On May 26, 2015 political cartoonist Jen Sorensen posted a caricature of the United States’ abortion policy in relation to the 600 Nigerian girls who were rescued from Boko Haram, an estimated 214 of whom had been raped and impregnated by the militants. Sorensen calls the United States’ abortion policy “utterly retrograde” and cites GJC’s work of urging President Obama to end the abortion ban, as it is imperative that “the UN Population Fund can do its job.”
Read the full post here.
Check out a letter to the Editor by Janet Benshoof, Founder and President of GJC, in which she critiques the "Former Captives in Nigeria Tell of Mass Rapes" article that neglects to mention the US anti-abortion policy that influnces the healthcare that victims recieve.
Recently hundreds of girls were rescued from Boko Haram. These military rescues have been widely applauded and measures are being taken to help the women in their healing. Tragically, certain Nigerian communities look upon the survivors of Boko Haram’s abductions with distrust and dislike. The animosity stems from hatred for the terrorist organization and fear of their tactics, but nonetheless, the victims are entirely innocent and deserve to be treated with respect.
Those who managed to escape from the famous Chibok abduction last April have been taunted and ridiculed. It is thought that their time with the organization somehow tainted them as ‘Boko Haram Wives.” Some of these girls, who were only in captivity for a short time, have chosen to leave their homes because the harassment can be so intense.
Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno, created further challenges, when he said “I am seriously worried with the fact that most women tend to hate and abandon children they deliver from rape. Now, the problem is that these children could go to the streets unattended to, they then lack access to food, health care and education. The result is that they could indeed inherit their fathers’ ideology somehow.”
From interviews, it has been ascertained that the survivors of Boko Haram feel deeply shamed. There are numerous organizations working to provide support, critical now, as hundreds of women and children have recently been rescued and need medical and psychological attention.
The one medical service these organizations cannot provide is abortion. Due to the Helms Amendment passed in 1973, which bars any US foreign aid funds from going to an organization that provides abortion services, international aid organizations are hamstrung in their ability to fully help these girls.
Rape as a weapon of war constitutes torture and, in some cases, genocide. As survivors of war rape, these girls are allowed the protections provided to victims of war and torture and deserve comprehensive medical rights, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The denial and restrictions of these rights puts the United States in direct conflict with the Geneva Conventions.
Even pro-life supporters will admit that there should be an abortion exception for rape. The women and girls who survived Boko Haram are victims of war rape and sexual slavery. Those that returned pregnant are facing additional suffering due to being denied their rights under the Geneva Conventions. Many of the impregnated women are young and malnourished, leading to complications in the pregnancy and further, if these women were to delivery safely, it is likely that their children would be endangered by the same distrust and associations with Boko Haram.
It is more urgent than ever, for the women and girls who are being kidnapped by terrorist groups, that President Obama overturn the Helms Amendment and grant them full access to medical care.
Click here to read the full article.
Today, during the Universal Periodic Review of United States, several member states of the UN Human Rights Council made statements condemning the anti-abortion restrictions that the US places on foreign aid, such as the Helms Amendment.
The UN Human Rights Council is responsible for monitoring the human rights records of the member states; every four years each country is reviewed and presented with recommendations on how to comply with their human rights duties.
The effects of Helms are can be seen in conflict zones around the world, most recently with the rescue of 214 pregnant Nigerian women from Boko Haram. The issue of comprehensive medical care has gained traction in recent months. As a result, today the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium and France orally recommended that the United States work to ensure access to safe abortions around the world and limit the negative impact of the Helms Amendment.
War rape is an illegal tactic of war, constituting torture or genocide, and denial of medical care allows the perpetuation of those crimes. The constraints of the Helms Amendment deny women and children access to safe abortions, and restrict aid agencies from even providing information about abortion services.
In September 2014, the Global Justice Center submitted a report to the UPR, highlighting the ways in which constraints against women’s reproductive rights are incompatible with the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In April 2015, GJC traveled throughout Europe advocating for countries to use the UPR process to question the current anti-abortion restrictions the US imposes.
In addition to the five oral questions, written recommendations were also submitted, requiring a response and justification, should the United States continue to uphold the Helms Amendment. The US government has three months to formulate a response. It is clear that the Obama Administration has a responsibility and urgent duty to remedy these violations.
Click here to read more.
The Nigerian military has continued to advance, recovering many of the women and girls captured by Boko Haram. It is thought that Boko Haram originally kidnapped over 2,000 women and girls. This week, the military is said to have rescued several hundred, most recently 234 from the Sambisa forest. There are reports that the military has secured all of the Boko Haram strongholds, though it must be noted that the media has often exaggerated their successes. It is unclear whether the Chibok girls are among the rescued women. Grievously, it is thought that the school girls may have already been killed.
Hundreds of women and girls have been forcibly impregnated by Boko Haram. Unofficially, 214 of the recently rescued girls have been reported pregnant after facing horrific circumstances of sexual slavery and violence. Organizations like the UNFPA are working as best they can to provide for the women, with a spokesperson saying, “We look after them and ensure they get antenatal care and that they deliver properly and that they even get cesarean section when necessary.” While UNFPA are doing good work helping these pregnant women and girls, they are hamstrung, by a decades old US policy, from providing the full range of medical services these women and girls require.
Women and girls who are raped in areas of conflict suffer from extensive physical and psychological injuries, making pregnancy and delivery dangerous. Several studies have found that pregnancy from rape in wartime compounds the physical, psychological and socials consequences of the survivors. While experts have acknowledged that pregnancy from rape can exacerbate the consequences of the rape, little has been done to actually address and resolve this problem. The vast majority of women who become pregnant from rape in conflict lack access to safe abortion services. These women could resort to non-sterile or non-medical methods, which can lead to scarring, infection, sterilization, or death.
The Geneva Conventions guarantees that war victims receive all the medical care required by their condition, for women and girls raped in armed conflict, that medical care includes the option of abortion. In 1973, Senator Jesse Helms passed the Helms Amendment, which bans the sending of any US foreign aid money to any organization that performs or even discusses abortion services. Four decades later, this misguided amendment is still in place and having very real consequences for the aid organizations providing services to the brave women and girls rescued in Nigeria.
GJC president Janet Benshoof says, “war rape victims are honorable heroines and victims of war crimes and they should be protected, honored, and respected.” For women and girls kidnapped and forcibly impregnated by terrorist groups, it is now more urgent than ever for President Obama to overturn the Helms Amendment, so that these survivors can have access to the full medical care they desperately need.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 5, 2015
[NEW YORK, NY] - The rescue of 234 women and girls from Boko Haram captivity on May 4, 214 of whom the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported to be pregnant, exposes the indignity of the U.S. foreign aid abortion ban, which severely limits the ability of sexual violence survivors to obtain the medical care they need.
The Nigerian military has made further strides in recovering the women and girls who were abducted and held captive by terrorist group Boko Haram. In total, the military has rescued nearly 700 victims of Boko Haram, many of whom have suffered inconceivable abuses at the hands of their captors. It has not been confirmed whether the famous Chibok school girls are among those rescued. In the most recent mission, the military successfully rescued 234 women. Tragically, many were killed in the rescue attempt, as Boko Haram attacked the women when it became apparent that they would be overwhelmed.
Of those rescued in this most recent advance, it is estimated that 214 girls have been impregnated by their captors, confirming the reports of forced pregnancy and marriage. On a more positive note, it appears that the survivors are reintegrating into their societies and villages. The highly unfair stigma of being a rape victim is lessening somewhat, hopefully allowing the women the psychological support they need to heal.
The survivors are receiving physical care—many have suffered injuries or are malnourished after a diet of corn meal, once a day—but the UNFPA is unable to provide complete and necessary medical services, as they are restricted from offering abortions, or even in fact providing any information on the subject. This restriction is due to the US abortion ban, the Helms Amendment, which is placed on all US foreign aid. Abortions are often lifesaving, as many of the rape victims are too young or malnourished to bare children. With the rescue of the Nigerian schoolgirls, the time is more urgent than ever for President Obama to issue an Executive Order overturning the Helms Amendment and the abortion restrictions placed upon organizations like the UNFPA.
On Tuesday the Nigerian Army declared its success in rescuing almost 300 girls and women from terrorist organization Boko Haram. Many false reports have been leaked previously, as is expected given the extensive coverage of the large-scale abduction of the Chibok girls over a year ago. However this report has been confirmed several times. The famous Chibok school girls are not among the recovered, but Nigeria has made great strides against Boko Haram in recent weeks. It is thought that these newly rescued girls had been kidnapped during some of Boko Haram’s smaller, less publicized attacks and abductions.
The recovery of these girls is indeed good news but Boko Haram still requires immediate attention and condemnation from the international community. During the mission to recover the girls, dozens of corpses were found in a nearby river. The actions of Boko Haram certainly constitute genocide—their ethnically and religiously killing as well as their systematic violence against women—and it is time for those actions to be treated as such. GJC advocates for continued vigilance in seeking the abducted girls and has called upon the ICC to investigate and prosecute Boko Haram in this way, ending impunity for a group that has faced few consequences and deterring other groups who practice similar illegal tactics.
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During activities for International Women’s Day of 2015 issues of escalating sexual violence were highlighted on a global scale and UN Secretary General explicitly called for action against groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS, who employ rape as a weapon of war. A report was released Monday in which the UN reiterated concern about the pervasive sexual violence in areas such as Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, and Yemen.
Rape and other forms of sexual violence, such as forced pregnancy and marriage, are being condemned as a method of terrorism, employed by extremist groups in 19 different countries. The UN report criticizes 45 different groups for their use of sexual violence and particularly decries Boko Haram for their continued abuses.
The New York Times says, “In Sudan’s western Darfur region, it said the number of displaced civilians has increased over the past year and so have reports of sexual violence. And in South Sudan, it said sexual violence remains prevalent — including gang rape, castration, forced nudity and forced abortion — which is ‘exacerbated by impunity and a militarized society in which gender inequality is pronounced.’” However, Congo has made some encouraging progress, prosecuting officials for sexual violence and offering reparations to survivors.
In terms of Boko Haram’s violence, the report states, “Forced marriage, enslavement and the ‘sale’ of kidnapped women and girls are central to Boko Haram’s modus operandi and ideology. Abducted girls who refuse marriage or sexual contact within marriage have faced violence and death threats.”
The Global Justice Center has made recent efforts on behalf of the Chibok school girls, on the anniversary of their kidnapping, GJC posted a letter to the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, urging action be taken against Boko Haram. GJC asked that the Chief Prosecutor investigate the kidnappings as an act of genocide, so as to spur immediate action and forestall the inevitably increase in similar attacks. Speaking about Boko Haram, General Ban Ki-moon said that actions such as these were, “an essential part of the fight against conflict-related sexual violence.”
EWL met with Global Justice Center in Brussels to discuss access to full medical care for female war rape victims.
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organisation of women’s associations in the European Union (EU), working to promote women’s rights and equality between women and men.
Click here to read their article about the meeting.
Akila Radhakrishnan and Kristina Kallas publish an article in Ms. Magazine, titled "The Cruelest Weapon" on how the US denies abortions to women raped in war.
The Security Council has found that the endemic use of rape in war for military advantage – which is primarily targeted against women and girls – is a military tactic that presents a threat to global peace and security. Despite concerted global efforts over the last two decades to end its use, rape as a tool of war continues undeterred. This article links the intransigent use of strategic rape with states’ failure to treat it as an unlawful tactic of war under the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) that regulate the 'means and methods of war’. Embedding strategic rape under IHL’s weapons framework will increase its stigmatization, a critical factor in stopping the use of abhorrent weapons or tactics in war. Other potential benefits include the opening up of civil and criminal accountability frameworks and others which provide restitution and reparations for war rape victims. This article focuses on the role of all states in enforcing the weapons framework and it calls for states to undertake an impact and injuries assessment of strategic rape under the Article 36 weapons review process.
On April 16, 2015, Amanda Pinto, QC, a barrister at 33 Chancery Lane, wrote a letter to The London Times calling on the ICC to investigate Boko Haram for genocide.
Click here to read the full article.
On April 14th, 2015, a year after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, the Global Justice Center (GJC) is urging the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to investigate whether Boko Haram, who recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is perpetrating genocide against the Christian community in Nigeria. The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, among others, in Nigeria is exactly the act of genocide, as defined in the Genocide Convention, called the “forcible transfer of children.” The essence of genocide is not mass killing but the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Removing children from a group destroys its future, and has been a tool of genocide for as long as the legal concept has existed.
If Prosecutor Bensouda examines Boko Haram’s gender-based abductions as genocide it would put all countries unequivocally on notice that genocide is occurring in Nigeria, propelling them to action. All states and the international community have the duty to prevent and halt genocide. It would also send a powerful message to other perpetrators, including terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria who are increasingly using the kidnapping of young girls and women as a tool in their campaign of terror, that genocide will not be tolerated.
Today marks the anniversary of one of the most infamous acts of violence against women and children within the past decade. Last year, the extremist Islamic group, Boko Haram, attacked the village of Chibok and abducted over two hundred school girls. Despite the popularity of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, the girls remain in captivity, suffering daily brutalities at the hands of their captors. It has become clear that the perpetrators of the kidnapping have specifically targeted Christian women and girls in an act of genocide.
Today, the Global Justice Center has submitted an Op-Ed to the Huffington Post about the Boko Haram abductions and posted a letter and brief to Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, of the ICC. It is imperative that the Nigerian school girls are not be abandoned by the international community. To put in perspective the efforts necessary for ending impunity and rescuing these girls, first consider the action taken to assist these women, and then compare with that which was taken after the downing of the Malaysia aircraft.
After the downing of the plane, multiple countries committed substantial resources and funds to the cause, even after the confirmed deaths of the passengers. This in no way lessens the tragedy of the downed plane, but the girls abducted by Boko Haram remain alive, suffering in captivity. What’s more is that the failure to act in response to the Boko Haram attack has led to a documented increase of abductions, as the initial attempt was so successful. Nigeria has failed to respond adequately to the situation and so responsibility falls to the international community and entities such as the United Nations and the ICC.
The Boko Haram attacks and abductions follow a long history of violence against women as a form of genocide, such as the atrocities of Rwanda and Armenia. It is thought that the abductees are being subjected to forced marriage, pregnancy, and conversion, in order to stamp out Christian beliefs. Rape is a highly effective, systematic method of genocide and therefore it must be appropriately addressed. GJC advocates the Boko Haram crimes be prosecuted, not only to bring justice for the survivors in Nigeria, but also as an example to other groups, such as ISIS, who also employ rape and abduction as a method of genocide.
Finally, Janet Benshoof of GJC asserts, “We live in a world where government agents can intercept electronic communications, and drones can find and target virtually anyone, anywhere, any time. Surely we have the means to find over two hundred girls in a forest. Unquestionably, we have the moral and legal obligation to try.”
Last night GJC attended the “Bring Back Our Girls Silent March and Vigil.” One year after their abduction, 219 girls are still missing. They just wanted an education.