United Nations Condemns Mass Rape

In an exchange with reporters outside the United Nations late last week, a high-ranking UN official described sexual violence during war as one of the greatest security risks of our time. Margot Wallstrom, the UN's Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told reporters that using rape as a tool of war is no more acceptable nor inevitable than committing mass murder.

Rape is being used by armed groups to re-ignite the flames of conflict and to terrorize and humiliate communities in Africa, according to Letitia Anderson, Women's Rights specialist with the United Nation's Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative. She said armed groups have been branding the bodies of women and children with signature patterns, just as cattle are branded, in places such as Congo...leaving scars so that their families and community members know they they have been victims of aggravated sexual violence.  Victims of rape were then often turned into outcasts because of the stigma and humiliation associated with the crime.