GROUNDBREAKING GLOBAL CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO CORRECT FAILINGS OF REPARATIONS FOR WOMEN AND GIRL SURVIVORS OF WAR CRIMES

MONTREAL – May 15, 2007 – Women and girls who suffer acts of sexual violence in times of conflict are too often forced to endure the stigma, prejudice and exclusion that accompanies being labeled a victim of such crimes by their societies. Changing such attitudes and ensuring women and girl survivors have access to adequate reparation in order to rebuild their lives and communities is the focus of a new international campaign by the Rights & Democracy-based Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations.

Press conferences today in Montreal and Thursday, May 17, in Toronto will launch this groundbreaking campaign, which aims to see all post-conflict justice and reconstruction initiatives informed by the principles of the Coalition’s Nairobi Declaration.

Drafted by representatives of women’s rights organizations from six continents and endorsed by leading international human rights advocates including Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Nairobi Declaration is founded on the experiences of women and girl survivors of sexual violence and the expertise of activists and jurists who are helping them rebuild their lives. At the Declaration’s core is the belief that justice for women and girl survivors of sexual violence will never be achieved if reparations programs are not informed and directed by those they are meant to serve. The Nairobi Declaration aims to correct the systemic flaws of national Truth and Reconciliation initiatives and existing reparation schemes and to inform those being developed by the International Criminal Court.

The Nairobi Declaration asserts that reparation programs must go beyond mere compensation and restitution. According to the Declaration, adequate reparation and remedy must:

Empower women and girls, support their efforts to rebuild trust and relations and foster their participation in social reconstruction. Decision-making about reparations must include victims as full participants.
Address social inequalities and discrimination in existence prior to conflict, which lie at the root of violence against women and girls in times of conflict.
Promote social justice and encourage the transformation toward a fair and equal society.
Emphasize the importance of truth-telling in order to allow women and girls to move ahead and become true citizens. Abuses against women must be named and recognized in order to raise awareness about these crimes and violations, to positively influence a more holistic strategy for reparation and measures that support reparation, and to help build a shared memory and history.

“Reparations should provide women and girls with the tools to rebuild their lives not as they were prior to war or conflict, but in ways that address and transform sociocultural injustices and structural inequalities that predate the conflict,” says Ariane Brunet, coordinator of the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations. “Women and girls’ right to reparation is not only about restitution, compensation and access to judicial redress, it is about women playing an active role in repairing the social fabric and building afresh a just and equal society.”

The Nairobi Declaration is the first stage in a long-term international campaign on gender reparation. It is intended as a tool to be implemented by States, multilateral agencies, regional agencies and national entities, such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

Rights & Democracy is a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution created by an Act of Parliament in 1988 to promote democratic development and to advocate for and defend human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights. In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, Rights & Democracy initiates and supports programmes to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries.