Launch of the Gender Based Violence Report
November 18th 2005

Speech by Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, Conor Lenihan TD

May I first of all welcome Mary Robinson here today to launch this report.

Mary Robinson is perhaps our best known international advocate of the broad human rights agenda, but particularly in women’s human rights issues. 

War has exacted an enormous price on women.

Rape and sexual violence have all too often become a weapon of war.

The horror of these crimes is almost unimaginable.

If you read the testimonies currently being aired in the Special Court in Sierra Leone, or the reports of rape and savage violence against women during the conflict in the DRC, Bosnia or Rwanda – you can only begin to understand the pain that so many women have endured and continue to live with.

And its not just during war.

Sexual exploitation is widespread during times of food shortages and other humanitarian situations where sex is traded for food rations, for safe passage, and for access to basic goods.  

According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as many as one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way.  One in four women has been abused during pregnancy. 

We know, here in Ireland, how damaging the legacy of sexual abuse has been on so many people. How many lives it has ruined and how much suffering it has caused. It is a legacy that has left deep scars on both individuals and on our society as a whole.

This at least gives us some context to understand how much suffering has been endured by women and children in places like Sierra Leone, Liberia and the DRC.  And these victims deserve no less a response than has happened and is happening here.

It was Mary Robinson that first said that we must endeavour to end the cycle of impunity that plagues developing countries, and indeed she is right.

It was reports of violence against women in the conflict in Darfur, Sudan - that provided the impetus for this joint exercise, bringing together, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Amnesty International, and several Irish NGOs to focus more coherently on the issue of violence against women and its lasting affects.

This is most welcome and long overdue.

The report recommends a number of actions:

First of all, and perhaps most importantly, we must listen to and engage with local communities. If we are to effectively help them and advocate on their behalf we must understand better their needs and fears.

Secondly, we must coordinate our responses, particularly in our programme countries.

While Amnesty International will be a critical voice outside the Governmental system, the Department of Foreign Affairs must be a loud voice within the international political system. In the field, we must coordinate in designing programmes, that both aim to reduce the incidence of gender based violence and also respond, particularly in post conflict countries, to the needs of communities where widespread abuses have taken place. 

Thirdly, we must assist in the delivery of key services, such as health and counselling, and the development of adequate security and protection mechanisms.

And finally we must put in place the necessary financial resources to make a real difference in this area. 

May I finish by saying that the publication of this report today is only the beginning of a partnership that I hope will over the coming years make a real difference to lives of women in developing countries.  After all that is what this exercise is all about.

I would like to thank Mary Robinson for agreeing to be part of this initiative. I am sure she will play an important leadership role in ensuring that the initiative will be implemented over the coming years. 

ENDS