So that the Russian forces continue to bombard the East of Ukraine, the secretary general of NATO estimated, Sunday June 19 that the war in Ukraine could last “years.” Gold“the longer a conflict lasts, the more rape and sexual violence accompany it”, worries on franceinfo Céline Bardet, founder of the NGO “We are not weapons of war” [Nous ne sommes pas des armes de guerre], which acts against sexual violence in conflicts. According to her, the Russian invasion made it possible to shed light on this type of crime, but “we must be aware that this is a recurring global problem” in times of war, she insists.
A war that lasts, are these years of sexual crimes to fear for Ukrainian women?
Celine Bardet : Note that there are also rapes of men and little boys, we must not forget, even if women remain the majority of victims. Then, the reality is that the longer a conflict lasts, the more rapes and sexual violence accompany it. In Ukraine, there are a multitude of actors who document and investigate, whether they are the investigators of the International Criminal Court, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and civil society. But it is still much too early to have an estimate of the number of victims, to know if these are systematized acts and if there is a form of strategy or not. This is work that will be done in the coming months.
We are talking about Ukraine here, but what must be understood is that sexual violence in times of conflict is systematic?
With the war in Ukraine, we talk a lot about rape and sexual violence, but we must be aware that it is a recurring global problem.
The sexual violence that appears in conflicts is a form of violence like any other, but we tend to consider it as second-class crimes. They are less documented, less prosecuted.
Céline Bardet, from the NGO “We are not weapons of war”at franceinfo
A perpetrator who knows that he may have less chance of being prosecuted for raping, will perhaps be more inclined to make that choice. The problem is there.
What to do to change this? In your opinion, it is up to the States to act?
It takes political courage. The United Nations, the international community, has been very engaged on these issues for several years. There is money but where does this money go? We must support civil society organizations that support victims, conduct studies, have a very clear vision of the extent of war rape in the world. We must lay down a red line, it is absolutely necessary that sexual violence stops and for that we must train, we need pedagogy. We need tools and new approaches. This is the work we do and we have to achieve this.