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A protest in Tripoli, Libya.
The government is failing to help women raped during the civil war.
(Abdel Magid al-Fergany, AP)
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In the recent conflict in Libya, as well as in most civil and international armed conflicts, women were subjected to different forms of visible and invisible violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse.
Last week, the UN Security Council members voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN’s political mission in Libya, expressing their deep concern about sexual violence in the country. The mandate explicitly mentions the monitoring and protection of human rights, particularly those of women and vulnerable groups.
Libya has to provide assistance for survivors of sexual violence and not only for the male victims: “Injured men are being looked after properly and sent abroad for treatment,” said Amira Nayed, from a women’s group, Phoenix. “The women who also suffered during the conflict should be cared for too. They need psychological help. And we need awareness programmes so people know that it’s not their fault that they are victims of a crime.” Last December, dozens of women were attending a protest outside the interim prime minister’s office. Their mouths were covered with tape, to symbolise the silence with which rape victims were greeted by the interim authorities.
Colonel Salim Juha, leader of the Misrata insurgents, says that many women in Misrata and its suburbs were forced to strip naked in front of strangers or their children, while others were brutally raped in their homes and severely traumatized. Libyan women who suffered such violence need appropriate services, which include medical, psychosocial and legal support, otherwise they might never come forward. “If the bleeding had stopped, I would never have reported it,” as one victim said. Those women may suffer socio-medical problems, including sexually transmitted diseases and family rejection. Indeed, the stigma of sexual assault runs so deep in Libyan culture that the raped are virtually forced into social exile, unable to wed, a humiliation to their entire family. They choose to remain silent rather than to give voice to the crime they have suffered so that they can fit back into society.
According to Hilmi M. Zawati, President of the International Legal Advocacy Forum,”The government should establish special socio-medical centers, staffed only with well-trained female specialists to deal with and treat victims, rehabilitate them and encourage them to come forward and speak out.
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| Margot Wallström |
“We have to reinforce efforts to monitor, prevent and prosecute” says Margot Wallström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. “Much still remains to be done in the fight against rape as a tactic of war. With the help of the Security Council, we will continue to push for an end to impunity and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.”
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