The UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent expert on torture has told UN News that sexual violence committed in wartime should be recognised within the framework of the Convention Against Torture to ensure prosecution benefits from a robust legal foundation.
In an exclusive interview at UN Headquarters in New York with UN News's Nargiz Shekinskaya, Alice Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture , discussed her latest report - being presented to the General Assembly on Friday - urging that sexual violence in conflict be recognised under the Convention against Torture , in light of a surge in sexual torture across global conflicts.
"What we are seeing in the more than 120 armed conflicts that are going on in the world right now is that there is a high prevalence and intensity of sexual forms of torture being committed in different armed conflicts, taking different guises, for different purposes, but nonetheless affecting not only the direct victims but their families and society as a whole," she said, highlighting how torture fosters hatred and obstructs peace.
Sexual torture, Ms. Edwards described, is "one of the most egregious kinds" of torture, causing profound physical, psychological, and socio-economic harm. She emphasised that States must fulfil their absolute obligations to prohibit torture in all forms, including sexual torture, both in times of peace and conflict.
Reflecting on broader anti-torture efforts, Ms. Edwards praised the Convention Against Torture's framework as an essential roadmap for eradicating all forms of torture. The "torture framework," she explained, bypasses irrelevant questions of consent, recognises torture's severity, and applies inclusively across genders and roles.
If sexual violence was considered within the Convention, no limitations could be applied on investigations, as well as no amnesties, nor immunities, thus providing a stronger and more inclusive legal structure for prosecuting such crimes.
The text has been edited for length and clarity.
Alice Edwards: In the more than 120 armed conflicts going on in the world right now, there is a high prevalence and intensity of sexual forms of torture being committed, taking different guises, for different purposes, but nonetheless affecting not only the direct victims but their families and society.
And what torture does to individuals and communities is it instils hate, it is caused by hate, and hate is the antithesis of peace. So, we really need to eliminate it from the use in both peacetime and wartime, and to do everything we can to bring justice to victims and survivors, as well as for the community to recover and rehabilitate.
I've dedicated my report to sexual torture because we're seeing it in all different types of conflicts, and it really is one of the most egregious kinds of torture. It really is both a combination of physical and psychological torture that causes great damage to individuals and to societies. That damage can be reproductive, and it can also be socioeconomic.
So, my goal with this report is to remind states that they have absolute obligations to prohibit torture, to prevent it, including in the form of sexual torture.
UN News: What progress have you absorbed in the recent years in the global fight against torture? Is there any?
Alice Edwards: This year is the 40th anniversary of the Convention against Torture, and we have now 174 states that have joined that convention. And by joining they've not only given their political commitment to end and prohibit torture, but also to implement that convention fully, and that convention is an excellent blueprint for what states need to do and in their interstate relations. Essentially if states did implement that convention, we would be in a much better place than we are today.
UN News: What mechanisms do you believe are most effective in ensuring accountability for torture in places that are difficult to monitor, such as conflict zones or detention centres?
Alice Edwards: So, in the report I'm arguing that what is often described as conflict related sexual violence, that it is rightly called torture. The pain and suffering are of such severity in these crimes that it should be categorised as torture. And I think in doing so there will be really important changes that can be generated from that, for victims and survivors, but also investigators and prosecutors and in the search for justice.
The first reason why I've put forward this report is that the torture prohibition is a binding legal framework. Every country in the world has ratified at least one international treaty that prohibits torture. There is no country in the world that says that torture is acceptable. That's different than the views of states in relation to sexual violence.
So, what it does is it gives this very robust legal framework in the first place, and in particular it allows no excuses for sexual torture, So, there are no statutes of limitations that can be applied for investigations. There are no amnesties that can be applied and no immunities. So, it is a very strong legal framework.
The second thing I'd say about the torture framework to be applied to conflict related sexual violence is it's inclusive. And although we've made a lot of progress with Security Council resolution 1325 [on women, peace and security] and the many others that have followed and made this a central part of eliminating sexual violence in wartime, the torture framework in comparison is inclusive.
Torture and sexual forms of torture are perpetrated against women and girls, and they do bear the largest brunt of this terrible crime, but also men and boys and persons who are LGBTQI+.
In Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office reports that of the 300 cases that have been opened around sexual forms of torture committed by Russian perpetrators, 36% of those cases of sexual torture involved men, both civilians and soldiers.
And the third important element in torture is that investigations and prosecutions don't need to get preoccupied or bogged down with the question of consent, which is very relevant in domestic laws of rape. But consent is not an element in the crime of torture.
We don't ask torture survivors whether they consented to being beaten, whether they consented to being starved to death, etc. So, the torture framework frees those survivors of sexual forms of torture from these irrelevant questions about whether they consented to what has been perpetrated upon them.
UN News: Oftentimes, victims don't want to talk about that. It's very hard to come forward and talk about sexual violence about that form of torture, how would you comment on that?
Alice Edwards: It is one of the key barriers still today for victims and survivors to come forward. This question of shame and the stigma that attaches to people who alleged that they have been raped or subjected to other forms of sexual assault and sexual aggression.
And that is also what my report talks about, that there's no shame in torture, we don't shame torture victims. In fact, sometimes we hail them as heroes in society. We provide them with rehabilitation for their injuries from torture, whether they are mental or physical.
On the other hand, it also allows leaders, political community, religious, to embrace those survivors back to the community more easily.
Finally, it also puts the shame where it belongs. It's on the perpetrator. There is no shame in being a victim of torture, whatever form it is, the shame is with the perpetrator.
UN News: Pramila Patten, Special Adviser on Sexual Violence and Conflict mentioned that Ukraine is one of the countries that is willing to talk about this and implementing a lot of programmes to help victims, you visited Ukraine last year, so what can you say about that?
Alice Edwards: The programme that the Ukrainians have developed to receive back their prisoners of war where they have time to recuperate from the injuries and from the harms that have been done to them, in that safe space, they've been also allowed to speak about what has really happened.
And in that context, they have had a large number of complaints of sexual violence and sexual torture and testimonies from male survivors.
In Ukraine, the fact that they're prepared to investigate and prosecute those violations, really gives other people confidence that they're not going to be shamed when they come forward.
Part of the reason why we have these differences between the willingness of men and women to come forward is how they're being interviewed. So how someone is interviewed is directly correlated to whether crimes are actually going to be investigated, whether they're given the opportunity to say exactly what has happened to them, or whether they're going to be shut down or tracked into saying only about certain forms of violence.
And in that context, we have the Istanbul Protocol on the investigation and documentation of torture, which is a long standing and well-worn document that is used by psychologists and medical professionals worldwide that is able to document cases of torture successfully, and that also applies to sexual forms of torture.
And we also now have the Mendez Protocol on investigative interviewing. It is a tool to help investigators interview properly by allowing open-ended questions that allows the survivors to take control of their own narrative.
