UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed of Nigeria speaks at a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, February 28, 2017. /VCG Photo
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed urged the international community on Wednesday to "work harder to put an end to sexual violence in conflict."
She was speaking at an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a UN Security Council mandate to prevent and address the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence, which is recognized to threaten security and hinder sustainable and inclusive peace.
Mohammed said that sexual violence in conflict has been called history's greatest silence: the least reported, the least condemned.
The 2009 mandate had sent a clear message that sexual violence during times of upheaval and conflict is not the inevitable collateral of war, she said, but a horrific violation of human rights and international law.
Sexual violence has been a recurrent feature of recruitment by terrorist groups, who may promise marriage and sexual slaves to young men, treat women as the spoils of war, and in some contexts, use trafficking in sexual slavery as a form of revenue, Mohammed said.
A child walks amid thousands of dresses hanging on clotheslines set up as part of an installation "Thinking of You" by Kosovo-born artist Alketa Xhafa Mripa to remind people of the 20,000 woman victims of sexual violence during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War, at the Pristina Stadium in Pristina, Serbia, June 12, 2015. /VCG Photo
These young women and girls, she continued, are often failed by the justice system, but equally by the lack of services, support and reintegration options.
"It is clear that actions have fallen behind words, and that resolutions and laws are only as useful as the political and financial commitment to implement them," she said.
Pointing out the victims of violence and abuse cannot be left behind, Mohammed recommended that the first step is to continue to place survivors at the center of efforts, adding that decision-making, programs and policies should be informed by those who know what is needed.
The UN deputy chief called for concrete action at all levels. "Let us mark the next decade of this mandate by implementing international norms on the ground, through tangible action that improves the lives of all women," she said.
"In the past decade, the United Nations has responded to the demands of victims and survivors by creating a global, normative framework and a set of institutional arrangements," Ms. Mohammed said, citing Security Council resolutions, investigative mechanisms and the establishment of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General.
(With input from Xinhua)