In 2020, sexual violence is still being used as a weapon of war – but there is a way to end it

On 19 June, we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict – a day set aside by the United Nations to support international efforts to end conflict-related sexual violence, support survivors, and seek accountability through the investigation of alleged war crimes and the prosecution of those responsible.

Throughout human history, the horrors of armed conflict have involved the widespread use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war. They were used in both Europe and Asia during the Second World War, in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, and are still used today in Africa and the Middle East.

The UN Secretary General’s 2019 report on sexual violence in conflict highlighted the abuse carried out by non-state organisations such as Isis and various armed militias, but also pointed the finger at state forces, including armies and the police, in countries such as Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Millions of women and girls, men and boys have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes. Sexual violence wrecks lives and destroys families and communities. Survivors have to live not only with the traumatic experience of violent abuse but they – and often their children – face a lifetime of stigma, and are sometimes rejected and ostracised even by their own families.

The legacy of this kind of violence is lasting hatred and bitterness, harming efforts at reconciliation and fuelling further conflict. Yet while sexual violence has for many years been prohibited under international humanitarian law, it is only recently that the international community has stepped up its political and diplomatic efforts against this barbarous injustice.

Just over a decade ago the United Nations first mandated its secretary general to take up this issue. A global summit in 2014, the fruit of an initiative by the then UK foreign secretary William Hague and UN special envoy Angelina Jolie, produced a Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict that has now been endorsed by two-thirds of UN members.

Five years later, in April 2019, the UN Security Council endorsed resolution 2467. This explicitly recognised that it was the responsibility of each national government to take action to end sexual violence in conflict. The resolution called on nations to establish clear and time-limited procedures to investigate all credible allegations, and to develop and implement policies to address the plight of survivors.

The challenge is to turn declarations and resolutions into practical action. No one pretends that this is easy. In many countries, the authority of the state is weak and openly defied by militias and terrorist groups. In others, state forces themselves act with impunity. In countries that lack a longstanding and entrenched commitment to the rule of law, it can be hard to recruit, train and keep prosecutors and judges who are both independent and effective, even in the face of attempted intimidation or corruption.

Progress is being made. In Colombia there are ongoing efforts to help victims of sexual violence during the conflict with Farc and to identify and prosecute those responsible. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, medical and psycho-social support for survivors has been improved. The UK has played a leading role in work to devise the Murad Code, inspired by and named after the Yazidi campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Nadia Murad, to ensure that the documentation and investigation of sexual violence in conflict is focused on providing help and justice to survivors.

Some of those survivors have been waiting many decades for justice. The Lai Dai Han, a term meaning “mixed blood” in Vietnamese, are the children of thousands of Vietnamese women who were raped by South Korean soldiers serving alongside the US forces in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. In recent months, the Lai Dai Han issue has received international media coverage focusing on the more than 800 Vietnamese women that are still alive. They and their children have lived for years with stigma, shame and prejudice. Often, they have faced acute poverty. The Lai Dai Han have been calling for acknowledgement and an independent investigation by the United Nations into the allegations of sexual violence by Korean troops.

It is hard for any nation to accept allegations that its soldiers are guilty of such crimes. We all want to believe that our country’s forces have, at all times and even under extreme pressure, acted with both humanity and honour. But allegations need at least to be investigated and the evidence impartially assessed.

South Korea is a vigorous democracy, with strong judicial institutions and a commitment to the rule of law. It has endorsed the 2014 declaration and voted for Security Council resolution 2467. It campaigned energetically and successfully for Japan to acknowledge and apologise for the abuse of Korean women during the Second World War. Yet the government of South Korea has never recognised or investigated the allegations of sexual violence made by the Lai Dai Han. Not only does this deny survivors and their families the chance to move forward and heal, but it also has a wider impact, sending a disturbing message to the international community that efforts to achieve accountability for historic war crimes have been abandoned.

This must change. In the words of Resolution 2467, “We must convert a centuries-old culture of impunity into a culture of accountability.”

International resolutions alone lack binding legal force. To end the widespread use of sexual violence and deliver a “survivor-centred approach” to past crimes, governments worldwide need not just to reaffirm but to uphold and implement in practice the commitments to which they have put their names.

This year, let 19 June be the start of a renewed effort by all nations to deliver on their pledges embodied in the 2014 declaration and the 2019 Security Council resolution and to bring justice to survivors throughout the world.

Sir David Lidington was the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and minister for the Cabinet Office between 2018 and 2019 . He also served as minister of state at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 2010 until 2016