By Louise Livesey | 24 October 2007, 08:57

Now don’t get me wrong, the UN does amazing and important work. But I am not sure the way to prevent women’s and girl’s bodies being used as tools of war through rape and sexual assault is to ask nicely. But that is exactly what the UN are doing in asking for the 2000 resolution, 1325 to be fully implemented. 1325 urges UN member states to “protect women from pervasive sexual violence in armed conflict and to give them a greater voice in matters of war and peace”

The coverage goes on to say

The occasion was a Security Council debate to review implementation of special measures called for in a resolution adopted seven years ago to protect women and girls from rape and other forms of sexual abuse in situations of armed conflict. “Violence against women has reached hideous and pandemic proportions in some societies attempting to recover from conflict,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon told the council, apparently referring to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan’s Darfur region or eastern Chad where rape is being used a weapon of war.

From Turkish Press

Of course he could, too, be referring to New Zealand where the prevalence rate for child sexual abuse of girls is apparently 1 in 4 according to latest research. Or the UK which also has a child sexual abuse rate of close to 1 in 4 (see Barnardo’s research in 2000 or Ghate and Spencer’s work in the early 1990s). In India for girl children the rate is apparently 1 in 2 or half the female population. In fact, lets consider this, is there any other act or illness which, on reaching a quarter, of a half, of the female population, wouldn’t be considered a serious threat. Perhaps the UN should consider that whilst rates of sexual violence against adults go up during conflict, even in peacetime it can, and should be described as an epidemic.