UN Security Council Resolution 1888

UN Security Council resolution 1888 was adopted unanimously in September 2009, a year after resolution 1820, and endeavours to strengthen it by establishing leadership, deploying expertise and improving coordination among stakeholders involved in addressing conflict-related sexual violence.

Resolution 1888 specifically calls for the UN Secretary-General to:

• Appoint a Special Representative to provide coherent leadership on combatting sexual violence; strengthen coordination of UN bodies; strengthen advocacy efforts within the United Nations and among Member States, military actors, judicial representatives and civil society; and strengthen UN awareness and capacity on issues related to sexual violence, both at headquarters and at the country level.
• Establish teams of experts for rapid deployment to situations of particular concern to develop appropriate responses in areas such as rule of law, security sector reform, criminal investigations, witness protection, free and fair trials, public outreach, and civilian and military judicial systems, to help prevent sexual violence and to strengthen the prosecution of perpetrators.
• Identify Women Protection Advisors, where appropriate, among gender advisors and human rights protection units to focus on the protection needs of girls and women in specific contexts.
• Ensure more systematic reporting and additional briefings to the Security Council on incidents and trends of sexual violence as well as on measures to protect civilians from sexual violence within specific peacekeeping operations.
• Identify responsible parties to armed conflict that are credibly suspected of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations on the Security Council agenda.

Resolution 1888 further calls for:

• Engaging local and national leaders, including traditional and religious leaders, to sensitize communities on sexual violence, assist with social reintegration, and to combat a culture of impunity for these crimes.
• Increasing Security Council interaction with women and women’s organizations about the needs and concerns of women and girls.
• Increasing the representation of women in both mediation and decision-making processes, as well as in policy and military peacekeeping forces.
• Including the issue of sexual violence at all stages of negotiations, such as pre-ceasefire agreements (humanitarian access and human rights agreements), ceasefires and ceasefire monitoring, demobilization and security sector reform arrangements, justice, reparations and recovery.
• Ensuring the systematic mainstreaming of gender issues in all peace operations.