Black Rod to give evidence to Lords Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict
The House of Lords Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict will take evidence from Black Rod, Lieutenant General David Leakey. General Leakey previously served as the UK military representative at the Bosnia peace negotiations in Dayton. He also commanded the European Union rapid reaction force deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord.
The Committee will ask General Leakey about the role of the military in preventing sexual violence in conflict. He will also be asked about negotiating the peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and his experience leading the EU forces that oversaw the peace agreement.
Some of the questions that will be covered include:
- At what point in your long military career did the issue of sexual violence in conflict begin to be raised?
- Why where civil society representatives or women's representatives not included among the negotiators at the Dayton Peace summit?
- Why was sexual violence used so extensively by paramilitary groups during the Bosnian conflict?
- When you returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina as commander of an EU rapid reaction force was there more the EU could have done to prevent sexual violence?
- Does the military have a role in post conflict societies in determining the balance between preventing further conflict and bringing the perpetrators of previous sexual violence to justice?
The session will start at 5:00pm on Tuesday 27 October in Committee 3 of the House of Lords.
Last week the Committee took evidence from Madam Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations. The video can be watched online here
