Opinion | Editorials
A UN resolution long past due
Classifying rape as a war crime should have been done many years ago.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:42 June 21, 2008
With the UN Security Council recognising rape as a weapon of war, it is merely acknowledging what has been known for many hundreds of years. Sadly there is nothing new in an invading force or occupying power resorting to rape; equally, there is nothing new in the acknowledgement that rape has nothing to do with sexual attraction, but about dominance and power over a weaker person.
The Bosnia-Herzegovina massacres, which involved many instances of extreme cruelty and killings, also accounted for numerous rapes of women and girls of all ages. This was widely broadcast at the time and recognised by Nato and UN personnel when it took place from 1992-95. It was then that the initiative should have been taken by the UN Security Council to condemn rape as an act of war, not some 15 or more years later. Even when the International Criminal Court was established in 2002 under the auspices of the UN, the crime of rape was not included within its ambit.
Time and again the UN, with special emphasis on the Security Council, has been accused of doing too little, too late and even then at a snail's pace. Modern crime is such that it needs proactive action to win.
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