On International Women’s Day, the EU is taking a stand against sexual violence with new sanctions. Some of the people affected from countries like Russia are accused of the most atrocious acts.
The EU has because of sexual and gender-based violence Sanctions against nine men from Russia, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. According to a decision published on Tuesday, officers of the Moscow police, Russian military and two ministers of the Afghan government are among those affected.
According to the definition of the German Institute for Human Rights, gender-based violence is violence “directed against a person because of their biological or social sex”. It therefore includes not only sexualized and physical violence, but also, for example, psychological and economic violence.
For example, the Taliban Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, is accused of restricting the freedom of speech and expression of women and girls and of discriminatory decrees on the wearing of the headscarf. Police officers are said to be responsible for the arbitrary detention and torture of women demonstrating against the war in Ukraine. “Victims report that he beat them, suffocated them with plastic bags and physically and verbally abused them for six hours,” the sanctions statement said.
Members of the Russian armed forces have been accused of being responsible for systematic sexual and gender-based violence in Ukraine. The EU is also basing this on charges brought by the Ukrainian authorities. They include the rape of a pregnant woman near Kiev, the murder of a civilian after his wife repeatedly raped him in the presence of a small child, and the involvement of members of a division in gang rapes.
On International Women’s Day, the EU is showing that in the fight against violence against women, words are followed by deeds, commented EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday’s decision by the EU states. It’s about the holding those responsible accountable and fight impunity.
The EU sanctions stipulate that the Affected persons no longer enter the EU and that any assets they may have in the EU must be frozen. In addition to the nine people, the Syrian Republican Guard, the Qarchak women’s prison in Iran and the post of chief of military security in Myanmar were also sanctioned.