Shafaqna Pakistan: Seventeen years after the United Nations recognised conflict-related sexual violence as a threat to international peace and security, Pakistan has urged the full, faithful and non-selective implementation of Security Council resolutions, including those on women, peace and security, aimed at combating the crime.
Addressing the 15-member Security Council, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the resolutions place clear obligations on member states to prevent such crimes, protect victims, investigate allegations, prosecute perpetrators and ensure reparations.
He said fulfilling these commitments would be the true measure of the Security Council’s resolve to end conflict-related sexual violence. Ambassador Ahmad made the remarks during a Council debate convened by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council’s president for July. More than 70 delegations attended the meeting, which reviewed the UN Secretary-General’s latest report on conflict-related sexual violence presented by Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Covering 21 situations of concern, the report documented 9,788 cases verified by the United Nations in 2025, more than double the number recorded in 2024. “Yet such figures can never capture the full scale and magnitude of this chronically underreported crime,” Ms. Patten, the Special Representative, said, adding that for every case reaching a clinic, 10 to 20 were estimated to go unreported and unaddressed.
The mandate was established by Council resolution 1888 (2009), building on the Council’s recognition of conflict-related sexual violence as an issue of international peace and security, including its use as a weapon and tactic of war and the persistent impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.
In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Ahmad, the Pakistani envoy, said that conflict-related sexual violence destroyed individuals, fractures families, terrorized communities and left inter-generational wounds, including for children born of conflict-related rape.
At the same time, he stressed that the Secretary-General’s ‘listing mechanism’, the blacklist of perpetrators, should cover all situations of conflict and foreign occupation on the Council’s agenda.
“No situation should be shielded from scrutiny, and no perpetrator should be allowed to treat sexual violence as cost-free,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“Sanctions regimes, where applicable, should be used more effectively against persistent perpetrators, and justice processes must be designed to be more victim and survivor-centered, trauma-informed and accessible.”
Ambassador Asim Ahmad also underscored the need for strengthening accountability “comprehensively and consistently,” saying that victims and survivors must receive timely and comprehensive support, including medical care, psycho-social assistance, legal aid, livelihood support and reparations.
“Prevention must be placed at the centre of our collective response,” the Pakistani envoy said. “That requires compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law; meaningful participation of women in peace processes; early warning; sustained funding; responsible arms control; and, above all, addressing the root causes of conflict, including foreign occupation and denial of the right to self-determination.”
“The true test of this Council’s commitment lies in the full, faithful and non-selective implementation of its resolutions, including on women, peace and security,” he added.
Source: Express Tribune
