(Part 2) Commemoration of the 15-Year Anniversary…

The commemoration aims to review the significant normative, institutional and operational impact made over the past years, to deepen understanding of the factors that have enabled or constrained progress, and to build consensus for an ambitious way forward. It will provide a chance to showcase where the mandate and its allies have made a difference and to reflect on ways to magnify this positive impact, as well as to draw attention to persistent gaps in implementation, enforcement and compliance in order to define priorities for the next decade.

The event will also provide scope for considering linkages with broader women's rights, peace, disarmament and development frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs/Agenda 2030) to address long-standing and structural root causes of conflict-related sexual violence.

Objectives:

• Provide a platform for leading policy-makers, practitioners, activists, survivors and academics to share cutting-edge research and insights on key aspects of this evolving agenda, such as overcoming stigma; psychosocial support and mental health care in the context of a survivor-centered approach; justice, accountability and reparations; the plight and rights of children born of wartime rape; sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism and political repression; and sexual violence in the context of human trafficking including to fund and fuel the operations of transnational criminal, armed and terrorist groups.
• Encourage Member States, including members of the UN Security Council, representatives of UN Regional Groups and the Group of Friends of Women, Peace and Security, youth delegates, UN entities and civil society representatives to make interventions highlighting their contributions to this agenda, share good practices and lessons learnt, and pledge renewed political and financial support to the next phase of the mandate.
• Showcase and rollout the key knowledge products2 developed by the Office of the SRSG-SVC.
• Launch a network of Investigators and Prosecutors on conflict-related sexual violence, which will serve as a Community Practice to foster the sharing of lessons learnt among national practitioners.
• Help to shape, and give momentum to a forward-looking Agenda for Action, which will set the stage for the coming years.