocate to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, said that increasingly, conflicts were internal within States. Both the causes and consequences of armed conflict must be studied. Underlying causes of conflict included declining tolerance for ethnic, racial, religious and political differences, combined with a crisis of governance. Increased militarization of States limited access to resources and hampered the development of civil society. Closing avenues of expression and participation forced groups with legitimate claims to resort to violence.

Women were increasingly suffering persecution on ideological grounds, she said. Conflicts in Afghanistan and Algeria were the most extreme examples; Pakistan, too, was exhibiting similar symptoms. Often, such persecution was committed by both State and non-State actors. International and national strategies to address the consequences of conflict must focus on the actions of States and non-State elements. The scope of legal instruments should perhaps be broadened to encompass all such actors.

When conflict situations were raging, outrages committed against women were often publicized to capture the attention of the international community, she said. Once the need for such publicity had subsided, however, crimes against women were largely ignored during negotiations on reparations and other post-conflict matters. Women often suffered indirectly from conflict situations. For example, they faced punishment because of the factional associations of male family members. Often, vigilante and paramilitary groups committed violence against women, yet the international community lacked mechanisms for addressing those groups.

Internal conflict inevitably meant that large segments of the population would be displaced, she said. National systems often lacked the mechanisms to deal with the increasing numbers of internally displaced persons. Bodies such as the Commission must pay greater attention to the new realities of conflict. In addition, foreign policy, national security interests and international interventions must be conscious of the human rights impact of their actions. Human rights concerns should dictate policies between States, she stressed.

RAFIGA AZIMOVA, of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences in Azerbaijan, said she came from a country, 20 per cent of whose territory had been occupied by Armenia. About a million had been forced to flee their motherland, while 400,000 lived in tents. Presently, 4,858 of Azerbaijan's citizens were considered missing. There were reports of violations by Armenian people of the provisions of existing international conventions on the protection of rights of prisoners of war and refugees. There were also reports of exploitation of children, women and the elderly in illegal medical experiments.

She appealed to the Commission to adopt a resolution calling for the release of women and children taken hostage in armed conflict. Women of Azerbaijan considered that war and armed conflict should concern women the world over. For a twenty-first century without war, women should demand from political leaders that the capture of foreign lands should be prohibited; and sanctions imposed by the international community for acts of aggression.

Comments and Observations

As members of the Commission made comments and observations on the theme, one speaker recalled the experience of women in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and in the subsequent refugee crisis. During the genocide, women had been raped and mutilated. They had delivered "bad memory babies"; some had contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of rapes. In the refugee camps, women and children had been raped, while others whose husbands had been jailed had the responsibility to find food for their families.

Continuing, she said while a great deal remained to be done, the country was making great efforts to respond to the needs of women. She, therefore, called for the international community to provide funds for genocide survivors and for victims of rape. Sexual violence had been qualified as a war crime. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda should strengthen its legal team in that area. She hoped the international community would strengthen the witness protection programme for witnesses who had to testify in the trials for those accused of genocide.

In other comments made, there were calls for the appointment of women as special representatives/envoys to increase women's role in preventive diplomacy; for highlighting and acting on the situation of internally displaced persons, particularly women and children as a result of armed conflict as in the case of Colombia; and for an end to the use of women and young people as scouts and guides by the armed groups in conflict.

Several speakers referred to the suffering of women under foreign occupation -- the violation of their human rights and the need to liberate them. They called for solidarity by the international community in defence of those women -- as in the case of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and West Bekaa, the Syrian Golan and Palestine.

One representative called upon all governments to ratify all international conventions that would prevent women from being caught up in armed conflict. Women were encouraged to resist being drawn into armed groups in their society and to elect governments that dealt with women's issues as a priority. The issue of foreign governments providing illicit arms to groups in the African region should be addressed.

Another representative stressed that the crisis in her country was not an armed conflict. A war of terrorism was being waged against the civilian population in Algeria. All Algerian women were expressing their will to resist terrorism and needed the solidarity of the international community. They knew that they would succeed if they continued to fight against all forms of fundamentalism.

In addition, speakers called for the focus of the debate to be shifted to prevention of war and the creation of a culture of peace. Other issues addressed included the need to raise the minimum age of recruitment to the military to age 18; to demobilize children and protect them from being incorporated into arms groups; to protect girls and adolescents during armed conflict and afterwards; and the appointment of a special rapporteur on women and the prevention and resolution of armed conflicts. The local initiatives taken by women in Africa to prevent war and conflicts must be highlighted, it was stressed, and the need to establish mechanisms to address abuses perpetrated by United Nations peacekeepers must also be given due attention.

Other speakers in their comments drew attention to the suffering of women and children in such areas as Kashmir, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Palestine. Attention was drawn to the plight of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict situations and to the issue of conventional weapons production.

There were calls for increasing the level of women's representation in policy-making positions in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and in field missions. One speaker suggested that the Commission should pronounce itself on the question of a legal definition of the situation of women caught in armed conflict. The role of non-governmental organizations in the search for peaceful resolutions of conflicts was stressed by a speaker, who referred to the positive dialogue taking place in Israel among Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the activities of the Israeli Peace Now movement. She said non-governmental organizations were now the answer to the resolution of armed conflicts.

Speakers also regretted the introduction of political issues into the discussion and one questioned the presence of a panellist who spoke about the violation of the rights of Azerbaijani women and children in Armenia. The speaker said Armenian women and children were also suffering in Azerbaijan. He said panellists should speak in their personal capacity and not as official representatives. Another speaker said women should be seen as actors in their own salvation and not only as victims. There should be gender mainstreaming in implementation of humanitarian programmes.

The Secretary-General of the Beijing Conference spoke of the work being done by a network of African women non-governmental organizations in conflict resolution, and announced that their efforts had resulted in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) setting up a high-level body of women to assist in conflict resolution. The Security Council should emulate that example, she added. She praised the peaceful struggle of the women of Sierra Leone and Somalia in the search for a return to constitutional rule in their countries.

The role of the United Nations in research and education about the evils of conflict resolution was essential, one speaker said, while another drew attention to the devastation economic sanctions were causing to the health of civilian populations, particularly vulnerable groups, such as women and children. There was a call for the appointment of women as peace ambassadors by a speaker, who emphasized that it was time for women to say "no, and no to war".

Experts Closing Statements

Mr. MUNA, a member of the Rwanda Tribunal, expert on gender-based persecution, said war was an instrument of domination. While governments had to do their part, non-governmental organizations had a role to play in preventing war. They should impose their will on their elected governments to prevent wars, as a long-term solution. As a short-term solution, however, preventive and punitive measures should be taken to stop violence and punish those who violated human rights. The problems of women in refugee camps should be addressed.

Ms. JILANI, an Advocate to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, focused on the situation in Algeria which, she said, was cause for concern. There was need to provide solutions for problems faced by women there and for the protection of women in that country. It was important to understand that fundamentalism could be dealt with by marginalizing fundamentalist groups. Women had suffered from fundamentalism and the use of religion to control rather than promote human rights.

Responding to the issue of the prosecution of rape, she said it was dependant on the existence of a body of law to make it possible to prosecute such crimes. There was tension between the rights of women and the perception of the rights of the accused. On the issue of post-conflict situations, she said national systems would have to respond effectively in those situations. At the same time, other mechanisms would have to be developed in situations in which intervention was not possible.

Ms. HERNES, Special Adviser in the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, said while non-governmental organizations might have an important role to play in the prevention of conflict, the roles of governments, regional and subregional organizations, as well as the United Nations, in creating an atmosphere of peace and security must be stressed. Regarding the proliferation of small arms, she said the supply side was as important as the illegal trade in those weapons.

Ms. AZIMONA, research scientist at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, invited the representative of Armenia to visit the people who were dying in refugees camps in her country. If there were refugee camps in Armenia she would be willing to visit them. She then elaborated on the conflict between her country and Armenia.