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DE RUEHC #1321 2171317
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O P 051259Z AUG 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0000
INFO RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA PRIORITY 0000

UNCLAS STATE 081321 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPKO PHUM PREL CG
SUBJECT: UNSCR 1820 - WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY: UNSC 
CONSULTATIONS AUGUST 7 
 
 ¶1. ACTION REQUEST: USUN may draw from the talking points in 
para 2 below during the August 7 consultations on UN Security 
Council Resolution 1820 on Women, Peace and Security. Mission 
should review the approach outlined in talking points below, 
and if, based on latest information from its interactions 
with other missions, it believes changes would be advisable, 
should note those to the Department. As appropriate, mission 
should consult with friendly Council members prior to the 
August 7 session.  End action request. 
 
¶2. Begin points: 
 
     Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you for hosting 
this important debate.  The United States would also like to 
thank the Secretary-General for his report and comprehensive 
briefing today. 
 
     Mr. President, sexual violence in situations of armed 
conflict, in varying levels of intensity and severity, has 
occurred throughout history.  Reporting from a number of 
countries over the past decade, however, confirms that brutal 
rapes are increasingly systematic and more frequent.  Despite 
the Security Council,s adoption of Resolutions 1325 and 
1820, its repeated condemnation of such violence, and its 
calls for the immediate cessation by all parties of acts of 
rape and sexual violence in situations of armed conflict, 
thousands of women and girls continue to be gang-raped, 
mutilated, or abducted into sexual slavery. The use of sexual 
violence as a tactic of war must end. 
 
     Such atrocities, which often persist even after the 
signing of peace agreements between parties to an armed 
conflict, not only inflict irreversible harm on the 
survivors, but are also detrimental to peace processes and 
contribute to the rupture of societies. Sexual assault 
against women, often committed in front of their husbands and 
children, not only inflicts severe physical, mental and 
emotional injuries, but also contributes to the spread of 
HIV/AIDS and other diseases, results in the conception and 
birth of unwanted children whom families then reject, and 
often results in the survivors being shamed and stigmatized, 
leading to the breakdown of traditional families and social 
order.  The resulting sense of anger and desire for 
retribution make peace agreements harder to reach and 
maintain. 
 
     Mr. President, today,s debate again turns 
international attention to the increasing scope and brutality 
of the use of rape and other sexual violence as a tactic of 
war in armed conflict situations.  We are outraged by the 
immense human suffering caused by these acts.  We must now 
turn our statements into action. We must work to end these 
abhorrent practices, bring an end to the impunity enjoyed by 
perpetrators, protect women and girls from such atrocities, 
and make the achievement of a lasting and inclusive peace 
more feasible. 
 
     We will only succeed through concrete actions. The 
United States is ready to lead these efforts and build upon 
our previous committed advocacy for the adoption of UNSC 
Resolution 1820.  Several actions are called for, including 
efforts toward comprehensive data collection and UN reporting 
on sexual violence, prevention of new acts of sexual violence 
through measures such as increased human rights training and 
effective vetting for members of domestic security forces, 
identification and punishment of perpetrators of past acts of 
sexual violence, and treatment of rape and abuse survivors. 
The Secretary-General,s report includes several 
recommendations that can help operationalize these efforts. 
 
     First, we need specialized leadership at the UN to 
focus efforts on implementing the goals of 1820.  We 
congratulate the Secretary-General on his efforts to address 
the issue of rape in armed conflict.  However, responsibility 
to address this issue still remains diffused across multiple 
UN entities and across all member states.  This overlapping 
web of responsibility can lead to piece-meal and duplicative 
efforts.  The United States believes that the appointment of 
a Special Representative on Women, Peace and Security, for a 
specified period, would focus and transform these efforts and 
help bring cohesion in implementing our responsibilities. The 
time-limited mandate for this Special Envoy/Representative 
would aim to review and streamline multi-sectoral responses 
to sexual violence in conflict situations, promote integrated 
and coordinated approaches to the problem, bolster the role 
of women in peace negotiations and peacekeeping operations, 
and promote accountability for implementation of Resolution 
¶1820. A high-level UN representative would have access to the 
political and military leaders whose cooperation is needed to 
make progress on preventing sexual violence and reversing 
rampant impunity. 
 
     Second, we must hold perpetrators accountable.  The 
United States remains one of the leading voices and 
supporters for accountability in the face of the world,s 
most heinous crimes, including sexual violence as a war crime 
or crime against humanity. We can and must support domestic, 
hybrid, and international accountability mechanisms that 
investigate and prosecute these types of crimes, particularly 
in places where domestic capacity is nonexistent or needs 
bolstering.  This is the case in some military and civilian 
justice systems.  Some states could benefit greatly from 
technical assistance to examine, among other things, whether 
sexual crimes committed against civilians by military 
personnel should fall under the jurisdiction of civilian 
courts rather than military courts.  Enhancing capacity could 
involve a range of assistance from training by international 
lawyers and judges to legislative drafting assistance. 
 
     The problem of sexual violence, as well as impunity, is 
particularly grave in the DRC, where the United Nations 
Population Fund (UNFPA) reported nearly 16,000 new cases of 
sexual violence were registered in 2008 throughout the 
country and that the majority (65 percent) of cases were 
children.  The Secretary-General,s report discussed the DRC 
situation and recommended a Commission of Inquiry.  While the 
DRC government,s recently announced &zero tolerance8 
policy toward members of security forces who engage in sexual 
violence is a welcomed step, along with the April 2009 launch 
of a comprehensive strategy created by the UN and the DRC 
government for combating gender-based violence, an estimated 
36 women and girls continue to be raped daily (1,100 monthly) 
in conflict-affected eastern Congo, and data collected from 
provincial health centers between 2005 and 2007 suggest that 
Congolese courts heard only 2 percent of registered rape 
cases in eastern Congo.  We note the pending cases at the ICC 
against accused perpetrators of sexual violence, but must 
recognize that given the breadth of the problem, more is 
required.  We support the establishment of other mechanisms 
to hold these perpetrators accountable and bring them to 
justice.  The Commission of Inquiry-as suggested by the 
Secretary-General*  constitutes one possible accountability 
option.  Consideration might also be given to establishing a 
dedicated chamber in the domestic courts that, with a mix of 
domestic and international staff, would prosecute war crimes 
and crimes against humanity, with a substantial focus on 
sexual- and gender-based violence. 
 
     In addition, we should consider the deployment of 
technical assistance teams to develop the DRC,s capacity to 
combat sexual violence during conflicts; and strengthening 
the mandate of, and supporting the capacity of the United 
Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of 
Congo (MONUC) to address this problem, including through 
efforts to increase the participation of women in 
peacekeeping missions.  We will work with the Congolese and 
all stakeholders to craft the most effective solution. 
 
     These options are not necessarily mutually exclusive. 
For example, the results from a Commission of Inquiry could 
be used to support prosecutions in the new chamber.  Also, a 
Special Representative on Women, Peace, and Security could 
advise the Secretary-General and Security Council on what 
steps to take based on the Commission,s final report and 
based on the progress of the prosecutions. 
 
     Third, targeted measures are a tool to counter sexual 
violence as a tactic of war.  We agree with the report that 
we should incorporate provisions relating to sexual violence 
in armed conflict into existing sanctions regimes as 
appropriate.  The sharing of information among all UN 
Security Council-mandated bodies, particularly peace-keeping 
operations in the field, the Working Group on Children and 
Armed Conflict, and relevant sanctions committees and UN 
sanctions monitoring expert panels is essential for targeted 
measures to be appropriately applied and for the Council to 
have the up-to-date information it needs.  Relevant Special 
Representatives and Emergency Relief Coordinators of the 
Secretary-General can also work with Member States to develop 
joint Government-United Nations Comprehensive Strategies to 
Combat Sexual Violence, in consultation with all relevant 
stakeholders, and to provide regular updates on this in their 
standard reporting to Headquarters as well as to the Security 
Council as appropriate. 
 
     Fourth, we should continue to include in Council 
resolutions on peacekeeping operations, where appropriate, 
reminders of the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation 
and abuse by UN peacekeepepers.  We stand ready to work with 
all partners ) the UN, other Member States and the 
humanitarian community -- to develop strategies to better 
hold perpetrators accountable. 
 
     Curbing sexual violence by military actors requires 
creating a culture of awareness and accountability, starting 
with top commanders and following down through the chain of 
command.   Neither soldiers nor officers can commit sexual 
violence with impunity, and perpetrators should not be 
promoted without being subjected to effective vetting 
mechanisms to exclude persons against whom there are credible 
allegations and evidence of crimes, including sexual crimes. 
The international community needs to explore ways to foster 
this culture through better training, capacity building, and 
other targeted programs.   This applies both to regular 
forces and to armed groups. 
 
     Combating sexual violence must be forward-looking, and 
part of the political agenda to find stability and peace 
after conflict.  Of 300 peace agreements formed in 45 
conflict situations from 1989 to present, only 18 mention the 
need and urgency to address sexual or gender-based violence, 
and yet such violence occurred in nearly all of these 
situations.  We must urge the UN, member states, and future 
mediators to highlight the importance of addressing sexual 
violence in current peace processes and at the start of 
future peace negotiations. In addition, we should promote the 
inclusion of women as mediators and members of negotiating 
teams.  We cannot stand by and allow peace processes to 
perpetuate the situation of &men with guns forgiving other 
men with guns for crimes committed against women8, as Deputy 
Force Commander of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic 
of the Congo (MONUC) said during last year,s open debate on 
sexual violence. 
 
     Finally, reporting by the Secretary-General on sexual 
violence in armed conflict is important to our efforts. We 
endorse the Secretary-General,s recommendation to extend a 
standing invitation to the High Commissioner for Human 
Rights, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, and 
the Chairperson(s) of UN Action to provide additional 
briefings on sexual violence and supplement information 
received from SRSGs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator, as 
the situation arises.  We also support and encourage 
continued annual reporting on this topic by the 
Secretary-General. 
 
     In addition to the measures that the Security Council 
can take, there are important aspects of the problem of 
sexual violence that must be pursued in other bodies as well. 
 We will work with other stakeholders, within the UN family 
and among non-governmental organizations, to improve efforts 
to assist victims of sexual violence. 
 
     Mr. President, we have much work to do to fully realize 
and implement the critical goals of Security Council 
Resolution 1820.  We have no time to spare.  Survivors of 
sexual violence in armed conflict continue to suffer with 
every passing hour.  Perpetrators continue to carry out these 
acts with impunity.  We have taken an important step forward 
by putting this topic on the world's agenda.  We now look 
forward to working with fellow Council members, the UN, and 
other partners towards halting and preventing further sexual 
violence in armed conflict. 
 
     Thank you. 
CLINTON