Johannesburg - Women should be included in conflict resolution in a bid to curb sexual violence in conflict-ridden areas, African Union commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday.
“Part of protecting women is that they should be part of conflict prevention and resolution, be included in the value chain of conflict resolution, and be part of every step when it comes to issues of conflict,” she said during a panel discussion about women, peace and security.
The discussion focused on the prevalence of the rape of women and girls in conflict areas.
The panel included Hollywood actress and United Nations (UN) ambassador for refugees Angelina Jolie, British politician William Hague, and the UN secretary general’s special representative on sexual violence and conflict, Zainab Bangura.
Dlamini-Zuma added that women have to be part of policy-making.
“Involve women in drafting long term policies and their implementation. It is when you involve women in conflict [resolution] that we would see the fight against sexual violence in these areas being realised,” she said.
“Women are not the cause of conflict but bear the heaviest brunt, together with children, and are abused and raped and killed.”
Hague, the former British foreign secretary, was exposed to war crimes when he visited several conflict zones, including Darfur and Bosnia, when he served as shadow foreign secretary. He and Jolie opened a centre for women in war zones at the London School of Economics in February.
He said it was the responsibility of men to take the lead in preventing violence against women.
“Most delegates, ministers and ambassadors attending this AU summit are men. It is time men take responsibility…most of the crimes are entirely committed by men,” Hague said.
As UN special representative on sexual violence and conflict, Bangura said she had witnessed how women and children were used as weapons to commit terror.
“Sexual violence does not have age. The youngest child used as a human shield in a war was three-months-old, a 75-year-old blind woman raped during a war, indicating that the problem cuts through society,” she said.
“Women are used as weapons, and more recently in weapons of terror. We have militia groups operating with impunity, and who don’t respect international laws.”
Bangura added that militant groups such the Ansar Al-Sharia in Libya, al-Qaeda in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Al Shabaab in Kenya and the IS in Iraq, among others, were increasingly using women as weapons of terror.
“Women are abused, stripped and sold. I know of an instance where a woman was sold for a packet of cigarettes. The problem is we have no information that states how these groups operate and specifically from where, so without information the problem escalates,” she said.
“Sexual violence is a development issue. It is also a health issue. A country that cannot protect its women against such horrendous crimes cannot protect its women during a war.”
ANA