Mrs. Fatou Bensouda:

When I took office last June, one of the first priority areas I identified was sexual and gender-based crimes, especially in times of conflict. Right now, I am formulating a policy on gender for the office, which is very advanced. I hope to be able to send it out soon for external partners to make comments on the policy. Throughout this year my people have been working on it. I have appointed a special gender advisor who is also working hard together with my team for the policy to come out. Deputy Mitchell is right - this is something that we deal with all the time. In fact, in all our situations we have brought charges for sexual and gender-based crimes because they happen all the time.

Taking the example of the Central African Republic, for instance, this is one of the cases where we are alleging that incidents of rape and sexual violence far outnumber incidents of killings. We have brought charges for that.

In the context of Sudan, we have also brought charges of sexual and gender-based violence. As the committee members know, in Sudan the choice that women have is a very bad one. It is either to go out to get what is required for their daily existence and be raped, or their husbands go out and are killed. So women are actually volunteering to go and be raped. This is a terrible choice to have to make.

In the context of the Libyan situation, we have reports of rape and sexual and gender-based crimes. The difficulty we are confronted with there, and also in the Sudan, is that not only does one have to deal with the cultural aspects but also the religious aspects of it. Unfortunately, most of the situations are under-reported but even the unofficial numbers are shocking. It takes place, so I thought that my office should make it a priority which is what I am doing. In fact, we are also working on this British initiative. Members of my office are part of the committee that is examining how we can work closely together. It is important and will not go away, unless those who are committing it know that they will be punished for it.