The conference aimed to combat sexual assault against women took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kirchberg and was organised by the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
The motto of the conference is reflected in its name - Stand Speak Rise Up. Women should be able to discuss their trauma and rise against the sexual assault of women in war zones. The conference's aim was to condemn and work against the use of sexual assault as a weapon of war. The forum also presented methods to help assault victims, including a new app called BackUp.
The focus on Tuesday and Wednesday was, of course, women, and in particular, women who had been traumatised by sexual assault and rape. Survivors were present at the forum and were able to meet with each other to discuss their experiences, but also share their experiences with the other participants of the forum. In the below video, survivors of rape detail their experiences.
An important aspect, as specified by the Grand Duchess, was to change the discourse. First of all, to speak of survivors rather than victims and more globally for international justice systems to recognise systematic rape in conflict zones as a weapon of war. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa was supported by the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, who made a surprise appearance on Wednesday.
Macron highlighted the importance of allowing survivors to speak and that the conference was innovative in that regard of giving the survivors this opportunity. As she explained, normally conferences speak about victims, rather than giving them the chance to talk of their own experiences. This in turn gives those present at the conference a real insight to the physical and psychological harm caused by sexual assault.
Macron went on to stress that political action is necessary to help women in conflict zones, a point reiterated by the Grand Duchess.
Many present at the forum were also experts in the field, including Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, the most recent joint Nobel peace prize laureate, alongside Nadia Murad, who was also present. In the below video, Peter Gallo, a former UN worker and whistleblower, who discusses the high instances of sexual abuse by UN personnel and harassment towards female UN staff members during Ban-ki Moon's tenure.
One woman who participated at the forum, invited by the Grand Duchess, is Ravda Nur Cuma. She fled from Syria in 2011 and lived in a Turkish refugee camp for six years. She founded the Ravdanur Foundation due to her experiences and fights for the rights of women and girls. Monique Kater interviewed the 21-year-old activist below.
The mega-event, with 50 survivors, three Nobel peace prize laureates, and a number of other well-known individuals present, concluded on Wednesday evening. Before that, on Tuesday evening, there was a gala evening with around 1,000 guests. The evening honoured the survivors from Africa, Kosovo, and Columbia (seeing discussing their experiences in the first video) and after their testimonies, the Grand Duchess addressed them and symbolically acknowledged their experiences.
In her speech, she said "What you have had to bear revolts us all. And we refuse to continue to not talk about it. We will no longer accept that you are treated as guilty, rather than as victims of warfare." She went on to call for a collective and global condemnation of rape as a weapon of war.
The evening's motto was the "celebration and victory of survivors" and was accompanied by music from Luxembourg's Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Gast Waltzing and including performances by Dobet Gnaoré and Morgane Ji.
In the below video, participants of the forum also took part in a flash mob.
© Nadine Gautier
