“With the right support and political will, justice can move from aspiration to reality”, Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Team Leader of the 爆料网 Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Team Leader of the 爆料网 Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, has spent decades working to turn survivor-centered justice from principle into practice. From the Balkans and the DRC to Guinea and Ukraine, she speaks about the courage, expertise, political will and resources needed to confront impunity for conflict-related sexual violence.
Question: Can you share what drew you into working on conflict-related sexual violence? How has your path into this work influenced your perspective or approach in supporting survivors?
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger: I have been a long-standing advocate on women’s rights and gender equality from my university days in the 1990’s when I created the first student feminist organization at Sciences Po University in Paris. I started my career in former Yugoslavia 25 years ago working on human rights in post conflict where the issue of sexual violence continued to reverberate long after the end of the conflict. Later, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I witnessed how sexual violence in conflict was treated as a “second-class” human rights violation and an inevitable byproduct of conflict. The disconnect between the extraordinary courage of survivors to come forward, to continue living after such brutality and the weakness of the systems meant to protect them compelled me to action.
My early path - both academically researching how identities are rebuilt through justice from trauma, and my direct work with human rights defenders - has shaped my approach profoundly. It taught me that justice must be built around survivors’ experiences and that sustainable change depends on robust national institutions able to face the past and act with independence and resolve. Ultimately, what keeps me committed is seeing how survivor-centered justice, when supported, can drive peace and reform. Every case where survivor achieves a measure of justice is a constant reminder that accountability is possible - and worth fighting for.
Question: Has there been a case where you saw your intervention directly make a difference for survivors or affected communities affected?
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger: At several junctures of my work with the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, I felt that our work made a tangible difference in survivors’ lives. One of those instances occurred in Guinea, when after 15 years of struggle of the Team alongside survivors and national justice actors, I stood in the court room at the opening of the trial of the former junta accused of committing a massacre and mass rape near the Conakry stadium in September 2009. The trial eventually found 11 men, including a former president, guilty of crimes against humanity including rape in domestic courts and ordered reparation in July 2024. Though this case has not been without its shortcomings and challenges, it is demonstrated that - with time and shared commitment from national and international partners - justice can be delivered.
My role leading the Team of Experts’ work in Ukraine has also shown to me the power of leveraging partnership and expertise to serve survivor-center international justice. Thanks to solid political and financial support from member states, and deep partnership with national authorities, we managed to set up a specialized conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor General and, through comprehensive scenario-based hand on training and embedded mentoring, we supported scaling up their specialized skills on conflict-related sexual violence. Less than three years after engaging, we have seen a major shift in how the police and the prosecution system treat CRSV survivors in Ukraine and build their investigations and prosecution around their lived experience. As a result, we have already seen several hundreds of cases reaching the courts.
Experiences like this remind me why this work matters: with the right support and political will, justice can move from aspiration to reality, even in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.
Question: When it comes to justice and accountability for survivors of sexual violence in conflict zones, what are the biggest obstacles you see?
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger: The biggest obstacles to justice and accountability for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence remain strikingly consistent at both the national and global levels. Impunity is widespread, often because national justice systems lack the expertise, capacity, resources, independence, or political will to investigate and prosecute these crimes. Stigma and fear of retaliation further silence survivors, making reporting extremely difficult. In many conflict settings, insecurity and limited access to evidence impedes proper documentation and legal action.
Globally, despite a strong normative framework, implementation is uneven, and enforcement mechanisms are often weak. Until these structural barriers are addressed - impartial justice systems, survivor protection, and sustained political commitment - survivors will continue to face immense hurdles in seeking justice. Accountability requires more than norms - it requires courage, expertise, political will and funding.
Question: In your view, what needs to be done to strengthen legal systems and fight impunity?
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger: To strengthen legal systems and fight impunity, we need to focus on political will, capacity, protection and adequate resourcing.
First, two decades in this field have taught me that without political will to confront the past, investigate and prosecute conflict-related sexual violence, there can be no justice and impunity will thrive. Justice is a slow and long-term endeavor, especially for high-level perpetrators; it requires robust political support and equally important that support must translate into budgetary resources.
Second, national systems are rarely equipped to investigate and prosecute international crimes much less CRSV. Achieving survivor-centered and holistic justice for CRSV requires expertise. Concretely, that means trained service providers, police, prosecutors, and judges, and an institutionalized partnership between first responders, service providers and justice institutions, especially that can operate even in fragile settings. Oftentimes this also means rebuilding trust in state institutions who have been targeted in conflict or may have been implicated in perpetration themselves. Impunity thrives where justice institutions are weak.
Survivors and witnesses must feel safe to come forward. Without protection, confidentiality, and access to services, most will never report. Justice cannot happen if survivors fear the cost of speaking out, and this protection must be extended to civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and justice actors.
Finally, better documentation is essential. Early evidence collection and support for local actors make cases prosecutable. If we cannot document the crime, we cannot prosecute the criminal.
In short, strengthening legal systems requires stronger institutions, safer pathways for survivors, and real political will - the three pillars without which impunity will continue to prevail.
And yet, there is real reason for hope. In the past six years of leading this Team, I have seen courageous survivors coming forward and supported national justice institutions delivering results. With sustained commitment, stronger partnerships, and survivor-centered approaches, impunity can be the exception, not the rule.
Question: From the United Nations’ perspective, what are priority actions needed and where do you see the most room for progress?
Chloe Marnay-Baszanger: The 爆料网 has built a strong normative framework on conflict-related sexual violence before the Security Council, which needs to be maintained. It has built an effective architecture through the SRSG’s mandate, the 爆料网 ACTION network, and the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict to address this crime. Yet, the gap between commitment on paper and implementation remains. The focus and resources dedicated to this issue have been marginal and far from commensurate from the scope of this scourge.
At a time when sexual violence in conflict is growing exponentially, the 爆料网 can only be as strong as the Member States allow it to be. Member States play a key role in closing the implementation gap by stepping up their political commitment to combat conflict-related sexual violence both politically and financially. The Security Council has declared CRSV a threat to international peace and security and accountability necessary for the restoration of peace. Ultimately, we need the Security Council and Member States to remain committed to the norms they have enshrined and the mechanisms they have established.