”Rape is another weapon against Ukrainians.” Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege has been fighting sexual violence in wars for 20 years — we interviewed him

By early June 2022, the UN had received reports of 124 possible acts of sexual violence related to the war in Ukraine. These crimes have no limitations period. The rapists may stand trial in Ukraine, but those who pushed the Russian military to do so will also be brought to answer. The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, gynecologist Denis Mukwege, received the award for helping women raped during the Congolese wars. Dr. Mukwege has become the worldʼs leading expert on how to treat the consequences of sexual violence. He was one of the first to say that the military rape not for sexual pleasure but to intimidate the population, and began to oppose such means of warfare. Mukwege helps women from many countries around the world, including Ukrainian women. During the recent Justice Week in The Hague, he met with Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. And on June 9, she will take part in a joint event dedicated to women in conflict with First Lady Olena Zelenska. Babelʼs journalist Oksana Kovalenko spoke with Denis Mukwege in The Hague about what needs to be done to ensure that women are not afraid to testify against their Russian rapists.

You said that sexual violence during military conflicts is an instrument of war. Why?

When rape or other sexual violence occurs during war, when a woman is raped in front of her husband, children, parents, it is an effective and prepared tool of war, itʼs another weapon. In this way the military destroys social ties, the structure of society, the family. And when the military rapes women, men, children, they do so not for sexual pleasure, but to show that they have the power and strength to mentally destroy their victim. Humiliate to impair peopleʼs ability to resist so that the community cannot oppose the enemy. I spoke to several victims of such violence in Ukraine. And I think what is happening in Ukraine now, all this rape, the sexual violence that is being done to women and children, is a real tool and weapon of war. This is a war going on in womenʼs bodies.

How is international law trying to prevent the use of this weapon?

According to the current international humanitarian legislation, sexual violence during the war is a war crime. Therefore, in cases where the country uses sexual crimes as an instrument of war, it is important that the punishment be borne not only by those who rape people directly, but also by those who sent them to commit such crimes.

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova complained that rape victims refuse to turn to law enforcement agencies, partly because they are ashamed to talk about it. How can they be encouraged and persuaded to do so?

The most important thing is to save the life of a woman or child, to provide the necessary medical care. Because in order to turn to law enforcement, a woman must feel protected and be as confident as possible. By "protection" I also mean how society treats victims. It is very important that they receive strong support from people, from the family, and in no way should they feel guilty about what happened to them. In this case, it will be more convenient for them to talk about it. Unfortunately, we still live in a patriarchal society [where the cases of victim-blaming are often].

But if we are talking about rape and we want justice, then the investigation needs evidence, traces of rape.

When women talk about what happened to them, they are evidence in themselves.

It is already known that girls and women became pregnant after being raped by the Russian military. How to behave in such cases to preserve the mental state of the child?

At the age of 8-9, children start asking who their father is. And an adult needs to answer that question, because one just canʼt hide it from them all the time. In the end, it still needs to be told to children. But we need to help them grow so that they know what they are persons and they are loved. They need support from the beginning and this is how mental trauma can be prevented.

Translated from Ukrainian by Anton Semyzhenko.

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