US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that any military or government official who conducted or oversaw wartime sexual violence would be refused a US visa, at a discussion held at Washington DC yesterday.
Speaking alongside UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has been campaigning on sexual violence, Kerry stated,
“Today, we’re making certain something additional; even though we’ve been aware of it, we haven’t sent yet an embassy-wide message, which I am sending today, that no one, and I mean no one at the highest level of military or governance, who has presided over or engaged in or knew of or conducted these kinds of attacks, is ever going to receive a visa to travel into the United States of America from this day forward.”
“We’re not going to allow that. (Applause.) And every embassy will engage – every embassy and post will be alert to this and to report any of these kinds of incidences, but most importantly there has to be a price attached, and that’s one of the things we need to do.”
The panellists were joined by United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Catherine M. Russell, who was recently refused a visa herself, to enter Sri Lanka earlier this month.
See the full discussion and transcript of the event here.
Hague went on to add there was a moral responsibility to act, noting,
“Now the extent of warzone rape has been documented in Bosnia, in Colombia, in Guatemala, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Liberia, in many continents of the world. And what would it say about our societies and our civilizations if we knew those things and chose to do nothing about it?”
Kerry also added,
“That’s really what we’re going to have to summon here, is that kind of moral commitment to fighting back against and holding accountable those people who engage in these kinds of activities on a global basis.”
“You’ve got to create accountability. If you have impunity, it’s very difficult to make progress in this. So our response – I mean, our – hopefully our collective leadership can bring governments to hold people accountable.”