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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Monday called on all leaders at the highest political level to voice their unequivocal support in preventing sexual violence.
He made the appeal at a Security Council open debate on women and peace and security, which focused on effective justice for crimes of sexual violence in conflict.
"Sexual violence, whenever and wherever it occurs, is a vile crime. It must be exposed and met with the anger and action that it deserves," Ban said at the meeting chaired by British Foreign Secretary William Hague, whose country holds the rotating monthly presidency of the Security Council for June. Ban recalled his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where he met women and girls who had been raped and maimed by armed groups on all sides of the conflict.
While there are hospitals there to help these women, they cannot protect them, he said. "That is a job for the Congolese authorities and the international community, in particular this Council."
The UN chief noted that sexual violence is a crime under international human rights law and a threat to international peace and security.
"When used as a weapon of war, it can significantly exacerbate conflict and seriously hamper reconciliation," Ban said.
Therefore, the secretary-general stressed, those who hold power and influence have a special duty to step forward and be part of a global coalition of champions determined to break this "evil."
"Preventing sexual violence in conflict is our joint responsibility," he said, adding that the UN system is committed to "delivering as one" to end the culture of impunity that prevails regarding sexual violence.
Ban went on to say that a Senior Women protection Advisor will be deployed shortly within the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to join those already in place, while others are soon to be deployed in the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Somalia.
The secretary-general said that the resolution adopted earlier at the meeting by the Security Council, which emphasized on effective steps to prevent and respond to sexual violence, sends yet another strong signal to perpetrators that their acts will no longer be tolerated.
