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Remarks by Mr. Tonderai Chikuhwa, OSRSG-SVC Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Adviser, 20th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) and establishment of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, 4 November 2021

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I am pleased to deliver these remarks on behalf of Ms. Pramila Patten, Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Developments over the course of the past eight years have demonstrated that the targeting of women, girls and boys for sexual violence that accompanies the rise of violent extremism is not ancillary or incidental, but widespread, systematic and integrally linked with the strategic objectives of extremist groups. It is used to advance such tactical imperatives as recruitment; terrorizing populations into compliance; displacing communities from strategic areas; generating revenue through sex trafficking, the slave trade, ransoms, looting and the control of natural resources; torture to elicit intelligence; conversion and indoctrination through forced marriage; and to establish, alter or dissolve kinship ties that bind communities.

Therefore, there is today global recognition and consensus that violent extremist groups, like ISIL (Da’esh), Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, or the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and their affiliates, are using sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism to advance their strategic and ideological objectives.

In December 2016, the OSRSG-SVC submitted a confidential Special Report to the 1267 Committee focusing specifically on crimes of sexual violence by Da’esh in Syria and Iraq, showing how this terrorist group used sexual violence and sexual slavery on an unprecedented scale against ethnic and religious minorities, including the Yazidi population of Northern Iraq. Since then, the phenomenon of sexual violence deployed as a tactic of terrorism has been articulated in update resolutions to 1267 and 2253, and has been more clearly elaborated in resolutions of the Security Council on Women Peace and Security, including 2242 and 2467. Crucially, resolution 2467 integrates this dimension as an aspect of the Monitoring, Reporting and Analysis Arrangements (MARA) on conflict-related sexual violence established by the Security Council in 2010 through resolution 1960.

In unpacking and analysing the ways that sexual violence is used as a tactic of terrorism, focus has been placed particularly on six specific dimensions:

  1. The use of sexual violence as part of the political economy of terrorism through the trafficking, sale, ransoming, and gifting (as a form of in-kind compensation) of women and children, providing a revenue stream for the financing of terrorism;

  2. The use of sexual violence (i.e., the promise of “wives” and access to sex slaves) as a recruitment tool to attract fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters;

  3. The exploitation of modern information and communication tools and technologies to sell women and children online for the purpose inter alia of sexual exploitation;

  4. The instrumentalisation of medical professionals to perpetrate and facilitate sexual violence (including hormone injections to accelerate the physical maturation of girls, forced abortion of children conceived by “infidels”, etc.);

  5. The threat and use of sexual violence and abduction to terrorise and forcibly displace (both internally and to third countries) targeted minorities, to clear contested or strategically important territory and extend control by the extremist group; and

  6. To ensure the destruction of targeted communities through family separation and attacking the shared values and social norms that define and cohere group identity, including across generations.

Over the years, the annual reports of the Secretary-General have provided evidence that further supports the contention that sexual violence by numerous violent extremist groups is premeditated, systematic and strategic. Therefore, this dimension of the conflict-related sexual violence agenda continues to be directly relevant for the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) as well as the 1267 Committee, and the Office of the Special Representative looks forward to strengthening its collaboration with the Committees and other relevant partners in this regard. This could entail briefings by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict to the Committees and submission of information relevant to their work, including the names of alleged perpetrators for possible designation including individuals responsible for, or instrumental in, facilitating the sale, trade and trafficking of women, girls and boys.

Over the years the Special Representative has made a number of concrete recommendations to mitigate the acute vulnerability of civilians to sexual violence at the hands of violent extremist groups, as well as policies and critical measures that must be put in place to support survivors. Our Office looks forward to continued engagement with the CTC along these lines.

Thank you.

Thursday, 4 November 2021