Despite resistance: UN Security Council passes resolution on sex crimes

On German initiative, the UN Security Council called for a more vigorous action by the world community against sexual violence in crisis areas. In a resolution, the panel called on UN member states to strengthen their legislation on such acts of violence and to expand the persecution of perpetrators. Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) described the resolution as a "milestone". However, under pressure from the US, the text was weakened at certain points.

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad spoke at the debate. The top-class cast in the UN Security Council shows the importance of sexual violence in conflicts - at least outwardly - today. Yet the international community has been struggling to make one small step in trying to bring the perpetrators of such violent crimes more to account.

Drew Angerer / AFP

UN Security Council in the debate on sex crimes

Ten years ago, the UN set up its own office with a special representative on the subject. For much longer, rape is a means of war, but it was not until the crimes of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda in the 1990s that the international community became united. The two most important UN resolutions on the subject came in 2000 and 2008. The Rohingya in Myanmar are particularly affected.

Resistance from America, Russia and China

Of "thousands of stories the world has never heard," said Maas. He chaired the meeting in New York, as Germany is currently chairing the UN Security Council. There are stories from Myanmar or Syria, for example, where sexual violence against women and girls is used as a "weapon of war". "We have to do more," Maas said. This is also the aim of the draft resolution submitted by Germany: Victims should be able to bring their perpetrators more easily to court and receive more medical and psychological help. The goal is "a life in dignity," said Maas.

But behind the scenes there was resistance. In the text, the US came across terms related to abortion. Russia and China also objected and submitted their own draft to diplomats. After the US delegation threatened to veto the passages were reworded.

Criticism from prominent guests in the Security Council

Maas nevertheless acknowledged the Security Council's "determination" in tackling sexual violence. On the other hand, the French ambassador to the UN, François Delattre, harshly criticized the US: His government was "disturbed" by their attitude. It was regrettable that a resolution on sexual violence had issued veto threats.

Seth Wenig / AP

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney (l.) And Nobel Peace Laureate Nadia Murad

The Iraqi-born Murad lamented a "collective failure" of the international community over the sexual violence against the Yazidi religious minority committed by IS jihadists. Murad, who is herself a Jesidin, was abducted and abused by "Islamic State" militia officers. So far, not a single perpetrator has been convicted of sexual violence perpetrated against Yazidis, she said. At the UN, speeches were made to deal with these crimes legally, but "no concrete measure" followed.

The actress Angelina Jolie described before the debate in a guest post for the "Washington Post" with Maas frightening examples of fates of women in crisis countries. The Congolese doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege treated about three generations of raped women in his clinic in the Congo: mother, daughter and grandchildren in their infancy.

In sexualized violence in crises, the perpetrators often go unpunished and the victims find too little support. We must act! With Angelina Jolie (@end_svc) I wrote a contribution in the @washingtonpost. Here is the translation: https://t.co/bZxfQuwnC7 pic.twitter.com/lFiWxq7GoD

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney also called on the world community to work up sexual abuse in conflicts with the help of an international criminal court. "This is your Nuremberg moment," said Clooney in the UN Security Council, referring to the Nuremberg trials of leading National Socialists after the end of World War II. Since the US and Russia regarded the International Criminal Court in The Hague as "dead" and as a failed "experiment", other countries would have to jointly form their own court to deal with sexual crimes in conflicts.