Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you Mr President and we wish you very well in leading us in the Council this month. We also appreciate the presence and valuable input of the Secretary-General, Ms Bangura, Ms Giammarinaro and Ms Davis.
The Secretary-General’s latest report and the briefers paint a deeply disturbing picture.
We are horrified by terrorist and violent extremist groups’ trafficking for sexual exploitation. These are not isolated incidents. They represent a pattern and a policy.
Tragically, due to the realities of today’s conflicts, many victims are beyond the reach of national and international protection mechanisms.
There are nevertheless steps we can take to: address the drivers of this disturbing trend; to deter and disrupt violence that is occurring; and to ensure accountability for these crimes and to provide support for survivors.
First, we must redouble our efforts to address the conditions that leave civilians vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and that allow terrorist and criminal groups to conduct these crimes with impunity.
The surge in conflict-related sexual violence is in often a product of protracted conflict and the associated collapse of protection mechanisms and national judicial frameworks. We cannot expect a significant improvement until these conflicts are resolved and the groups themselves who are responsible for the majority of these crimes have been defeated.
Second, we need to counter narratives that attempt to legitimise and justify these practices. The promise of a bride or sex slave is a motivating factor for many foreign terrorist fighters. We support the Secretary-General’s call to mainstream efforts to combat the pre-meditated and systematic targeting of civilians, particularly women and girls, into our strategies for preventing and countering violent extremism. We also welcome the inclusion of sexual violence in conflict as an area of focus in the latest report from the Secretary-General on the strategic threat posed by ISIL.
Third, we need to do more at domestic, regional and international levels.
Domestically, we need to have national frameworks and processes in place to prosecute nationals, including overseas. And we need to work effectively with other states to identify such individuals.
In New Zealand, our focus has been on criminalising trafficking in persons, disrupting criminal and terrorist networks, and addressing related crimes, including through the tracing and confiscation of financial assets. As a party to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, New Zealand legislation has been tightened so that our citizens and residents can be charged for these offences, even where this has occurred outside New Zealand. This acts as a deterrent, and ensures human traffickers can be held accountable.
Strong regional and global cooperation and information sharing is also vital. In the Asia-Pacific, our active contribution to regional efforts to tackle human trafficking and people smuggling through the “Bali Process” has paid particular dividends.
In 2015, New Zealand led a ‘Joint Period of Action’ focused on disrupting trafficking networks in the Asia-Pacific through a series of separate but coordinated law enforcement operations. This initiative was highly successful, and a second Joint Period of Action was initiated last month.
At the international level, the Security Council has a role to play, including through the ISIL/al Qaida sanctions regime. As the Secretary-General has made clear, the trafficking of women and girls and their sexual enslavement is a source of financing for ISIL and its affiliates, as well as a recruitment tool.
Resolution 2253 sets out a range of measures for choking off all sources of financing to these groups, including the option of listing those who transfer funds derived from sexual exploitation and abuse. For this to be effective, however, member states need to actively propose individuals and entities engaged in such activities for designation.
As chair of the ISIL/al-Qaida sanctions committee, New Zealand is ready to discuss how sanctions can more effectively address human trafficking as an enabler of terrorist groups.
Finally, Mr President, we must not lose sight over the longer term of the need to heal the scars inflicted on individuals and communities and to hold those most responsible accountable.
Many crimes have been committed in recent years in Syria, Iraq, northern Nigeria, and elsewhere. We have to make sure that the perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence are brought to justice. In the meantime, it is crucial that we support efforts to collect and preserve evidence.
Survivors of this violence – women, girls, men and boys – must also receive adequate support as others have mentioned to alleviate their suffering and to assist their reintegration into communities, without prejudice or stigma.
Through education and engagement with community and faith-based leaders, we must shift the stigma from survivors to perpetrators.
Where survivors cannot be reintegrated into their communities, resettlement can be an important protection tool. We call on all states to ensure that potential exposure to trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is taken into account in engaging refugee protection mechanisms.
Mr President, as a Council and an international community, we must do everything we can to stop human trafficking and end sexual violence in conflict, and we must help the victims to rebuild their lives.
Thank you.