PUBLIC ADVOCACY
Because the fight against sexual violence requires global and coordinated action, we are working to raise awareness among the global public and to mobilize national and international actors to engage with this issue.
Since its creation in 2014, WWoW has been carrying out important advocacy work by organising or participating in awareness-raising events, particularly with political leaders, international institutions and civil society. WWoW has benefited from substantial media coverage and public exposure, for which we are very grateful. This advocacy and awareness-raising work is one of the essential pillars of WWoW. Given that sexual violence in conflicts was little known, poorly understood and rarely mentioned, particularly in the French media, advocacy was one of the reasons WWoW was set up . But a lot has changed since then.
While this work remains time-consuming, WWoW recognises it being essential in helping to shed light on the issue of sexual violence linked to conflits, developing public policies to protect survivors and improving international criminal justice.
NATIONAL LEVEL
Over the last few years, WWoW has become a recognised expert organisation for many players in France. These include the media, the French National Assembly, the Senate and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).
In 2019 and 2021, the NGO was heard by the French National Assembly, in the context of the information report on international humanitarian law in the face of conflict by the Foreign Affairs Committee, in which BackUp is mentioned as an extremely impactful tool. It has also been interviewed by the Senate Women's Rights Delegation on several occasions. WWoW is regularly interviewed by these various players, and participates in numerous interventions, including with the AFD and at the Génération Égalité forum.
Avant première du documentaire Libye, Anatomie d'un crime
Céline Bardet also co-wrote the documentary Libye, Anatomie d'un crime (see trailer), directed by Cécile Allegra, about wartime rape in Libya, which played a major role in drawing public attention to the issue. The film follows the work of WWoW and Céline Bardet in the field with Libyan victims of conflict-related sexual violence. Broadcast on ARTE in 2018, the documentary subsequently won the Bayeux Prize, the FIDH Prize, and the Euro-Mediterranean Prize. Céline Bardet has since appeared in a number of documentaries, including the excellent Viols de Guerre 70 ans d'histoire directed by Danièle Alet, and more recently in Elizabeth Drevillon's documentary, Crimes de guerre en Ukraine, la Justice en marche.
WWoW believes that there is an urgent need to understand the nature of sexual violence in conflicts and, above all, to :
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Think in a global context of good governance, rule of law, security and justice so that sexual violence linked to conflicts or crisis situations is approached in the right way.
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Applying ethics. This is an essential line for WWoW, which refuses to post photos of survivors or children born of rape, or to involve survivors for marketing reasons or the promotion of the NGO's work. Too many practices are still extremely violent towards survivors, with no respect for their dignity or safety.
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Interconnecting disciplines. Sexual violence is linked to different contexts, whether societal, crisis, conflict, governance, rule of law, terrorism, economic exploitation or migration. These issues affect conflicts, but also transnational organised crime, terrorism, armed groups, and criminal activities in general. Therefore, sexual violence cannot be approached solely from the angle of crimes per se, but requires responses that touch on justice, good governance, diplomacy and the fight against international crimes.
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Sexual violence must not be "reduced" to gender: it affects women and young girls first and foremost, but it also affects men and boys.
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Working with an awareness of cultural and local limits.
Céline Bardet is a regular speaker on behalf of the NGO at a number of conferences, seminars and symposia, including the event organised by the Forum Génération Egalité secretariat on "The Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action Agenda" on 3 March 2021. In November 2022, Céline Bardet was invited by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) to take part in a conference on the theme of "Women and conflict: towards feminist diplomacy", proposed by the CESE, UN Women and the High Council for Equality, and was heard at a round table in the Senate on the following topic: Rape and violence against women, still "weapons of war".
INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
WWoW has worked from the outset with a number of international institutions to develop new strategies and tools for dealing with and repairing sexual violence in conflict situations. In particular, it has worked with the United Nations in New York to define and guide the work of the Global Fund for Survivors of Conflict-related Sexual Violence. WWoW's presence at the various meetings to set up the Fund shows that the NGO is establishing itself as a key player in these issues. It has taken part in several other meetings in New York, Geneva and The Hague (notably for the ICC Assembly of States Parties). WWoW is also regularly invited to speak as part of the Women, Peace and Security strategy.
On 26 and 27 March 2019, WWoW co-organised with the Mukwege Foundation, the Luxembourg Stand Speak Rise Up Forum, initiated by HRH the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. For the first time, this event brought together professionals from the sector and institutional leaders, as well as forty survivors from eighteen countries. Céline Bardet also became a member of the Board of Directors of the Stand Speak Rise Up association. Our President also took part in the second Stand SpeakRise Up Forum, organised in Biarritz in October 2022. The aim of this second event was to raise funds to help projects working on the ground to support survivors and their children.
SSRU Forum Press Conference, January 25, 2019
WWoW is also a partner in actions to improve international criminal law relating to sexual violence. Since June 2019, WWoW has been a partner in the NGO Women's Initiative for Gender Justice's Call It What It Is campaign to clarify the notion of "sexual violence" in the Rome Statute and develop a definition of what sexual violence could include, as well as a non-exhaustive list of acts that could be considered "of a sexual nature".
The NGO has also been present at international events, such as the Women Global Forum since 2018, the Normandy Forum for Peace every year since 2019, as well as numerous international events and conferences. More recently, Céline Bardet was invited to the Congress of the Union International des Avocats (UIA) in Dakar in October 2022, where she travelled with Nobel Peace Prize-winning doctor Denis Mukwege to present the NGO and its BackUp project. In May 2023, she was awarded the Rule of Law Prize of the Union Internationale des Avocats, which is financed through the contribution of several Bars, including those of Geneva, Brussels, Mons, Luxembourg and Hauts de Seine.
Forum Normandie pour la paix, septembre 2022
On March 11, WWoW, in collaboration with the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of France, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, organized a ministerial event on the sidelines of the 68th Commission on the Status of Women. The event focused on the topic : "Conflict-related sexual violence: how to make progress and fight impunity? What role for UN entities, Member States, survivors, civil society and the private sector?".
