[Brussels, 24 April 2015] On 20 April 2015, the European Women’s Lobby had the pleasure to see in Brussels its colleagues from the Global Justice Center, with whom the EWL has been active calling for access to full medical care for female war rape victims.
As part of its advocacy trip to Brussels, the Global Justice Center invited European networks to discuss new strategies to ensure access to full medical care for female war rape victims, including abortion services. The GJC unveiled a series of briefings on war rape and the EU obligations. You can find them here. Other NGOs attended the meeting, such as IPPF-EN, EPF and Marie Stopes International, and shared strategies and opportunities for joint action.
The Global Justice Center has also released a press release calling on International Criminal Court to Investigate Genocide of Chibok Schoolgirls. You can read the op-ed of its director Janet Benshoof published on PassBlue, calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate Boko Haram for genocide.
Access to full medical care for female war rape victims, and the EU
Gender-based and sexual violence have increasingly become tactics of warfare
and are a defining characteristic of contemporary armed conflict. The EU is a
global leader in the provision of humanitarian aid, but the EU’s current
approach to victims of sexual violence in conflict fails to provide them the full
legal protection guaranteed to them under the Geneva Conventions.
Together, Member States and the European Commission are the world’s
leading providers of humanitarian aid. Although the EU’s humanitarian work
seeks to comply with international law, the Commission’s policy on abortion
and the Geneva Conventions flouts this vision by violating the inalienable
rights of women and girls raped in conflict to all necessary medical care,
without adverse distinction on the basis of sex, in all circumstances.
