NEW YORK, JUNE 19 – On the International Day against Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, the United Nations and Italy joined forces in expressing solidarity with all victims and pledging to support the most vulnerable women, girls, men and boys who struggle to live in dignity and peace.
“Sexual violence has become a brutal tactic of warfare and repression that “terrorizes populations, destroys lives and fractures communities,” the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. Rarely do perpetrators face the consequences of their actions: “It is the survivors who carry the burden of stigma and trauma throughout their lives, often doubly brutalized by harmful social norms and victim-blaming”, he added, pointing to a series of targeted actions, starting with support for victims and displaced women, girls and boys as they are vulnerable to trafficking and sexual exploitation, and those living in remote and isolated rural areas where justice and security are lacking.
A similar message came from Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations: “Italy is more determined than ever to end rape in war in close cooperation with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Pramila Patten,” reads a message from the Mission on Twitter. “There are wars fought with silent weapons that leave invisible scars,” added the Italian Permanent Representative, Ambassador Maurizio Massari: “We cannot look the other way. We cannot fail women in armed conflicts. We must act now.”
Massari had spoken in early June on the issue during an open Security Council debate convened by the Albanian rotating presidency: “Rape,” he said then, “is like military aggression on an individual scale, the consequences of which affect the children of victims as well, condemned to a life as displaced persons or refugees, which in turn exposes them to further risk of violence and trafficking, depriving them of a future. (@OnuItalia)
