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Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 Nov 2012

Vol. 219 No. 1

Sexual Violence in Conflict: Motion

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Joe Costello, to the House.

I move:

That this House condemns sexual violence in conflict; and calls on the Government to:

(a) affirm Ireland’s commitment to implement United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security;

(b) play a leadership role in international efforts to end sexual violence and bring about accountability and support survivors of sexual violence in conflict through Irish diplomacy and development assistance; and

(c) support the efforts of organizations to draw attention to, and denounce, sexual violence.

I am pleased to welcome the Minister of State.

This is an issue in which he has had an interest, over many years, as a decent humanitarian. I thank the Leader of the House, Senator Maurice Cummins, for accommodating me and the other parties. It is significant that this is a unanimous motion supported by every Member of the House. It is reasonably unusual that we have this degree of unanimity and I am glad Members are unanimous on the issue, which is highly important and which has been drawn to our attention by a series of groups throughout the world. It will reinforce the work of groups such as Médecins sans Frontières, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and strengthen the involvement of the International Criminal Court.

Sexual intimacy constitutes a radiant element in the marvellous vocabulary of the language of love. To misuse this wonderful capacity by using it as an instrument of coercion, violence and abuse is one of the greatest and most gross perversions of which humanity is capable. The object is not pleasure but domination. It is now widely used in a military sense, tragically, particularly in the continent of Africa. In that continent, it is probably used in that manner partly because it is extremely cheap. Weapons are relatively scarce as the continent has not been quite so militarised as the rest of the world. Sexual violence provides a convenient and cheap method of terrorising, humiliating and subjugating people. It is a substantial change since the classical period, when rape was one of the spoils of war. Now it is an instrument of war and one of the most horrible in its prevalence and consequences for the victim. It is not peculiar to Africa. One can look at the situation in Europe after the convulsion of the Second World War and the work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was with the troops who entered Berlin. Many of us read the remarkable documentation of that period by Antony Beevor and in the Berlin diary and the account of mass rape by the Soviet troops. Alexander Solzhenitsyn has left us a remarkable testimony and witness to what happened:

22 Horingstrasse. It's not been burned, just looted, rifled. A moaning by the walls, half-muffled. The mother's wounded, half alive.

The little daughter’s on the mattress,

Dead. How many have been on it

A platoon, a company perhaps?

A girl’s been turned into a woman,

A woman turned into a corpse.

The mother begs "Soldiers, kill me."

What struck me is how extraordinarily close it is to prose accounts of, principally, women who have been subjected to rape. I say "principally women" because it is by no means only women. In Africa, a number of reports document men and boys also being subject to this. For this reason, I carefully framed the motion in order that it should not, in its entirety, be gender specific, although the majority of attacks are upon women. It is also deeply humiliating, scarring and disempowering for men in traditional cultures to be subjected to this kind of abuse.

We hear little about the Congo. That is where I am concentrating, not only because it is my place of origin but also because, tragically, it has been appropriately described as the rape capital of the world, a title no area of the world wishes to have. The hopeful aspect of this tragic matter is the appointment of Ms Fatou Bensouda as a prosecutor of rape, specifically, at the International Criminal Court. My interest was first sparked as a supporter of Front Line Defenders.

At this point, I pay tribute to the work of Front Line Defenders. In 2007, I attended, as did the Minister of State, the presentation of an award to a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gégé Katana, who had worked, despite considerable harassment, in that area recording instances of violence, sexual violence and rape. She created a network of women that stretched across the entire region of the Congo and started an organisation called Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Defense des Droits Humains, SOFAD. This was not particularly popular and she was attacked, her house overwhelmed by soldiers and all her property taken away. As she said herself, "I was pushed into peace", because there were no women's structures to combat the multiple violations of human rights during armed conflict.

It is important to look at particular resources. My attention and that of other Members of the Oireachtas was drawn to the situation by Mr. Peadar King, a film maker and presenter, who made a contribution to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and drew the attention of those present to a remarkable document produced by Harvard University. This was a report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with support from Oxfam America. The report looks at the entire world situation and puts it into perspective. It mentions not only Berlin, but also what happened at the rape of Nanking when 20,000 women were raped in the first month of the Japanese occupation. This was what, ultimately, led to the Fourth Geneva Convention which included an international prohibition on wartime rape and enforced prostitution. This prohibition has been amplified with judicial findings since, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which establishes rape and sexual enslavement as crimes against humanity. The countries principally involved are Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Liberia, the Balkan countries, Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is, again tragically, suggestive that so many of them are in the African region although Europe is not entirely immune from this situation.

It is important to look at the Democratic Republic of Congo because it presents a microcosm of the entire situation. In South Kivu women are subjected to sexual violence regardless of age. The army uses rape as a weapon. Women are raped in front of their children and there is genital mutilation. There is forced sexual activity between members of families whose homes are invaded. The overwhelming majority of these attacks are conducted with a military objective.

I am afraid the Senator's time is up.

Thank you. I understand I will have an opportunity to come back when I will list 14 points emerging from this report.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is my pleasure to second the motion. I commend Senator Norris for initiating this motion which has received support across the House.

It is fitting that the debate takes place on the nearest working day to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, although, as Senator Norris said, sexual violence in conflict is not limited to women. It is important and timely that we, as a Parliament, have this debate, particularly with Ireland's upcoming Presidency of the European Union and our recently won membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Senator Norris spoke with great passion and authority about the heinous use of sexual violence, rape and other forms of sexual abuse as a tactic or weapon of war. The gravity of rape as a tactic of war is such that it is explicitly covered under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998, which entered into force in 2002. It has jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of international concern. More recently, UN Resolution 1820 was passed in June 2008. It notes that women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war, to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and-or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.

As Senator Norris said, the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is of extreme concern. It was also brought to light by Mr. Peadar King who has produced a thought provoking documentary which is essential viewing for all parliamentarians. When we viewed it in the AV room, it was the first time I saw nobody being able to say anything at the end of a viewing. We were all shocked to the core that this is happening today in another part of the world. No conflict appears to be immune from these despicable acts. In Burma, the military has been accused of carrying out rapes and gang rapes of women and girls as young as eight years old with impunity. Rape and sexual violence continue to be perpetrated with unspeakable frequency in Sudan's Darfur region, with women and girls running the gauntlet of being raped every time they leave the safety of their villages to collect water and fire wood.

The level of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is almost beyond description. It goes far beyond the rape of babies, elderly women, men and boys. It includes gang rapes conducted by the militia in front of family and community members and, in some cases, male relatives are forced at gunpoint to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters. There are reports of rapes being carried out with bayonets and guns shot into the victims' genitals. Unfortunately, it would be possible for me to continue at length with further examples illustrating the pandemic proportions of the devastating impact and urgency of this situation. However, what we need is action and I will use this time to focus on where action must take place.

There must be action at international level to bring about an immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians, in accordance with UN Resolution 1820. With regard to Ireland's contribution, obviously we are committed under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. We are also committed to international obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889. These obligations are collectively addressed under Ireland's National Action Plan for Implementation of UNSCR 1325, 2011-2014. I am pleased to learn that progress has been made with the recent establishment and first meeting of this action plan's monitoring group, which is being led by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and chaired by Ms Liz McManus, to ensure the meaningful implementation of UNSCR 1325.

I commend the efforts of the Irish Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence, which is made up of human rights, humanitarian and development agencies, the Irish Defence Forces, Irish Aid and Government agencies. It is innovative that the membership is both governmental and non-governmental. I hope it will provide an example for other countries. It is an excellent and meaningful initiative which strives to address gender based violence and promote the adoption of a coherent and co-ordinated response within the policies, procedures and programmes of all its member agencies. I also note Ireland's support for and contribution to the achievement of a system wide cohesion process for the establishment of the United Nations new entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN Women. I commend this. Ireland will be a board member of this body next year and I urge the Minister of State to ensure that gender based violence, sexual violence, sexual abuse and rape as a weapon of war are promoted as atrocities of urgent concern. Equally, I urge the Minister to bring it to the agenda of the EU. I cannot understand why the EU is not taking more concerted and coherent action. For me, one of the reasons for membership of the EU is that through the strength of the combined numbers we can provide a role model on the global stage of what is acceptable and unacceptable.

I will conclude in ten seconds.

As Ireland is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, we need to intensify our diplomatic efforts to secure action with the Africa group and the African Union. I call on the Government to have a thematic resolution on sexual violence in conflict at the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council as an outcome of this debate.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House to debate a matter which he is deeply committed to improving. I strongly support the motion before the House and it is very appropriate that the motion would have unanimous support because sexual violence in conflict situations has reached epidemic proportions. In many conflict and post-conflict situations, women submit to sexual violence to obtain food and other basic necessities. Rape is used to brutalise and humiliate civilians as a weapon of war and political power, and as a tactic of ethnic cleansing. Violence against women by a partner or even a husband in refugee camps is reportedly quite common. Thankfully in recent years to some extent sexual violence in conflict zones has received much more media attention and the mass rapes in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and during the Rwandan genocide received widespread coverage.

International organisations, such as the UN, the courts and the NGOs, have tried to hold the perpetrators accountable and support the victims of wartime sexual violence. However, many major atrocities take place about which very few people have heard. As Senator Norris said, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point. According to a US-based agency, International Rescue Committee, some 5.4 million people died in the Congo between August 1998 and April 2007 from violence and war-related hunger and illness. One of the defining features of the conflict is the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war. The number of women and girls raped in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is unknown, but experts say the scale is enormous. As has been mentioned, the former United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallström, has called the Democratic Republic of Congo "the rape capital of the world".

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as unimaginably brutal with armed groups attacking local communities, looting, raping and kidnapping women and children and forcing them to work as sexual slaves. Militia groups and soldiers attack all ages, including babies and elderly women. Men and boys have also been raped by soldiers and rebels. Although the majority of rapes carried out in the Democratic Republic of Congo are by armed men, an increasing number are carried out by civilians, with a survey showing a seventeenfold increase between 2004 and 2008. The conflict has also been marked by the use of child soldiers, some as young as 12, who are kidnapped and fed a cocktail of drink and drugs. They then carry out the most vile crimes, often against their own communities.

In recent times the former first lady of the Ivory Coast has been accused of committing crimes against humanity during the country's post-election conflict last year. It is alleged she was criminally responsible for murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as other inhumane acts and persecution. Her husband is awaiting trial on similar charges in The Hague. His refusal to accept defeat in the election triggered the brief war where more than 3,000 people died after violent street protests developed into all-out conflict between soldiers and militia loyal to the former President and fighters supporting the current President, President Ouattara, who were backed by the United Nations and French troops. Human Rights Watch welcomed the international community's efforts to indict the former first lady, but said it must be followed up with action against the opposition supporters also. Matt Wells of Human Rights Watch said: "The continued one-sided justice system domestically and at the ICC ignores many of the conflict's victims and threatens to further divide the country."

The responsibility for addressing the issue of sexual violence in conflict rests with the international community as a whole, but it has been rather ineffective in demanding accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity that are routinely committed in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations Security Council and Secretary General have been slow to tackle to responsibility of occupying powers for the atrocities taking place in areas under their control. Rwanda, like Uganda, has escaped significant sanctions for its role to date in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The recent statement by the EU Foreign Ministers is very much to be welcome and will hopefully bring a renewed focus to the problems in the DRC and other regions throughout the world.

Ireland has two significant opportunities to make a difference in the area of sexual violence in conflict, and these were referred to. First, we have been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council where we will have a platform for raising these urgent matters. Second, as we assume the Presidency of the EU in January, we will have an opportunity to influence the foreign affairs agenda of Europe and, hopefully, bring this most important issue to the top of the political agenda, both in Europe and throughout the world.

I strongly support the motion. It is an issue, as has been referred to, that has got little of the type of coverage in the media that it should. It is incumbent on us as politicians to continue to highlight this issue until such time as we see a resolution of such violence.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, to the House. I commend Senator Norris for tabling this motion which, like every other Member of the House, I am glad to support. Undoubtedly, it raises an area of the greatest concern for anybody who is even remotely interested in human rights. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 has been mentioned. Senator van Turnhout mentioned United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1889 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1960, which was passed in 2012, could be added to that as well. Despite those resolutions, as often happens with the United Nations, it does not bring a halt to some of the heinous atrocities that we see committed across the world. We should also remember the important role that women have played in the prevention and resolution of conflicts in various areas across the world, and the United Nations resolution does so. Senators have given examples of this happening. It dates back to the barbaric times of the Middle Ages and pre-Middle Ages to see such atrocities committed against other human beings. In those days, rape was also a weapon of war, as it is now. Senator Norris mentioned that the Japanese soldiers in the Second World War used it extensively in the East but we have seen it subsequently used. The Balkans were mentioned. There it was a weapon not only of war but of ethnic cleansing. It had devastating effects on the communities, particularly on the Muslim community, during the course of the Balkans war. It occurred more recently in the Iraq war. As Senator van Turnhout mentioned, fathers were forced to rape their daughters. One can just imagine, in a family context and in a religious context, the absolute devastation that such violence wreaks on the individuals and on the families involved. It raises serious questions for us as to how do we deal with man's inhumanity to man.

Undoubtedly, the International Criminal Court has done a great deal of good work in bringing perpetrators of genocide in particular to account, and there are current examples of that now in the court in The Hague. We need to focus on this as one of the most serious crimes of war that can be committed and recognise it for what it is. The DRC is a prime example in today's world. To some extent, while it has moved towards democracy, it is quite dysfunctional. In the eastern part of the DRC there is the continuation of violence which dates back over many decades. The five-year conflict, from 1998 to 2003, claimed almost 3 million lives.

The conflicts were characterised by an appalling degree of brutality, large-scale attacks on the civilian population and widespread sexual violence.

A large number of armed groups had based themselves in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo since the genocide in Rwanda of which mention has been made. I was in Rwanda some years ago. We visited a camp adjacent to the border with the Congo and the purpose of that camp, which had been established by President Kagame's government, was to encourage Hutus who had gone and lived in the forests after the genocide in a state of war for maybe two decades to come back in. We meet 300 of those in one of these camps in a very big shed and some of them gave personal testimony to us. They also had the legacy of the Rwandan conflict and the crimes they had committed there. It was all preparatory before they were reintegrated back into civil society.

Women and civil society generally remain gravely exposed in conflict areas. We should express our concern about that and address it through our role in the United Nations to ensure that women who suffer most in conflicts are protected from the devastation of war and particularly the perpetration of sexual violence. Those who perpetrate it should be subject to the most penal sanctions we can impose on them in order that it is an example to others not to pursue the kind of activity in which they have involved themselves.

I would like to share my time with Senator O'Keeffe who would like to contribute to the motion.

Like other speakers, I again welcome the Minister of State. It is good to see him looking so hail and hearty. I am aware, as other speakers have said, that he is very committed to this area of human rights that comes under his brief.

I welcome the motion proposed by Senator Norris and congratulate him on securing cross-party for it. Anyone viewing the proceedings of the Order of Business this morning would realise how difficult it is to achieve that. I commend the Senator for bringing forward the motion and also many of the contributions to it from Members on all sides of the House.

When we think of victims of warfare the body bag tally is often the figure most widely reported. However, a more grim tally that is less well reported is the number of women and girls, and men and boys as mentioned earlier, who are subjected to rape, abuse and other forms of sexual violence. That was a topic of debate in an English lesson when I was in first year in secondary school in 1992. I examined some of the figures we spoke about and the way things have progressed since then and it makes for grim reading.

I will not delay the House but in the war in Bosnia up to 50,000 women were subjected to sexual violence. Over 14 years 40% of Liberia's population suffered similar abuse. Under half of those interviewed in a study in Sierra Leone in 2000 had been raped and more than a quarter had been gang raped. The effect of that sexual violence can lead to severe physical damage. There have been many calls to stop the use of landmines in these conflict zones because they maim and kill, but the sexual violence that was used as a tool of war in has a far more damaging psychological effect on people.

We know it fairly well in Ireland and I am sure these stories are replicated around the country. Going back to the War of Independence, one often hears stories of Black and Tans who came in. These stories are very hush-hush; they are kept quiet and are not spoken about because there is still a stigma attached to them. I remember one man in particular and his story touched me. After a few drinks, the story would come out. He often lamented his grandmother who was assaulted by the Black and Tans in a farmyard.

The figures we see throughout the world are quite stark. I commend the motion which has the full support of this side of the House. I congratulate those who tabled it.

We all fully support the motion and it is one of those matters which we will continue to discuss. In 2008, the UN Security Council demanded that all sides in armed conflicts should stop using violence against women as a tactic in war. We find ourselves saying it again today. The challenge for the Minister of State is what this country can actually do beyond speaking about this matter and saying that we care about it.

The Norwegians have taken it upon themselves to invest money in this area. They have looked at particular strategies, including a national strategy to combat sexualised violence. In this respect, they are obviously referring to the Congo where, as we know, there is a desperate and urgent need.

In addition, the Norwegians are financing a hospital in Goma which is due to open soon. It is being located there in order to offer some sustenance and assistance to women - as well as children and men - who find themselves in this state. They have also opened a new training centre for women to encourage them to talk and to educate them. In that way, women can begin to take some control over what has happened to them. They have opened mobile courts to give survivors appropriate access to the justice system. Some 89 judges have been trained and while it is not very much it is a start. It is better than us just talking. While the international community needs to know that we care, and we do, we also need to find ways to do something about it.

Norway has participated in the international working group on the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes region, which is a collaborative matter. I know that our finances are tight and we are trying to find best value, but Ireland must find a way. That might be done by working in collaboration with other countries which have already set up systems, rather than trying to establish our own. We could therefore show by our actions, as we have done many times in the past, that we are willing and able to come to the assistance of the thousands of people - mainly women and children - who are raped and otherwise sexually abused in conflict zones across the world, but particularly in Africa.

I compliment Senator Norris on the motion he has proposed concerning sexual violence in conflict, including Ireland's national action plan and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1327. I also commend the Senator for having achieved unanimity for the motion. That unanimity was evident from all the excellent contributions that have been made here today. As was mentioned earlier, it is an extremely appropriate time to table this motion because 25 November marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The 10 December, meanwhile, will mark International Human Rights Day. The period between both dates is extremely important. It is also important to highlight all these issues concerning gross interference and abuse of human rights.

Senator O'Keeffe asked what we could do.

It is not sufficient to talk about it, we must deal with it. We are at the cutting edge in Ireland on the drawing up of the national action plan and its implementation and monitoring.

A quotation from the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in 2007, illustrates the situation starkly: "In no other area is our collective failure to ensure effective protection for civilians more apparent than the masses of women and girls, but also boys and men, whose lives are destroyed each year by sexual violence perpetrated in conflict". The estimate is that up to 500,000 women and girls were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, up to 50,000 women and girls were raped during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, an average of 50 women and girls were raped every day in the south Kivu area in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while in Sierra Leone and Liberia in a conflict that only finished ten years ago, up to 50,000 thousand girls and women were raped. I met many of the young women and saw the trauma that had occurred as a result.

United Nations Resolution 1325, which is part and parcel of this, and UN Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1889, demand that we take certain action. There should be full participation by women in decision making related to peace and security, the protection of woman and girls from gender based violence and the incorporation of gender perspectives in all peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building strategies undertaken by the United Nations and its member states.

In response, Ireland has produced a national action plan, which was developed in co-operation with a range of stakeholders, including the Departments, civil society organisations and women living in Ireland from conflict affected countries. An innovative cross-learning process between women in Northern Ireland, Liberia and Timor Leste also informed the process and development of the action plan.

Ireland's national action plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was officially launched by the Tánaiste and the former President, Mary Robinson, at the annual meeting of the Irish Consortium on Gender-Based Violence in November 2011. It sets out how Ireland would promote and implement the objectives of the United Nations resolutions. The plan aims to strengthen women's leadership and implement accountability mechanisms and to build capacity through comprehensive training of staff deployed overseas, including the Defence Forces, on responding to and protecting people from sexual violence. There are also support programmes to support women's participation in peace-building and post-conflict transitional and related activities.

The plan also commits Ireland to playing a leadership role in global and regional fora and to champion the implementation of Resolution 1325 and we are living up to this commitment. In our capacity as chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2012, we are acting as chef de file on all the issues related to Resolution 132 and we have encouraged all 56 OSCE states to do likewise.

We have been consistent supporters of UN Women since its establishment in 2010 to address the needs of women where there are threats to peace and security. This is a core priority for UN Women and when Ireland assumes its seat on the executive board next year, we will work to ensure this priority is maintained. We have increased our international support to this organisation to €1.5 million in 2012. Also, the national plan includes commitments to its implementation across Departments, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Justice and Equality, and the Defence Forces. My Department is fully committed to playing an effective coordination and leadership role in the implementation of the plan.

I affirm that implementing the national action plan will continue to be a key priority for the Government's overseas aid programme, Irish Aid. Likewise, civil society organisations are extremely important partners with which we work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Syria, Liberia and Sierra Leone. We also work with the International Rescue Committee to enhance protection and support for the empowerment of women and girls in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. We are working with the Governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia to strengthen national and local structures to prevent and respond to gender based violence.

As I noted, earlier this year I met many of those involved in the programmes we have in place to provide education, training and entrepreneurship and other skills for women who have been physically and sexually abused during the civil war ten years ago. We are also providing gender-based violence response services and prevention activities for Somali women at the Dolo Ado refugee camp in Ethiopia.

The rapid response register managed by Irish Aid is a register of highly skilled individuals from the public and private sectors, including the Defence Forces, who can be deployed at short notice to assist in emergency relief scenarios. The register is building up expertise and capacity for addressing gender-based violence in emergencies to ensure the relevant skills on gender equality and gender-based violence and protection are available at short notice.

Irish Aid is also an active member of the Irish joint consortium on gender-based violence, comprised of development, humanitarian and human rights non-governmental organisations. The consortium, alongside Irish Aid and the Defence Forces, has played an important role in supporting the development of the national action plan. As several speakers noted, Ms Liz McManus, a former Minister of State with responsibility for housing and urban renewal, has been appointed as the independent chair of the group following consultation with civil society. Many people may not be aware that in 2002 the then Deputy McManus became the first Member of the Oireachtas to introduce a Bill to abolish female genital mutilation. She set the ball rolling and Senator Ivana Bacik subsequently introduced similar legislation which is now on the Statute Book, with the ministerial instrument having been introduced in September 2012.

The Government is committed to the implementation of the national action plan and is very much at its cutting edge. According to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, "Wartime sexual violence has been one of history's greatest silences." The Liberian President will speak at a major international conference to be held in April 2013 as part of the Irish Presidency. The event will be organised jointly with the Mary Robinson Foundation, World Food Programme, International Agriculture Committee and Irish Aid. The Government is placing the issue of gender-based violence very much to the forefront of the Irish Presidency in terms of the review of the millennium development goals. It will be a challenge and privilege to prepare the ground for the European Union for the new negotiations that will begin in September 2013. We must seek to achieve an agreement across the 27 EU member states for a new set of proposals for the goals and we are anxious to ensure gender based violence will be a core element of the new goals.

Gender-based violence is also a core part of our review of the 2006 White Paper on Irish Aid which will be launched shortly. Senators called on the Government to use Ireland's new position as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council to table a resolution on this matter.

I will consider this suggestion carefully to determine whether we can put it on the agenda at the earliest possible stage in order that, from the very beginning, we will be seen as viewing gender-based violence as one of the key areas we will address during our membership of that particular body.

I thank Senators, including those who have not yet contributed, for their contributions. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to respond to this debate.

We have five minutes to conclude the debate. As I must call Senator Norris at 4.42 p.m., Senators Reilly and Keane will have one and a half minutes and 30 seconds, respectively.

I thank the Minister of State for his attendance. He addressed some of my questions on the millennium development goals, the UN Human Rights Council and the review of the White Paper on Irish Aid.

Everyone is not on the same page in terms of recognising sexual violence as one of the most horrific crimes that can be committed in conflict. The sheer scale of the brutality and the lack of accountability are nothing short of sickening. Recently, I read articles about the survivors of sexual violence. We often hear the stories of women in this regard, but we also hear stories about men who have been brutally raped and what happened to them afterwards, for example, the social stigma, their wives leaving them, their families abandoning them and the ensuing health issues. This matter is not often to the fore and there is little documentation of the existence or impact of sexual violence on men and boys. We must highlight the matter much more. The evidence points to a serious but under-reported problem. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, it is estimated that men and boys comprise at least 4% to 10% of survivors of sexual violence. This issue is close to my heart and I have read heart-rending personal accounts.

I am disappointed I only have 30 seconds because I raised this important issue on the only occasion the Taoiseach attended the Seanad. I have discussed it in the House and it remains on my agenda. I am disappointed I will not be able to read from the six or seven pages I have.

I am a member of committee D of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA. That committee is drafting a report on trafficking and sexual violence. Will the Minister of State consider establishing a North-South civic forum to examine these issues? In terms of women's experience of conflict, no one has mentioned the North, the Good Friday Agreement and so on.

I have much to say, but I have only been given 30 seconds.

The Senator's time has expired.

That is a pity, as we sometimes waste so much time firing balls over and back on the Order of Business. We should be discussing important issues such as this one.

I thank all of my colleagues and welcome the Minister of State's reference to using our positions in the EU Presidency and the UN Human Rights Council. The mandate for peacekeeping missions needs to be expanded to include this issue specifically. I hope the Minister of State will make that a target.

I referred to 14 points that emerged from a report, entitled "Now, the world is without me". The title comes from the moving and tragic story of a victim of rape. The first point relates to attacks on people in their own houses. We were aware of opportunistic attacks, but individual houses are now being attacked. Gang rape has been mentioned, but we did not get into the sexual slavery element. Sometimes, people are ransomed back after being turned into sexual slaves.

Rape in the presence of family and friends is another issue. This is intended to demean and to remove people's power and status. The next issue is forced rape between victims. In this appalling crime, family members are made to interfere with one another sexually. The next issue is the rape of pregnant women, which almost invariably leads to miscarriages or spontaneous abortions. The next issue is the rape of people who, terrified of being attacked, have gone into hiding.

It is appalling that there has been a shocking mutation, particularly as recorded in a report by Dr. Denis Mukwege. He was threatened but, luckily, he escaped with his life.

The statistics indicate that the incidence of military rape has decreased but it has migrated into the civilian area and there has been a seventeenfold increase in such activity leading to loss of virginity, pregnancy from rape and loss of family members. Some 1% of spouses accompanied wives to hospital. There is also fear of sexual infection and despair following rape.

I indicated that I would record some of the testimony. It states:

My husband and I were at home when the attackers broke down the door and entered the house. They tied up my husband and demanded money from him. As he did not have any money they put a knife to his face and turned it several times in his cheek. Then they stabbed him in the chest at the level of the heart and he died. They cut off my husband's sex and put it in his mouth, even though he was already dead. They also cut my children. All of them died and I was left alone. Then the three assailants took turns raping me. I came to Panzi hospital to receive care.

I will end on a note of hope, despite all this awfulness and testimony to the capacity of the human animal for wickedness and cruelty. On 21 February last year, for the first time the authorities in Congo indicated they were taking this issue seriously because of the kind of pressure that the Minister of State and his colleagues may be able to bring to bear through the international community. A high-ranking commander and some of his men were convicted and given heavy sentences for rape in Congo. We must encourage such legal victories and celebrate them. Ms Margot Wallström argues that these sentences sent a strong signal to all perpetrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo that conflict-related sexual violence is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. It also indicates that accountability for sexual violence is possible and we must make people accountable.

I thank Senator van Turnhout and everybody else who spoke, particularly in maintaining a lack of gender specifics. It is just as appalling for men and boys to be raped as for women.

Question put and agreed to.
Siting suspended at 4.50 p.m. and resumed at 5 p.m.
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