S/PV.9614 Security Council

I would like to warmly welcome the ministers and other high-level representatives present in the Security Council Chamber. Their presence today underscores the importance of the subject matter under discussion. In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representatives of Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nepal, Panama, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to participate in this meeting. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting: Ms. Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; Ms. Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group; and Ms. Danai Gurira, UN-Women Goodwill Ambassador, award-winning playwright and actor. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I also invite the following to participate in this meeting: Mr. Stavros Lambrinidis, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, and Ms. Laetitia Courtois, Permanent Observer and Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the United Nations. I also propose that the Council invite His Excellency Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, to participate in the meeting, in accordance with the provisional rules of procedure and the previous practice in that regard. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2024/292, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence, and document S/2024/311, which contains the text of a letter dated 16 April 2024 from the Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, transmitting a concept note on the item under consideration. I now give the floor to Ms. Patten. Ms. Patten: I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Government of Malta for its strategic leadership in convening this open debate. I warmly welcome the participation of Ms. Niemat Ahmadi, founder of the Darfur Women Action Group and commend her steadfast activism and commitment to the cause of peace. As we mark the grim milestone of one year since the resurgence of hostilities in the Sudan, her tireless advocacy has helped to sustain a spotlight on the horrific patterns of conflict-related sexual violence exacerbated by the proliferation of arms. I further welcome the participation of United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Danai Gurira, who has powerfully lent her voice to this agenda. We meet today to consider the fifteenth annual report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2024/292) at a time when gender equality gains are being rolled back, even as militarization is being bankrolled at unprecedented levels; at a time when the world’s resources are being used to feed the flames of conflict, while women and children starve; at a time when military spending has soared to over $2.2 trillion, while humanitarian aid budgets have been slashed; and at a time when weapons continue to flow into the hands of perpetrators, while the vast majority of victims remain empty handed, in terms of reparations and redress. We also meet at a time when the pursuit of peace and gender equality has once again become a radical act. The essential, existential task we face is to silence the guns and amplify the voices of women as a critical constituency for peace. Yet right now, in the Sudan and Haiti, women and girls are being brutalized and terrorized by sexual violence committed at gunpoint. In Afghanistan, the systematic assault on, and erasure of, women and their rights is destroying lives and livelihoods. Two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of displaced and refugee women and girls face a heightened risk of being preyed upon by traffickers. In the Middle East, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the ongoing bloodshed, displacement, trauma and terror. They are among the many victims of the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas, and they comprise more than half of the victims of the relentless bombing of Gaza, which has shattered the health-care system, leaving survivors of gender-based violence, pregnant women and others in desperate need, with nowhere to turn. The report before us today provides a global snapshot of incidents, patterns and trends of conflict-related sexual violence across 21 situations of concern. It records 3,688 United Nations-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence committed in the course of 2023, reflecting a dramatic increase of 50 per cent, as compared with the previous year. This spike in recorded cases is particularly alarming in a global context where humanitarian access remains severely restricted and constrained. In 2023, women and girls accounted for 95 per cent of the verified cases, with 5 per cent recorded against men and boys. In 32 per cent of these cases, the victims were children, with the vast majority — 98 per cent — being girls. Twenty-one cases were found to target lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex persons on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. While the report conveys the severity and brutality of United Nations-sourced and verified incidents, it does not in any way purport to reflect the global scale or prevalence of this chronically underreported, historically hidden crime. We know that for every survivor who comes forward, many others are silenced by social pressures, stigma, insecurity, the paucity of services and the limited prospects for justice. Nearly half of the United Nations-verified cases presented in the report — 43 per cent — were verified in settings where women protection advisers were deployed to convene the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence, mandated by the Council through resolution 1960 (2010). For the first time this year, women protection advisers have also been deployed to a non-mission setting, in line with resolution 2467 (2019), namely to Ukraine. In addition, the first regional-level women protection adviser was deployed in 2023, to deepen engagement with the African Union and to monitor the transborder dynamics and dimensions of the issue across the Horn of Africa. This year’s report includes, for the first time, a dedicated section on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Following the 7 October attacks by Hamas, other armed groups and armed civilians, I visited Israel at the invitation of the Government. My team and I confirmed that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in at least three locations and that sexual violence has been committed against individuals held as hostages and may be ongoing. Regarding the occupied West Bank, according to United Nations-verified information, the arrests and detention of Palestinian women and men by Israeli security forces, following the 7 October attacks, have often been accompanied by ill-treatment, including forms of sexual violence. Similar allegations have emerged from Gaza. Those findings in no way justify or legitimize further hostilities, and I continue to echo the calls of the Secretary-General for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the unspeakable suffering of Palestinian civilians and to bring about the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. In terms of global trends, the report documents how sexual violence has curtailed women’s access to livelihoods and girls’ access to education, amid record levels of internal and cross-border displacement. Women and girls face heightened levels of sexual violence in displacement settings, as returnees, refugees and migrants. For instance, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the climate of interlinked physical and food insecurity has driven many displaced women and girls into prostitution out of sheer economic desperation. In Ethiopia, reports surfaced of sexual exploitation in exchange for food, as well as continued sexual enslavement in Tigray, in proximity to the compounds and barracks of arms bearers. Moreover, in many contexts, women with children born of wartime rape are often accused of affiliation with the enemy, excluded from community networks and plunged into poverty. By contrast, sexual violence perpetrated with impunity remains profitable in the political economy of war. Conflict-driven trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation continues to generate profits for armed and violent extremist groups. In Haiti, armed groups and criminal gangs continue to generate revenue through kidnapping, using the threat of sexual violence to extort ever-higher ransoms. Sexual violence remains part of the repertoire of political repression, used to intimidate and punish opponents, and as a tactic to silence women actively participating in public and political life, notably in Libya and Yemen. The report further records a discernible trend of digital threats in Myanmar, where online harassment and hate speech specifically targeted women associated with the resistance movement and included the release of sexually explicit images and incitement to violence. This year’s report highlights an unprecedented level of lethal violence used to silence survivors in the wake of sexual assault. In 2023, reports of rape victims being subsequently killed by their assailants surfaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Myanmar, demonstrating the need to strengthen forensic capabilities, investigations and accountability processes that ensure the protection of victims and witnesses. Front-line service providers and women human rights defenders were not spared. Armed actors threatened health-care workers in the Sudan, and reprisals against human rights defenders were reported in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere. Across time and space, we see that the availability of weapons directly facilitates those attacks. Between 70 and 90 per cent of conflict-related sexual violence incidents involve the use of weapons, in particular firearms, according to United Nations research. In the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the threat of rape at gunpoint remains a horrific daily reality that overshadows the lives of women and girls, impeding their essential livelihood and sustenance activities. During one incursion into a village, fighters from an armed militia gang-raped 11 women, looted their belongings and set fire to their homes. Four of the women were mutilated and killed. The seven survivors were taken to a health centre, but left without medical treatment, as the clinic had been burnt and raided. In the Central African Republic, women and girls tending farms and fields face the persistent risk of rape by roving armed actors in the area. In Haiti, women and girls travelling to work or school face the risk of collective rape by gang members armed with weapons largely trafficked from abroad. The accelerated withdrawals of peace operations from Mali and the Sudan have brought issues of transition and exit to the fore. Weapons management strategies are a critical part of preventing the occurrence and recurrence of conflict-related sexual violence in such settings. In 2023, I visited the border area between the Sudan and South Sudan, where women and girls have been targeted for rape, gang rape and abduction on the basis of their ethnicity, with the perpetrators emboldened by entrenched impunity. Since the resurgence of conflict in the Sudan, I have engaged with both parties listed in the annex to the annual report, namely the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces. Those parties are required to take specific measures to prevent and address sexual violence. Moreover, all States must abide by the sanctions imposed by the Council, notably the arms embargo on Darfur, as part of efforts to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable peace. The report before us lists 58 parties that are credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of sexual violence in situations on the Council’s agenda, the vast majority of them being non-State actors. More than 70 per cent of the parties listed are persistent perpetrators, meaning they have appeared on the list for five or more years without taking the requisite remedial or corrective action. It is critical to ensure coherence between the list of implicated parties and the measures imposed by United Nations sanctions regimes. We must use those tools to stop the flow of weapons into the hands of perpetrators of sexual violence. There could be no more direct and effective way to disarm the weapon of rape and, ultimately, to prevent and eradicate those crimes. In terms of access to justice, far too many perpetrators of wartime sexual violence still walk free, while women and girls walk in fear. Left unchecked, those crimes set back both the cause of gender equality and the cause of peace. However, recent momentum in relation to transitional justice processes offers some glimmers of hope. For instance: the extension of Special Criminal Court proceedings in the Central African Republic until 2028, and the decision by the Appeals Chamber to uphold a 2022 conviction for sexual violence by an armed group leader on the basis of command responsibility; the opening of Macro Case 11 in Colombia by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in September 2023 to investigate sexual and gender-based violence, including when committed on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; and the decision by the Government of Iraq, in June 2023, to release $12 million to implement the Law on Support to Female Yazidi Survivors, pursuant to which some 1,600 applications for compensation have been approved, benefiting Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak and Christian women who were held in captivity by Da’esh. In each of those cases, my Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict assisted the national judicial authorities and provided technical support in other relevant contexts, including Guinea, Libya and Ukraine. Urgent funding is needed for the conflict-related sexual violence multi-partner trust fund, which supports the work of both my Team of Experts and the inter-agency coordination network that I chair — United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. Moreover, women protection advisers are a linchpin in our operational response, and their capacity must be consolidated and reinforced, including at critical moments of mission transitions and drawdowns. Illicit arms flows have a chilling effect on women’s ability to mobilize for peace. Less than one third of voices heard in arms control and disarmament forums are those of women. That glaring gender imbalance reflects women’s continued lack of influence over the peace and security processes that affect their lives. Robust frameworks are in place, such as the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects of 2001 and the Arms Trade Treaty of 2013. However, to date, no Member State has publicly refused the export of arms or ammunition on the grounds that they could be used to commit or facilitate sexual and gender-based violence, though those instruments require a systematic assessment of that risk. In terms of the way forward, the report before us recommends targeted action to curtail the flow of weapons by ensuring, first, full implementation of relevant legislative and policy frameworks; secondly, gender-responsive disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) strategies and security sector reform (SSR), through effective oversight, accountability, vetting, training, codes of conduct and efforts to hardwire gender equality into their work; thirdly, sustaining gains made in terms of DDR and SSR during periods of transition and mission drawdown, particularly with respect to regulating the destabilizing accumulation and misuse of small arms and light weapons; and, finally, ensuring the meaningful participation of affected communities, human rights defenders and civil society representatives in all peace and security processes, including those related to arms transfers and exports, which have classically been gender-blind. It is time to declare zero tolerance for all-male delegations and deliberations in the security sector. Almost a quarter of a century since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), women’s inclusion must be understood as an obligation, not merely an aspiration. Today we know more than ever before about the factors that either enable or restrict the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence. We know that illicit weapons cast a long shadow over the lives of innocent civilians, while emboldening those who seek to spread fear and pursue criminal aims. Today’s debate brings into focus the need to better align the conflict-related sexual violence and arms control agendas, as part of prevention and risk mitigation. We cannot condemn the perpetrators of sexual violence in our statements while continuing to fund and arm them through our supply chains. For decades, we have heard survivors of conflict-related sexual violence say that “that man had the gun, and he had the power”. Recently, we documented the case of a 19-year-old Haitian woman in Cité Soleil, accosted by masked men who put a gun to her neck, dragged her into a field and raped and beat her, while pressuring her to confess to an association with men she did not even know. In 2023, the United Nations documented the case of a 60-year- old woman in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, who was gang- raped at gunpoint by three soldiers while she was hiding in a field near her home. A front line service-provider in Unity state, South Sudan, reported to my Office that the youth are now accustomed to carrying weapons wherever they go. Those who have weapons are the ones threatening people and perpetrating sexual violence. That makes disarmament a key step in prevention. Indeed, we cannot address sexual violence without shifting power dynamics. Starting today, we need women in the room, weapons under regulation and embargo, money for human rights defenders on the table and change on the ground. That includes supporting the courageous civil society activists who speak truth to power wielded at gunpoint, never allowing threats to silence them. In that respect, we must be on guard against any cynical recourse to suppression and exclusion, supposedly in the name of protection. The aim of this agenda is participation and rights, not paternalism and control. Women in the war-torn corners of our world need to see hope on the political horizon. Our words, deeds and decisions in this Chamber and beyond must give them cause for hope and must contribute to peace with justice, peace with gender equality, peace with dignity and development, and peace that endures.

I thank Ms. Patten for her briefing. I now give the floor to Ms. Ahmadi. Ms. Ahmadi: I thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to address the Security Council today on conflict-related sexual violence. My name is Niemat Ahmadi, and I am the President and Founder of Darfur Women Action Group. As a survivor of the Darfur genocide, I founded that organization in 2009 to empower survivors, both in the Sudan and in the diaspora, and to prevent future atrocities. Today I would like to recognize the resilience of the women of the Sudan. Their stories of unspeakable suffering are only surpassed by the accounts of their courage and determination. It has been more than one year since the Sudan was engulfed in vicious violence. While the Rapid Support Forces are still occupying and looting civilian homes, using sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery, as a tactic of war, the Sudanese Armed Forces are launching heavy artillery shelling, air strikes and indiscriminate attacks mainly targeting civilian homes, markets, bridges, essential public services and evacuation routes with no respect for human life. The cycle of violence in the Sudan exhibits a total disregard for international law and may amount to crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The conflict has thus far killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in El Geneina — the capital of West Darfur — alone, left more than 10 million displaced and condemned 18 million to starvation, with the United Nations warning that the Sudan will soon become the world’s worst hunger crisis. Those statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. The actual number of casualties is sadly underreported, as it has been unsafe to collect data in the middle of the crisis. The conflict has ravaged Darfur, Khartoum and Kordofan states. The recent violent takeover of central Sudan and the assault in El Fasher could lead to deadly mass atrocities. The war has had devastating consequences for women. Thousands of women have been killed. Of the 25 million people facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, women are particularly affected. Women also comprise up to 70 per cent of internally displaced people. Rape and other forms of gender-based violence are a defining feature of the current war in the Sudan. In January, the Panel of Experts on the Sudan reported widespread and escalating conflict-related sexual violence in Darfur, including the kidnapping, rape and sexual exploitation of women and girls (see S/2024/65). The report underlined sexual violence committed by members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias in all areas under their control and the targeting of women owing to their Masalit ethnicity. That report has only confirmed the horrific accounts of sexual violence about which we have been hearing for months against women from the Masalit, Fur and Zagawa tribes, particularly in camps for internally displaced people. Some women have been told by their attackers that they should be happy that now they will have an Arab child. Those atrocities, combined with incidents such as the recent massacre in Ardamata, West Darfur, indicate a clear pattern of ethnic targeting of the Masalit people and other African tribes. I am haunted by the horrific reports of sexual violence that I hear every day. One that shattered my heart and shocked me to the core was that of Noura, who endured gang rape at only 12 years old, leaving her in critical condition. Her family, struggling to survive, had to make an impossible decision: either to seek treatment for her or to feed her youngest sibling. Hearing that, Noura looked up in tears and told her mother that she no longer wanted to live. Those are choices that no family should ever have to make, and no child should ever have to endure. Noura’s story is just one of too many. Women and girls have been raped multiple times, sometimes in front of their fathers, husbands and sons in an effort to break their will and destroy their dignity. Those women and girls have no protection, no access to humanitarian or medical assistance and nowhere to turn for help. Attacks on medical facilities, restrictions on communications and the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery by the warring parties are making it even more challenging for survivors to access life-saving services, including sexual and reproductive health services. We hear that there are fewer than a dozen obstetricians and gynaecologists left working in Khartoum or other areas. To make matters worse, the fear of retaliation for speaking up has made it impossible for many survivors to come forward. Yet despite those dangers, grass-roots and women-led organizations continue to be the lifeline for their people. They are helping their communities, documenting atrocities and ensuring that the international community keeps its eyes on the Sudan. It is indeed their bravery that draws a bright line between hope and despair. But they cannot do so much longer without the Council’s help. The Council must not remain silent as the inhumane acts I have just described continue with total impunity. It is worth noting that, without the spread of weapons, the levels of sexual violence we are currently seeing in the Sudan would have never been reached. As the Panel of Experts reported to the Council (see S/2024/65), the warring parties in the Sudan and their external enablers have continued to violate the Security Council’s arms embargo on Darfur. And as Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo told the Council last Friday (see S/PV.9611), it is indeed illegal and immoral, and it must stop. Nevertheless, the Security Council has thus far failed to explicitly condemn those violations or to take any action to stop the actors abusing it. Unless the Security Council calls out those who undermine the measures that it has put in place, it is sending a signal to perpetrators that they can continue to violate international law without consequences. Ending impunity for past and present crimes, including crimes against women, must be a priority for the Security Council if we are ever to achieve sustainable peace in the Sudan. Therefore, I urge the Security Council to demand that all parties commit to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, stop the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure and enable rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, in accordance with international humanitarian law; to demand that all parties immediately cease all acts of sexual and gender- based violence and hold perpetrators accountable; to prioritize the creation of a new and stronger United Nations presence on the ground for ensuring the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations across the Sudan and documenting violations of international law; to ensure that women’s rights are central to all criminal accountability processes; to make violation of women’s rights and all forms of sexual and gender-based violence an explicit criterion for imposing sanctions; to maintain and enforce the current arms embargo in Darfur and expand it to the whole of the Sudan and to all parties to the conflict; and to demand and support the full, equal, safe and meaningful participation of Sudanese women in all de-escalation, peacebuilding, humanitarian and justice and accountability efforts and in all political processes regarding the future of the Sudan. Two decades ago, when the Council first began to grapple with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, it did what was right. It mobilized humanitarian assistance, referred the situation to the International Criminal Court, set up a peacekeeping mission to protect the vulnerable, created a sanctions regime to designate and hold responsible those who violated international law and imposed an arms embargo where it was needed. Now, there is no United Nations mission left in the country, no new individuals have been listed under the sanctions regime and the Council’s arms embargo is both limited and being flouted with impunity. In this current context, we see little solidarity with the people of the Sudan. For more than 23 years, we have heard the Council’s promises to uphold women’s rights and to end conflict-related sexual violence. Regrettably, those promises have yet to be realized. I reiterate today that all violations of women’s rights, regardless of who the perpetrator is and wherever they occur, deserve the Council’s condemnation and warrant action and accountability — be it in Gaza or Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Afghanistan or the many other conflicts in which women pay the price of war. The international community’s failure to act in my country, the Sudan, and in all those other contexts should be a stain on our collective conscience. Only the Council has the power to change that. Please act now.

I thank Ms. Ahmadi for her briefing. I now give the floor to Ms. Gurira. Ms. Gurira: Eighty cents — when was the last time Council members handled 80 cents, or paid for something and that was all that it cost? It is not even enough to buy a packet of gum in this day and age, but it can buy you a child to rape at a so-called maison de tolérance in a camp for internally displaced people in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. That is the world we are still in — a world in which conflict zones are terror zones for women and children. My first exposure to this dire issue came when I, as a playwright, started to seek to create a narrative that would amplify the voices of women and girls caught in the crosshairs of war. It was the Liberian civil war. I was seeking their unheard voices, and the result would become my Broadway play Eclipsed. With the help of a friend at the United Nations who, at the time, worked in the Office the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, I visited Liberia and spent time with women who had experienced unthinkable atrocity and who wished to be heard, to participate in the change process, to have a chance at a fulfilling life and to heal from all that had been taken from them — women who wanted justice. Now, I am sad to say, 17 years later, that the change we had all hoped for has not been won. What shocks me is how those crimes are being committed all around the world — how vast and widespread the issue has become. The report (S/2024/292) covers 25 situations, ranging from Colombia to the Ukraine, to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Haiti and, closer to home for me as a Zimbabwean, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and the Sudan. This issue has now become prevalent for more countries, not fewer. The media is our primary filter for shaping our perception and understanding of the scale and the scope of those violations. Yet the reality of our news media is that they focus on some places, and certainly not on the places where women look like me. This debate has to be a time when we hear from the courageous young Sudanese peacebuilders like Niemat Ahmadi, when we hear and see the girl who was tied to a tree in Ethiopia. This debate is for that child in the brothel near the internally displaced persons camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We must acknowledge women and survivors all over the world. Nothing is more dangerous than crimes that are not acknowledged — crimes that are unseen and allowed to persist. I am here today to amplify the voices of those who are never seen or heard, to acknowledge their suffering, to make sure that they are not forgotten and to hold those allowing this to continue responsible. Almost exactly a year ago, civil war broke out in the Sudan, during Ramadan, on 15 April. In this Chamber, a remarkable Sudanese woman called Hala Al-Karib told Council members that the first report of gang rape by armed men was reported at noon on that very first day, in a woman’s home in Khartoum, and was quickly followed by two more in that same area of the city (see S/PV.9452). And since then, the reports of sexual violence and sexual slavery have not stopped. Although the Democratic Republic of Congo has featured in annual reports and annual debates every year, the number of victims and survivors continues to rise. Service providers and Doctors without Borders have been assisting as many as 70 victims every single day from the internally displaced persons camps near Goma. In 2020, only five days after my first briefing with the Council, civil war erupted in Ethiopia where atrocities are shocking, with both Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers ruthlessly gang-raping women often in public, exhibiting them there, tied to trees. And impunity is pervasive. The common result is no justice for the survivors — none. Estimates are that 10,000 survivors of sexual violence sought care in health centres, which is already a fraction of the total number of victims, because many survivors never seek care, and many others want to but cannot find it. Khartoum, once a thriving city for African women professionals, now reports sexual violence targeting of women activists, professors, health-care providers and students. How do we effectively combat this issue? Malta has invited us to consider something that is part of the answer to the question — the guns. There are more services for survivors than before, more people working on this than before, but we are merely swimming against the tide, getting nowhere. And that tide is emboldened by nine consecutive years of increased military spending, reaching an all-time high of more than $2.4 trillion. The actors committing sexual violence at such high rates in the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia or Haiti, to name a few, are armed to the teeth, flagrantly violating arms embargoes. We hear so much about disruptions to the global supply chain, but the weapons keep flowing. When one sets the stage, the players will come. I, as a theatre-maker, know that well. The military economy sets the stage. The players are well supplied and play their roles. Sexual violence is horrifyingly and intrinsically embedded in the stage directions of war. Why does it feel like things are getting worse, even as the United Nations ramped up its efforts to address conflict-related sexual violence over the last decade and a half since I wrote Eclipsed? How can the words of the international community in this Chamber or the United Nations small programmes in conflict areas compete with $2.4 trillion of military spending and record weapons sales? When we take all bilateral aid supporting feminist, women- led and women’s rights organizations and movements in conflict-affected countries, we do not get to $150 million for the last year for which we have data. Put another way, it is less than 0.01 per cent of global military spending. The point is that reversing the upwards trajectory of military spending would be a way of reducing the number of victims in need of support in the first place. The point is that working on arms control and ammunition management is also working to prevent conflict-related sexual violence. Arms are part of the root of enabling those crimes. That is undeniable. But I must put forth: “fewer weapons” does not get to the heart of the psychosis of those who use that kind of violence. Diminishing its occurrence is not just about guns, though they definitely play a role that must be addressed. Simply put, sexual violence in conflict existed long before semi-automatic weapons. It has been used to break, dominate, take power and control and destroy since time immemorable. The pathology of it is an expression of deep complexity and layers, and we have to target it at all levels and at all times. The issue that strikes me, shocks me and has always stood out as one that requires far more strident steps than it currently has, as mentioned, is that of impunity. We see the documentation across the Secretary-General’s report, across so many testimonies from brave survivors — about the commander who committed the act and was let off owing to his political power, his money and his intimidation; the soldiers who terrorized a home, a school and a community with no consequence; and Governments allowing their soldiers free rein to terrorize. That happens more times than we can count. As well as a gun issue, we have a deterrence issue. The issue of impunity — the knowledge that one can rape a mother, a daughter, a son, a child and get away with it — feeds a pathology that keeps this issue dire and growing. We seem to not have found a way to create a deterrent that truly alters its perpetuation. We know such deterrents exist. But the complicity around sexual violence being a spoil or inevitable consequence of war seems to deter various structures from truly holding parties accountable. Even though the International Criminal Court has taken up some cases of sexual violence, it is still largely cost-free to rape in the chaos of conflict. I would like to speak to the Governments here today who allow that to occur within their borders with impunity. If they refuse to protect their most vulnerable and allow their bodies to be a spoil of their political conflicts, they should be held accountable. And they should not be in a position of leadership. Cultures of impunity — I can do this because I am likely to get away with it, because it is the expected practice of war — must end. They need to be put through courts of justice; accountability must be a given. We also need change of male-dominated cultures — where men are not holding themselves or each other accountable for committing those kinds of crimes. Where leaders and their militaries condone that atrocity on their own citizens. For all the efforts to achieve gender justice over the past two decades, the shameful truth is that almost all perpetrators still feel they can get away with it, and the overwhelming majority of survivors never seek justice, because justice is rarely ever there for them. Leaders of their own countries are not standing up for justice. They are not even condemning that horrific practice and seeing justice be served. We still have not fundamentally changed the perverse equation that assigns more consequences to the survivor than the tormentor. Until we make it clear that there are consequences for rape — real, dire consequences — we will never turn the tide of it. I want to ask Member States in this Chamber where this atrocity is occurring, those Member states whose own State soldiers perpetuate those occurrences: is that a default mechanism in conflict? Is fighting their wars on the bodies of their most vulnerable a tactic of war? What is being done, truly done, to prevent it, to bring justice, to deter future acts of atrocity? Members must answer to that and to the girl in Ethiopia right now who does not know if she will make it through the week without being tied to a tree. Right now, a child in eastern Congo needs us to keep attacking this issue in multiple ways, including disarmament and impunity and bringing truth to power. She needs us to be relentless and unstoppable or she will continue to live a life of unspeakable suffering, sold for a night for just 80 cents.

I thank Ms. Gurira for her briefing. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the Deputy Prime Minister of Malta. I begin by thanking Ms. Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, for her dedication to eliminating conflict-related sexual violence. My appreciation also extends to Ms. Danai Gurira, UN-Women Goodwill Ambassador, and to Ms. Niemat Ahmadi, our civil society organization briefer. As Ms. Gurira very clearly noted, 2023 global military spending exceeded a staggering $2.4 trillion. We therefore converge on the crucial discussion of preventing conflict-related sexual violence through demilitarization and disarmament, fundamental United Nations principles that lie at the heart of the women and peace and security agenda. Today our aim is to catalyse momentum and share best practices in leveraging arms control and disarmament strategies so as to prevent conflict- related sexual violence. It is also to increase women’s leadership and influence in disarmament forums, where their voices are often underrepresented. The proliferation of over 1 billion small arms and light weapons globally fuels terrorism, organized crime and conflicts. It also contributes directly to conflict- related sexual violence. That is why the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women mandates robust arms regulation. That is why the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) prohibits weapons transfers that have the potential to facilitate gender-based violence. That is why the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects recommends gender-responsive monitoring and analysis in national arms control mechanisms. Women and peace and security advocates must lead by example by curbing military spending and halting arms exports to conflict zones. Malta was an early signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, and we urge all remaining States to sign, ratify and fully implement the ATT. The African Union’s call to silence the guns deserves to be fully supported. Yet, as we heard today, in the Sudan, illicit arms deliveries and complex financing networks are implicated in the systematic sexual violence against women and girls, while flagrantly violating the arms embargo. As we mark one year into this ongoing brutal conflict, no new entities have been listed, despite the detailed reporting by the Panel of Experts of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005), concerning the Sudan, of those egregious violations. Over 70 per cent of listed parties in the Secretary-General’s report (S/2024/292) have evaded accountability for years. In Israel and Palestine, as in the rest of the world, all acts of conflict-related sexual violence must be condemned and accounted for, regardless of who committed them. In Afghanistan, we condemn the Taliban’s systematic gender persecution and appalling levels of sexual and gender-based violence. That is why Malta supports the codification of gender apartheid, which would enable victims and survivors, present and future, to hold perpetrators to account for the totality of crimes committed. United Nations sanctions committees should incorporate sexual and gender-based violence as a stand-alone criterion. Gender expertise and briefings by the Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict can advance the committees’ work to deter violence by all parties, including mercenaries and private military and security companies. Women’s rights defenders, like Ms. Ahmadi, exemplify courage and leadership. However, they remain unprotected and underfunded. That is especially true in the context of United Nations withdrawals, where civic space continues to narrow and where services are limited. Among the 21 countries covered in the Secretary-General’s report, the United Nations has deployed women protection advisers to only eight. We can do better than that, and we must do better. Conflict-related sexual violence must be central to ceasefire agreements, security sector reforms and arms control efforts. Colombia’s gender-responsive disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes offer a promising blueprint for preventing and responding to sexual violence in those contexts. Structural gender inequalities, poverty and misogyny fuel conflict-related sexual violence. A collective response is needed to dismantle the patriarchal systems that limit women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in all spheres — political, economic, social and cultural. The New Agenda for Peace calls on us to challenge and transform entrenched gender norms and institutional barriers. Let us heed that call. Let us stand united to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, ensuring that peace and security prevail for all. I resume my functions as President of the Council. I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements.

I thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this debate, which asks how to prevent conflict-related sexual violence, one of the most frequent and serious crimes, which almost always goes unpunished, as we heard today. That must change. I also thank the three briefers, and Ms. Ahmadi, in particular, for her moving testimony and courage. Our message to the Sudanese women is that we will not forget them. The women and peace and security agenda is, first and foremost, a peace agenda: You have reminded us of that, Mr. President, by placing disarmament and demilitarization at the heart of this debate. It has also been emphasized that the gender dimension of disarmament and arms control is anchored in a solid normative framework, which the international community must, however, make better systematic use of. The pioneering nature of the women and peace and security agenda lies in the union of three pillars — prevention, protection and participation. Those pillars are not only mutually reinforcing, but can all be strengthened through disarmament and arms control. I would like to make specific proposals in that regard. First and foremost, to prevent the illegal trade and abuse that fuel violence, in general, and gender-based violence, in particular, the flow of arms must become more accountable and transparent. There are a number of concrete ways to achieve that. As discussed at an Arria Formula meeting hosted by Switzerland last month, we need to make better use of the recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Historically, those recommendations have called for accountability in arms exports in contexts where gender-based violence is prevalent. We also need reliable information in order to build capacities for early warning, rapid action and accountability. Data on the use of weapons and ammunition, including diverted weapons and ammunition, needs to be more widely collected. Data collection and monitoring capabilities must be priorities for United Nations missions, particularly in transitional contexts. At the national level, we must integrate disarmament and arms control into national actions plans for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and integrate a gender-based approach into our disarmament strategies. The prevention of violence and the eradication of gender-based violence are also hampered by the persistence of discriminatory social norms, often associated with harmful models of masculinity that link the exercise of power to the carrying of weapons. Secondly, we must focus on participation. The above-mentioned norms widen the participation gap, thereby preventing women from fully contributing to decisions concerning peace and security without fear of being targeted or having their role and actions systemically questioned. In that sense, women’s participation in decision-making processes must be increased in forums dealing with disarmament, arms control and the arms trade. That also applies to the management of new weapons and the use of artificial intelligence in the arms industry. Women’s participation is essential to transform the gendered power dynamics that fuel violence. Finally, I would like to turn to the protection pillar, recalling the need to make better use of the tools defined by the normative framework to protect the civilian population from violence and weapons. A large quantity of weapons and ammunition are still being transferred and diverted to several of the countries mentioned in the Secretary-General’s report (S/2024/292), despite the very high rates of sexual and gender-based violence and the well-documented role of weapons in such violence. Arms embargoes are insufficiently respected and enforced. All arms and ammunition exporters must urgently fulfil their due diligence responsibilities by integrating a gender perspective, as stipulated in particular by the Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management. That must include a risk assessment of the entire supply chain, and it can be complemented through collaboration with civil society organizations. It is our duty to spare no effort to reduce violence against women. The women and peace and security agenda provides us with a clear framework based on three pillars: prevention, participation and protection. Arms control and disarmament are a powerful lever for strengthening those pillars, and we can — and must — use it to put and end to violence and impunity.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Malta for hosting this debate, to Special Representative of the Secretary- General Patten for her briefing, and to Ms. Niemat Ahmadi and Ms. Danai Gurira in particular for their touching testimonies. The briefers just provided some pertinent statistics on these critical issues, but let me begin by again emphasizing a particularly disheartening statistic. With escalating conflicts across the world, the estimates of conflict-related sexual violence for the last year alone exceed 3,600 cases. That represents a startling 50 per cent increase from the 2,455 cases reported in 2022 by the United Nations. Behind those numbers also lie the unimaginable suffering and trauma endured by victims and survivors. However, it is important to recognize that those figures are probably a significant underestimate, as many cases go unreported and unverified. In that regard, Korea welcomes the Secretary-General’s report on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2024/292), which has once again shed light on that critical issue. The report shows that, as conflicts intensify, so does the tragic prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence. The attacks by Hamas against Israeli citizens and the subsequent hostilities in Gaza resulted in enormous suffering for women in both Israel and Gaza, including the heinous sexual violence against Israeli women described in the report by Special Representative of the Secretary-General Patten. Also, escalating violence and armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan and Haiti have exposed women to the most serious levels of gender-related violence, including sexual violence. We are profoundly concerned by the disproportionate impacts of conflicts on women and girls, who endure the most brutal forms of violence. The proliferation and widespread availability of illicit small arms and light weapons only serve to facilitate the systematic occurrence of sexual violence in conflicts. Against that background, I would like to highlight the following three points. First, each Council member should fully implement and leverage the synergies among international arms control treaties and frameworks to minimize the immediate risks of conflict-related sexual violence, which is enabled by the irresponsible transfer and illicit trafficking of arms. In that regard, Korea calls on all Member States to fully and effectively mainstream the gender perspective in their arms control activities in line with their international obligations, including the Arms Trade Treaty, the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects and the recently adopted Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management, to name but a few. The Arms Trade Treaty in particular is the first legally binding multilateral instrument to recognize the link between gender-based violence and the international arms trade. As the President of the ninth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, held last year, we have highlighted the importance of the universalization and effective implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty. Korea will remain devoted to establishing responsible practices on arms transfers. Secondly, we should do our utmost to ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation and leadership in disarmament and arms control forums. Women are undoubtedly critical stakeholders, and it is high time that words be translated into action and respond to the repeated calls for women’s participation. It is our responsibility to ensure women’s voices and perspectives are not left out of decision-making processes at all levels of disarmament and arms control, spanning national, regional and international mechanisms. Lastly, beyond preventing conflict-related sexual violence and addressing its root causes, it is equally essential to provide comprehensive support to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. As we heard today from Ms. Ahmadi’s vivid testimony, their stories of resilience, courage and hope must not be relegated to the sidelines. By empowering them and helping them to become active political agents, they can contribute to shaping laws and policies regarding arms control and disarmament by providing their insights in order to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. Korea has started our own Action with Women and Peace initiative to support global efforts aimed at ending conflict-related sexual violence and enhancing women’s participation in peace processes. On the one hand, under that initiative, Korea has been supporting humanitarian and development projects to mitigate risks of gender-based violence in Africa, such as the Sudan and Cameroon, in close cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund. At the same time, we have been hosting annual conferences on Action with Women and Peace since 2019, fostering global discussions on the women and peace and security agenda, including conflict-related sexual violence. Additionally, we launched the Action with Women and Peace fund this year to support women activists, peacebuilders and humanitarian workers who play crucial roles in preventing and addressing conflict- related sexual violence. In conclusion, advancing gender-responsible arms control and disarmament measures, along with fully incorporating the gender dimension in relevant discussions, is a crucial part of our collective efforts to prevent conflict-related sexual violence. Korea remains steadfast in our commitment to that cause and stands ready to actively participate and collaborate with all of the members of the Council.

We thank Malta for convening this open debate. We thank the briefers, Ms. Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group, and Ms. Danai Gurira, UN- Women Goodwill Ambassador, for their comprehensive briefings and for their courageous efforts to drive forward much-needed global action to tackle conflict- related sexual violence. Having experienced first-hand the devastating impact of conflict-related sexual violence on people and communities, Sierra Leone remains committed to joining proactive efforts to prevent conflict-related sexual violence through demilitarization and gender- responsive arms control. The prevalence of sexual violence relating to both conflict and peace time situations is alarming. In the ongoing conflicts, there are harrowing reported accounts of women, men, girls and boys of disparate ages being deliberately targeted and victimized sexually. Bringing this historically hidden crime to the forefront of our discussions is the only way to address it. Sierra Leone notes with appreciation the important report of the Secretary-General (S/2024/292), which outlines the progress made and emerging issues on sexual violence in conflict-affected areas for the reporting period, as well as forward-looking recommendations aimed at strengthening mechanisms for the compliance of State and non-State actors with Security Council resolutions on this critical issue. We have taken note, with grave concern, of the listings in the annex of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict that are on the agenda of the Security Council. In particular, we note with regret that Sudanese women are experiencing the impact of the escalating conflict acutely and face a range of risks — kidnapping, rape, sexual exploitation and forced marriage. We call upon all Member States to stop arms transfers when there is a substantial risk that they may be used to commit or facilitate serious acts of violence against women and children in the Sudan and in all conflict situations. We have a responsibility to ensure compliance with resolution 2724 (2024). We reiterate the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Sudan and call on the parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights law. The burden on women and girls warrants particular emphasis. Of the 3,688 verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence across more than 21 situations highlighted in the current report, 95 per cent are women and girls. In conflict situations, it is predominantly the bodies of women and girls that have become battlegrounds, not because of bombs and shells, but because of the heartless human hands and minds of armed groups of State and non-State actors who continue to take advantage of the anarchy of wars to inflict violence on the most vulnerable members of our communities. Women are being disempowered, raped, tortured, abducted and humiliated, and many are ostracized at the end of conflicts because they bear the effects of the abuse, including through pregnancy. Increased militarization and the proliferation of weapons, particularly small arms and light weapons, fuel the systematic and widespread occurrence of sexual violence in conflict. Weapons and ammunition are used by perpetrators to commit rape, to threaten or force individuals into sexual acts against their will and to injure and kill survivors and victims of sexual violence. As stated in the concept note for this debate, a study by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research across six countries in 2021 approximates that 70 to 90 per cent of sexual violence incidents were reported to involve weapons, particularly firearms. Therefore, the role of arms control and disarmament in the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence is very critical. In that regard, there is also a need to strengthen information-sharing platforms through which Member States can share information, best practices, lessons learned and emerging threats related to conflict-related sexual violence and the role of arms. We believe that that will foster collaboration and allow countries to learn from each other’s experiences. Sierra Leone believes that there is light at the end of the tunnel, because evidence does bear witness to the fact that the rigorous enforcement of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks does reduce incidences of conflict-related sexual violence. Our commitment to addressing this issue, for instance, is informed by experience, including the development of critical jurisprudence in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Special Court was the first international tribunal to recognize the new crime against humanity of forced marriage as another inhumane act. In the post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding phase, Sierra Leone continues to demonstrate significant commitment to addressing conflict-related sexual violence and sexual and gender-based violence, including through the declaration of a national public emergency on rape in 2019. Sierra Leone continues to prioritize the prosecution of perpetrators, ensuring accountability, while also recognizing the distinct harm inflicted on victims and the need for redress. In that regard, we wish to recall the importance of resolution 2467 (2019). In view of the foregoing, Sierra Leone would like to reiterate the following three points. First, we emphasize the need for State and non-State actors engaged in conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians from conflict- related sexual violence. Secondly, we call on all Member States and partners to strengthen networks for collaboration and cooperation for arms control and disarmament instruments and treaties, including the Arms Trade Treaty and the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. In that regard, we believe that States and other partners should advocate for stronger accountability mechanisms, including judicial action, against those who are proven to have committed acts of conflict-related sexual violence, as well as the establishment of reparation mechanisms for victims. Global, regional and national mechanisms for arms control and disarmament should seek the active participation and views of survivors of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, as key stakeholders. Similarly, gender analysis and gender- responsive monitoring should be incorporated into those mechanisms to effectively address the gendered impacts of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Thirdly and finally, we must improve our efforts to address systemic gender inequality, which can be a causal factor for conflict-related violence, particularly against women and girls. In that regard, the achievement of targets related to gender equality, justice and strong institutions in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and particularly Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16 is of critical importance. Addressing the underlying historical, political, cultural, social and economic factors of conflicts is also key to tackling conflict-related sexual violence. In conclusion, Sierra Leone reiterates its commitment to the protection of vulnerable populations and inclusive efforts to combat conflict-related sexual violence.

I sincerely thank Malta for convening today’s important meeting. I also thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General Patten, Ms. Ahmadi and Ambassador Gurira for their comprehensive briefings and their strenuous efforts to raise our awareness on this critically pressing and important issue. Sexual violence in conflict is a serious crime that entirely violates human dignity and must never be tolerated no matter where in the world. Japan is deeply concerned and alarmed by findings in the most recent report of the Secretary-General (S/2024/292), which points out the heightened levels of conflict-related sexual violence, fuelled by arms proliferation and increased militarization. As the Secretary-General’s report recommends, we must improve the prevention of conflict- related sexual violence by incorporating this agenda in arms control and disarmament frameworks and cross- leveraging related United Nations mechanisms and tools. Japan has been a State party to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) since it came into force in 2014. The Treaty requires States parties to assess the risk that arms exports could be used to commit serious acts of gender-based violence. Japan has prioritized the universalization of that Treaty and reiterates its call for non-State parties to join the ATT. To reduce the risk that arms transfers and illicit weapons are used to commit conflict-related sexual violence, we should strengthen international cooperation through frameworks such as the Diversion Information Exchange Forum, a body of the ATT, in which information on transfers of illicit weapons is exchanged. Furthermore, we should promote implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects. To promote international cooperation in that field, Japan has contributed $2 million to the Saving Lives Entity fund (SALIENT), a United Nations initiative launched in 2020 that supports Member States in tackling armed violence and illicit small arms and light weapons. In the initiative’s project to curtail small arms, as much as 30 per cent of the budget is allocated to gender-related activities, including the prevention of gender-based violence. Japan hopes that SALIENT will continue to contribute to reducing gender-based violence related to the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons. We should also ensure women’s participation in the area of arms control and disarmament to adequately address conflict-related sexual violence. Every year, together with Colombia and South Africa, Japan submits the General Assembly resolution on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. That resolution emphasizes the need for the equal, full and effective participation of women in all decision-making and implementation processes relating to the Programme of Action on Small Arms and the International Tracing Instrument. I invite all Member States to support and fully implement that resolution. At the national level, in Japan’s third national action plan on women and peace and security, Japan is explicitly committed to promoting women’s participation and incorporating a gender perspective in developing and conducting small arms and light weapons countermeasures and other disarmament and non-proliferation efforts. In conclusion, Japan reaffirms its commitment to the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence through demilitarization, arms control and disarmament, building on today’s discussions.

I welcome you to New York, Mr. President, to preside over this debate. I thank Special Representative of the Secretary- General Patten and the other briefers for their briefings. Women are one of the most vulnerable groups. Their rights and interests are most easily violated. They are in greatest need of protection. China firmly opposes the use of sexual violence as a means of war and terrorism, strongly condemns all sexual violence against women and girls and calls on the international community to adopt a comprehensive approach as a response. I wish to emphasize the following points. First, we must resolutely combat all forms of sexual violence. Without effective punishments for criminal acts, it will be difficult to deter and prevent new violations. All countries should strengthen the rule of law, punish the perpetrators of violence with zero tolerance in accordance with the law and seek justice for the victims. Recently, Haiti has seen a surge in gang violence, resulting in horrific incidents of sexual violence, which pose a serious threat to local women and girls and generate fear among the population. China calls upon all parties to support the efforts by the Haitian police to maintain law and order, strictly implement the arms embargo, shut down at the source the channels through which the gangs illegally obtain weapons and ammunition, and stabilize the situation on the ground as soon as possible. Secondly, we must make every effort to suppress terrorist activities. In recent years, the problems of kidnapping, human trafficking and sexual violence committed by terrorist groups in West Africa, the Middle East and other regions have become increasingly pronounced. Many of the actors listed in the Secretary- General’s report (S/2024/292) as suspects of committing sexual violence are terrorist groups listed by the Security Council. It is incumbent upon all parties to abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations; respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the countries concerned; give full play to the leading role of the United Nations and its Security Council; put an end to double standards in fighting terrorism; strengthen international counter- terrorism cooperation; and resolutely combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Thirdly, we must promote the comprehensive devel­ opment of women. The issue of sexual violence does not arise out of thin air. Rather, it is closely related to the is­ sue of development. The international community should focus on the long term, scale up assistance to developing countries, accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, strengthen the empowerment of women and promote gender equality. It is important to pay attention to the special needs of victims of sexual violence, provide timely and urgent medical care and psychological counselling services and help them heal the trauma and reintegrate into society at an early date. China welcomes the enactment of laws and the adoption of action plans for the protection of women and children in Sri Lanka, Somalia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ultimate goal of the conflict-related sexual vio­ lence agenda is not just to make conflicts free of sexual violence. The ultimate goal is to make the world free of war. The most fundamental way to address conflict-re­ lated sexual violence is to stop and prevent war itself. As we speak, the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where more than 10,000 women have been killed, has lasted more than six months now. More than 1 million Palestinian women and girls are facing starvation. That human-made humanitar­ ian disaster must end. It is imperative to promote the full and effective implementation of resolution 2728 (2024) in order to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and stop all actions that harm civilians. China has taken note of the report issued by Special Representative of the Sec­ retary-General Patten following her visit in February to Israel upon invitation, during which she also travelled to the occupied West Bank. It is our hope that the relevant parties will take the recommendations contained in the report seriously and respond positively. China stands ready to continue to work with the international community to create an environment of peace, security and stability around the world and to make a positive contribution to the early eradication of conflict-related sexual violence and to the advancement of the women and peace and security agenda.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Maltese presidency for its wise selection of conflict-related sexual violence as the topic of today’s discussion. I would also like to thank the briefers for their insightful briefings. Despite the passage of 24 years since the Council adopted resolution 1325 (2000), recognizing the vital role of women, particularly in conflict prevention and mitigation, we continue to witness an unacceptable de­ lay in implementing its provisions. In that context, and in affirmation of the remarks made by the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during his participation in the general debate of the General As­ sembly at its current session (see A/78/PV.5), my country adopted a national action plan in July 2023, with the aim of achieving the objectives of that United Nations reso­ lution. That plan, developed in collaboration with vari­ ous national bodies and relevant stakeholders, primarily aims to encourage women’s involvement in the security and military sectors, to raise awareness of the impor­ tance of women, to enhance women’s presence in vari­ ous national, regional and international bodies, to recruit more women into the security and military ranks, and to support women’s access and promotion to leadership positions in security agencies. Algeria values its achievements in enhancing the status of women and promoting gender equality, particularly in going beyond quota systems and replacing them with a balanced 50/50 representation system. That progressive step reflects our commitment to building an inclusive and just society in which women have equal opportunities to contribute to all aspects of politics, the economy and development. That has been reflected in the significant strides made in terms of the presence and representation of women, with Algerian women’s participation in the judiciary sector exceeding 54 per cent of overall participants. Moreover, women account for more than 68 per cent of those active in the higher education sector and 45 per cent in the scientific research sector. As for the health sector, women represent more than 50 per cent. In the military and security sectors, work is under way to match the objectives attained in the high-ranking category. Those impressive statistics reflect the effectiveness of the Government’s plan and vision to empower women and enhance their participation in Algerian society. In my statement today regarding this very timely issue, I will shed light on two situations. Women and girls are paying a heavy toll for the crisis in the Sudan, which erupted a year ago, and being subject to serious violations. It is therefore imperative to urgently cease all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and encourage the setting of the required justice and healing mechanisms. It is also essential to ensure women’s meaningful participation in peace efforts to ensure the required inclusiveness of any peace process. In the same context, Algeria draws attention to the dire situation of Palestinian women, who are enduring immense suffering and violations of their fundamental rights, including the right to life, in a brutal and ongoing manner, especially over the past six months. Since 7 October, reports indicate that Palestinian women and girls in detention have been subjected to multiple forms of sexual violence and assault. According to United Nations human rights mandate holders and experts, Palestinian women and children, in areas where they are seeking refuge or while fleeing, are also targets of deliberate attacks and extrajudicial killings by Israeli occupation forces. Such violations must be rigorously investigated, and perpetrators held accountable. Zero impunity for those crimes must be the guiding principle. The suffering of Palestinian women serves as a tragic reminder of the urgent need to immediately stop all forms of conflict-related sexual violence, as stated in the recommendation contained in paragraph 93 (a) of this month’s report of the Secretary-General on conflict- related sexual violence (S/2024/292).

We listened to today’s briefers. We believe that linking the topic of preventing conflict-related sexual violence to demilitarization and arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, under the agenda item of women and peace and security agenda, is artificial and diverts attention from truly important issues that exist in both areas. The Russian Federation condemns sexual violence in all its forms, as well as any other crimes committed in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. Such acts must be investigated, and their perpetrators must be brought to justice. That is law enforcement activity which falls within the purview of States. Measures taken by United Nations system bodies and civil society simply add to those efforts. However, one must recognize that the United Nations contribution in that area is significantly limited by the fact that the post of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict is occupied by Ms. Pramila Patten. Ms. Patten has turned that important mandate into a source of political statements, blatant lies and manipulation. That is unacceptable. A prime example of such politicization is the section on Ukraine in the report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2024/292). At the outset, we would like to note that this section of the report has no added value. It merely reprints data from the so-called human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As we know, that mission is fully controlled by Kyiv, which means that its data cannot be considered objective. But even that mission reflected some crimes committed by Ukrainian militants — beatings, electric shock torture, rape and threats of rape against those suspected of collaborating with the authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk. However, that information did not make it into Ms. Patten’s report. Any allegations against States or parties to a conflict in the report must be reliable, based on confirmed facts and drawn from verifiable sources. However, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General prefers to include unsubstantiated accusations against armed forces without going to the trouble of verifying such information. Last year, prior to the publication of the report, the Russian Federation officially requested the Secretary- General to provide information that could be used to conduct verifications. Those requests were ignored. This year, the Special Representative did not even submit the relevant portion of the report to the Russian Federation for comment. Therefore, it has become obvious that her goals do not include the prevention of sexual violence. All she intends to do is to apportion political labels. Therefore, we underscore that we completely reject the insinuations contained in the report. The actions of Russian servicemen in combat and non-combat situations are subject to a unified command and strict rules and regulations. Any unlawful actions are promptly investigated and the perpetrators are brought to account. Other sections of the report are similarly unbalanced. In particular, the section on Myanmar is once again one-sided and politicized. The list of wrongdoers mainly includes the Myanmar armed forces, while crimes committed by terrorists and militants are ignored. That does nothing to help the report’s objectivity. The Russian Federation considers arms control and the control of military-use equipment, including small arms and light weapons, to be a pillar of the maintenance of international peace and security, especially in the context of combating terrorism. It is important that those who make decisions on issues of international security, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as those involved in relevant activities, be evaluated on the basis of their abilities, merits and achievements, regardless of their sex. The women and peace and security agenda should not be automatically incorporated into off-topic United Nations documents, including those on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. For our part, we do not see how discussing gender-responsive arms control can help to address the real problems that many States are facing, namely, the increasing access of terrorists and criminal groups to small arms and light weapons, which surpasses every other arms category in terms of the number of victims. That problem is addressed in the reports of the Secretary-General on the threats posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). And yet those same reports fail to mention where exactly terrorists get their weapons. The Council should not turn a blind eye to the fact that terrorists get their weapons through criminal networks or directly from those who supply them across the world in vast quantities. The weapons and equipment abandoned by the United States and NATO in Afghanistan are now being used by terrorists, including ISIL, in South Asia and in Afghanistan itself. Weapons sent by Western States to the Kyiv regime are ending up in the hands of criminal groups in Europe and terrorists in Africa. Right now, the United States Government is working to disburse $23 billion to Ukraine and $26 billion to Israel so they can replenish their stockpiles of American weapons. It is precisely those weapons that will become a breeding ground for terrorists and criminals around the world and claim thousands of lives of women and children. Some time ago, the Russian Federation initiated in the Security Council efforts to enhance existing standards in the area of combating arms transfers to terrorists. Back in 2017, with our active support, resolution 2370 (2017) was adopted. We promoted the inclusion of this topic in resolution 2462 (2019), on countering the financing of terrorism, and resolution 2482 (2019), on combating the organized crime-terrorism nexus. In 2018 and 2019, a number of major international conferences were convened in Moscow on this topic. And yet, the situation has not improved since then, because the measures developed by the Security Council can be implemented only through the depoliticized cooperation among States, under the central coordinating role of the United Nations, which is scarce these days. Russia supports the strengthening of interaction and coordination between the relevant specialized mechanisms of the United Nations Secretariat and regional organizations. At the behest of my country, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime launched specialized technical assistance programmes to strengthen the capacity of Central Asian countries to combat illicit arms trafficking, including preventing such arms from falling in the hands of terrorists. The next phase of the project will provide similar assistance to African States. The current global situation demonstrates clearly the importance of controlling transfers of conventional arms and military products, including small arms and light weapons. We cannot but recognize that, despite the measures taken, women continue to fall victim to various forms of violence and to be killed or injured in armed conflicts. We must find ways to resolve this problem in the areas under consideration without politicization and double standards and without artificially linking sexual violence to arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.

Let me start by thanking Malta for organizing this important debate. I also want to thank Ms. Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and her team for their comprehensive briefing and report (S/2024/292). I commend her efforts, including on Ukraine, which is why my Russian colleague thought that he should focus his statement on attacking her. I also want to thank Ms. Gurira, the UN-Women Goodwill Ambassador, for her powerful statement and for joining us here today, and I thank her for her efforts on this issue. This month marks 10 years since the Chibok kidnappings in Nigeria. I remember that day so well, as I was the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs for the United States, and I remember the outrage. It has been 10 years since Boko Haram tore more than 270 schoolgirls from their dormitories and forced them into a life of sexual slavery and domestic servitude, ripping them away from their families and their lives and their futures. A third of those girls remain missing to this day. I wish I could say that this horrific kidnapping marked a turning point, that it was the last of this kind of violence against women and girls. But as this year’s report lays bare, we are still experiencing a global crisis of conflict-related sexual violence. And in country after country, impunity for it remains the norm. From Nigeria to Israel, from Myanmar to the Sudan, from Haiti to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have seen terrorist groups, criminal gangs and non-State armed groups abducting and sexually exploiting women and girls. We have seen rape being used as a tool of war. I note that the report calls for the release of the nearly 3,000 Yazidis who are still missing, as well as of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other terrorist groups from Israel on 7 October. We know from United Nations reporting that many of those hostages have experienced sexual violence while in captivity. There is so much work to be done to combat this epidemic of violence, to address both its impacts and its root causes and, most importantly, to help survivors heal. But for today, I want to focus on three core actions before us, as detailed in this report. The first action is holding perpetrators of conflict- related sexual violence accountable. The United States agrees with the Special Representative’s conclusion that the international community must assist national authorities in strengthening rule-of-law institutions and building forensic capacity so that investigators can properly gather the evidence needed to indict and convict those who perpetrate conflict-related sexual violence. To that end, I want to commend the work being done by the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict to conduct trainings and provide legal and forensic capacity-building assistance to national Governments. And I want to acknowledge the efforts in Sierra Leone and align myself with her statement recommending stronger accountability mechanisms. And the United States has undertaken this critical work, too. In Haiti, for example, under the United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability in Haiti, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development are working in partnership to support the Haitian National Police, helping them build trust with the communities they serve and training officers to mitigate, respond to and investigate gender-based violence cases. In Ukraine, the United States is also supporting the efforts of the Office of the Prosecutor General to document, investigate and prosecute war crimes — including those involving conflict-related sexual violence — committed by Russian forces. But this work takes all of us. Nearly one in three women have been or will be subject to sexual violence in their lifetime. The sheer magnitude of this crisis impels United Nations Member States to work together and with the Team of Experts, to share best practices and coordinate collective resources. More than just addressing conflict-related sexual violence after it happens, we must prevent it. That brings me to my second point — addressing the systemic challenges that enable, facilitate and exacerbate conflict-related sexual violence, especially, the proliferation of small and light weapons. As the report notes, somewhere between 70 and 90 per cent of incidents of conflict-related sexual violence in Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan and South Sudan involve small arms and light weapons. Indeed, the illicit proliferation and widespread availability of those weapons and their ammunition directly facilitated these incidents. What is more, sexual violence continues to play a significant role in the political economy of war. Women and girls are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation; they are kidnapped with the threat and use of sexual violence in order to extort higher ransoms. We see that in Haiti, where the illicit weapons trade is fuelling the gangs’ strategic use of sexual violence. It is why the United States will continue to work closely with our partners at the United Nations and in Kenya to establish systems and processes within the Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti in order to prevent arms smuggling, among other things. It is why we will continue to uphold the United States conventional arms transfer policy, which directs our Government agencies to assess whether United States arms transfers could be used to commit, facilitate or increase the risk of gender-based violence. And it is why we will continue to work with the United Nations sanctions committees to designate individuals who are responsible for human rights abuses, including conflict-related sexual violence. My third and final point is that in all of this work, we must ensure that our approach — from mitigation to documentation, from monitoring to prosecution — is survivor-centred, consent-based and linked to gender-based violence response services. This report has underscored the importance of that approach, highlighting Governments that are actively addressing conflict-related sexual violence and empowering women to lead. Places like Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and the Central African Republic are showing the world how centring survivors can heal communities. And for its part, the United States is supporting others in doing the same — from helping Ukrainian institutions provide survivors with psychosocial support, reintegration services and a survivor-centred approach to legal assistance, to funding counselling services that help empower survivors and providers in South Sudan and working with local non-governmental organizations in India to map legal and social support for vulnerable women at risk of gender-based violence, including enabling Rohingya women, who are at a heightened risk of such violence, to leave abusive relationships, access survivor services and secure protection from local police. Despite the fact that 10 years have passed since that terrible day in Nigeria, there is still much work to be done to hold non-State actors who are terrorizing women and girls with impunity to account and to ensure that State forces do not commit sexual violence. Let us therefore seek justice for survivors and give them the support they need to heal themselves and their communities. Let us centre survivors in our efforts, both here at the United Nations and as individual Member States. Let us work to combat the drivers of conflict-related sexual violence, including the transfer of small and light weapons. And let us end the culture of impunity that has allowed gender-based violence to take hold for far too long.

Mozambique commends Malta’s presidency for organizing this important open debate. We also want to express our deep appreciation for their comprehensive and insightful briefings to Ms. Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Danai Gurira, UN-Women Goodwill Ambassador, and Ms. Niemat Ahmadi, founder and President of the Darfur Women Action Group. Conflict-related sexual violence is a grave and corrosive human rights violation. It disproportionately affects women and girls. As the Secretary-General’s latest report points out (S/2024/292), these heinous types of crimes have regrettably intensified in the context of the outbreak and escalation of conflicts in the past year. They are having a devastating impact on individual human lives, communities and societies as a whole. Mozambique strongly condemns the use of sexual violence, whose perpetrators must be held accountable. We realize that conflict-related sexual violence is fuelled by a number of factors, including arms proliferation and increased militarization. That unfortunate reality compels us to reflect on gender perspectives and the importance of arms control for vulnerable women, as well as to consider the role of gender dynamics in the design, implementation and monitoring of arms-control initiatives and policies. Our experience in Mozambique shows that women’s participation in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration can help to ensure justice for the victims of conflict-related sexual violence and to build peace generally. In addition, we have come to realize that initiatives aimed at addressing conflict-related sexual violence must encourage women’s participation in peace processes and decision-making, address the root causes of conflicts, and improve the ability of judicial systems to prevent and respond to situations of sexual violence. International and regional initiatives are of paramount importance in addressing and preventing conflict-related sexual violence as well as in arms control, because they enable coordinated action by countries in different regions. We believe that ending conflict-related sexual violence is a crucial factor in achieving sustainable peace and security, particularly on our continent of Africa. In that regard, we would like to highlight the commendable contribution that the institution of Africa Amnesty Month for the surrender and collection of illicit arms and light weapons has made to the effort to control arms and weapons. The measure was launched as part of the African Union Silence the Guns initiative and has been in place since 2017. It has helped reduce the availability of weapons, thereby making them less accessible to perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence. Africa has a framework aimed at preventing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, as well as conflict-related sexual violence, that includes the African Union Common Position on an Arms Trade Treaty, the 2019 African Union campaign on preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence and the 2018 African Union network on gender and peacebuilding. Those initiatives aim to raise awareness, build capacity and promote coordination on arms control and cooperation to prevent and respond to conflict- related sexual violence and promote sustainable peace and security on our continent. In the context of our own national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, Mozambique has made enormous efforts to prevent conflict-related sexual violence. Additionally, our national action plan on women and peace and security includes a component for preventing and responding effectively to such violence. Although progress has been made, more needs to be done to address the root causes of conflict- related sexual violence, ensure sustained support for survivors and promote gender equality. In that context, Mozambique reiterates its firm commitment to continuing to contribute to our collective action to address conflict-related sexual violence, including through arms and weapon controls. It is our belief that women and girls can play a transformative role in political, socioeconomic and peace processes that we must capitalize on for the purposes of peace, security and stability in the world. Dame Barbara Woodward (United Kingdom): I would like to thank Special Representative Patten, Ms. Ahmadi and Ms. Gurira for briefing us today, and I would particularly like to thank Special Representative Patten for her commitment to speaking out on behalf of victims and survivors and for upholding and delivering on her mandate. Conflict-related sexual violence is not an inevitable consequence of war. The United Kingdom remains committed to tackling such violence. Indeed, we have prioritized this agenda, through the leadership of our Prime Minister’s Special Representative, and we have contributed through key initiatives, including the launch of the Murad Code. I would like to outline three priorities. First, on the focus of today’s debate, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research estimates that 70 to 90 per cent of conflict-related sexual violence incidents involve weapons and firearms. In contexts in which widely available small arms and weapons are contributing to high rates of conflict-related sexual violence, effective conventional arms control can play a vital role in prevention, and women should be at the centre of those efforts. Our own women and peace and security national action plan highlights the importance of arms control. We call for the implementation of national arms control measures, including effective export controls, to strengthen conflict-related sexual violence prevention. Gender-responsive security sector reform will help to ensure that those who bear arms do not use them to perpetrate conflict-related sexual violence. The fact that conflict-related sexual violence is so widespread, as shown in the Secretary-General’s annual report (S/2024/292), is truly shocking. The Security Council has an essential role to play in shaping the international response to such violence. We should use the tools the Council has to deter future conflict- related sexual violence, including through sanctions where appropriate. Secondly, there are three contexts to which I would like to draw particular attention. First, in the Sudan, as Ms. Ahmadi’s moving briefing brought home to us so clearly, reports of conflict-related sexual violence paint a dire picture, and the United Kingdom is supporting partners to care for and protect survivors. We echo the Secretary-General’s call for the cessation of violence, an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, and humanitarian corridors so that survivors can access support. The second context is Ukraine. There is evidence — and it is mounting evidence — of conflict- related sexual violence committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. Two Russian perpetrators have been convicted for conflict- related sexual violence. Those acts appear to show a pattern whereby conflict-related sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war, and the United Kingdom’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative team of experts is helping to build investigatory capacity to support accountability in Ukraine. Regarding the third context, in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, we condemn all allegations and reports of conflict-related sexual violence. We call for thorough investigations and a survivor-centred approach, for hostages to be released immediately and for detainees to be treated with dignity and in line with international humanitarian law. Finally, in a world where, as we heard from Ms. Gurira, 80 cents is all it takes to destroy a girl’s life, the United Kingdom continues to drive action to strengthen the global response to conflict-related sexual violence, having established the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict last year. Twenty-six members have joined, including Governments, multilateral organizations, survivors, civil society organizations and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and we continue to welcome new members. Through the Alliance, we are driving forward stronger international coordination to address conflict-related sexual violence and provide support to survivors. We therefore call on Council members to implement the recommendations of the report, to play their part to end these abhorrent acts and to end impunity for them once and for all.

I would first like to thank the Maltese presidency for holding today’s open debate and to thank the briefers for their presentations and their harrowing testimonies. I reiterate France’s full support for the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and her Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. As the Secretary- General’s annual report shows (S/2024/292), sexual violence is on the rise, disproportionately affecting women and girls in the Sudan, which is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, as well as in South Sudan, Haiti, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many other conflict situations. France notes the inclusion in the annual report of a section on Gaza and the West Bank and reiterates its condemnation in the strongest terms of the terrorist attacks and sexual violence committed by Hamas and other terrorist groups on 7 October 2023. We condemn in the strongest terms rape being used as a weapon of war, wherever it is committed. We note that, like last year’s report, the current annual report notes the repeated use of sexual violence, including rape, by Russian forces in the war against Ukraine. Today’s open debate focuses on the trafficking and spread of small arms and light weapons, which are used in an overwhelming majority of cases of conflict-related sexual violence. We call on States to strictly comply with their international obligations in that regard, in particular the obligation set out in the Arms Trade Treaty to consider, when assessing export applications, the risk that arms could be used to commit serious acts of gender-based violence or to facilitate the commission of such violence. We call for the full implementation of resolutions 2616 (2021) and 2220 (2015) on the registration and traceability of small arms and light weapons and on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. The fourth United Nations Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, which will take place in June, is an important deadline in that regard. The Security Council must continue to take concrete action to implement the women and peace and security agenda in all its aspects. In that regard, we thank UN-Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs for all the measures that have been undertaken. We must first act by fighting impunity, as called for so powerfully by Ms. Gurira. We must support national authorities so that legislation punishes sexual crimes and that victims have access to justice. In that regard, we commend the vital work of the Special Representative’s Team of Experts, which recently organized the first International Conference of Prosecutors on the subject, with France’s co-sponsorship. We also welcome the efforts of the International Criminal Court to investigate this type of violence. We must act by supporting the surviving victims, and we must ensure their access to essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health services. I reiterate that as part of its third national action plan on the women and peace and security agenda, for 2021–2025, France is contributing €14 million to the Global Survivors Fund for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. We must also work together to collectively address the issue of children born of conflict-related rape. Lastly, it is important to take action to adopt sanctions against the perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence. In particular, we are in favour of bolstering the expertise of the Sanctions Committees’ Panels of Experts in that respect and of taking greater account in the work of the Committees and Panels of the annex to the Secretary-General’s annual report. We should consider including a designation criterion relating to sexual violence in sanctions regimes that do not already include one, wherever it is relevant.

I thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General Pramila Patten, UN-Women Goodwill Ambassador Danai Gurira and Ms. Niemat Ahmadi for their briefings. The Secretary-General’s recent report on conflict- related sexual violence (S/2024/292) has again highlighted the fact that the illicit flow and widespread availability of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition are directly facilitating incidents of conflict-related sexual violence and fostering an environment that encourages their perpetration. Conflict-related sexual violence continues to be used by State and non-State actors as a tactic of war, a tool of torture and a means of asserting power and dominance, with devastating consequences for victims, survivors and their families and communities. While women and girls make up the vast majority of those affected by conflict-related sexual violence, they continue to be excluded from key decision-making on matters of peace and security. Guyana underscores the importance of women’s full, equal and meaningful participation, including in decision-making, at all levels of political and peacebuilding processes and in disarmament, non-proliferation and arms- control efforts. The Security Council and regional organizations should intensify their efforts to cross- leverage disarmament frameworks with United Nations mechanisms and tools, particularly in the lead-up to the fourth Review Conference of the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. The integration of gender perspectives into disarmament discussions can significantly strengthen the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence, ensuring that the solutions are both comprehensive and effective. The Security Council should utilize all of the tools at its disposal to address conflict-related sexual violence. Its mandate authorizations and renewals of peace operations should include operational provisions as well as arms-control and disarmament measures aimed at preventing and responding to sexual violence. Even when a peace operation is undergoing an accelerated drawdown, it is essential to sustain monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements, as well as engagement with parties on conflict-related sexual violence. In that regard, we recognize the critical contribution of women’s protection advisers. We also emphasize the indispensability of sustaining investments in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and in security-sector reform during transitions and mission drawdowns. Maintaining those investments is crucial to protecting civilians from conflict-related sexual violence and preventing its recurrence. Continued support and capacity-building for national and local institutions are vital in ensuring that gains are not transient and that a firm foundation is established for development, equality and accountability — factors that are critical to the prevention and deterrence of sexual violence. Robust international cooperation and adherence to the Arms Trade Treaty are essential to mitigating the risks of conflict-related sexual violence posed by arms transfers and the proliferation of illicit weapons. States parties to the Treaty must comply with their obligations under it to comprehensively assess the risk of whether arms could potentially be used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender-based violence, and to do so before authorizing the export of those arms. Effective risk assessment under the Treaty will require systematic data collection and disaggregation. It is also crucial to combat impunity and its emboldening effect on perpetrators by promoting accountability. Crimes involving sexual violence should be excluded from amnesty and immunity provisions. The Council should continue to insist that State and non-State parties to conflicts adopt time-bound commitments to preventing and addressing conflict- related sexual violence, and that compliance with those commitments should be monitored. There is also a need to strengthen the links between the parties listed in the Secretary-General’s annual reports on conflict-related sexual violence and sanctions designations. Guyana believes that sexual and gender-based violence should be a stand-alone designation criterion for applying sanctions to persistent perpetrators. In conclusion, Guyana reaffirms its commitment to the women and peace and security agenda and to eliminating conflict-related sexual violence through concerted demilitarization and gender-responsive arms- control measures. It is only through collective action, sustained investment and the promotion of gender equality, as well as by ensuring justice and support for survivors, along with the full integration of women in all decision-making processes, that we can eradicate the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence.

I am grateful for the information provided by Special Representative Pramila Patten, Goodwill Ambassador Danai Gurira and civil society representative Niemat Ahmadi. Ecuador takes note of the contents of the Secretary- General’s report on conflict-related sexual violence for 2023 (S/2024/292) and deplores the fact that the global escalation of violence associated with armed conflict continues to undermine the security and dignity of civilian populations, especially women, girls and persons with diverse gender identities. The report documents verified cases of the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war, as well as forced marriages and unwanted pregnancies, and it establishes a link between the persistence of those crimes and the exacerbation of armed conflicts. It also recognizes that displaced, refugee and migrant women constitute one of the world’s most vulnerable groups and are at a heightened risk of becoming victims of trafficking networks for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It also records a growing trend in the number of women facing gender-based political violence attacks, disinformation, the dissemination of hate speech and online and offline harassment as strategies to discredit them in the political arena, intimidate women human rights defenders and restrict their political participation. One of the most discussed elements in the open debate on small arms and light weapons organized by my country in December 2023 (see S/PV.9509) was the fact that most of the violent incidents related to those weapons are perpetrated by men and that their growing misuse is also multiplying episodes of sexual violence in conflict and increasing impunity for them. It is therefore imperative that more women participate in peace processes and in decision-making on arms control. It is also important to note that having information verified by the United Nations on the number of cases of sexual violence in conflict and the list of their possible perpetrators is pertinent to the efforts to curb that disgusting practice and a determining factor in eradicating impunity by establishing transparent, victim-centred accountability and restorative justice systems, in accordance with resolution 2467 (2019). My delegation believes it is essential to promote coordinated work between the United Nations, regional organizations and national institutions in order to ensure that teams on the ground can operate in safety and enjoy freedom of movement in the most difficult areas, thereby enabling them to continue gathering statistics that give the victims a voice and guide the decision-making process of the Council and the international community. In that regard, I would like to acknowledge the work of the inter-agency network of the United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, which demonstrates the effectiveness of coordinating the management of funding for institutional capacity-building and for the implementation of programmes and projects aimed at preventing sexual violence at the local level but with a regional and global perspective. Ecuador considers it essential to strengthen actions aimed at designing preventive conflict-related sexual violence frameworks; to address the deep causes of such conflicts; to use political and diplomatic tools to reach definitive ceasefire agreements; and to ensure the empowerment of victims and their full and safe participation in peacebuilding and peacekeeping processes, in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1325 (2000) and other related resolutions. I conclude my statement by underscoring the commitment of the Informal Expert Group on Women, Peace and Security of the Security Council. The systematic work being carried out under the leadership of Switzerland and Sierra Leone, with the support of UN-Women, must continue in order to shed light on the specific challenges in each of the conflict settings, to encourage the inclusion of perpetrators on sanctions lists and to ensure that the Council’s products include clear provisions on the treatment of conflict-related sexual violence.

Sexual and gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, is on the rise globally. It continues to be used as a tactic of war. That not only constitutes a serious violation of international law and may amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity, but also is one of the most heinous crimes and must be stopped. We welcome this year’s focus of the open debate on preventing conflict-related sexual violence through demilitarization and gender-responsive arms control. We are appalled by the findings of the recent Secretary- General’s report (S/2024/292), as just presented by Special Representative Patten. And we are thankful to Ms. Ahmadi and Ms. Gurira for their remarks and their dedication. The availability of arms, particularly small arms and light weapons and their ammunition, significantly affects the lives of women and girls. It has been mentioned today already, but let me repeat that between 70 and 90 per cent of incidents of conflict- related sexual violence involve small arms and light weapons. Their illicit transfer, misuse and in particular the ease in obtaining them, continue to fuel armed conflict, violence, acts of crime and terrorism. We see that in several situations on the agenda of the Council, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, the Sudan and Haiti. We strongly condemn all acts of sexual violence in all settings, including in Israel and Palestine, and call for their investigation. To address that, we must intensify our joint efforts. Let me make the following observations. States must strengthen national authorities, legislation, regulations and administrative procedures on control and transfers of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition. That is necessary in order to ensure compliance with international standards, including the Arms Trade Treaty; the United Nations Firearms Protocol; the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects; and relevant Security Council resolutions. Particular efforts must be made to prevent the diversion of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition to conflict and post-conflict zones, where conflict-related sexual violence is especially widespread. Secondly, we must not work in silos. The women and peace and security agenda is highly relevant when addressing arms proliferation. One way to integrate them is by incorporating provisions from relevant articles of the Arms Trade Treaty and other relevant documents into national action plans on women and peace and security and by adopting a gender-responsive approach in national policies on arms control. Thirdly, women remain highly underrepresented in international discussions on arms control and disarmament issues. However, their perspectives are essential for developing gender-responsive policies and strategies and to prevent the misuse of weapons for all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including in the context of conflict. Therefore, we call for the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women in all processes and decision-making related to arms control and disarmament. Slovenia strongly condemns sexual and gender- based violence. We call upon all parties to any conflict to immediately cease all forms of conflict-related sexual violence. Response to any such violence must be rights- based and survivor-centred. It should include access to and availability of sexual and reproductive health services, as well as psychosocial support for survivors. We are appalled by the fact that impunity remains the norm, contributing to the creation of an environment conducive to the perpetration of sexual violence. We urge all Member States to increase efforts to guarantee accountability for those crimes. That can be done through the deployment of the United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict and women protection advisers to assist national justice systems in conflict-affected societies. It is also important that survivors have access to justice in a safe and secure environment, where they can report the violence, feel safe and receive adequate legal support. The Security Council should do more to address sexual and gender-based violence comprehensively. One such avenue is a more systematic integration of gender in sanctions regimes by including sexual and gender-based violence as a designation criterion for targeted sanctions in all relevant regimes. We also reiterate our call to all States and actors to comply with existing arms embargoes put in place by the Council in order to limit the availability and accessibility of arms. Women and girls are so much more than victims or survivors of that violence. They are peacebuilders and front-line responders, and they have a critical role in providing much-needed services to women and girls in conflict or post-conflict situations. We therefore strongly support women’s voices from the field. We call for consultations with women and women-led organizations and condemn any attempt to intimidate and silence them.

The representative of the United States has asked for the floor to make a further statement.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield just asked me to specifically thank our civil society briefer Ms. Ahmadi for her very important work in the Sudan.

The representative of the Russian Federation has asked for the floor to make a further statement.

It would seem that our discussion today was very useful in helping us to determine exactly what method is unfortunately being used at the United Nations to politicize this important topic and present it through a distorting mirror. Throughout the discussion, we heard the United States and the United Kingdom admit, for example, that they are conducting some kind of investigations into sexual offences committed on the territory of Ukraine. It goes without saying that everyone knows that the United States and the United Kingdom are not some kind of neutral organization. They have their own political interests in Ukraine. Therefore, it is obvious what kind of results they are going to get when they run those investigations. They are not interested in crimes committed by Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces. The information they collect is then submitted to the so-called human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. That monitoring mission is completely under the control of Kyiv. The head of the mission is simply scared to say anything that is not to Kyiv’s liking. Afterwards, that data is included in the report authored by Ms. Pramila Patten and that is the picture we see. For example, access to Gaza is restricted, and for some reason, certain countries are not interested in going to Gaza to see for themselves what the situation is with regard to the various crimes, including sexual crimes. Therefore, the report is a distorting mirror. It does not in any way help us to combat sexual offences, while this battle is indeed important and indeed needs to be fought — but not like that.

I wish to remind all speakers to limit their statements to no more than four minutes in order to enable the Council to carry out its work expeditiously. Flashing lights on the collars of the microphones will prompt speakers to bring their remarks to a close after four minutes. I now give the floor to the representative of Portugal.

Portugal thanks Malta for convening this very important and timely debate. We also thank the briefers for their presentations and the Special Representative for all of his work. We highly value the insights and testimonies we heard today from Ms. Ahmadi and Ms. Gurira. As noted in the Secretary-General’s latest report (S/2024/292), increasing geopolitical tensions and the escalation of armed conflicts have exposed civilians to higher levels of conflict-related sexual violence. Women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by sexual violence, and their voices continue to be silenced or absent from key decision-making forums on peace and security issues. Portugal strongly condemns the use of sexual violence by State and non-State actors as a tactic of war, torture, and terrorism in armed conflicts. We oppose all forms of violence against women. Arms proliferation and illicit trafficking by armed groups, organized crime groups and terrorist groups exacerbate violence, oppression and abuse, especially against women and persons belonging to vulnerable groups. We need a survivor-centred approach when responding to conflict-related sexual violence. That means ensuring access to medical, psychosocial and legal support. But first and foremost, we need to prevent conflict- related sexual violence. That requires a multifaceted approach, which must include demilitarization, gender- responsive arms control and the empowerment of all women and girls. Furthermore, this imperative of preventing conflict-related sexual violence should be an integral part of the new generation of national conflict prevention strategies, as suggested by the Secretary- General in his timely New Agenda for Peace. As we approach the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), we recall its significance in highlighting the impact of armed conflict on women and emphasizing the crucial importance of women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. Within the United Nations, we must deepen and strengthen the women and peace and security agenda by integrating gender-sensitive indicators, analysis and measures into disarmament policies; ensuring women’s participation in peacebuilding initiatives; and supporting women’s leadership roles in civil society and grass-roots organizations. At the national level, Portugal has adopted a national action plan on women and peace and security, the fourth edition of which is being prepared, and has integrated a gender perspective into the Portuguese armed forces. In conclusion, we reaffirm our strong commitment to promoting security, sustainable peace, and gender equality, thereby preventing the emergence of conflicts and ensuring the equal and full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls.

I now give the floor to the representative of Egypt.

I would like to thank Malta for holding this important meeting. We appreciate the discussion’s focus on the prevention component and its particular emphasis on arms control, demilitarization and disarmament. I thank the briefers, as well, for their valuable input. My delegation is deeply alarmed by the findings of the Secretary-General’s report (S/2024/292), indicating the persistent use of sexual violence as a tactic of war, amplified by the proliferation of conflicts in various regions. The women and peace and security agenda, including aspects related to sexual violence in armed conflict, is not limited to discussions on the participation of women along the peace continuum and the empowerment of civil society. It is about making heard the voices of women and the victims of violence and various forms of atrocities, as well as achieving justice by establishing and guaranteeing accountability and ending impunity for such violence and atrocities. Efforts should holistically address the root causes of conflict and focus on prevention, while fully taking into consideration the social, economic, political, and development aspects. Despite years of engagement by the United Nations system, Member States and other relevant stakeholders on the women and peace and security agenda, the international community is still unable to prevent or stop conflict or to prevent violence against women and girls in situations of armed conflict. Nor is it able to uphold the rights of women in such settings, in particular, women and girls under foreign occupation. A case in point is Palestinian women, who are currently being disproportionately subjected to violence, in fact, annihilation, in the current genocidal war of aggression launched by Israel, the occupying Power, against Gaza. That is in addition to the long-standing systemic atrocities and violations of the rights of Palestinian women in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the West Bank. In that connection, my delegation appreciates the newly added section on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. It is a long overdue addition, as the international community, including the United Nations, has kept a blind eye for years on reported allegations of violence, including sexual violence and other violations committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against Palestinians. We take note of the official visit carried out by Ms. Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Regarding the attacks of 7 October, I quote from the report that: “[t]he mission, not being investigative in nature and given its limited duration, did not draw conclusions on attribution to specific armed groups or determine prevalence of incidents of conflict- related sexual violence during and after the attacks of 7 October. Such a determination would require a fully-fledged investigation.” Such an investigation is difficult to conduct while the war continues, while civilians are being bombarded and humanitarian actors are attacked by Israel, regrettably, with impunity. As for the situation in the West Bank, my delegation echoes the call of the Secretary-General to the Government of Israel to grant, without further delay, access to relevant United Nations bodies to carry out a full-fledged investigation into all alleged violations, including conflict-related sexual violence, to ensure justice and accountability. Egypt remains committed to efforts aimed at ending the current war of aggression against Gaza and calls for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, an end to the plight of Palestinians, accountability for Israel as the perpetrator of the attacks, and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. My delegation is equally alarmed by reports of atrocities committed in the Sudan, including sexual violence, in the wake of the current war raging in the country, particularly with United Nations reports containing evidence of sexual violence committed in the Darfur region, as we also heard today. Egypt condemns such atrocities and calls for an immediate ceasefire, the facilitation of humanitarian access, respect for the Sudan’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, preservation of State institutions, respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, commitment by external actors to refrain from intervention in the affairs of the Sudan, including through arms transfers to the Rapid Support Forces and other armed groups that further fuel the conflict, and a return to a Sudan-led and -owned political process. Egypt remains committed to reaching those ends through sustained engagement, cooperation and coordination with the United Nations, neighbouring States and other actors in the region.

I now give the floor to the representative of Yemen.

At the outset, I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this important meeting. I should like also to thank the briefers. Sexual violence is a serious violation of human rights. Such violence is being used in conflict settings and is among the worst crimes that threaten societies. It has an impact not only on public freedom, but also on social cohesion, security, stability, the economy and political and social life, in addition to its direct impact on families. Since assuming its tasks, the Presidential Leadership Council has taken important decisions to bolster the meaningful participation of Yemeni women. Eight women were appointed to provide technical assistance and expertise to the committees of the Presidential Leadership Council, with a view to creating conditions conducive to achieving lasting peace. For the first time, a woman was appointed to serve as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council. Eight magistrates were appointed to the Supreme Court, and 271 women were appointed to the judiciary, including 37 State attorneys. The Yemeni Government has introduced a national plan on woman and peace and security, working hand in hand with relevant government bodies and civil society organizations with a view to protecting women in conflict settings and in post-conflict situations and promoting their participation in socioeconomic development. The Yemeni Government also attaches particular importance to addressing sexual violence through enhancing the capabilities of the monitoring, reporting and redressing mechanisms, in addition to providing assistance to the victims of sexual violence. Legal assistance is also provided across a number of governorates through the Yemeni Women’s Union. Our Government also provides all the necessary resources to the national commission tasked with overcoming difficulties and investigating allegations of human rights violations while ensuring that it conducts its work as an independent national mechanism. The Presidential Leadership Council instructed the Government, while working in full cooperation with the commission, to facilitate the commission’s work and implement its recommendations, thus contributing to the promotion and protection of human rights. The terrorist Houthi militias continue to violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. That has been noted in national reports and various international human rights reports. The Panel of Experts on Yemen and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict have also mentioned in their reports that such violence is being committed in Yemen. Those terrorist militias have exploited the status of women in Yemeni society and committed multiple violations against women and girls. Women and girls have been stripped of their political, economic, social and cultural rights. They have been kidnapped and detained in secret prisons, raped and subjected to physical and psychological torture, including through threats to tarnish their reputation and blackmail the families of victims because of their political affiliation or their social involvement and involvement in civil society. Many women remain behind bars in militia prisons, including Intisar Al-Hammadi and Fatima Al-Arwali, who were subjected to severe and unjustified sentences, such as capital punishment and detention. The Houthi militias laid millions of land mines on our roads and near water wells, schools, farms and livestock grazing areas. As a result, many neighbourhoods have been rendered uninhabitable or extremely dangerous in a number of Yemeni governorates. No one expected to have such a scale of random pollution and its consequences, which target civilians, including women and children. According to United Nations statistics over the last five years, a child has been injured or killed every three days on average owing to unexploded remnants of war or land mines. Therefore, the international community and the Security Council must condemn such brutal practices that threaten the social fabric of Yemen and its security and stability. There must be zero tolerance for such acts. We cannot fail to mention the continued horrible violations against Palestinian women and their rights by the Israeli occupation. Thousands of Palestinian women are affected by crimes against humanity, genocide and the brutal aggression that has been waged against the Palestinian people, including in the Gaza Strip. It is incumbent on the international community and the Security Council to take immediate action to achieve a ceasefire immediately and to ensure that those serious violations and abuses of the rights of women, girls and children come to an end. They constitute a flagrant violation of international law, human rights law and international humanitarian law. In conclusion, promoting international cooperation to address conflict-related sexual violence is a fundamental step towards achieving effective and lasting change for women and girls. We must exchange information and expertise and provide technical and financial assistance for national plans on women and peace and security, specifically in countries that suffer from conflict or are in post-conflict situations, with the aim of providing protection from conflict-related sexual violence and addressing it.

I now give the floor to the representative of Guatemala.

Guatemala thanks the Government of the Republic of Malta and its Deputy Prime Minister for chairing this open debate and thanks the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, the UN- Women Goodwill Ambassador and the civil society representative for their important briefings. It is essential to recognize that sexual violence in conflict is not simply an inevitable by-product of war — it is a tactic of war and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law that must be unequivocally condemned. In addressing the issue, we must take a holistic approach that recognizes that work must be done on prevention, the protection of victims and accountability for perpetrators. That can only be achieved by involving Governments, international organizations, civil society and affected communities, by strengthening laws and accountability mechanisms, by ensuring women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, and by promoting education and awareness- raising on human rights and gender equality from an early age. National action plans are a crucial outcome of resolution 1325 (2000), ensuring that States can implement their commitments with the support of civil society, thereby responding to the needs and priorities of countries currently affected by conflict or in post- conflict situations. Resolution 1820 (2008) urges parties to armed conflict, including non-State actors, to protect civilians from sexual violence, and calls on the Peacebuilding Commission to analyse the impact of conflict-related sexual violence on early recovery and long-term peacebuilding. Conflict situations, with the added problems of institutional weakness, impunity and the proliferation of weapons, severely aggravate the risks of gender- based and sexual violence globally. The New Agenda for Peace seeks to encourage reductions in military spending and in the impact of weapons on women, men and children. Furthermore, the Agenda for Disarmament recognizes that the proliferation, diversion and misuse of weapons enable terrorist acts, human rights abuses and gender-based violence. Demilitarization, disarmament and arms-control measures can therefore limit the likelihood of sexual violence being committed against civilians, especially women and girls. It is important to recall the vital role of dialogue and diplomacy as critical elements in the promotion of the peaceful resolution of conflicts. We must strengthen support for victims of sexual violence, through accessible and culturally sensitive health care, psychological counselling, legal assistance and socioeconomic rehabilitation. It is our responsibility to remove all barriers that make it harder to strengthen the role that women play in decision-making processes in the areas of conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. I once again reiterate Guatemala’s commitment to continuing to fully implement resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions, which is one of the main reasons behind our candidacy for membership in the Security Council for the 2031– 2032 term.

There are still a number of speakers remaining on my list for this meeting. Given the lateness of the hour, I intend, with the concurrence of the members of the Council, to suspend the meeting until 3 p.m.