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The U.N. Security Council has unanimously declared that rape is a weapon of war. My first thought upon hearing this was “yay!” My second thought was that perhaps “yay” is not the right response to anything pertaining to rape; in any event, thinking about the news even now stirs a dull pang of hope.

Reiterating deep concern that, despite its repeated condemnation of violence against women and children in situations of armed conflict, including sexual violence in situations of armed conflict, and despite its calls addressed to all parties to armed conflict for the cessation of such acts with immediate effect, such acts continue to occur, and in some situations have become systematic and widespread, reaching appalling levels of brutality,—United Nations Security Council Resolution 1820

This shouldn’t be shocking or mind-blowing. Perhaps my response is a result of setting the bar so low that even the shoddiest expression of respect for women’s autonomy can’t help but trip over it. But it is shocking. Mind-blowing. All in the most fantastic way. The articles read ever-so-slightly like dispatches from an alternate universe, one where the UNSC is a powerful force for improving human rights, where rape is non-controversially regarded as systemic, institutionalized, and oppressive, where the U.S. Secretary of State, a black woman, says things like, “We cannot forget as we examine this issue other women activists who struggle for freedom under violent environments,” and “As an international community we have a special responsibility to punish perpetrators of sexual violence who are representatives of international organisations.”

International organisations. Like, for example, the U.N.

Or the U.S. military.

Recalling its condemnation in the strongest terms of all sexual and other forms of violence committed against civilians in armed conflict, in particular women and children;
…
4. Notes that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide, stresses the need for the exclusion of sexual violence crimes from amnesty provisions in the context of conflict resolution processes, and calls upon Member States to comply with their obligations for prosecuting persons responsible for such acts, to ensure that all victims of sexual violence, particularly women and girls, have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice, and stresses the importance of ending impunity for such acts as part of a comprehensive approach to seeking sustainable peace, justice, truth, and national reconciliation;—UNSC 1820

When you enter into war, if you know nothing else you still know that women are going to be raped, tortured, and killed. By your soldiers, in your name, ordered to or not; women fighting in your army, women fighting in their army, women trying to survive and help their loved ones do the same. This is going to happen because this is the shape of war.

We name things war crimes when we can’t get our heads around them any other way. When they seem too horrific to occur in the context of a normal, civilized war. A just, gentlemanly war—like World War II, where certainly thousands of Japanese women were most definitely not raped by U.S. soldiers, as if they literally embodied their nation. We don’t do war crimes here. Nor do we encourage them, by shattering societies, or enable them, by selling weapons at a well-beyond-borderline-horrifying rate.

13. Urges all parties concerned, including Member States, United Nations entities and financial institutions, to support the development and strengthening of the capacities of national institutions, in particular of judicial and health systems, and of local civil society networks in order to provide sustainable assistance to victims of sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations;—UNSC 1820

Maybe someday.

I’m skeptical, but still a touch hopeful (in dull pangs).

I hope this is a first step, not solely a move of political convenience (hey, yes, we’re doing something about peacekeepers raping the people they’re supposed to protect—we’re telling them it’s reallyreally bad). I hope that this is a sign that we’re slowly waking up to the real nature of rape, whatever context it happens in. And I hope the goosebumpy alternaverse quality of the resolution isn’t misplaced optimism or the chills. Maybe this is all empty rhetoric, but there are women everywhere doing this work, and maybe this makes that work a little more visible, and maybe (hopefully) this makes their tasks a little bit easier.