We can stop rape as a weapon of war

Margot Wallstrom

Interview with Margot Wallstrom on her role as UN Special Representative in 2012. Wallstrom is now the Swedish foreign minister

While some members of the last Commission have courted controversy with their employment, former Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has become the UN Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict.

How does working for the UN compare with being in the Commission?

Well it's a bureaucracy there as well. Everything in the Commission is in place, so you have everything. In the Un, it was new, so I had to do everything myself, there was nothing, from finding an office to recruiting a team, negotiating the budget, everything.

Isn't that an advantage?

Yes, sure! Because I know when I can disregard something. I'm not impressed and this is why I'm not getting into turf wars with different bodies. They all fight for their own space and want to be visible, credited. I'm concentrating on getting these issues before the Security council.

There are a large number of places where sexual violence, as a part of conflict, is a serious problem. How are you going to approach this?

I've decided to stay to the mandate, which is rather narrow, to avoid turf battles, but also to stay as close as possible to the agenda of the Security Council. We will choose some countries, including some outside of Africa, because this is a global problem.

Looking at the nations involved, the use of rape in war seems to be associated with prolonged conflicts, for example Liberia, Darfur etc. Why has the issue become such a feature of these conflicts?

You can say that it has been part of history, from the Trojan War to the nuclear age. It has been seen as somehow inevitable element of warfare, either as a reward or part of looting, but we have noticed that it is not always the case, there are conflicts where sexual violence is not commanded, where it is not widespread or systematic. In the Middle East or Afghanistan, for instance. We want to study this to see why some conflicts do not feature such crimes and then what we can do.

Stopping impunity is important because there will be fewer cases if people think they may face justice

Yes. And if they see that not only the foot soldiers are punished, but going all the way up the chain of command. That is why it is important that the International Criminal court bring cases where this has been commanded, so the Commanders will be punished and take responsibility for their actions and those of their soldiers.

The problem is rape is very hard to prosecute, even in Europe. If it is so hard for us to prosecute...

But today it is a crime against humanity and this is how it has to be followed up and we have set up tribunals and we do have successful examples, so these people are being accused and more and more women are coming forward. They are willing to bring their cases to the courts and the ICC is prosecuting.

Your argument that mass rape in war is wrong, must be the least controversial campaign...

Yes, but a lot of people think that it is inevitable, that it has always been part of war and that it's not possible to stop it. When I started this is what I heard every day. "this is so complex," "this is so tough". I started to describe it like that myself, but one day, I decided that I would never again describe this as being so difficult. If we can ban cluster bombs, if we can use rational arguments against these weapons, then it is possible to stop sexual violence in war and conflict, because it is commanded, and we must punish the perpetrators, up to the highest level and make sure that this is not in the military culture.

Because this is so central to UN conventions...

Exactly, we must say that you can never build peace if you do this to women. Those who are victorious in a battle will never be able to steer a country or a people where this has been done. It will be so much more difficult.

How are you doing for resources?

We have a multi-donor trust fund that is managed by UN Action, a coalition of 13 UN agencies and we will be able to raise more funds and I am presenting the budget for my team tomorrow. I am not overly worried about money as I think there is a willingness from member states to help.

It's been a decade since the landmark resolution on sexual violence was passed. They seem to be more interested in measuring the problem, rather than combatting it.

I think so, maybe that's unfair, but with all the peacekeeping operations there are lessons to learn and we have recently learned that in today's wars you have to try harder to protect civilians, which is part of what we do and you can't be gender blind about this. You need to ask about the women, what kind of protection do they need? you can't just talk about civilians.

In a lot of these long running conflicts, you don't have two armies facing each other, but various sides who attack villages and they never fight each other.

They come out in the night and attack a village, by looting it and raping the women, because this is a good way to install fear and they think the villagers will fear them and give them what they want. We can end this. we can stop this.

You're going to be meeting your old boss?

Yes I am seeing President Barroso

What can the EU do to help?

The EU can work with the UN, we have some good progammes already and I would like a counterpart in the EU.

Part of the EAS?


That's for the EU to decide, but it would put it close to the security policy agenda, where it would appear to be its most natural place.

Give peacekeepers a chance

Alain Le Roy at work

A 2011 interview with the head of the UN peacekeeping operations shows how little has been achieved in the intervening years.

The UN’s peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, is asking the EU to play a greater role on the world stage and thinks the early signs from the External Action Service are showing that the EU wishes to live up to its international responsibilities. After meeting officials, he spoke with New Europe.

Do you have the resources that you need to carry out your missions?

We have enough soldiers but we lack some capabilities, which is why we are keen to develop our cooperation with the EU, who have a lot of capabilities. We don’t have enough helicopters, we lack intelligence capacity, military hospitals and the technology that the EU has. I’ve just come from a meeting and they were very interested to work more with our operations, or in support of UN operations.

Has the European External Action Service changed anything?

I feel a change. The meeting today was a change. It was clear that the member states wanted to define a more collective answer to how they can support peacekeeping. That is exactly why they invited me to come and they have shown that they want to take the initiative and support peacekeeping worldwide. The EEAS is still at the beginning, but this is a very encouraging sign.

Is the EU playing the role it could?

The answer is no. It could play a much bigger role. Less than 7% of our soldiers are European. That is fewer than 7,000. We have 1,400 from Italy, 1,100 from Spain, 500 from France and Austria with 400. In Africa, where our operations are very important, less than 2% of soldiers are from Europe.

The numbers could be increase, along with capabilities. I would like to see more involvement in Africa, which is next door to the EU. Any trouble in Africa could have important ramifications for the EU so I would like to see more political involvement.

How do you persuade the EU to take a larger role?

It’s clear that the EU has a collective ambition to be a very important actor in the global sphere. Participation in the peace and security field, is one where the EU has contributed a lot. What they did in the Balkans was tremendous. When the EU is united it’s a huge force. Now they have the EEAS so it’s time to play a larger role.

You’ve been involved in some places, such as Cyprus, for a very long time

Since 1948 we have had 64 peacekeeping operations and 49 have closed, and we remain with 15 today and Cyprus is one of the oldest, along with Kashmir and the Golan heights. The Cyprus operation began in 1964.

It is clear that the mission is there to provide a space for a political sphere and there is tremendous pressure for a political settlement. It is important to make sure that there are no incidents and thanks to our efforts, there are none.

Has the role of your agency changed? Peacekeeping today seems to be less about separating two sides and more with conflicts that have no front line.

It has changed drastically. The old, traditional peacekeeping is still there in the conflicts I mentioned, but now the bulk of our work is completely different, it’s larger multi-dimensional missions with stabilisation mandates. The DRC and Sudan missions are much more complicated and expectations are much higher and much more challenging than simply standing between two armies. We also have millions of civilians to protect.

This means that the soldiers you want have to be of a much higher standard, are you getting the quality that you need?

We have very professional soldiers. For example in the DRC we have Indian and Pakistani soldiers, they are extremely professional. They have to be very agile as there is a vast territory to cover, with no infrastructure. We have to be much more agile, more mobile and be able to react to any attacks on the civilian population. We don’t always have the right troops or the right equipment, but we’re working on that.

China is beginning to get involved in peacekeeping, how do you see that progressing?

It’s very clear that China has made a strategic decision, at the highest level,  to be more involved in UN peacekeeping. They consider that as a way to show their contribution to peace and security in the world. I was invited to China last year and I was very well received. China now has more peacekeepers in the UN than any EU country.

They are steadily increasing their commitment. They are sending engineers, medical facilities and they are extremely professional and we welcome that.

The UN has just released reports on women’s roles in peace building, how would you like to see involvement increase?

Recently, we issued a report on women, peace and security. It shows that we have made significant progress, for example the number of women in the police has increased from 3% to 9% and we have an ambition to reach 20% by 2014. Out of 15 peacekeeping missions, three are led by women, Cyprus, Liberia and Timor.

It’s important also, to increase women’s participation in political institutions. Thanks to our presence, in Afghanistan 25% of MPs are women, the same in Burundi. In Rwanda, and it was not our decision, but a Rwandan one, they decided to have 56% of women in parliament.

There is much more to be done. When we work with civil society we try to ensure that women are represented, this is a key aim of ours.