Nobel Peace Laureate Nadia Murad has lambasted governments and UN leaders at a fringe event of the 75th United Nations General Assembly for failing to provide sufficient resources in the fight against gender based violence.
Ms. Murad, who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador, used her platform to highlight how one in three women around the world have been affected by gender-based violence, a number that increases by more than 200 percent in conflict based settings.
Speaking at an online event titled #EndSGBV (or, end sexual gender based violence) the Nobel Laureate denounced a lack political will for ending sexual violence as a war tactic, saying:
“We have the ability to provide resources to communities destroyed by violence…We simply lack collective political will to do so.”
The event was hosted by the United Arab Emirates, Norway and Somalia on the margins of the General Assembly general debate. Ms. Murad’s comments came the same day the UN gender empowerment agency released new data revealing that most countries were not doing enough to to protect women and girls from the economic and social fallout being caused by the coronavirus.
Nadia Murad was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, along with Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege. The pair were presented with the prestigious award for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Reflecting on her achievements and what more needs to be done to end gender based violence, Ms. Murad said:
“We must critically look at what we did well, where we can be really proud because we have made a true difference…but also, be honest and transparent on where we missed opportunities to stop gender-based violence and truly be there for victims.”
Ms. Murad went on to laud the newly launched Global Survivors Fund as “a major achievement”, as well as the Murad Code, a protocol she launched with the United Kingdom for those collecting information from survivors on conflict-related sexual violence. Such achievements increasingly allow for remedies to conflict-related sexual violence to take a survivor-centred approach.
The Goodwill Ambassador explained how a survivor-centred approach, in which survivors play an active role in the peace building process, is crucial in areas such as Iraq, stating:
“Survivors know best what they need to heal and recover.”
Watch Nadia Murad speak at the #EndSGBV event:
http://webtv.un.org/watch/player/6195342293001
Echoing similar calls made in July by the similarly high profile Angelina Jolie, a Special Envoy for UNHCR, Nadia Murad highlighted the plight of the Yazidis as the greatest illustration of the international community’s unwillingness to engage with conflict-related sexual violence.
Ms. Murad stressed that their situation remains “virtually unchanged” since 2014, when they were forced out of their homelands and became victims of genocide and mass rape at the hands of the so-called Islamic State.
Speaking in July in front of the UN Security Council, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said:
“If we are not able to live up to our promise of a survivor-centred approach for Yezidi children, who make up just one relatively small group of survivors, then how many more children and young adults are suffering in silence at the global level?”
Before going on to add that:
“We have to be prepared to admit where we have failed, and do the hard work to support survivors, change laws and attitudes and bring perpetrators to account, over many years…These are all promises that must be kept.”
Nadia Murad highlighted how thousands of Yazidis still face sexual violence daily at the hands of IS, with more than 2,800 women and children still missing and in captivity. Ms. Murad stating:
“It is incredibly disheartening to understand no collective search and rescue efforts have been made by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations to find these women and children…Make no mistake, the global community has abandoned over 2,800 human beings.”
Conflict-related sexual violence is not exclusive to Iraq and the Yazidis, a June 2020 report titled Conflict-related sexual violence and presented to the UN Security Council by Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, documented nearly 3,000 UN-verified cases committed over the course of a single year, a substantial majority (89 percent) of these attacks targeted women and girls.
The International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR) has previously interviewed Syrian-Kurdish journalist Hisham Arafat on the issue of sexual violence in Syria. Mr. Arafat highlighted how sexual violence is being used by Turkish backed militias and Islamist group as a tactic or war and repression against Kurdish women. As of yet, these atrocities have been committed with impunity.
Watch IOHR’s Margherita Cargasacchi interview Hisham Arafat here:
Earlier this month, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria claimed they had “reasonable grounds to believe” Turkish-backed militias are committing war crimes against the Kurdish population in northern Syria. Their report found at least 49 Kurdish and Yazidi women were detained in the Ras al-Ayn and Afrin region over the last year, with at least 30 women reportedly being raped in February alone.