United Nations Security Council Announces Historic Resolution on Sexual Violence

On June 19, the UN Security Council unanimously voted for a historic US-sponsored resolution that identifies sexual violence in conflict as an international security concern and rape as a weapon of war. Until now, the Security Council has paid scant attention to the plight of women and girls in conflict areas, even when faced with overwhelming evidence of sexual violence, most recently in Côte d'Ivoire and Sudan. Human Rights Watch has persistently urged the UN, the US government, and other governing bodies to recognize sexual violence in conflict. We have pressed key officials on their willingness to address rape as a grave threat to global peace-building, as well as to the safety and health of women worldwide. The new resolution is a major step forward for the Council. Key provisions include concrete benchmarks to measure policy effectiveness; monitoring of rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict; and the possibility of sanctions against perpetrators of such attacks. The resolution also emphasizes the UN's "zero tolerance" policy on UN peacekeepers who prey on the women they were sent to protect. The effective implementation of the UN resolution will help protect untold numbers of women and girls from the horrors of sexual violence in conflict-affected areas for years to come.