Catarina Vieira, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, dear Ms Kallas, 'there is nothing anyone can do for justice; I just have to report to God'. These were the words of a survivor of sexual violence in Sudan. These are words of hopelessness. Amidst the horrible conflict in Sudan, women are raped, often by several men and in front of their families. In some cases, they are under age. In some cases, they are kept as sex slaves. Meanwhile, in Congo, every minute a woman is raped. In North Kivu, women have been targeted by soldiers when they were leaving displacement camps in search of food.

So rape as a method of warfare is not an act by individual soldiers, but a systematic, deliberate and cruel warfare tactic that terrorises victims. It tears entire communities apart, and it has the potential to leave irreparable damage and erase women and girls' participation in public life.

International humanitarian law is evolving, and rape is increasingly being identified as a war crime, a crime against humanity and an act contributing to genocide. This legal recognition, both in the EU and the UN, is extremely important, but we need to step up our efforts. We need to deploy missions to protect civilians, we must demand the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators, and we must ensure that women are full participants in all peace negotiations. Let us take our responsibility because we owe it to the survivors.