So let me introduce Betterness HelpAge and her presentation seeking justice for victims of sexual violence in conflict.
Baroness HelpAge has been a conservative peer in the House of Lords since 2014,
where she's a member of the International Relations and Defence Committee.
She's a board member of the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court
and a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
She also sits at the Foreign Office Advisory Board for the Prevention of Sexual Violence and Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative.
I think how we know bernholz. How is your high?
I know her most is from her work in Bosnia because she was a senior special advisor to William Hague at
the time when he was the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth affairs between two dozen,
10 and 14. And she did actually, obviously being originally from Bosnia,
she spearheaded an initiative for sexual violence in that country and with William Hague, travelled to Bosnia quite a few times.
So without further ado, thank you so much for joining us. And I will also, Mark, for you how much time you got left.
So I have these cute little papers just to mark and mark the time.
All right. Oh, on duty now. And the virtual floor is yours. Thank you very much.
I hope everyone can hear me pay my tributes to all those who have spoken before me.
Those who have contributed to creating unity.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 30 25. Those who work for decades in defending human rights and women's rights in particular.
And those who have made progress,
as we have heard from previous speakers as about I've been thinking about my remarks this morning and I was wanting to ask myself,
why is it that I have an opportunity to speak here? And in trying to explain it to myself, I thought of three reasons.
The first being that I was born in a country, as Jesse has just said,
in which I witnessed one of the bloodiest conflicts that Europe has seen in the Second World War period,
where thousands and millions of people were displaced, thousands were made refugees and thousands were killed.
And where rape or sexual violence was used and profoundly used to communicate the victims to
destroy the families and to destroy the communities and achieve obviously the wider war aims.
I have seen the terrible human legacy of these crimes that hold survivors today in countries like Bosnia, Kosovo, like Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Syria, refugees that I have met in Zafari come in Turkey, Lebanon, etc.
And so. That is my first season.
I have had. I have seen it in my country of origin, in my country of birth, and I have seen it around the world.
But sexual violence is something that has become an integral part of the weaponry that is used in conflict,
particularly conflict when it's unleashed against civilians. The second reason, as has already been mentioned.
So I be sure that the second reason is that I had the honour and privilege of working for Foreign Secretary
William Hague in the lead up to him becoming foreign secretary and also when he was in the Foreign Office.
And there is a lot that I learnt from him on the issue of women's rights.
He believed that male leaders had to acknowledge the part men play in these crimes overwhelmingly committed against women.
And the inescapable link it has to the suppression of women's political, economic and social rights.
He came to understand and I came to learn, as he often said,
that conflict related sexual violence was not just a woman's issue or a human rights issue,
but a critical aspect of international peace and security that ought to be central work of foreign ministries worldwide,
not just in the United Kingdom.
And he was determined to use the power and influence that came with being the UK foreign secretary to try and tackle this issue of sexual violence,
particularly in conflict and post-conflict situations.
And as a result, in 2012, he and UNHCR UNHCR special envoy Rajoelina Jolie launched Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative,
which had justice and accountability at its heart,
seeking to address many, many reasons from stigma to taboo and inequality to a lack of resources,
tractors and political will, and in particular, focussing on impunity for these crimes.
That is still a norm worldwide. I could say that that the summit produced tangible results.
Hundred fifty six countries endorsed a commitment to end sexual violence.
The first international protocol, all the documentation and investigation of sexual violence was created and has been used to document crimes in help.
Survivors from Syria to Bangladesh was found to have been instrumental in securing some convictions.
And some progress has been made in the formal legal reform in in certain countries,
sometimes leading to prosecutions and compensation rewards, as well as new funding for NGOs and cetera.
And I can speak about probably about the case in Bosnia, places in Bosnia,
where progress has been made in securing prosecutions and ensuring that victims harm is recognised.
However, I would be too optimistic to say and that we have fixed it because it is impossible to fix this
issue with just a short period of time of full focus on it all with one conference or one summit.
And we know from other from other issues that international issues in particular that we try to to address.
And so this brings me to the third reason why I'm here,
and which is that I believe that the times that are the darkest for human rights are also
the ones that offer the biggest opportunity to make a difference and to make a change.
And this is the case that I try to make here in the United Kingdom, both in parliament and in my interactions with the Foreign Office.
As far as I can see it, if we are prepared and if we have capability to establish ad hoc bodies or mechanism or instruments,
I see no reason why we shouldn't use the knowledge and experience that we have, unfortunately,
had the opportunity to attain over the decades to establish something that would be of a permanent nature.
And that is Gooby properly funded, and that is going to be actually established with a clear mandate.
Robust investigative powers and the resourcing and expertise to deploy at high readiness to collect and assess evidence in conflict related areas.
This much of this has been already, and I fully recognise that tried and attempted with the use of through stated NGO sponsored investigative efforts,
frequently duplicated activities, contravening international accepted procedures and even re traumatising victims.
And while I want to hear pay tribute to many engineers that do the absolute best and do a good work on the ground.
It is unfortunate that it often happens that just as there is a particular case in Myanmar that after the crime has been committed,
one and the same individual is going to be interviewed on multiple occasions and not only re traumatised,
but because of the conflicting and different ways in which the gathering of evidence has been done.
That is not going to be admissible in court. And I think that the time has come that we look into this and that we try and assess it what it is,
and establish a body that is going to be not only permanent,
but also fully capable of ensuring that evidence is correct,
collected in a way that is admissible in court and that will eventually provide provide a necessary body of work that can be used in the courts.
Let the weather on the local or regional international level to secure prosecutions.
I am a part of this. I would also like to say that, you know, there has been a lot of discussion is what kind of if this body where to put in place,
what kind of shape and form it would take.
And I must say that I have been sort of going through this with in different ways over the last three years.
And there has been quite a lot of good welcoming of the not like this,
but there's also been some resistance from those who think that it is impossible to
achieve anything like this and that one should just try and work on issues like this,
stigmatisation and support for victims, etc., which I absolutely nuts.
If you can talk about stigma, it needs to be a perpetrator, not a known survivor.
If you talk about support, obviously there is no question that that support has not been there for survivors and a
need to do absolute best to ensure that in cases where these horrible crimes take place,
survivors are given all the support that they can have. But I reject the idea that it's impossible to to to find a way of addressing
what is the main sort of element of perpetual use of rape as a weapon of war,
and that is property. Fortunately, the gap between accountability and and where the perpetrators say it is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger.
And we need to address that. I have I have tried to in my way and I got the legal expertise.
I have tried to look into what would be the best way of achieving this independent governmental body,
what it should be treated based, what it should be, coalition of the willing, etc.
And I must say that it has also come. I have come across quite a lot of obstacles.
And my best case proposition at the moment is that we should look into the International Committee on Missing Persons and and see
how the coalition of the willing came together there in order to address the issue of missing persons in the Balkans and elsewhere.
And that is for me, a immediate possibility.
And then I just think that in parallel,
we should seek to try and have an independent treaty based organisation or a body that would be tasked with undertaking these investigations.
The second point I would like to make is that the issue that I have been trying to make some progress
on is the issue of allocating fixed and minimum percentage of funds that every Iraqi is the partner.
International development would ring fence and that would be a.
Bailable for addressing issues of violence against women or gender based violence in general,
whether in conflict and post-conflict situations, all humanitarian emergencies.
I just want to say, as one example, places there is often a critical shortage of funds for provision of post rape,
care and other health care services.
And I remember when the U.N. issued an appeal for four hundred thirty four million dollars for the Rohingya crisis.
A month later, the U.N. Special Representative for Sexual Violence was still reporting a funding shortfall of 10 million.
To deliver urgent gender based violence assistance, the Rohingya women.
So, in short, what I'm hoping that we in the United Kingdom might be in a position to deliver.
And I'm not in government, so I don't know if this is possible, but I know I can fight for it.
Is this if you want a port of fixed funds that are available to fight gender based violence, violence against women,
and also to be a lead country that would work on establishing this international accountability body that would not only collect evidence,
but would also provide training and expertise,
etc. in these situations and train local experts so that this work can be done in order to deliver concrete results.
I know that this is a in the in the times that we live in.
It is probably quite an ambitious goal to have.
But I must say, you know, as we can see, the world has changed over the last six to eight, 12 weeks beyond any recognition.
And we have managed to change the ways in which we live, in which we come together to to work together and consult and exchange ideas.
And I hope that if we can find political will,
we will find at least a beginning of better and more effective way in which we tackle rape
used as a weapon of war in conflict and even post-conflict and humanitarian situations.
I don't believe I don't expect miracles.
I don't think there is a vaccine against sexual violence to say, well, there is no vaccine against domestic violence.
There is, however, a possibility of making change if we take small incremental steps.
If every each and every one of us does a little bit in order not only to recognise the enormity of the problem,
but to seek solutions to those problems, because otherwise we will be.
Meeting in five, 10, 20 years time,
having exactly the same discussion and marking another anniversary while not being able to say that a real change has been made.
This is not to say the thirteen twenty five doesn't represent a benchmark for all of us.
And the reference point so that we can measure successes and occasionally failures in what we have been doing.
But this is just to urge you in your way to help me make progress on what I have put forward as my own task.
And that is making a little a bit of a difference that will hopefully in years to come be
looked at as a beginning of genuinely addressing what has become a lack of accountability,
endemic lack of accountability when it comes to these particular crimes.
Thank you very much and thank you for also just relating it to the Constitution and to the current crisis,
because I think all of us are slightly worried that because of covered 19,
a lot of issues, including environmental sector reform for basic just is to come off the agenda and funds are going to be relocated.
We already have a few questions. I will address those. Do you or I will give those to you at the end of our panel.