United Nations Radio

There can be no security without women's security and rape is not a lesser evil on a hierarchy of war time horrors.

Margot Wallstrom

This warning comes from Margot Wallstrom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Friday, she said that sexual violence "is one of the great peace and security challenges of our times."

Ms. Wallstrom stressed that sexual violence is not a crime that the world can dismiss as collateral damage or inevitable or cultural as it is often called.

"Rape is not a side effect but is actually a new frontline. Widespread and systematic sexual violence is both a crime against the victim and a crime against humanity. And sexual violence is the only crime against humanity that is routinely dismissed as being random or inevitable."

Margot Wallstrom said all political and military leaders must recognize that mass rape is no more inevitable or acceptable than mass murder.

She called for addressing the issue of shame and the stigma attached to sexual violence which turns victims to outcasts.

"It is unacceptable that women still have more to lose in terms of ostracism and reprisals than to gain from reporting rape", the top United Nations official dealing with sexual violence in conflict added.

Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'27")