PRESS RELEASE : Sexual violence in conflict is reprehensible, it’s abhorrent, and it is our responsibility to act – Lord Ahmad’s statement at the Security Council [July 2023]

Firstly, may I begin by thanking you, Special Representative Pramila Patten, for your ongoing work in this area. You have led this agenda with conviction, with courage and principle. I have had the honour to work with you directly, and we continue to recognize the important work of the United Nations in this respect. Thank you also to our incredible briefers. Thank you to Ms Naw Hser Hser and Nadine to you for your briefing today.

And if I may, Your Excellencies, just to put into context, when we hear from survivors at the UN Security Council, and I want you to think about this very, very carefully, they have been through the most abhorrent violation of their person – unimaginable in every sense.

Not only have they survived that particular violation of their person, their private space, as Nadine rightly said – they have survived. They are not just victims. They are survivors in the truest sense. And when we hear from survivors, be it at the UN Security Council or anywhere across the world, imagine the strength and courage and conviction of those survivors that not only have they survived, they become the most powerful of advocates on this most important agenda that we have in front of us today.

So I thank again, through Nadine and through Naw, to all those courageous survivors who are doing incredible work around the world. Thank you to them. Thank you to you both for doing so much to bring global attention to the horrors of conflict-related sexual violence and to the importance and the central and pivotal responsibility of us all for supporting survivors. Your Excellencies, sexual violence must never, never be accepted as an inevitable consequence of war.

It is we, the Security Council of the United Nations, which has a special responsibility in this respect. As we reflect over the past years, over the last 15 years, it is this Council which has built a robust framework for preventing sexual violence, supporting survivors, and importantly, to bring perpetrators to justice.

And while we may note these achievements across the world, as we’ve heard directly today, again from the SRSG, from our expert briefers, there remains a gap, a gap between what this Council has rightly mandated and the reality which is faced by thousands of thousands of people across conflict zones: boys, girls, women and men. And this violence continues. Survivors, as we heard from Nadine, often suffer in silence and perpetrators tragically go unpunished. We need to be the Council for action, not just for talk.

We have the responsibility collectively to bridge that gap. This does mean that every one of our States, putting the Council’s resolutions, which have been passed into actual living practice, ensuring that important and pivotal access to justice, and importantly providing survivors with the critical services they need to, importantly, rebuild their lives.

It means States and UN bodies incorporating that important gender perspective into our peacekeeping operations. As we’ve heard from our survivors directly. When someone sees a person in uniform, be it through the State or indeed through the UN, that should bring hope. That should bring an addressing of their fear, that should bring security and safety.

Therefore, we all need to step up and do more. It means that this Council, this Security Council, using sanctions against those perpetrators. And crucially, it means that those who engage in armed conflict stopping acts of sexual violence with immediate effect.

For our part, the United Kingdom is determined that the lack of understanding, indeed ignorance, should never be a barrier to action.

In this regard, to help close the implementation gap, we have worked with the Mukwege Foundation, and I pay tribute to an incredible and courageous doctor, Denis Mukwege, who many of us know to launch a new guidebook on state obligations for conflict-related sexual violence. I am pleased we provided Council members with a copy of this, and I do ask that we encourage all of us as governments, as civil society, as activists, as civil society organisations, as advocates to come together to make the most of this excellent new tool.

For more than a decade, supporting survivors and international cooperation have been the central tenants of the United Kingdom’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. And the prevention element is key. Our landmark international conference in November last year in London that Nadine referred to brought together over 1,000 delegates. And most importantly, it brought together survivors. We’ve just heard from Nadine as follow-up events of this global coalition of survivors, which has now been formed.

And this is needed. Why? Because we need to accelerate progress towards our goals. And since then, we have now, as the United Kingdom Government sanctioned 13 perpetrators of sexual violence since that conference.

But as we heard from Nadine, it also requires financing. Our three-year strategy is also backed up with up to £12.5 million of funding. And importantly, it’s providing direct support to survivors and also importantly, helping countries to strengthen justice and accountability. Domestic, local justice – the evidence is there, Your Excellencies, is best served when it’s done nationally, and we need to stand up and ensure that we can support such efforts.

We also continue to lead international efforts to support children born of conflict-related sexual violence.

And I ask again the question. It’s self-reflection on all of us. What is the crime of that child? That child born of this crime? The short answer is nothing. And we should be showing compassion and care and support to such children born of such abhorrent acts.

And today we published the commitments of the UK and our partners to support this group under our Platform for Action, in addition to our new International Alliance, which we launched recently, vice-chaired by Colombia and Ukraine. I’m delighted to report that this has now grown to 21 members.

I’m truly delighted that Spain has joined this Alliance in June. And of course, France has also recently become a very valued and important member. All members of this Alliance committed to amplifying survivors’ voices, sharing our collective expertise, and, importantly, pioneering new approaches.

Today, members of that Alliance, this very day of our meeting, have issued a joint statement shining a light on the appalling reports of sexual violence in Sudan referred to by the SRSG in her briefing. We have called for all parties to the conflict to end violence, including sexual violence, and for safe humanitarian access to all those in need.

And I want to, on behalf of the United Kingdom, thank as the current Chair all Alliance members of standing with us on this important issue.

But as we’ve heard already, it is survivors that are key, key in every sense. Survivors such as those led by our survivor champions.

And I can tell you, Your Excellencies from personal experience as the UK’s Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, that working with such groups, such incredible, courageous champions over the last 6 years has been truly inspiring and humbling. They guide our entire approach, and as we’ve seen today, I’m truly grateful to Nadine for her contribution today.

I have had the honour of leading this agenda, but also, like others going into field visits across the world – the DRC, the Balkans, Bangladesh and elsewhere.

And just to share with you how abhorrent these crimes are. When I visited the DRC last November with Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Edinburgh, we went to that incredible hospital run by Dr Mukwege, the Panzi Hospital.

And, Your Excellencies, forget for a moment the country, forget who is speaking, who did the visit. But just visualize for a moment that the youngest victim, a survivor of sexual violence we met was four years old, a young girl who had been raped not once but a number of times. And to her, a man meant rape. That is the reality we face around the world. And therefore, I cannot underline the importance of our debate today.

And I thank my own team here in New York for putting together the agenda for this meeting. I thank the UK’s Survivor Advisory Group and they’ve asked me quite specifically to underline some key issues to the Council today, which I’m honoured to do so.

Firstly, the importance of a survivor-centred approach in all our work, engaging with a wide range of survivors in the decisions. Why? Because it affects them.

Second, the vital role of psychosocial support in survivors overcoming trauma. Some of these, indeed, all of them are broken emotionally, physically, and therefore we need to ensure that the first step of helping them rebuild their lives is provided through allowing them to overcome trauma.

And finally, the survivors groups have asked me to underline the importance of ensuring access to justice and addressing wider sexual violence concerns during both war and, importantly, peace.

On the topic of justice, we are working on the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention so it delivers more effectively for survivors. We are also partnering with the International Criminal Court Prosecutor to overcome barriers to justice, including through a new virtual reality tool to help survivors engage directly with the courts.

This incredible technology creates a virtual court to help witnesses and survivors give informed consent to take part in trials and help them prepare for giving evidence. It’s putting survivors first.

Your Excellencies, friends, colleagues to all who are attending and I hope many who will follow this debate, sexual violence in conflict is not inevitable. It’s reprehensible, it’s abhorrent, and it is our responsibility to act.

And you know what? Together we can. Indeed, we must. And what’s more, we will. So together, we can confine sexual violence in conflict to the history books. And with the help of the courageous survivors at the heart of our work, God willing, Inshallah, I hope we will achieve that objective.

Thank you.