How US Policy trumps Geneva Conventions- Girls & Women Raped in War
Angelina Jolie doesn’t mince words.
“Let us be clear what we are speaking about,” the award-winning actress and humanitarian said in June as she addressed the United Nations Security Council session on sexualized violence in conflict. “Young girls raped and impregnated before their bodies are able to carry a child, causing fistula; boys held at gunpoint and forced to sexually assault their mothers and sisters; women raped with bottles, wood branches, and knives to cause as much damage as possible; toddlers, even babies, dragged from their homes and violated.”
For years, Jolie has been a spokeswoman for refugees forced to leave their homes, and for the survivors of sexual assault in conflict. But while sexualized violence in wartime affects several populations and has a variety of consequences, one of its major, and often unaddressed, consequences, particularly for young girls, is unwanted pregnancy that can result from rape.
This is why the Global Justice Center created the August 12th Campaign, which seeks to ensure access to safe abortion services for girls and women raped in armed conflicts. August 12 is the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, which guarantees that war victims receive all the medical care required by their condition—medical care that should include the option of abortion for women who are pregnant from rape.
…
These stories underscore the importance of providing safe abortions from a practical—not to mention humanitarian and legal—perspective. The Global Justice Center’s August 12th Campaign has been working with major humanitarian donor states, including the UK and the Netherlands, to ensure that their aid can be used to provide safe abortion services. Access to safe abortion services, after all, is a right under the Geneva Conventions for girls and women who have been raped in wartime.
More: How US Policy Denies Life-Saving Care to Women Raped in War