JINHA

NEWS CENTER – UN representative Zainab Bangura, reporting on her observations with women victims of Daesh's sexual violence in the Middle East, says that Daesh uses sexual violence as a systematic tactic of war.

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Bangura, reported to the press on Friday that in her observations from April 16-29 in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, she found that Daesh used sexual violence as an integral part of its ideology and tactics.

Zainab met with women and children who escaped Daesh captivity. She said that, "women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives" and called for the inclusion of gender-sensitive and women's empowerment policies in the UN Security Council's response in the region.

“ISIL have institutionalized sexual violence and the brutalization of women as a central aspect of their ideology and operations, using it as a tactic of terrorism to advance their key strategic objectives,” said Zainab. She said these uses including raising funds through trafficking women; displacing communities through sexual violence; punishing dissenters and extracting information with sexual torture; and dismantling existing family and social structures.

She also called for action for the generation of children being born from rape in the region.

(cm)