Nadia Murad, an Iraqi women’s rights activist who was once enslaved by ISIS extremists, on Wednesday sounded the alarm over women subjected to rape and sexual violence during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Addressing world powers in New York, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said reports of sexual violence — which have been attributed to both Russian and Ukrainian forces — should “alarm us all”.
“Sexual violence is not a side effect of conflict, it is a tactic of war as old as time,” Ms Murad told the UN Security Council.
Ms Murad was among thousands of Yazidi women who were forced into sexual slavery by ISIS during the group’s push across western Iraq in 2014. Such armed forces “understand the destabilising effect of gender-based violence”, she said.
She called for the International Criminal Court to prosecute ISIS members and unveiled the “Murad Code” for gathering evidence of rape and other crimes in war zones and holding abusers to account. The scheme is backed and funded by Britain.
“I am appalled by the growing number of reports of sexual violence by Russian forces emerging from the conflict in Ukraine,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“The launch of the Murad Code is a vital step towards helping and supporting survivors and bringing perpetrators to justice for their crimes.”
UN human rights monitors have tried to verify claims of sexual violence by Russian forces, including gang rape and rapes in front of children, as well as allegations of sexual violence at the hands of Ukrainian forces and civil defence militias.
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A boy rides a bicycle past a house that was damaged by shelling in Andriivka village, not far from Kyiv. EPA -
A destroyed residential building in Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. Reuters -
Firefighters at work on the outskirts of Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine. EPA -
A torn Ukrainian flag in front of a ruined Mariupol apartment building. Reuters -
Residents who cleared debris after Russian shelling eat lunch outside a damaged building in Makariv, near Kyiv. EPA -
Children play with a therapeutic dog at a shelter organised by volunteers in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine. Reuters -
A girl stands by the door of a bunker in Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city of Mariupol. AFP -
A firefighter at work following a missile attack near Kharkiv International Airport. Reuters -
A Ukrainian fighter walks in front of a destroyed house in Bohdanivka village, north-east of Kyiv. AFP -
Two women hug outside a heavily damaged apartment block following an artillery attack in Kharkiv. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers guard the village of Barvinkove, as Russia's invasion on Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Leonid Serdiuchenko, a Ukrainian commander, stands next to destroyed vehicles outside Barvinkove. Reuters -
A woman carries the portrait of Dmytro Stefienko, 32, a civilian killed during the war, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
A Russian soldier collects weapons from inside the Mariupol drama theatre in Ukraine. AFP -
Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Andriy Matviychuk, 37, who served as a territorial defence soldier, who was captured and killed by the Russian army in Bucha, Ukraine. AP -
Anatoliy Morykin, 45, left, mourns the death of his mother, Valentyna Morykina, 82, who died in a retirement home in Bucha during the Russian invasion. AP -
Nadiya, 65, shows a hole in a wall of a building after shelling in Zalissya, Ukraine. EPA -
A booby trap found by locals near their home in Zalissya. EPA -
Debris of a school bus near a damaged school that was a base for Russian troops in Bohdanivka, Ukraine. EPA -
A man examines the debris of a destroyed Russian tank in Bohdanivka. EPA -
President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport, en route to Washington. AP -
Valentina Saroyan sits in the basement of a school in Yahidne, near Chernihiv, Ukraine. AP -
Vasyl Cherepenko stands next to a mass grave at a cemetery in Yahidne, near Dnipro, Ukraine. AP -
Oksana, second from left, and Yevhen, right, talk with police officers next to their apartment building damaged by shelling in Irpin, Ukraine. AP -
Women bid farewell to relatives as they leave the Slovyansk central station in the Donbas region. AFP -
The partially destroyed Mariupol drama theatre in Ukraine, hit on March 16 by an air strike. AFP -
A man embraces his wife as she prepares to board a train at Slovyansk central station in the Donbas region. AFP -
A woman walks through a damaged apartment building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
A missile pierces the road in front of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. Reuters -
A boy walks by unexploded Russian shells in the village of Andriyivka close to Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
Ukrainian tanks move down a street in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
A man walks past a storage place for burned armed vehicles and cars, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Local residents stand on top of a Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Ukrainian families, who have fled Kherson amid the Russian invasion, watch a dolphin show at a hotel in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters -
Residents stand outside their apartments as shops burn after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Irina Szymanska holds her baby in a temporary shelter at the central train station for displaced people heading to Poland in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty Images -
A man walks in his yard, damaged by shelling, in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine. EPA -
Sixty-two-year-old Luba hugs a Ukrainian servicewoman in Andriivka. EPA -
A woman washes clothes in the yard of a ruined house in Andriivka. EPA -
Russian soldiers patrol a street in Volnovakha, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. The picture was taken during a trip organised by the Russian military. AFP -
Russian mine clearers search for explosive objects in a building the Russian authorities say was damaged by Ukrainian shelling. AFP -
A woman reads a book as residents find shelter from shelling in a metro station in Kharkiv. Reuters -
Firefighters try to contain a fire at a plant in Kharkiv following Russian shelling. Reuters -
Farm owner Zlobina Lubov tends to her animals in the village of Malaya Rohan, Ukraine. Reuters -
A bathtub is seen inside a building that was heavily damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A man looks out of his window, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Borodianka. Reuters -
Soldiers 'came to my house and said go to the basement' Zinaida Makishaiva, 82, said, before they started to shoot around her. 'God saved my life,' she said. Reuters -
A mother waits for police officers to exhume the body of her son from a well at a fuel station in Buzova, Kyiv region. According to the head of the village, he was killed by Russian soldiers. Reuters
At the same meeting, Pramila Patten, the UN’s envoy against sex attacks in wartime, expressed “grave concern about the mounting allegations of sexual violence” in Ukraine and called for “swift and rigorous investigations”.
She also said that the millions of women and girls who have been forced from their homes by the fighting were at risk of “trafficking and exploitation” during the “fastest population flight this century”.
Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians since its invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Russia’s deputy UN envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy this week denounced what he claimed was a western smear campaign that presented “Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists”.
Sima Bahous, the head of the UN Women agency, said this week that the large number of deployed “conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags” about rape and sexual abuse.
All sides in the Ukraine war have systems of conscription, where young men are required by law to do military service. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of using mercenaries.
