30 Years After the Genocide in Rwanda: Gender, Accountability and Atrocity Prevention - Keynote speech by SRSG Pramila Patten
SRSG Pramila Patten giving her keynote speech. Photo: Ingeborg Vea/HL-senteret
The June 6th 2024 seminar by the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies (HL-senteret), the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO), and the Centre for Gender Research at UiO (STK), aimed to explore the role of gender in atrocities, their prevention, and how it is understood by policymakers, academics, and civil society.
During the seminar a panel of experts composed of Honoré Gatera (Director of Kigali Genocide Memorial), Erik Møse (former President of the ICTR), Jacqui True (Director of CEVAW), and Savita Pawnday (Director of Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect) discussed these issues at length, and the outcome of their discussion may be found in this separate blogpost: https://www.massatrocityresponses.com/blog/rwanda-seminar-panel
The seminar, however, began with a keynote speech by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten. The SRSG touched upon a lot of pivotal topics, upcoming challenges, and policy recommendations during her keynote, highlighting the crucial role that gender plays for atrocities and their prevention.
Here is a recording of the SRSG’s full speech, followed by a summary of her comments:
UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence Pramila Patten’s keynote:
CRSV:
The atrocity crime of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has been called “history’s greatest silence”, and remains one of the most frequently committed, yet least condemned atrocity crimes. The ancient trilogy of wartime terror, made up by looting, pillage, and rape, has yet to be eradicated.
The UN Security Council resolution 1820 regarded sexual violence not as a consequence of war, but as a recognizable and preventable threat and impediment to peace. In 2023, however, CRSV cases have increased by 50% in situations of concern, and survivors are not receiving the critical assistance they require since humanitarian access is restricted and constrained.
As a crime concerning the international community as a whole, sexual violence must be addressed in transitional justice processes and excluded from amnesty provisions, in accordance with Security Council resolutions.
Existing framework:
The international community has already set the robust normative framework by which CRSV should and can be prevented, so what is needed is not new standards of behavior, but better adherence to those that exist.
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, for instance, affirms that no conflict or crisis is gender neutral and no effective response can be gender-blind, with gender equality being recognized as the number one predictor of peace. Peacemaking and prevention efforts alike should thus reflect this gender-sensitive perspective.
Foregrounding gender:
We can no longer treat the subjects of world peace and women’s rights as separate conversations, as gender equality is today recognized as the number one predictor of peace and directly affects situations of (in)security, so crimes of sexual and gender-based violence cannot be siloed from discussions of mass atrocity crimes.
Local women are often the first to raise concerns about rising extremism and radicalization, hate speech, the accumulation of small arms and light weapons, and the mobilization and recruitment strategies of armed groups; and yet, they are the last to be heard and heeded by security stakeholders.
Foregrounding gender in our analysis of atrocity crimes brings up the “tyranny of the emergency”, prompting many actors to argue in times of crisis that gender is a “soft issue” secondary to “hard security” matters. Gender-sensitive approaches must then be systematized through training, mainstreaming, resourcing, and accountability.
Ensuring accountability:
Unpunished crime is repeated crime. The central challenge of the SRSG’s mandate is thus to convert the vicious cycle of violence, impunity, and revenge into a virtuous cycle of reporting, resourcing, and response, including in terms of protection, assistance, and accountability.
We must ask ourselves: Is international law an empty promise? Is our collective responsibility to protect more honored in the breach than the observance? Is ensuring and achieving accountability for some of the worst crimes imaginable within our reach?
Accountability is essential for prevention and laying grounds to address root causes, reinstate the rule of law, and re-establish solid foundations for the future. Accountability for atrocity prevention is a long-term process that must be complemented by immediate actions, collecting and preserving potential evidence, and treating the immediate needs of survivors.
Some recommendations:
No amount of protection or assistance is a substitute for peace: prevention is the best protection.
Peace is not a passive state but must be proactively waged.
Including and recognizing women as participants in prevention efforts is crucial.
We must amplify the voices of survivors and affected communities in prevention efforts.
Genocides are planned and coordinated, and thus can and should be prevented.
Accountability efforts need to be bolstered.
SRSG Patten’s keynote speech paints a complex picture of our current time, riddled with insecurity, conflict, and atrocities, but the SRSG remains resolutely hopeful and steadfast in her commitment to peace and prevention. As she remarks in her concluding comments:
“In these uncertain times, I believe that doubt is justified, but despair is not.”
More on the event:
The SRSG Pramila Patten discusses these issues in greater detail in her keynote, and the panel that followed often refers back to her speech. Watch both of them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgWGgHJePAI
The full transcribed speech by the SRSG is also available on the UN website: https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/statement/srsg-patten-remarks-at-the-peace-research-institute-oslo-prio-event-30-years-after-the-genocide-in-rwanda-gender-accountability-and-atrocity-prevention-6-june-2024-oslo/
The full seminar, featuring the welcoming remarks, the keynote speech, the panel discussion, and the closing remarks, is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhRCnvOv7oU