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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEffort to end rape as a tool of war - the US leads by changing Visa policy to bar offenders
Kerry is at a conference in London that FM Hague set up. His speech is interesting in pushing other countries to enact the same rule -
This is from the State Department web site -http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/06/227290.htm
[div class ="excerpt"]
As my countrys top diplomat, ending this cycle of violence is a critical mission. The first step is to begin treating sexual violence in armed conflict as a major international crime. It is not and cannot be seen as an inevitable consequence of conflict. Nor is it a simple infraction of a countrys penal code.
The next step in this overdue process will be persuading every government to deny safe haven to those who commit these vile acts. That should be a key legacy of the London conference.
The February change in U.S. visa policy affirmed that sexual violence can be a war crime: It is often organised and systematic, not an unavoidable by-product of war. According to our updated guidance, even those occupying the highest echelons of military or government who ordered, engaged in, or looked the other way when their subordinates committed acts of sexual violence will not be welcome in the United States.
I challenge other countries to do the same. Pass legislation that excludes these perpetrators from entering your countries. Participate in this global campaign of accountability and containment. Protect your citizens and send a strong message to offenders that they are unwelcome and that impunity ends at your borders. We must communicate a unified stance with a single, loud voice: There is no place in the civilized world for those who commit acts of sexual violence. We must declare in unison: They cant run and they wont hide here.
It was very hard to pick just 4 paragraphs - it is worth reading the rest, but these are the "action" he ended with. Note that the US has already changed its VISA policy
I assume that the UK, which hosted this, may be doing the same thing - I'm looking for some article saying so. This is not it, but it is a good article on the conference - http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2014/02/20140226294149.html#axzz34ABvO8nF
British coverage - http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/end-war-rape-2014-john-kerry-leads-global-fight-to-stamp-out-sexual-violence-in-conflicts-9512726.html
karynnj
(59,475 posts)redgreenandblue
(2,088 posts)There are a lot of reports of systematic sexual abuse in military detention centers.
mylye2222
(2,992 posts)Still Waiting France to stop its trade with African war criminals...
karynnj
(59,475 posts)There are many other American laws that do and should apply.
Where Americans should and could be affected is if other countries were to follow our example and implement something like this. Then it would be those countries refusing admittance to those found to have done these things. Here they are speaking of systematic use by the military as a weapon of war. The target of this is the far more pervasive horrors where hundreds or thousands of women were raped - as an act of war - in a mass attack obviously initiated by someone. The important thing would be send a message that anyone involved in this is not welcome in any other country.
The closest American thing to this I can think of is Abu Grabeh - there was sexual humiliation there - I don't know (and do not want to be sickened by looking back through that) if anything could be said to be rape. In addition, there were trials and people went to jail. The question always was how far up did those orders come from.
Everything else I can think of is not the military using rape, but soldiers acting on their own. I know there was a problem within our military of soldiers being raped by other soldiers - this is not what they are speaking of - and the military has made changes and will have to make more until this is under control. (There are also rapes of local people that are NOT actions directed by the military - they are already illegal - and if the enforcement is lax that needs to be fixed.