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Recommendation 1873 (2009)
Sexual violence against women in armed conflict
1. The Parliamentary
Assembly, recalling its Resolution
1670 (2009) on sexual violence against women in armed conflict,
reminds the Committee of Ministers that the Council of Europe has
a duty to ensure that human rights are guaranteed on the territory
of Council of Europe member states, as well as a moral obligation
to help spread the values of human rights and the rule of law it
is founded upon beyond its geographical borders.
2. The Assembly recalls that stopping sexual violence against
women in armed conflict is intimately linked with empowering women
and changing patriarchal societal models, as well as with ensuring
justice is done each and every time a woman is raped in an armed
conflict, be it close, on European soil, or far away on another
continent. The key to eradicating sexual violence against women
in armed conflict is gender equality.
3. The Assembly thus calls on the Committee of Ministers to:
3.1. address a recommendation on
the role of women and men in conflict prevention and resolution and
in peace building to Council of Europe member states without further
delay, paying due attention to the prevention and effective combating
of sexual violence against women in armed conflict;
3.2. invite the member states to draw up, if they have not
already done so, a national action plan, pursuant to United Nations
Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) on women,
peace and security.
4. The Assembly calls on the Committee of Ministers to instruct
the Ad hoc Committee on Preventing and Combating Violence against
Women and Domestic Violence (CAHVIO) to include in the future Council
of Europe convention the severest and most widespread forms of violence
against women, including sexual violence against women in armed
conflict.
5. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers provide
assistance to member states in dealing with the legacy of past sexual
violence against women in armed conflict, for example by assisting
the member states in question in the drafting and the implementation
of appropriate legislation to grant women victims of sexual violence
in armed conflict a status of civil victims of war and help them
on their path to full recovery by guaranteeing access to justice,
granting pecuniary reparation, as well as medical and psychosocial assistance.