Addressing Sexual Violence in Internationally Mediated Peace Negotiations

Abstract

Negotiated peace agreements rarely address the legacy of wartime sexual violence committed by state and non-state armed actors, even in cases where mass rape has been a prominent feature of the conflict. This article examines why this has been the case. It assesses the implications of UN Security Council resolution 1820 (June 2008), which calls for internationally mediated peace talks to address conflict-related sexual violence; advances reasons why doing so may contribute to more durable peace; and outlines where specific textual references to sexual violence in peace agreements could enhance the well-being of survivors and reduce the chances of brutal and widespread sexual violence persisting in the post-conflict period. The article focuses on five types (or elements) of peace agreement: (1) early-stage agreements covering humanitarian access and confidence-building measures; (2) ceasefires and ceasefire monitoring; (3) arrangements for demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) and longer-term security sector reform (SSR); (4) post-conflict justice institutions; and (5) provisions relating to reparations for victims of serious human rights abuses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the other organizers of, and participants in, the High-Level Colloquium on ‘Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Peace Negotiations: Implementing Resolution 1820’, New York, 22–23 June 2009. The event included mediators, UN officials, member-state representatives, peace and women's rights activists, and researchers. A particular debt is owed to Lyse Doucet of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who served as the moderator, and the Norwegian government, which co-financed the Colloquium. Pablo Castillo-Diaz and Colleen Russo provided essential research inputs for this article. Any errors of fact or interpretation are the sole responsibility of the authors. Dr Goetz's contribution to this article is made in her personal capacity, and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Notes

Former UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, statement at the High-Level Colloquium on ‘Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Peace Negotiations: Implementing Resolution 1820’, organized on behalf of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (a network of United Nations entities), in partnership with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (a Geneva-based non-governmental organization), Harvard Club of New York City, 22–3 June 2009.

Ibid.

UNIFEM, ‘Sexual Violence in Peace Agreements: A Quantitative Analysis’, New York, June 2009 (forthcoming as a research report). The empirical data for this analysis were drawn largely from existing databases such as those maintained by the UN Department of Political Affairs (http://peacemaker.unlb.org) and the United States Institute of Peace (http://www.usip.org/resources-tools). The data do not include conflicts with very low levels of violence, such as small maritime or border disputes, or regional agreements unrelated to a specific conflict and therefore not the result of a mediated peace negotiation. The universe of ceasefires under review included stand-alone ceasefire agreements, cessation of hostilities agreements and similarly named accords, ceasefire provisions contained within CPAs, or implementation protocols designed to specify the modalities of a separately constituted ceasefire. Current and ongoing mediation processes are not included in the data reported here if insufficient information was available in the databases noted above. An agreement is recorded as having mentioned ‘sexual violence’ if it includes such language specifically or if it employs formulations such as ‘rape’, ‘gender-based violence’, ‘sexual crimes’ or near approximations of such terms.

Elisabeth Jean Wood, ‘Variation in Sexual Violence during War’, Politics and Society, Vol.34, No.3, 2006, pp.307–42.

Don Steinberg, ‘Make Forced Marriage a Crime against Humanity’, Christian Science Monitor, 9 June 2008.

UNIFEM (see n.3 above), Although Angola was not included in this sample, it should be noted that Dame Margaret Anstee was SRSG in Angola during 1991–02, and mediated the peace process while in that role. Another exception is Graça Machel, who was one of three mediators appointed by the African Union to help resolve Kenya's internal political crisis in 2008.

The ‘international community's’ legal obligations to address sexual violence are set out in the Security Council resolutions mentioned in the preamble to 1820 – notably 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security; 1612 (2005) on children and armed conflict; and 1674 (2006) on the protection of civilians. Other relevant legal instruments include the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the Rome Statute (1998) of the International Criminal Court, and the charters of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Regional treaties also establish this legal obligation – for instance, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region's Protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual Violence against Women and Children (2006). Resolution 1820, moreover, reaffirms the legal status of sexual violence as a war crime, a crime against humanity and a constitutive act of genocide, for which amnesty cannot be granted.

Priscilla Hayner, Negotiating Peace in Sierra Leone: Confronting the Justice Challenge, Geneva: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the International Center for Transitional Justice, 2007.

UN doc., S/RES/1820 (2008), OP 1.

See Nicholas Haysom, ‘Negotiating a Sustainable Political Settlement: Lessons from the South African Settlement’, paper presented at ‘Toward Inclusive and Participatory Constitution Making’, Kathmandu, 3–5 August 2004.

This section draws on and modifies ideas developed by the five technical working groups constituted to develop sectoral background papers for the June 2009 Colloquium referenced above. The authors are indebted to the members of these working groups, particularly their convenors, who in most cases took the lead in drafting the background papers: Peter Barwick (‘Early Stage’ Agreements) Brian McQuinn (Ceasefires), Anne-Kristin Treiber (SSR and DDR) and Shibani Malhotra and Meredith Preston McGhie (Justice). The authors co-chaired the Reparations technical working group.

In non-conflict contexts both women and men victims of sexual violence prefer to report to female police. See Jan Walsh and Fiona Mason, ‘Rape and Sexual Assault’, British Medical Journal, Vol.334, 2007, pp.1154–8. The one case to date of a fully deployed all-female police peacekeeping unit, the 130-strong all-women Indian contingent in Liberia, has generated anecdotal evidence of increased rates of reporting of gender-based violence of all kinds in the areas they patrol. They have also had a profound role-modelling effect, boosting recruitment of young women to Liberia's national police. See Kristin Cordell, ‘Liberia: Women Peacekeepers and Human Security’, OpenDemocracy, 8 Oct. 2009 (at: www.opendemocracy.net/blog/liberia/kristen-cordell/2009/10/08/liberia-women-peacekeepers-and-human-security).

For instance, it was not mentioned in the Timor-Leste agreement, while it received a robust treatment in the agreements for El Salvador, Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Liberia. It was addressed only sketchily in the Sierra Leone agreement. See Eboe Hutchful, ‘Security Sector Reform Provisions in Peace Agreements’, University of Birmingham Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, 2009, p.10 (at: www.ssrnetwork.net/documents/Publications/SSRPIPA/SSR%20Main%20Report.pdf).

The ICC has yet to reach its first decision; the first trial does not include charges of sexual violence. At the ICTFY, 18 convictions relate to sexual violence. The number is lower in other courts: eight convictions at the ICTR, and six convictions at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, though in some cases multiple defendants and multiple counts were involved.

The record of special transitional justice mechanisms has been uneven in addressing sexual violence. Perhaps most disappointing was the outcome of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which after three years of hearings and a mandate that included a strong focus on gender-based crimes, reported in June 2009 that fewer than 1.5 per cent of the allegations it heard related to sexual violence. Given that sexual violence was experienced by a large number of women during the war, explanations for this include the absence of confidentiality provisions and protection for women testifying about sexual violence. See Anu Pillay, ‘Transitional Justice, Gender and Women’, unpublished manuscript, 2009 (forthcoming as a UNIFEM research report); Kristen Cibelli, Jule Kruger and Amelia Hoover, ‘Descriptive Statistics from Statements to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, Annex to the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, Monrovia, 2009.

UN doc., S/RES/1820 (2008), OP 4.

June 2009 New York Colloquium on ‘Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Peace Negotiations: Implementing Resolution 1820’.

Resolution 1820 has also influenced Security Council decisions in other areas such as the protection of children in conflict. Resolution 1882 includes sexual violence against children in conflict as one of the violations that must be treated in the annual Children and Armed Conflict report, in which perpetrators of these violations are directly named.

UN doc., S/RES/1888 (2009), OP 27(c).

The language of SCR 1888 was directly influenced by recommendations produced by the June 2009 New York High-Level Colloquium. See, for instance, the preambular paragraph: ‘Emphasizing the importance of addressing sexual violence issues from the outset of peace processes and mediation efforts, in order to protect populations at risk and promote full stability, in particular in the areas of pre-ceasefire humanitarian access and human rights agreements, ceasefires and ceasefire monitoring, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Security Sector Reform (SSR) arrangements, justice and reparations, post-conflict recovery and development’. See also Operational Paragraph 17, which ‘Urges that issues of sexual violence be included in all United Nations-sponsored peace negotiation agendas, and also urges inclusion of sexual violence issues from the outset of peace processes in such situations, in particular in the areas of pre-ceasefires, humanitarian access and human rights agreements, ceasefires and ceasefire monitoring, DDR and SSR arrangements, vetting of armed and security forces, justice, reparations, and recovery/development’. UN Security Council resolution 1888 (2009), S/RES/1888/2009.