Protecting Women and Children from the Atrocities of War Remarks by Charles MacCormack
Press conference to release the State of the World’s Mothers 2003 and introduce the Women and Children in Armed Conflict Protection Act of 2003
Capitol Hill, Washington, DC
May 6, 2003
War has changed. The humanitarian response has not. We’re here today to help change that.
Save the Children has seen, in our seven decades of work in humanitarian crises all over the world, an alarming rise in brutality against women and children during armed conflicts. In fact, close to 90 percent of casualties are now civilians, the majority of whom are women and children. That compares to 5 percent a century ago.
Women and children are killed, exploited and injured more systematically now than ever before. In the past decade alone, 2 million children were killed, 4 million suffered physical mutilation, and more than 1 million were either orphaned or separated from their families.
We often see – in war zones and in refugee camps – a “survival-of-the-fittest” atmosphere. Food and other essential supplies gets grabbed up by those who are biggest, strongest and best able to push others around. Women, children, the sick, the elderly – those who need aid the most – may be least able to get it. A climate like this opens the door to sexual exploitation, and other forms of abuse. There is way too much of this in the world today.
Rape is now a common weapon of war. Women’s bodies have become part of the battlefield. Girls as young as 7 were raped in Kosovo. Vicious forms of sexual assault and sexual slavery have also been widespread during conflicts in Sierra Leone, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In all the war zones I have visited – Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, West Bank and Gaza, and many others – we get small children to do drawings as a way of expressing their feelings. They draw guns … helicopters … bloody, wounded people … people crying. It’s tragic to see 5 and 6 year olds who haven’t known anything but this.
Too little is known about the tragedies of modern wars, and too little is being done to protect families and their children.
This year’s State of the World’s Mothers report aims to do something about the gaps in awareness and action. The new Conflict Protection Scorecard analyzes 40 conflict zones around the world and tells where women and children are most at risk. We looked at six areas where protection is needed most:
-
Sexual violence and physical harm
-
Trafficking and prostitution
-
Recruitment of children into military service
-
Psychological trauma
-
Family separation
-
Abuses in refugee camps
The Scorecard identifies Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Angola and Burundi as the five worst conflict zones in which to be a woman or a child. An estimated 10 million women and children are imperiled by war in these five countries alone.
Iraq ranked roughly in the middle range of the 40 armed conflicts before war broke out in March. The recent conflict, of course, has increased the dangers for women and children. But while the eyes of the world are on Iraq, there are more than three dozen conflicts going on in other parts of the world – many of them much more deadly and destructive – and few people are talking about these.
Save the Children wants to help change the way the world responds to war. More must be done to prevent women and children from being abused in wartime and to restore the human dignity of those who have suffered. We’ve developed a number of ways to do this in the war-torn communities where we work. These proven strategies are described in the “Response Options” section of the report.
For example, in Afghanistan, we provide safe places for children to learn and play. One of the things they learn is how to avoid land mines. Afghan women who visit our health clinics learn ways to have safer pregnancies and to look after their children’s well-being.
In the refugee camps of Guinea, we work with children and teenagers who have fled wars in neighboring countries. They were separated from their families, forced into combat, raped or tortured. Their stories are truly heart-wrenching. We are helping these young people to heal emotionally, to learn new ways of relating to the world, and gain job skills that provide an alternative a life of crime or prostitution.
Activities like these need to be expanded into many more conflict areas where women and children are at risk. Save the Children’s new One World, One Wish campaign, and the new legislation you’ll hear about today, are both positive steps toward this goal.
This is a fight worth winning. Thank you.
