People who suffered sexual violence during war hide what happened to them - expert

Esther Dingemans, Executive Director of this Foundation, told this in an exclusive interview for Volodymyr Dobrota (Ukrainian Perspective National Press Club)

Esther Dingemans said that the Foundation was established in 2019 by two Nobel Peace Prize co-laureates: Dr Denis Mukwege, an internationally recognised Congolese gynaecologist known for helping women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were sexually abused during the war, and Nadia Murad, an Iraqi human rights activist of Yazidi origin who was tortured by ISIS but managed to escape from slave owners after three months of captivity.

We work in nearly 20 countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Nepal, South Sudan, Myanmar, the Gambia and others - but the nature of our work varies. For example, in some countries we advocate for victims' rights, demanding reparations from governments. In ten others we implement our own projects with civil society organisations to provide urgent, interim reparations on the ground," said Esther Dingemans.

The Foundation began working with Ukraine before the full-scale Russian invasion, but operated out of Ukraine, demanding reparations for survivors of sexual violence in cases that occurred between 2014 and 2017.

After the full-scale invasion in February 2022, new survivors emerged. And it was these people who were the first to speak publicly about such crimes, they had the facts to back them up.

Since we clearly knew that there were cases of GBV in Ukraine, and also sexual violence started to be reported a lot by the media, it was a signal to us that we really had to come here and do serious work. That is why we came to Ukraine last April at the invitation of the Government Commissioner and with the support of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanyshina," said Esther Dingemans.

To the question, to what extent reparations for victims of sexual violence during the war are possible in Ukraine, Esther Dingemans answered:

There is an official part of reparations, financial compensation, which the affected person, we hope, will be able to receive. Perhaps in the form of life insurance, perhaps in the form of pensions from the state, appropriate honouring of these people. There should definitely be reparations for the damage they received. But we realise that this will take place in the future.

Esther Dingemans explained that "the logic is this: Russia should pay for it". And that the Ukrainian government should take measures to ensure that part of the frozen assets of the Russian Federation will be used to compensate for moral and material damage caused to people affected by the SNVK.

Esther Dingemans clarified that this is a matter for the future. And now the Fund is launching a pilot project that will insist on urgent, interim reparations for victims of SNVK.

When asked how children born as a result of sexual violence during the war are dealt with in different countries, Esther Dingemans replied:

Usually mothers don't like them even before they are born and don't want them to come into the world. And that's why there are very good projects when psychologists start working with women at the pregnancy stage to establish a proper bond between mother and child. Psychologists help to build up a narrative of what the mother will tell her child when the child is born. And it makes a very positive difference, we see that these children grow up good and smart, do well in school and their psychological life develops like other people.

Esther Dingemans said that I was recently at a big meeting organised by the First Lady of Ukraine, and she was openly telling the international community that there may be children already being born in Ukraine who are the result of these sexual crimes.

I think it's just a tremendous shift when a leader at a high level raises such issues. So we expect that there will be more good things in the lives of these children so that they don't suffer from something that happened through no fault of their own," Esther Dingemans said.

Esther Dingemans also said that she heard a case about Bucha, when there was a notorious RF brigade there, which then got out. And then in Moscow, these military men were receiving awards for their actions. That is, they were awarded for what they did in Bucha.

I'm not a lawyer to invoke the crime of genocide to say how correctly that is interpreted in this case. But when people who suffered sexual violence during the war say how the Russian military punished them, remembering their ethnicity, their nationality, the fact that they support the government of Ukraine, then yes, you can talk about certain elements of genocide," Dingemans said.

Dingemans also said that the Foundation looks at cases of sexual violence during the war through the eyes of the victims.

She explained, "no matter how much is done in this direction, it is a drop in the ocean. How many of these perpetrators are brought to justice? Unfortunately, not very many. But here we still have hope that Ukraine will serve as a great example to deter such crimes in the world in the future, because here these cases will be brought to the end and justice will prevail.