THE FBA UNITED NATIONS REPORTER SERIES
By Foster Mugenzi[1]
FBA UN Reporter
December 15,, 2019
On November 25, 2019, Her Excellency Phumzile Mlambo–Ngcuka, the UN Under-Secretary General and UN Women Executive Director, gave a speech highlighting what has been done to eliminate violence against women and what still needs to be done. Her focus was on the issue of rape as a human rights violation. She commenced by saying rape is a gross violation of human rights. It has long term and devastating physical and psychological impacts that can be both visible and invisible. It has life changing effects, including pregnancy, contraction of sexually-transmitted diseases, long-term trauma, and a lingering sense of shame. In some situations, women are rejected by their loved ones and are even punished by institutions in society such as religious and cultural institutions, all of which are supposed to be looking after it members.
She further noted that in times of both conflict and peace, instances of rape can often shape a woman’s decision to move from her community because of fear of further attacks and/or stigmatization that many survivors suffer. In many cases, perpetrators walk freely, which, she noted, can result in victims being threatened again, and the rape, itself, feeling like it is not only tolerated but rewarded. This dynamic makes it difficult for the UN to provide a strong message to the perpetrators that the crime of rape has severe consequences. She also noted that for these reasons rape is significantly under-reported. Women who do report are more likely than not to be treated badly by law enforcement, humiliated throughout the reporting process, and even treated like they themselves are the problem. But, she recognized that there are some specific law enforcement institutions that are trying to make progress in this area and which are making efforts to handle these situations more appropriately.
She concluded by calling upon governments to take positive steps to scale up their responses, to make rape universally illegal, including in those countries which still allow military rape, and to hold the rapists to account in every country that is a member to the United Nations. She called on governments to put victims at the center of the response system, and to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement to investigate these crimes. She called for an end to homophobia, an increase in the number of women in the police forces, and greater support for survivors. She highlighted that the responsibility is ours to end rape within a generation and to make sure we score high in the next decade on achieving this Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
[1] Foster Mugenzi is an LLM Student at Fordham University School of Law Studying International Law and Justice. She is scheduled to graduate in 2020.