After the meeting of the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) in New York last year, a platform has been provided for survivors to engage in policymaking. This will include child survivors of sexual violence. Governments are set to collaborate and funding will be dedicated for survivor networks.
The inaugural high-level meeting of the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) took place in New York on 27 October last year. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Prime’s Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict and Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was the United Kingdom’s chair of the Alliance in 2023, with vice chairs the Colombian Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, Elizabeth Taylor Jay and the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, Olha Stefanishyna.
The Alliance has said it was ‘grateful’ to United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, who briefed on the global context, including in Ukraine, Sudan, Colombia and the DRC. Special Representative Patten reflected on how the Alliance can maintain momentum on tackling CRSV and deliver greater country-level impact, including by ensuring programmes to tackle CRSV receive sufficient funding.
The Alliance heard from the Ukrainian government and a representative of a survivor group in Ukraine at last year’s meeting. Ukraine provided an update on their survivor-centred policy approach, for example including survivors’ perspectives in the development of their national reparations mechanism. Ukraine expressed its readiness to share knowledge and experience with others, its practical implementation of a survivor-centred approach, and its willingness to work towards extending and strengthening the Alliance. The Alliance expressed deep concern at incidences of CRSV and underlined the importance of supporting Ukraine in its determination to ensure justice and accountability for these crimes and provide holistic support for survivors.
The Alliance heard from 5 survivor representatives of the Survivor Advisory Group on the importance of meaningfully engaging survivors and children born of CRSV in decision-making. The Survivor Advisory Group members made recommendations for the Alliance and wider international community including strong collaboration between governments and civil society organisations and dedicated funding for survivor networks. Members of the Alliance thanked the survivor advocates for their invaluable perspectives and committed to working in a survivor-centred way. Members were appreciative of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Edinburgh’s message to the Alliance, in which she praised the survivor-centred approach of the forum.
All members of the Alliance in attendance agreed a statement of solidarity with survivors of CRSV. The statement highlights members’ commitment to a survivor-centred approach and putting survivors at the heart of efforts to address CRSV. It outlines the importance of engaging survivors in decisions that affect them, and of promoting survivor leadership, where survivors are empowered to set the agenda and advocate for their priorities. It seeks to send a powerful message to survivors, validating their experiences and demonstrating that the international community stands with them.
The Alliance brings together diverse actors around the ambition to drive global action on preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). The United Kingdom announced the International Alliance at the PSVI Conference in London in November 2022 and launched it in New York in March 2023.
At the New York meeting, the Alliance was resolute in its commitment to tackling CRSV, calling it ‘an abhorrent crime that shatters lives and leaves lasting scars on individual and communities’. The Alliance agreed on the need to ensure that survivors can meaningfully engage in decisions that affect them, to champion innovative and survivor-centred approaches to tackling CRSV, to strengthen support to survivors and children born of CRSV, and to work together to coordinate action over the coming year. The Chair welcomed Malta and Switzerland, the most recent additions to the Alliance’s membership, taking the total members of the Alliance to 25.
Lord Ahmad announced the formation of the Alliance at the November 2022 Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative International Conference.
There are 26 members of the Alliance including: state members: Australia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Japan, Jordan, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malta, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, UAE, UK, and USA. This is alongside non-state members such as: UN Women, the Global Survivors Fund, the Mukwege Foundation, the PSVI Survivor Advisory Group, Karim Khan KC, Dr Mukwege and Nadia Murad.
