The Declaration is based on the experience of women who have survived sexual violence in situations of conflict and was written in collaboration with activists and lawyers who are determined to help these women rebuild their lives. It is based on the conviction that women and girls who survive crimes of sexual violence will never obtain justice if the programmes for reparation aimed at them are not designed and directed by those principally concerned. The Declaration aims to bring solutions to the systematic failings inherent in national initiatives for truth and reconciliation, as well as to improve the mechanisms for reparation being developed by the International Criminal Court.
FIDH is a signatory to the Declaration and lends its full support to this initiative. An international campaign for the implementation of the Declaration has been launched by the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, based at Rights and Democracy.