 We're going to do something quite revolutionary and actually start a couple of minutes early But given that everyone has been such a Diligent lunch guest you will come in on time. We will get started So my name is Lachlan strong as for those of you in the last session I run the modular actual policy division in the Department of Foreign Affairs and trade I'm delighted this afternoon to be chairing a session on Women in armed conflict and gender-based violence Let me say just by way of quick introduction that the work that my Team does in the department of course focuses very significantly on this very grim topic And we do a whole range of things to work on gender-based violence a lot of our work I must say takes place in the Pacific region, which is a sphere of particular national interest for Australia now Other than what happened in the Solomons a few years back and then before that Bogenville We haven't had full-scale armed conflict thankfully in the Pacific It's not to say that wouldn't be impossible in the future or in another part of our near neighborhood We do know however that even in societies at peace in the Pacific for instance We have extremely high rates of gender-based violence in some parts of the region The rate can be as high as 80 even a hundred percent Which is quite chilling if we look around the world more broadly at the way Gender-based violence or sexual violence is perpetrated in a conflict situation Of course it will span everything from what happens when you have a breakdown and law and order If you have a civil war there'll be lots of instances of individualized sexual or gender-based violence, but also you've got of course Sexual and gender-based violence being used as a systematic tool of war So today I'm very pleased to say that we've got three Speakers who bring enormous wisdom and practical experience to this topic Ms. Gabriel McIntyre who's the shifter cabinet of the prison's office of the UN mechanism for international Criminal tribunals. It's one of those pity titles that just rolls off the tongue Gabrielle will speak on rape as a war crime We also have with us associate professor Katrina Lee Cooper who's the deputy director at the Monash university gender peace and security center as a For alumni of Monash University. It's always very good to be with another Monash person I did my PhD at Monash many moons ago, unfortunately And we also have with us Colonel Amanda McIntyre who is the gender advisor and former senior gender advisor to the Resolute Support Mission in in Afghanistan And at various points of my career including when I was in Promise and camp I spent a lot of time working on on Afghanistan so Lots of wisdom and practical knowledge up on the podium so Gabrielle we're going to start with you and Can I say that it's tremendous that you'll be drawing on the 17 years of experience you have in this a field of International criminal tribunals you did a lot of work on the former Yugoslavia When my first posting was in Germany and we were dealing in the mid 90s with a lot of the people coming out of Bosnia and So you will bring this wealth of experience in international criminal law international humanitarian law and human rights law now in recognition of you having a lot of Knowledge here to draw and we're actually going to give you half an hour or 34 minutes to be exact and the timekeeper will Hold you to account So please welcome Gabriella Thank you very much I'd like to thank the organizers for inviting me to speak today, and I'm honored to be here Before I begin I would like to underscore that my remarks today are made in my personal capacity and not my capacity as Chef to cabinet of the mechanism for international criminal tribunals or as a United Nations staff member For centuries Rape has been used as a weapon of war to terrorize and humiliate civilian populations a Strategic device to destroy the fabric of communities a legitimate or at least accepted form of troop Modification and rewards and a tool for achieving military objectives Indeed rape is an incredibly effective and cheap weapon cheaper than bullets and more destructive in many cases Despite the pervasive nature of rape and other forms of sexual violence during armed conflicts for millennia Such violence has historically received little attention in international law and relations Reflecting that women who are Disproportionately the victims of such violence as compared with men have long been seen as having a lower status than men and Have been marginalized from public discourse and decision-making It was only in the 1990s following important shifts in societal attitudes towards women and Human rights over the later half of the 20th century That sufficient political will saw rape and other forms of sexual violence Begin to be prosecuted as International crimes before the United Nations ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda The rulings of these courts made clear Not just that a wide range of acts of sexual violence are prohibited under international law But also that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute crimes under international law Crimes such as genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes. I Will begin with a historical overview of the treatment of rape and sexual violence in international law to help facilitate a better understanding of the significance of the work of the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY and the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda or ICTR. I will then move on to discuss some of the important Contributions made by these tribunals. I will conclude by addressing some of the challenges Faced by the tribunals as well as challenges faced by all of us in Relation to dealing with or ending crimes of sexual violence committed in armed conflicts Rules governing how warfare should be conducted have existed in one form or another For millennia in societies around the world with breaches of such rules often addressed through swift and decisive action Rape and sexual violence committed against women and girls during wartime have been a devastatingly common occurrence for at least that long Though while the oldest rules of warfare contained prohibitions on certain actions Such as the mistreatment of conquered enemies rape and sexual violence were not among them To the contrary in ancient Greek for instance rape was by some accounts considered socially acceptable behavior well within the rules of warfare Women were typically seen then and for many centuries that followed as the property of their husbands or fathers and not as individuals in their own right or as individuals having rights In the context of armed conflicts they were therefore viewed as simply part of the spoils of war legitimate booty to be claimed in victory and Sexual violence committed against them was considered entirely permissible as a result Sexual violence was also used as a tool to control and humiliate the conquered population While rape and pillage continued to be part and parcel of many wars waged during the Middle Ages The customary rules governing the conduct of war Found in a range of sources from religious texts to academic treaties were evolving in this same time frame Slowly recognizing a distinction between how combatants and non-combatants should be treated influenced at least in part by notions of chivalry By some accounts rape was prohibited in armed conflict by the customs of war as early as the 1300s Evidence of this is found in the articles of war written by Richard the second of England in 1385 which prohibited rape during armed conflict The prohibition of rape during armed conflict is discussed in the writings of the juriscentel in the 1500s and in those of grotesque in the 1600s Though grotesque recognize that there was still disagreement While some countries he surveyed permitted the dishonoring of women in war other countries held the contrary Whatever the state of the law during this period in practice sexual violence in armed conflict continued century after century The infliction of sexual violence during colonial wars wars of conquest and raids on indigenous lands was frequent and By some commentators accounts continued to be accepted as a form of conquerors rights Indeed the conquering of women by rape served for centuries as a mark of victory proof of soldiers masculinity and success and compensation for services The 19th century Witness the first efforts to document in treaty form the international customs and rules of war However, these early efforts failed to adequately address rape and sexual assault Continuing to downplay crimes of sexual violence Indeed even when rape and other forms of sexual violence were deemed illicit They still tended to be viewed as an unfortunate but in avid all Consequence of sending men to war the mere conduct of delinquent soldiers or at most a private crime The library instruction of 1863 the first codification of customary international laws on land warfare expressly referenced rape but classified it as a crime of troop discipline the Hague conventions on the laws and customs of war on land of 1899 and 1907 set forth a prohibition regime concerning pillage but made no mention of rape or other acts of sexual violence at Most these conventions provided for the protection of women under the vague language of article 46 Which states family honours and rights must be respected? Notably no reference is made to any particular act being prohibited and if rape and sexual violence do fall within the Articles purview it is as a matter of disrespect of a family's honor Rather than a matter of a woman's bodily integrity It bears noting that no women were involved in these codification efforts reflecting the marginalized and secondary status of women at the time It is no small surprise that rape and sexual violence continued to figure prominently in the first world war Indeed one commentator suggests that when the Germans invaded Belgium in 1914 rape was suddenly catapulted into prominence as the international metaphor of Belgian humiliation Notwithstanding this the international treaties adopted following the first world war Once again failed to address sexual violence and such violence was rampant during the Second World War as well Reportedly the Germans raped Jewish women despite soldiers concerns with race defilement and Raped countless other women as they invaded the Soviet Union The Soviet American and British troops also raped German women during their invasion of Germany Why the Japanese enslaved some 200,000 Asian women in camps where the women were subjected to rape and other sexual violence Notwithstanding the prevalence of such violence across the various theaters of war The two tribunals established by their allies in Nuremberg and Tokyo to prosecute Suspected war criminals following the war barely addressed rape and other forms of sexual violence Notably no women were involved in formulating the charters of the tribunals and No reference was made to sexual violence in either charter None of the judges at either tribunal was a woman Nor did women play key roles as prosecutors or otherwise in the trials themselves At the Nuremberg tribunal Evidence of mass rape was entered into the trial record as evidence of crimes against humanity Though the transcripts reflect the prosecutors discomfort and reluctance to discuss the evidence and no convictions were ultimately entered The Tokyo tribunal fared a little better General Matsu and the then Foreign Minister Heroto were expressly charged with criminal responsibility for rapes committed by troops under their command and convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity based in part on this evidence However, no efforts were made to achieve accountability in relation to the sexual crimes Committed against the hundreds of thousands of Asian women for to be placed in camps by the Japanese government Following the horrors of the Second World War the Geneva Conventions of 1949 were adopted Reflecting and encapsulating a number of key advances in international law and the law of war in particular Notably the fourth Geneva Convention relating to the protection of civilians during times of war prohibits rape and forced prostitution under article 27 However, rape and other crimes of sexual violence are omitted from article 147 which lists the grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions that give rise to universal jurisdiction and Obligate states to prosecute or extradite those accused of committing such crimes Once again, the seriousness of sexual violence was overlooked Perhaps as had long been the case because women were not adequately represented at the negotiating table and Once again sexual violence in wartime would continue to play a prominent role in the decades that followed From the Bangladesh war of independence where by fatwa Bangladesh women were deemed war booty and thousands were subjected to rape by Pakistani soldiers To the Turkish invasion of Cyprus where sexual violence was used to terrorize the Greek Cypriot Population and forced them to move to the south side of the island to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan where entire villages of Afghan women were raped in an effort to crush the Afghan resistance In the meantime in 1977 two additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions were adopted Representing further advances in the codification of the law of war Article 76 of additional protocol one applicable in international armed conflicts states that Women shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected in particular against rape and forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault Article 42e of additional protocol two applicable to internal armed conflicts prohibits Outrages upon personal dignity in particular humiliating and degrading treatment rape and forced prostitution and any form of indecent assault While more women were involved in the diplomatic conference leading to the adoption of the two protocols than in previous efforts and both Instruments making important imbalances including by expressly prohibiting rape The protocols still reflect certain long-standing and problematic norms By referring to women as objects of special respect Additional protocol one enforces the gendered need to protect women rather than treating them as subjects under the law owed equal treatment and protection from violence Additional protocol two meanwhile links rape with crimes of dignity instead of crimes of violence In this respect additional protocol two in the words of one commentator Grossly mischaracterizes the offense perpetuates detrimental stereotypes and conceals the sexual and violent nature of the crime and Notably neither of the protocols requires the prosecution of crimes of sexual violence committed in armed conflicts Demonstrating the continued marginalization of women and the lack of attention paid to those crimes Which they disproportionately suffer as compared with men Indeed until relatively recently trials of those accused of committing sexual violence in wartime were an exceptional rarity It was only in the early 1990s with the establishment of the ICT Y and the ICT R That this began to change As many of you may recall in the early 1990s a series of armed conflicts broke out in the former Yugoslavia between Serbs Bosniaks and Croats Resulting in the breakup of the country through declarations of independence and fierce fighting along ethnic lines An estimated 50,000 women and girls were raped during these conflicts often times in Statistic and humiliating ways and by all parties to the conflicts Rape sexual enslavement in forced impregnation were also deployed at prison camps where women and girls were forcibly enslaved Meanwhile in 1994 in Rwanda a Genocide committed by Hutus against Tutsis another moderate Hutus in Rwanda took place with some 800,000 people slaughtered in a period of 100 days Widespread and systematic rape was committed against an estimated 200,000 Tutsi women and girls by Hutu military and civilian perpetrators Women and girls were gang raped raped in public held in sexual slavery Sexually mutilated and raped with sharpened objects such as sticks and rifles Forced impregnation was also a common result and an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 children were born of rape In response to the reports of widespread crimes during these conflicts the United Nations Security Council established the ICT why in 1993 and the ICT are in 1994 from the beginning these tribunals represented an important departure from past practice in Contrast to the Charters of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals the Security Council specifically included the crime of rape in the statutes of the ICT why and the ICT are Itself a major breakthrough in the statue of the ICT why Rape was explicitly included as an act that could amount to a crime against humanity The statue of the ICT are Likewise explicitly listed rape as a crime against humanity But also included rape as a war crime along with enforced prostitution and indecent assault These are not the only ways that the tribunals broke new ground In their rules of procedure and evidence these tribunals adopted a specific rule to facilitate the giving of evidence by victims of rape and sexual assault This rule rule 96 represents a significant departure from the domestic practice of many countries as It provides that there is no need for Cooperation of the testimony of a victim of sexual assault That evidence of the victim's prior sexual conduct is Inadmissible and that consent can only be raised as a defence if the defendant can establish why in that war situation the issue of consent is at all relevant Both tribunals also provided protective measures to victims of sexual violence when they were called to give evidence such as the use of pseudonyms voice and face distortion and the closure of the courtroom to the public But it is perhaps in their case law that we see the tribunals greatest Contributions, I will first discuss the jurisprudence of the ICT why before turning to the ICT are The ICT why was alert early on to crimes of sexual violence having been committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia Due to the intense media coverage of events the consistent condemnation of crimes of a sexual nature by the Security Council in various resolutions and Persistent advocacy from women's groups directed at the tribunals prosecutor. Thanks in the ICT Why's very first case the Tadich case which commenced in 1995 the prosecutor charged the defendant with crimes of rape and Sexual violence committed against women and men Including crimes committed against civilians detained in camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina Among other things Tadich was charged with criminal responsibility for subjecting a female prisoner to sexual intercourse and together with others Forcing two male prisoners to commit oral sex acts on another male prisoner and Forcing a male prisoner to sexually mutilate another prisoner At the end of the trial the prosecution withdrew the charges of sexual violence involving the female prisoner for lack of evidence However Tadich was ultimately convicted of cruel treatment Torture willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body and health as war crimes and Inhumane acts as a crime against humanity in relation to the sexual violence committed against the male prisoners Demonstrating that it was not only women who were the subjects of sexual violence in the complex in the former Yugoslavia It was also men In addition the case highlighted how crimes of a sexual nature that might not constitute rape can nonetheless be prosecuted The Tadich case was followed by the Celebić case in which the victims were Bosnian Serbs and the defendants Operated the Celebić prison camp or held a command position Charges included the torture and rape of female detainees and Crawl and Inhumane treatment of male detainees by forcing male detainees to commit oral sex acts on each other This was the first case to hold that rape could constitute torture a ruling that was followed in the later cases of Forunzai and Konorac The Celebić case also held that forced oral sex can constitute the crime of rape and the judgment Made clear that if the male sexual violence had been charged as rape the chamber would have entered a conviction for rape The Konorac case provided the first convictions at the ICTY for rape as a crime against humanity and The first conviction in history for enslavement as a crime against humanity on the basis of sexual acts The defendants were three served soldiers and their victims were civilian women and girls Mainly Bosnian Muslims who were held in detention facilities in the Republic of Serbska Forced to provide sexual and domestic services and also loaned traded or sold by the soldiers In finding that the defendants exercised rights of ownership over the women including their sexuality The chamber concluded that the women were sexually enslaved and entered convictions accordingly The Kovacica case constituted another Important development in the law relating to sexual violence with its finding that rape and other forms of sexual violence Committed in the Amaskar camp by Serb perpetrators against Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat women constituted persecution as a crime against humanity Now I will turn to the ICTR The ICTR despite the explicit provision of its statute and rules and the widespread rape During the genocide in Rwanda did little in its early years to address sexual violence No indictments were issued charging rape or other crimes of sexual violence until late 1997 and in that case the Aki esku case these crimes were not included in the original indictment As the trial commenced witnesses consistently gave evidence of widespread sexual violence Following the urging of a woman's advocacy Organization the female presiding judge stopped the trial and invited the prosecution to amend its indictment Which the prosecution did? Notably some of the witnesses who testified prior to that had stated that they were never asked by investigators about crimes of sexual violence Despite this background the Aki esku case remains the most important case at the ICTR The 1998 trial judgment in that case Provided the breakthrough Interpretation that rape and sexual violence can constitute genocide as a matter of law a ruling followed in the Gakkanbizi and Mojimana cases among others The defendant was also convicted of rape as a crime against humanity and of inhumane acts as crimes against humanity For other acts of sexual violence such as forcing Tutsi women to exercise in the nude Following the Aki esku judgment There was a renewed focus by the ICTR on sexual violence and a number of indictments that originally failed To include sexual violence were amended In the nearer Mashuku case the ICTR shadowed a stereotype surrounding sexual violence In relation to who may be a perpetrator In that case it was alleged that Pauline nearer Mashuku a woman who served as the Rwandan minister of family and women's development Participated in a plan to exterminate Tutsis and that she ordered that women be raped before being killed She was convicted of rape as an act of genocide and as a crime against humanity As at the ICTY in other cases the ICTR confirmed that numerous acts of a sexual nature In addition to rape may constitute crimes in international law In the Bagasora case for instance the accused was convicted of outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime For stripping the clothes of Tutsi women along with rape as a crime against humanity And in the Rukundu case the accused a Catholic priest was convicted at trial of committing genocide By causing serious mental harm by rubbing himself against a Tutsi girl and ejaculating A conviction later overturned on appeal on evidentry as opposed to legal grounds As this brief summary suggests through their judgments the ICTY and the ICTR Have confirmed the range of acts of sexual violence in armed conflict that may constitute crimes in international law and Demonstrated that acts of sexual violence can amount to acts constituting genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes In so doing the tribunals have paved the way for these crimes to be prosecuted to the fullest extent Not just at the international level, but elsewhere and enhanced our understanding of international laws application to rape and sexual violence Indeed given the paucity of precedents leading up to the 1990s The tribunals rulings on rape and sexual violence committed during armed conflicts while grounded in the interpretation and application of existing legal norms were nothing short of revolutionary in this respect I note that in all the groundbreaking judgments rendered by the tribunals addressing rape and Sexual violence at least one member of the bench was a woman and in many cases That woman was the presiding judge of the case with the responsibility for preparation of the judgment Despite their groundbreaking achievements both tribunals face numerous challenges in their prosecution of rape and sexual violence In the interest of time. I'll just mention a couple of them First at the outset there did not appear to be a clear strategy for prosecuting sexual violence crimes Without a clear strategy these crimes were arguably overlooked just as they had been historically and Charges of sexual violence that could have been bought were not even in later years Could these failings have been symptomatic of something more than a planning failure? The author of one empirical study claims that interviews with tribunals judges prosecutors and investigators Revealed that many of them accept rape myths hold misogynistic views about women and feel ambivalent and uncomfortable When dealing with cases of rape and sexual assault Such entrenched attitudes can impact decision-making at a myriad of levels a Second challenge the tribunals face was a difficulty in securing evidence of sexual violence crimes for several reasons Including the failure of investigators and prosecutors to simply ask witnesses about these crimes The fact that at both tribunals Investigators and prosecutors came from diverse backgrounds with little or no training or experience in investigating or prosecuting sexual violence The lack of familiarity with the cultural implications of sexual violence in Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia and the reluctance on the part of many victims To give evidence about crimes of sexual violence Particularly to male investigators and prosecutors due to the shame and stigma Attached to such offenses in both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda As these examples suggest while the tribunals have offered valuable lessons and precedence Many of which have been captured in best practice manuals issued by each tribunal We would do well to learn from the challenges the tribunals face and seek to better address such challenges in the future These challenges aside there is no doubt, but that the work of the ICTY and the ICTR contributed to a seismic shift in the international community's attitude towards rape and sexual violence in our conflict Over the past quarter century a shift we see reflected in Security Council resolution 1325 in an increased focus over the last two decades on sexual violence in our conflict By United Nations bodies and individual states as well as in the concerted effort at the international level to condemn and seek accountability for these crimes That said in recent years the prevalence of sexual violence in armed conflicts has endured In the Congo the so-called rape capital of the world Rape is reportedly used by the army to affirm aggression as a morale booster or a reward or as a way of weakening and humiliating the opposition in South Sudan and in Darfur rape is allegedly used as a means of instilling terror humiliating the opposition and displacing the civilian population in the Central African Republic Rape is said to be used to punish women for allegedly supporting and imposing side in the Syrian Arab Republic Rape and sexual violence is used as a tactic of warfare torture and terrorism Then there is ISIL in Iraq and Syria and Boko Haram in Nigeria Rape and sexual violence are arguably part of the ideological underpinnings of these extremist groups The fact that the work of the tribunals and other initiatives within the United Nations and elsewhere have failed to end these Practices is in many ways entirely understandable Legal and political developments that occur in the international arena are often of little relevance to the combatant on the ground Who is carrying out practices that have continued unabated for millennia Shifts in cultural attitudes towards women in some countries over the last century Have also been all were absent in other countries where women remain fundamentally marginalized and devalued during times of peace much less during times of conflict Even in those countries that have made positive advances towards equality and inclusion in the last 50 years Entrenched patriarchal attitudes can be challenging to root out and can make true normative change all the more difficult It is in short perhaps naive for us to expect that advances made over just two decades at the International level would simply wipe away attitudes and expectations that are centuries old Moreover the mere fact that something is treated as a crime does not mean that the act will be deterred entirely We need look no further than our own domestic laws criminalizing murder and robbery and the ongoing incidents of both crimes to know that there are limits to the deterrent effect of criminal law Having said this and in conclusion, I must also emphasize that despite the continued prevalence Rape and sexual violence are not an inevitable byproduct or tool of war in fact to study by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo of all 48 conflicts and all 236 armed groups in Africa between 1989 and 2009 found that 64% of armed groups including state rebel groups and pro-government militias Were not reported to have engaged in any form of sexual violence So instead of framing rape and sexual violence in armed conflicts as inevitable We would do well to focus on understanding why sexual violence occurs in some conflicts and not others We would do well to make concerted efforts to include more women in all aspects of public life in leadership roles and in decision-making Not because men are unable or unwilling to be effective advocates on matters related to sexual violence but because greater diversity and greater representation of long marginalized voices at the negotiating table in the executive office and in the military Command represent our best chance to improve overall decision-making We would do well to learn lessons from both the achievements and the arguable failings of the tribunal and to apply those lessons in National courts and in our support of post-conflict justice around the world By doing all of this We may be far better positioned to limit and perhaps even to end the use of rape and Sexual violence as a weapon of war. Thank you very much Thank you very much Gabriel for an eloquent and sobering Presentation it is of course confronting to see how long it took International law to get to the point where it did the obvious You very much emphasise the Panicious and crippling impact of these Factors of shame of denigration of dignity and honour which are so misused now Isol is just the latest manifest political religious manifestation, which is using Forced marriages sexual slavery and rape to in fact wipe out entire ethnic and religious groups Our second speaker is associate professor Katrina Lee Koo Koo Katrina brings an immense amount of wisdom from her position as deputy director of gender peace and security at Monash University She is currently the sole and chief investigator of an ARC Discovery project entitled gender after conflict her teaching and research Focuses on the protection and participation of civilians, especially women and children in Conflict affected areas and peace processes. Please welcome Katrina to the stage Thank you Loughlin and thanks Gabby for an amazing Presentation filled with centuries a very important detailed research. I'm afraid to some extent I'm going to pick up where Gabby left off And look at this issue through a United Nations Security Council lens. I apologize for that It might not be too late to go to the other session It's certainly very confronting material to have to deal with So as Gabby has suggested Sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict has a long history Moreover, it remains a far too common feature of war And it remains endemic in Conflict throughout history and indeed in the last two decades But it is also worth saying that to some extent the patterns of sexual and gender-based violence do vary widely according to conflict According to conflict type according to participants and protagonists So in recent years has been growing international attention for instance to the extent to which it's been associated with terrorist Organizations and particularly with the rise of violent extremism Groups such as Baku Haram and ISIL al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda have used sexual and gender-based violence as a strategic tool We are all familiar of course with the story of the abduction of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls by Baku Haram And we know the extent to which ISIL has been using this as a weapon of war as lucky was just suggesting This is the secretary-general in his report last year on conflict-related sexual violence noted the different ways In which sexual violence and violence against women has been used by ISIL Noting and I quote that extremist groups such as ISIL have employed sexual and gender-based violence as a tool that is Premeditated that is systematic and is strategic the secretary-general goes on to say that it's a tool designed to terrorize Communities and to force compliance It's a push factor which forces the displacement of civilians and in some cases ethnic cleansing It is also a pull factor in the sense that it offers wives and sexual slaves as a recruitment tool both to local Recruit a recruit local men, but also to foreign fighters who were being recruited into the ranks of ISIL The secretary-general also notes that it's pursuant to a plan of self-perpetuation aimed at transmitting Ideology to a new generation and in a similar way It's a biological weapon that alters the demography of a region that unravels existing kinship ties Through the kinds of strategies such as forced maternity So such violence occurs of course not just in conflict, but also as people flee conflict so in refugee and Displaced persons camps and again the secretary-general noted a doubling of the cases of early marriage of Syrian refugee girls In those camps in neighbouring Jordan Turkey and Lebanon and in many cases that dramatic increase in the early marriage of girls is Justified as a form of providing protection for girls from sexual and gender-based violence But it can also sometimes constitute that violence and in sometimes operates to do both simultaneously There's also been an increase in other forms of crimes In refugee camps such as the abduction of women and girls for the purposes of sexual slavery and Trafficking and the cross-border trafficking of Syrian and Iraqi women was particularly noted by the secretary-general last year We also know that after conflict sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers And other international agents against local populations can be another problem associated with this issue where we see peacekeepers trading food Sex protection or sorry food protection relief items and medical care for sex with women and children in 2003 the secretary-general announced a zero tolerance policy for this kind of behavior But last year had to reinforce this again because there had been so little Improvement in the situation with the adoption of UN 2272, which is specifically designed to address this issue So again to I guess reiterate what Gabrielle was saying before We know that sexual and gender-based violence can be a trigger warning that suggests that conflict is on the horizon It can also be a strategy of war It can also be a tool or weapon of war and it can also be an inhibitor of peace and for the social political economic recovery of a society Okay, so sexual and gender-based violence, which I've been asked to talk about is a very broad term and of course There's patterns of SGBV change so does a language on it Sadly the UN Security Council is entirely Unhelpful in helping us to understand the distinctions often conflating terms of Sexual violence gender-based violence and violence against women, but for us it's important that both conceptually and analytically We understand the kinds of differences between these terms because it helps us to understand to better understand Who the victims might be who the perpetrators are and what the distinctions and indeed overlapping between the two are So I'm going to turn to Australia's national action plan released in 2012 which very helpfully Defines the first term of gender-based violence And it says quite simply that gender-based violence refers to acts of violence Directed a person because of their gender So this covers things like not just physical violence, but also sexual or psychological harm or suffering That is directed at a person because of their gender So this is separate from conflict related sexual violence, which the UN last year defined as Referring to rape sexual slavery forced prostitution forced pregnancy forced abortion in forced sterilization Forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity Perpetrated against women men girls or boys that is directly or indirectly related to conflict So we start to see the conceptual and analytical differences appearing here It's important to do so of course because it is important to recognize that violence against women is not just sexual violence And that sexual violence is not only committed against women and that gender-based violence is a far broader term than that so for an example if we think of the The genocide that took place in Shrebrinitzir in July 1995 We can see the operation of gender-based violence there in the sense that 8,000 men and boys were targeted because of their gendered identity and because of the assumptions That came with that gendered identity for immediate execution Whereas the women of that community many were taken off an experienced sexual violence Some women experienced in forced maternity and again that form of gender-based violence is targeted at that particular gender Identity because of certain assumptions about what role they perform in their society and about how their gendered Identity is constructed within that social group so it's important again to recognize that gender-based violence is a broader term that Can see certain forms of violence more targeted towards men than towards women So often it is it is the case that men experience genocide in a much higher number Then women women experience sexual violence in a much higher number Another form of gendered-based violence such as forced recruitment of men might be something that Predominantly targets men and not just men, but men of a particular age So there are distinctions in the terms which is important to consider It's important to consider that when we think about the way in which the United Nations Security Council has built an infrastructure around Addressing particularly this issue of the protection of women in armed conflict So we know that the foundational resolution calls on all parties In armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence But we also know as Minister Payne reminded us this morning that the women piece in security agenda is actually built on four Or if you like even five pillars, but it's just not simply about the protection of women But it is also about their participation. It is also about including and incorporating a gender perspective Inter-peace and security operations It is also about the prevention of armed conflict and finally it is also about considering the role of women in Relief and recovery operations So UN Security Council Resolution 1322 Does include a focus upon these four or if you like five pillars and when we think about these We need to think about them not simply as pillars that stand in isolation to one another or pillars that are pursued Independently of one another, but the fact that the pillars as a metaphor serves to hold up a Structure and that structure is of course peace and security and of course the advocates of 1325 say that those pillars must Look alike in form in size in shape in emphasis in resources in all of those sorts of things So Lachlan was talking this morning in this morning's panel about the ways in which we need to make sure that all of those four pillars are interwoven with one another that they are cyclical in nature that they help support one another and help to create that peace and security and This is perhaps something that we've not exactly seen happen when we think about the evolution of the women peace and security agenda So the foundational resolution of course occurred in October 2000 I think as a security council was recovering from that there was eight or nine years of silence before the issue came up again And since then we've seen seven subsequent Resolutions that make up the women peace and security agenda broadly, but four of those focus specifically on sexual and gender-based violence Now this is impressive in some regards because what it has done as has created an infrastructure Around gathering data on this issue around implementing programs designed to address it and monitoring and evaluation But there are also problems associated with this because it's created a disproportionate Agenda for the council which focuses overwhelmingly on this issue to the detriment of the other pillars So I won't go through it, but very briefly The four first resolutions are the ones that focus on sexual and gender-based violence And do things such as set up the office for the special representative insist upon women protection Advisors on teams of experts develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks known as MARA the monitoring analysis and reporting arrangements insist upon accountability and prosecution of perpetrators and 2242 which was released in Along with the global study in 2015 addresses the issue Among others of violent extremism, but also of sexual and gender-based violence in regard to that So where are we in terms of its implementation? Like I said, what we're seeing here is a rather impressive strong Normative framework on the protection of women and girls from conflict related violence But I think it's overwhelmingly agreed that its impact on the lives of conflict affected women and girls has generally been seen to be weak the global study says that this is effectively because These processes don't address the root causes of sexual and gender-based violence in war It doesn't challenge the gender norms that trigger violence before during or after war and that's a quote from the global study and indeed critics argue that overwhelmingly the council's focus on sexual violence is a reflection of its Masculinist and paternalist Ethic of military protection. So what this sort of means is that the comfortable the council is more comfortable with implementing reactive programs rather than preventative programs that their militarized approaches to protection rather than empowering women and that they facilitate their Facilitating their participation as decision-makers in peace and security is something that they're reasonably uncomfortable with So the global study and others argue that as long as council fails to address the other WPS of Pillars equally and with equal vigor its approach to sexual and gender-based violence will not combat the root cause of problems And its impact will remain This is a big job, of course and the protection of women and girls Shouldn't fall by the wayside while these other pillars are being Considered, but it is about interweaving all of those pillars together and asking questions like What are the gender structural conditions within a society that enables or allows the intentional use of SGBV to achieve political ends or asking questions that help us to better understand how Endemic gender discrimination in a society might in fact help us predict Where conflict is going to take place and help us better understand the tactics and strategies of the perpetrators and the patterns of that conflict I'm not one for long quotes, but I did want to Spend some time reading the research findings of my colleagues at the Monash University gender peace and security research center Which has just completed a major mapping of sexual and gender-based violence in the Asia Pacific and they say that widespread and Systematic SGBV is an act of political violence and it's a form of political and violence that is informed by discriminatory societal norms and gender Including discriminatory family codes that entrench men's domination over women and children restrictions on women's civil liberties Access to their resources and entitlements institutionalized biases towards sons boys and men and normalized everyday violations of women's physical and bodily integrity Such endemic gender discrimination and oppression makes the use of SGBV an effective way of shaming destabilizing and displacing the whole groups in civil unrest both before before During and after conflict So I want to spend my last two minutes Talking just very briefly about how Australia is implementing women peace and security agenda with regard to SGBV and I think I've put my other hat on here as the author of the shadow report on Australia's implementation of the NAP I think a consistent message that we've been making over the past four years is that Australia has a very sophisticated understanding of these issues Moreover, it has a very strong political commitment to addressing these issues And it's not without a little bit of pride that I say that Australia has done some very good work in leading the world In understanding the importance of the women peace and security agenda to the peace and security framework However, I think where a lot of national action plans fall down and including Australia's national action plan is in its Implementation matrix and its monitoring and evaluation framework So it is wonderful to have amazing rhetoric and amazing understanding around these issues But when it comes to sexual and gender-based violence the Australian national action plan doesn't speak to this in the actions That it needs to take and it only speaks very broadly to the things that Australia might need to do to be able to better address Gender-based violence in terms of things like the protection of civilians or in terms of training More over while there is space in the reporting for Australia to talk about some of the good work It does it only need to do that by accident is not required to report specifically on any of these measures There's no targets around these issues and more over there's no analysis of the impact So it's terrific to hear for instance the work that the Australian federal police does in supporting the implementation of family Violence laws in the Solomon Islands, but unless that's reported on in a way that's designed to measure impact We have a great deal difficulty of knowing what works what's not working and why So in conclusion then I will simply say that addressing sexual and gender-based violence through the security council process is a long and a short-term game There is short-term protection that needs to happen But that also needs to happen alongside the long-term game, which is about a commitment to women's participation and empowerment It's about a commitment to gender equality It is about having a strong and clear plan and it's about having a plan to implement that plan And this means that we need to keep in mind that at the end of the day It doesn't start with protection that women's participation will play a significant role in the prevention of armed conflict And the prevention of armed conflict will preclude the need for protection for women in conflict Thank you very much Kate. You have Made us all focus on the fact that gender-based violence and sexual violence are not the same thing Now secondly From my point of view wonderful to hear you talk about how the security council has played a sometimes helpful and sometimes not always helpful role On our national action plan. I must confess. There was a common Pattern you can see where people report on the activities they're conducting Rather than the outcomes they're achieving. So I think you rightly draw our attention to make sure we Focus squarely on what we're actually achieving and we're working on the 2015 2016 report under the NAP and There's there are many activities being Implemented, but we're really got to focus as you say on the outcomes Our third speaker is a Colonel Amanda Fielding Amanda does say my note to you Colonel Fielding, but I think I've got a stick with what we're Australian so we Amanda is fine Amanda currently works as the gender advisor to the Australian Defence Force's chief of joint operations and has recently completed her second tour of Afghanistan as the senior gender advisor for the Resolute Support Mission in Total she has had 25 years of experience in the army including operational experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Timor-Leste So here we're going to get very much the perspective from the from the field It's wonderful how we've actually managed to get together a panel which neatly Compliments each other so Amanda welcome you to the stage. Thank you Well, thank you for that introduction Lachlan and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen It is an absolute privilege to be here amongst you today And obviously being the only uniformed member of the panel I'm going to have quite a different perspective on women in conflict But I would like to say listening to the our first two speakers that I think it's quite complimentary and For us to enact the the Australian National Action Plan. It must be a whole of government approach And to implement UNSCR 1325 we really need an international approach. So I hope that comes across today There's a couple of things that I will be focusing on this afternoon I'll give you an insight into my role as the operational gender advisor and the lead gender planner at joint operations command But I also want to give you an insight into my role in Afghanistan and the very important work that is Continuing to be done By my successes there in the Resolute Support Mission supporting the women of Afghanistan to join the security forces So I will not just be focusing on women as disproportionate victims and and sexual gender-based violence But I will cover it I'll also be focusing on women as agents of change and the importance of women participation in the security forces From the outset though I would like to firstly give you a quick overview noting that Senator Payne did steal some of my thunder On how the ADF is implementing a gender perspective to give you give you a bit of context on my operational roles So the National Action Plan as we're aware was introduced in 2012. So was the Defence Implementation Plan So 17 of the 24 actions in the National Action Plan are actually Either the sole or collective responsibility of defence and the majority of those actions are for us to implement on ADF operations To do that when the Defence Implementation Plan was introduced in 2012 We also created a number of gender advisor positions These gender advisor positions work for the Chiefs of Defence Force and our Chiefs of Services My position as the operational gender advisor wasn't created until 2015 when I returned from Afghanistan We still only have a very small collective group of gender advisors But that will change after we run and conduct our first ADF gender advisor course mid this year So we can deploy gender advisors more broadly and each of those service gender advisors that I mentioned are actually sitting in this room today So why Why has the ADF introduced UNSCR 1325 and Women, Peace and Security to operations and operational planning? Well because it enhances our operational effectiveness and Enhances our operational effectiveness because what it leads us to do is to gain a better understanding of our operating environment More to the point it gives us a better idea of what the roles of men women boys and girls are in whatever conflict area that we deploy to and How the relations between those men women boys and girls impacts on our operating environment and how we work with the local population and the local security forces It's important to consider a gender perspective in Operations because it does recognize that women and girls are generally disproportionate victims And I would just like to say when we first introduced Their women peace and security agenda into operational planning my position was called the WPS advisor We had to change that because in an organization like defense where the majority of the people you are talking to Warfighters and war fighting men We found it was much easier to talk to them about gender which looks at men and women And how that impacted on the operating environment But in doing so women still when we did our gender analysis for our planning came out as the disproportionate victims And the area that we needed to focus on in addition to traditional military Considerations so we recognize that women and girls are disproportionate victims But we've also recognized that men and boys Have vulnerabilities as well and there was a report released by the UN on the use 80 people Mid last year which highlights very well if you can get your hands on it the different Vulnerabilities of men women boys and girls men's vulnerability was centered around those men of fighting age that their freedom of movement was restricted in in areas of North Iraq and Syria because they were actively tried to be recruited by armed groups women as sex slaves girls as sex slaves often either to impregnate them to build the caliphate or to be sold to Create funds for the caliphate and young boys were certainly being recruited as child soldiers So I mentioned the importance of women as agents of change traditionally as military We identify key military leaders when we deploy to air and operations when I talk about Afghanistan shortly I'll highlight to you that we also acknowledge that there were senior female leaders Civil women civil society groups who are very powerful and influential in some of these countries and on previous operations We probably we well we didn't tap into to these organizations And they have an incredible amount of insight on what is happening at the village level in particular But also introducing a gender perspective into planning means that we're also Recognizing that women can play a role as combatants and as facilitators of conflict And certainly in northern Iraq at the moment women are Performing the role of informants in in some situations Sometimes under coercion, but I will talk about sexual violence and why it's being used as a tactic later The role of we also recognize that women play a role in terrorism and violent extremism and as such It's incredibly important that we look at the role that women can play in countering violent extremism and terrorism as well Before I talk about Afghanistan I just wanted to talk about the four P's of UNSCR 1325 and there is a fifth Which is relieving recovery, but that's not the focus of what I'm looking at this afternoon So just so you understand how the military perceives the four P's So remembering the role of the military is to provide a safe and secure environment For for our people and the people that we are being sent to protect when we deploy on operations So we firstly teach our deploying troops To understand what a gender perspective is and what their own biases are Particularly when they're deploying to a particular country. So To understand what they think the population wants But then we want them to get a better understanding of how the population views each other How men and women view each other and what their roles are To ensure that it enhances our engagement with the local population and the local security forces when we get there We also look at soft prevention measures So when we're talking about prevention and this is certainly something we did in Afghanistan We introduced strategies and policies to inquire to try and protect and secure Vulnerable groups that were identified on those those deployments and some of this Simple things we did in Afghanistan was made sure we introduced assisted the Afghan forces in introducing policies that ensured that women were deployed to units on their own for example to try and increase their security and protection When we're talking protection as a military Noting that UNSCR 1325 talks about protection as far as human rights and the protection of human rights We are certainly talking about physical protection that it that is our role when we deploy So that is certainly what we we tell our troops and we make sure that they understand on whichever country We are deploying to what the unique security issues are for the men and women in that country and ensure that we provide protection measures to meet those very specific security requirements and needs One of the most important Areas that we need to look at to address is of course participation and allocating female forces to speak to local local women To get an understanding of what their security needs are but also to assist the local women and coming up with their own security solutions And then we will aim to assist them with that And so we allocate our own forces to to assist with that on on operations It's also important to recognize with participation that the more women that you have in security The more likely you are to consider the security needs of the women girls and families within certain certain countries And once you you realize that you're more likely to be able to address those security needs And finally on participation before I talk about Afghanistan specifically I'd just like to quote the the chief of army out of a recent ASPE article Lieutenant-General Campbell was quoted to say in the women peace and security strategist series Published on 24th of March. He said it is a practical disadvantage to have a normal combat force It's crucial to put the most effective force into the field in a culture where it is routinely forbidden for women to have Interactions with males not of their family having women involved in your operations has a very powerful effect On this occasion the chief of army was specifically talking about the importance of female forces in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan So what was my role in in Afghanistan? Well, my role in that of the other gender advisors was to Provide train advice and assistance to the Afghan National Defense Security Forces to ensure women's meaningful and safe Participation in the security forces. So that includes both the police and the Afghan National Army So I was the senior gender advisor for the mission working directly to commander-resolute support And I had an office at that strategic operational level Who had specific advisors to the Ministry of Interior to focus on women's integration into the police and Into the Ministry of Defense for the Afghan National Army It's also important to recognize that we had a third gender advisor In our team who focused on civil society groups and non-government organizations and other GO's who were operating in Afghanistan And it was mentioned earlier Sometimes you can have hundreds of organizations working on women's issues specifically a women's security issue So it was incredibly important that we had an advisor to liaise with those groups to ensure that we did Deconflicted and coordinated our our efforts So what were some of the challenges that we faced in in Afghanistan and in the planning? So I often ask military groups. What do you think of my? Role was the most difficult was it integrating gender Considerations into the NATO planning and the coalition planning of our uniformed members or do you think it was? including it within the Afghan National Defense security forces well, I have to say that both were challenging for very similar reasons Both had different cultures, but culturally and attitudinally it was difficult for them to comprehend But at the end of the day it was an operational and a cultural imperative for women to be included in the security forces in Afghanistan and as I mentioned earlier the more women that you have in security the more likely you are to consider the security needs of The 50% of the population and their families it was incredibly important for example to have female searches and Certainly the Taliban and and other insurgents and armed groups were taking advantage of the fact that they weren't female searches at two points That there weren't females at border border Points because we had there were numerous reports at least one a week where a male would dress up in a burqa to try and move through a checkpoint with explosives So once we started putting those females randomly on those checkpoints. We started seeing a positive mission effect we also had women in the special police forces and Initially when we before we transitioned from the ISAF mission, which was coalition led to the Afghan led mission Of resolute support There was a lot of criticism of the special police in the special forces when they raided compounds where women and children were sleeping Because the women wouldn't be properly attired and in addition they weren't Permitted culturally to speak with the women and children as soon as they started introducing women As soon as women started participating in these raids and these special forces women were fully trained There is an entire platoon of them They were actually able to go into these compounds and speak with the women and children and they discovered that they were hiding numerous plans cases of weapons and Ordinance so from once again from an operational perspective It was really important to include women in the forces to participate in improving Afghanistan's Security it was also very well understood that local's women's networks were also very well informed on the actions of insurgents within the country and I was always stunned to listen to some of the civil society groups When I engage with them they're great understanding right down to the village level of what the movements of the Taliban and others was so for no other reason disappearing and Targeting women is a strategy of the Taliban So what better way to counter the strategy of the Taliban by empowering women and including them in the security forces To enable those women to secure their own futures and the futures of their family And when I address this with the coalition planners The way I would convince them particularly during the fighting season where they're very much focused on on conflict is That there are more women killed than combatants in Afghanistan every day Just because of their gender just because that they're women and women make up 50% of the population And if we want to defeat the Taliban if we want to defeat the enemy Then we need to consider that 50% of the population Finally, I would just like to mention that the Australian Defence Force certainly considers sexual and gender-based violence in our planning We understand very well that rape and sexual violence is the tactic and a strategy of war And it is something that we need to counter as an actual threat and in doing so it's important to understand that in current conflict That rape and sexual violence is being used as a power as a tool to overpower and Dominate populations. It's also being used as a tool of coercion and particularly being used by Daesh at the moment and Boko Haram And it is being used to dominate both men and women Which I think is an important thing for for us to understand and it is certainly a deliberate tactic that is being applied And I'd just like to finish by stating that because we have recognised this because we have recognised the importance of Women in conflict be it as victims that need protecting as agents of change who we need to engage with Or as participants within their own security forces We certainly make sure that all these issues are briefed to all our deploying personnel That they understand what sexual gender-based violence is and the impact that it can have on the local population in the operation And we certainly arm them these days with the tools of how to address that Including the grave violations against children We make sure that if they encounter this if they encounter any sexual exploitation and abuse that they know how to deal with it So thank you very much for your time this afternoon Thank you very much Amanda It's tremendous to get that on the ground experience, which frankly I don't have I've got Different on the ground experience working in India But but not what you have been through to hear what you have said about the challenges working with both NATO and the Afghan security forces Sometimes you might have found the latter easier than the former And again you have emphasized the importance of working with those local women's groups When I took my current job on two years ago I found that my gender equality team had 14 staff and not one man in it So that was a big problem So it's specifically recruited one section here to run one of the sections to bring in that male perspective So this isn't really a question. We're gonna leave that for the floor, but with your gender advisors I wonder if any of them are men Excellent see you're you're ahead of where we were so I'm now going to open the floor to the questions Well, I'm gonna sort of steal a little bit of afternoon tea probably go to about ten past three rather than three So over to you My question is to Gabriel, you know, we've witnessed Despicable acts against women especially by Daesh You know since they've come into power in 2014 How do you prosecute that? How do you address such? Terrible acts against me especially the Yazidi women It's a problem. It's an issue. So what do we do about it? I? Think that's a very tough question. There has been, you know attempts You might be aware in the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria in particular to the ICC but That's been blocked by members of the Council Russia and China won't allow it then in December last year This the General Assembly decided to take action and they adopted a resolution establishing an international mechanism With the idea that these crimes will be prosecuted so that mechanism is a lot of fault to that number one It relies on voluntary funding. So it hasn't been established yet. It's hoped with Donations from countries Australia. I think contributed Contribution so that isn't the idea is that this mechanism will be established Which will receive evidence because there's a lot of evidence that certain groups are collecting and it will build files Cases and then national jurisdictions Hopefully will take up these cases or if we can get to a different political situation Then maybe an international mechanism could prosecute these cases But at the end of the day in talking about who should prosecute them There's so many perpetrators There's so many perpetrators that you really do need national jurisdictions to take these cases up And there are some limited prosecutions going on. I think in Germany and a couple of other countries It's gonna be a long-term project if it happens And I mean if we look now at the former Yugoslavia, there's still cases going on It's over 20 years ago, you know, they've been taken up by national jurisdictions because there's so many perpetrators You know and victims are still waiting, you know for justice, but you need to the right political climate You know, unfortunately, you know Thank you. I'm here from Fiji Institutional reforms is very important to prevent the reoccurrence of sexual and gender-based violence especially re-establishing Trust and building on sustainable peace. My question is to any of the panelists Do you think enough awareness has been done or undertaken to address the gender sexual and gender-based violence as part of the justice and sector security sector reforms on by post-conflict countries I think the short answer to your question is absolutely not But I think what we do see is uneven and sporadic attempts to do so. I mean, I think one of the big Recognitions, which is of course far too late That's been made particularly by the Australian government in recent years in its approach to dealing with this issue is understanding the continuum of violence That occurs in conflict in peace in public and in private spaces so recognising for instance that high rates of Domestic violence often attends a post-conflict phase And that high rates of domestic violence is associated with the ways in which we do things like demobilize Demilitarize and reintegrate soldiers for instance that the way in which we build peace economically can also have Dramatic implications for the kinds of violence of women experiences in post-conflict and peace processes So I think when you talk to people about Ramsey for instance, you know, there will be moments When there was good work being done in attempts to recognise that continuum of violence against women, but it was something that took a long time to happen and The problem is that you know to use Minister Payne's words from this morning. It's not business as usual It's not the everyday business the everyday boring mundane business of women, peace and security yet. It's Dramatic interventions here and there that aren't being sustained across time So I think the short answer is no, but the long answer is don't give up hope And that I think these things incremental and do take time and there are Examples of where this is starting to be done across the Pacific Certainly from a defense perspective We are educating very broadly that the more inequities there are in the society and the high levels of domestic violence That it can be a very key. It's a key indicator of a lack of law enforcement Which is why we focus on security forces and assisting security forces noting the judicial part of that process is also very important But is it important to us? Particularly regionally noting the high levels of gender-based violence within the Pacific and the Asia Pacific more broadly That we need to understand that we don't want to see failing and failed states within our region And we need to enable those post-conflict states To enhance those enhance those institutions in particular the security forces and the judicial system Hi, Mark Wilkinson. I'm with the Defence Corporation program in PNG This is probably due Colonel Amanda, but you can flick it away if you want I guess with policing and military operations overseas The the nice concept would be that we have a zero zero tolerance to gender-based violence How much risk does that place on us undermining? The overall mission because we're marginalising ourselves from the our target influence audience focusing on gender and based violence only enhances our mission and Something I would like to say which came up in the the last Panel was that we only conduct engagement with local women If it causes no harm There is a level of risk with any kind of engagement that us as a military force have with local populations and local security forces So it's done in a very measured way And when we do get involved in trying to resolve those issues in the countries that we deploy to We make sure that it's in line with our mission as as an operational force so our force will be designed to meet those specific requirements and if required and we have deployed them before we Will have female engagement teams? But as rightly pointed out before it's important to have men involved as well and in a society Country like Afghanistan where it's a patriarchal society We certainly employed male gender advisors to meet with other military men on women's security issues because men Advocating for women's security was a very powerful Thing for them to champion for us and it was important Considering we had a predominantly male leadership to do the same. So I don't I think it just enhances our mission I don't believe that it hinders it Perhaps also add to that that You know that there's been a long tradition when we think about women peace and security as Them being three separate things, but I think you know what the research is showing is that We can't do gender and women's security as an add-on as something that we do if we have time or something that we do if we have The resources or the capacity After we do the main business of establishing peace and security So that's about a significant mindset change that Recognizes that women's security is the core business of peace and security, you know It's that first-order political as Valerie was saying this morning It's that first-order political relationship the relationship between men and women in a society Which is essentially this the site in which we're trying to build that sustainable peace and security Could I say in some of the strategies I saw being developed in our own organization? you could see the gender bit stapled on the back and We've become a possible sustained appeal. No, you've got to build it in from the beginning It's got to be part of your basic strategy not the bit stapled on the back I think I there was another question Maybe here and then the table behind so this or you first madam. I think you might have been at the back first And then we'll come forward Terry Lee I'm from the Guam police department and I'm also a US service member as well 17 year veteran This question is directed to Colonel Fielding I'm also a victim of gender-based violence in a combat zone. So this is a little bit touchy topic for me So in the United States, there's a big issue with my male counterparts Engaging in gender-based violence towards their sister in arms as well. So my My question to you is what steps are implemented to protect the women in within your ranks in a combat zone being that sometimes There's only one female and 40 male Service members engaged in the mission in the Middle East or any conflict zones right now the big thing for the United States is the revamping of our sexual assault and harassment programs and they're doing more to establish legislation to protect more of the women's service members and to advocate for them and To be well protected while they're serving overseas and by themselves. So my question is again Are there more efforts or is this is is this a big thing within the Australian Defense Force? Firstly, I'm really sorry to hear that occurred and I have to say from my experience in Iraq my roommate was actually the medical officer She was a US major For the for the coalition forces over there And I was startled on a daily basis with how many women were abused on the bases In Iraq at the time and I know that it has still occurred in on bases in Afghanistan from an Australian perspective We take sexual exploitation and abuse in the education of that very very seriously And I'm happy to report that on current ADF operations We've got zero reports of sexual exploitation and abuse I think a lot of that goes back to we have a very hard line and part of my role to in briefing troops before they deploy is to Emphasize with them that there's zero tolerance But I think the general education and defense We are annually briefed on it There are very strict policies in place and any policy that applies in Australia applies on operations as well And we make that very clear to people and we make sure that there is a very stringent accountability system for anyone that is is found to be abusing either sexually or otherwise another ADF member and I think the other avenue that that we are addressing is culture and I think a lot of that is culture too so mutual respect for each other and a real emphasis on the The Values for each of the services and defense as a whole and people in defense can be kicked out of defense For not adhering to those values and we take those values very seriously Hi, my question is actually kind of similar Katrina you talked about International agents and UN peacekeepers committing a lot of these atrocities and I just wanted I vaguely remember that There was a UN approach to this Was like a zero tolerance or a zero incident? Framework Which wasn't proving to really work because they weren't actually able to have those conversations and actually identify those Incidences properly and I was wondering if you could talk maybe about has that been progressing at all? I know there's a bit of conversation that's been happening in this area and is there more to that But certainly I mean this became a big issue in 2003 when it was revealed the extent of Peacekeeper abuse in cases involving five children particularly and it was in In the DS in anyway And so this brought this issue to the light and a major study was done by a group of NGOs Which found that there was in fact widespread abuse not just by peacekeepers, but by international aid and humanitarian Workers who were doing things like trading Food for sex with children as well as with women so the secretary-general's response was to Install a zero tolerance Fratinization policy for all UN peacekeepers are serving abroad This was a very controversial policy because not only did it did it Put an end to supposedly sexual exploitation and abuse But also genuine relationships that might form between peacekeepers and local civilians which were seen to be in some ways very disempowering For women particularly, but you're right to say that there hasn't been significant Movement in addressing this issue that it does remain a problem in a number of peacekeeping Operations and last year the Security Council passed a resolution. I think it's it was 277 to Which sorts of reinforce this zero tolerance policy, but Gabrielle? I mean, I think the Secretary-General also banned those countries whose troops were alleged to have engaged in this conduct from participating in any peacekeeping missions, you know in the future But in terms of accountability, you know, it has to fall to the national Jurisdiction because there's no accountability measure in the in the UN for dealing with it So it has to be taken up by the The states from which the perpetrators come from Gotta say with some of the peacekeeping operations which the UN has been running in Africa the risk of Sexual violence has increased because many of these operations are in now particularly remote areas in the middle of very protracted conflicts very complex situations and then the troops are left out in the field for far too long and They're underpaid and under the pump and you've got all these factors which just increase the risk of the UN It's realized you can't get a bunch of Soldiers and stick them out there somewhere in Central African Republic or DRC for month or month or month or month year-on-year It was the risk goes up Has done in recent years or in the last couple of decades is to institute all female Fighting force or all female police units. So there's been a couple of groups of all female women from obviously, sorry all female Indian women going to Liberia and participating in the peacekeeping mission in Liberia and of course, you know unsurprisingly One of the things that they found was the rate of peacekeeper abuse of local populations decreased dramatically when those Police units were all female. That's a good outcome But it's also a problematic logic and a problematic conceptualization of why this sort of violence occurs You know as Lachlan suggested there are all sorts of reasons from training to the parameters of the operation to the timing to the Resources that lends itself to these sorts of things happening that need to be addressed at a very sort of systematic level Can I thank our three panellists for a very engaging discussion?