By Charlotte Webster-
Human Rights Watch has attacked the United States’ threat to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution on sexual violence in conflict because it mentioned women’s reproductive health services.
Described as a cruel step in its assault on women’s rights in US foreign policy, Human Rights Watch said the U.S was shirking its responsibility to ensure greater accountability for women and girl’s raped in war.
“The United States demonstrated that it is willing to up the ante on its anti-choice fight and was willing to sacrifice a global resolution seeking to ensure greater accountability for women and girls raped in war,” said Amanda Klasing, acting women’s rights co-director at Human Rights Watch. “The Trump administration’s extreme position on sexual and reproductive health and rights is pervading all aspects of its foreign policy in ways that escalates a global erosion of women’s human rights.”
The Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 in 2000, which focused on women, peace, and security. It called on all UN member states and parties to an armed conflict to “take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict.” It further demanded an end to impunity and called for the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes, “including those relating to sexual violence and other violence against women and girls.”
The Security Council has strengthened its calls on state action through several resolutions which include commitments by all parties to time-bound measures for combating sexual violence.
On April 23, 2019, the Security Council held an open debate on conflict-related sexual violence. In the weeks leading up to the meeting, Germany led a draft resolution to strengthen the international response to the use of rape in war.
In the final stages of negotiations around the text, the U.S threatened to veto the resolution unless it completely removed references to sexual and reproductive health. This request has annoyed activists and representatives of Human Rights Watch who believe it to undermine the rights of abused women. More so after a compromise that left out the specific language sexual and reproductive health, referencing a previous one was condemned as unsatisfactory.
The U.S refused to accept any language that recognised that victims of rape in war should have access to sexual and reproductive health services. The resolution was adopted without any language on access, in a major blow to the global women’s rights movement. Critics believe The Trump administration object to it because it associates the reference to abortion-which The Trump Administration objects to
It is the second year in a row, that the US State Department issued its annual human rights report, excising the section that previously reported on women’s reproductive rights, including rates of preventable maternal deaths and access to contraception. At the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting this March, the US played a disruptive role, trying to eliminate the use of the word gender and distanced itself from the global consensus document on women’s sexual and reproductive health that has been in place for 20 years.
“After two years of relentless attacks on reproductive rights, the US’ latest antics at the UN Security Council may be no surprise,” Klasing said. “But the world cannot become accustomed to the fact that the Trump administration wants to deny survivors of sexual violence in conflict access to healthcare and is willing to pressure countries into backtracking on global agreements in an effort to advance its extreme discriminatory views on sexual and reproductive rights.”