In a meeting of United Nation’s Security Council, special envoy of UNHCR criticized the world powers for lack of action of wartime crimes against women. The meeting, which was presided over by Britain, witnessed the speech of screen star, Angelina Jolie, on Monday when the ambassadors of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain listened to her chiding. ‘The world has yet to take up war zone rape as a serious crime’ she said at the meeting.
She mentioned her visits to the refugee camps in Jordan that host the refugees from war-torn Syria and refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where she met a number of women who were the victims of war-time cruelty and rape and no action had been taken against the culprits. ‘That is a sad, upsetting and indeed shameful reality. I understand that there are many difficult things for the Security Council to agree on, but sexual violence in conflict should not be one of them. The UN Security Council must step in and provide leadership and assistance,’ she said.
No doubt, there are certain rules in the conventions and charters of United Nations that protect the rights of civilians in the war-hit areas but unfortunately, there are not present strict laws that should protect the respect of women and in wartime, every act is considered to be legal and fair. Similarly, the guilty are not prosecuted and punished properly.
More or less, same situation prevails in our country and the effect of this barbarism has been multiplied by the fact that we have been through a war of three decades that snatched away the feelings of people about right and wrong and thus every act, being fair or unfair, to inflict harm on others were regarded fair and justified and in this regard, all the ethical standards, international charters, legal guidelines have been ignored and sidelined.
The above news comes with enhanced impact when we talk of Afghanistan as many parts of the country are still not free of militancy and there are present certain powers that believe and practice in the use of military power to acquire their objectives. It is however different that, in our country, along with women, rape of children is getting serious day by day and in last one year, media reported increased number of such shameful and sad incidents.
On the other hand, we see that there is not present any kind of legal hindrance to control such immoral crimes. The warning of Angelina Jolie should be alarming to all those who are working to protect the rights of women and children to step forward and work for this issue on both legal and practical grounds.