Margaret Owen OBE: PSVI – ‘The Voices of Widows and Half-Widows Still Needed as Ever’
By Margaret Owen, OBE – Founder and President of Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD)
1st December 2022.
Reporting on the FCDO PSVI (Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative) Conference
Speakers at the two day conference, focusing on Survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV), included Nobel Peace Prize winners Nadia Murad and Dr Denis Mukwege, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, Baroness Fiona Hodgson, and HRH Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
The most inspiring speaker on several panels was the remarkable Dr. Denis Mukwege from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Calling for Justice.
Impressive to hear First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelinska speak too of the horrors of the raping of women and girls there.
But the most important voices were those of the survivors of these appalling crimes. We heard from women from Ukraine, South Sudan, Uganda, DRC, Myanmar, Colombia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Iraq; harrowing stories of what had happened to them but also on the shocking lack of justice. The impunity of the perpetrators, no reparations, of the stigma attached to victims of rape as if it was their fault.
Alas, however, key voices remained unheard.
Omitted from the programme, in spite of urgent pleas from relevant NGOs, were widows of all ages and half-widows (wives of the missing or forcibly disappeared). The voices of this largest category of women who are the most vulnerable to rape and sexual slavery, long after formal peace accords are signed, were not heard nor their plight and needs mentioned.
Conflict-afflicted countries are of course greatly over represented by widows. Widows and half widows of all ages (including child widows) are the dominant category of women at great risk of sexual violence in refugee and IDP camps, often targeted for belonging to a minority, religious or ethnic group – with their husbands having been slain or forcibly ‘disappeared’.
And everywhere in such regions, widows of all ages suffer discrimination, abuse and violence of all kinds, including sexual violence perpetrated by state or non-state actors.
And will the Conference Declaration make any difference if there is no political will to end conflicts and ensure real gender equality and women’s empowerment?
I fear just more words.
In the photo below, I stand in solidarity with colleagues Dame Pauline Tallen – Nigerian Minister for Women s Affairs (also a widow), WPD Trustee Alice Fookes, Dr Eleanor Nwadinibi of WiDo – our partner in Nigeria, and Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE – past President of the Medical Women’s Federation.
