22 February 1993

Doc. 6782

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

Declaration on the rape of women and children

in the territory of former Yugoslavia

(adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 18 February 1993

at the 488th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

1.       The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recalls its Declaration of 9 December 1992 on the practice of systematic rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in which it stated that "such a degree of barbarity, rarely seen, is intolerable ..." and that "those who perpetrate such crimes must realise that they shall not go unpunished".

2.       The Committee of Ministers considers it unacceptable that controversy regarding the exact number of victims and the exact scale on which rapes have been committed has been deliberately encouraged and considers that such controversy can in no event detract from the gravity of these violations of human rights.

3.       The Committee of Ministers considers that urgent action must be taken to end this barbaric practice, directed in particular against women and children belonging to the Moslem population of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and to provide the victims concerned with the support and assistance they need.

4.       In view of the foregoing, the Committee of Ministers, having regard to the specific responsibility of the Council of Europe to safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms:

- considers that rape, since it constitutes an attack on the physical and mental integrity and on the dignity of the victims, is a violation of human rights;

- reaffirms that the use of rape as an instrument of warfare and within the context of a strategy of ethnic cleansing - as is the case in the territory of former Yugoslavia - is a war crime and should be considered a crime against humanity;

- demands that those concerned put an end to these flagrant violations of human rights;

- appeals to member states and the international community at large to ensure that these atrocities cease and that their instigators and perpetrators are prosecuted by an appropriate national or international penal tribunal;

- declares its readiness to take part - together with other international agencies concerned - in the efforts to co-ordinate the assistance and support organised by individual member governments and non governmental agencies for victims of rape and enforced procreation in the territory of former Yugoslavia.