INTERVIEW: Conflict-related sexual violence, ‘one of history’s greatest silences’

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Conflict-related sexual violence is one of history’s greatest silences and continues to be chronically underreported, even in a world with a record number of conflicts since World War Two, according to Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. 

Ms. Patten spoke to UN News ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence and Conflict, marked annually on 19 June. 

Pramila Patten: Conflict-related sexual violence is a form of violence which is deliberately intended to inflict harm not only on the individual victim, but also on the family, the community, the society and a form of violence which is inflicted to instill fear, to humiliate, to displace.

The main reason conflict-related sexual violence continues to be underreported is stigma. Often you see survivors being struck by the double tragedy of rape and rejection. It is the only crime for which society is more apt to blame the victims than the actual perpetrators. 

Many cases of sexual violence are not reported due to stigma.

But there’s also fear of reprisal. Conflict-related sexual violence is perpetrated by state and non-state actors. How do you report state actors when they have been the very perpetrators? 

There’s also the fact that there is a lack of trust in the justice systems in many contexts. Why would I respond when justice is the rare exception and impunity is the norm?

UN News: How prevalent is conflict-related sexual violence?

Pramila Patten: It’s very hard to talk about the actual prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence.

Just to give you one example, last year in my report to the Secretary-General, I highlighted less than 1000 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for 2022.

When I saw the data from UNICEF talking about 32,000 cases and the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, with 38,000 cases for the same year, I really panicked.

So, I had to go to the DRC to update my data and to explain the context, the security and access challenges faced in documenting these cases. 

UN News: This year marks the 15th anniversary of your mandate. Can you explain what it is and how it has evolved? 

Pramila Patten: It was only in 2009 that the UN Security Council saw sexual violence through the eyes of women and girls, whose bodies have been part of the battlefield since the history of war.

Resolution 1888 established my mandate. With that resolution came a paradigm shift about sexual violence not being an inevitable byproduct of war, not being collateral damage, but being a crime which is preventable.

For the first time, it was clear a justice and security response was required. So, I provide strategic and coherent guidance on both prevention and response of conflict-related sexual violence.

After Resolution 1888, the mandate has really evolved.

The Security Council has come up with no less than five resolutions dedicated to conflict-related sexual violence. These resolutions have included the establishment of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements (MARA), the recognition that men and boys are also victims of sexual violence, and the development of the survivor-centered approach centered in both prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence.

Children play in a neighbourhood ravaged by conflict in Iraq.

So, at the normative level the mandate has really evolved very well. We have a robust framework. We don’t need more resolutions.

What we really need today is to convert these resolutions into solutions on the ground and ensure better implementation of these resolutions so that they translate from commitments to results because the reality on the ground is very different.

UN News: What progress has been made? 

Pramila Patten: Sexual violence continues to be used as a tactic of war, as a tactic of terrorism, as a tactic of political repression. With each new conflict, we see rising numbers of cases of sexual violence. 

Funding for the GBV sector remains chronically underfunded, so that survivors do not get the services that they require. We are failing all these survivors.

Having said that, I must say that it is really due to this mandate that today we are able to reach thousands of survivors that once were invisible.

15 years down the road, I see progress. I see how survivors are more willing to come forward.

There’s still work to be done, but today they are more apt to come forward and to speak out.

And that for me is the result of the work of this office.

But for me the best form of protection is prevention. And we are talking about a crime that is preventable through addressing the root causes of the sexual violence, which is a continuum of what happens in times of peace with gender inequality, discrimination, marginalization and poverty being some of the invisible drivers, but also through justice and accountability.

UN News: What is the toughest part of your role?

Pramila Patten: I still recall my very first mission to a camp in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, where I met with young girls who had been released from the captivity of Boko Haram with their babies.

There were 200 girls in the room aged 12 to 14 years old. I asked my staff to count the number of babies. There were 166 babies.

Those girls were telling me how their ordeal was not over once they were liberated from Boko Haram. Inside the camp they were still being abused. They didn’t have enough food. The babies didn’t have food. They were called Boko Haram wives and were sexually abused inside the camp. Their babies were called Boko Haram snakes

The Stadium camp in Borno State, Nigeria, is one of more than 230 locations where displaced people are living.

I recall meeting a Yazidi girl in Iraq who was sitting in front of me like a living corpse. I was told that when she was released, she was in a semi-comatose state, and it took me hours to be able to break the ice.

I went to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh three times since 2017 and was told by women and girls how they were tied to rocks and trees and gang raped. 

These are hard stories to listen to and you feel helpless. At the same time, by going, you’re creating expectations. When I leave, I fundraise for them, because I know their needs and I better understand their experience.

UN News: Is there a message that you would like to send to survivors ahead of the UN Day for the Elimination?

Pramila Patten: My message, first and foremost to the survivors, the women and girls, who are unfortunately significantly impacted by this crime, but also men and boys, because I do not want to feminize this mandate, is that they have to break the silence. Their silence would be the license for the perpetrators to continue with this crime.

I want them to know that I am totally committed to their plight and will work for them, but I also have a message for the perpetrators. My office and my team of experts on the rule of law and the whole UN system are working on justice and accountability, and that it will no longer be cost-free. Justice may be slow, but we will ensure that there is justice for all these survivors.

The interview was edited for clarity and length.