“Nothing About Us Without Us:” The SEMA Network

Source: The SEMA Network

Survivors of sexual violence are seldom given space in policy, justice, or lawmaking processes. In post-conflict contexts, the pursuit of justice is often sidelined when amnesty becomes a quicker route to peace. Among the ones that wait for a justice that never comes, survivors of conflict-related sexual violence bear a heavier burden. On the one hand, they are left to their defences to pick up the pieces after facing such violence. On the other hand, stigmatization and social pressures make it hard to report, talk about, or articulate their truths. Across this spectrum is the base need for survival: In providing for themselves and their families, justice becomes a luxury. Until sexual violence in conflict was taken seriously as a strategically implemented war tactic, women’s experiences were never accounted for in policy or law. Despite the shift in the global understanding, survivors continue to be sidelined and excluded.

Resisting this systemic erasure, the SEMA Network continues to advocate for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence across the world.

Starting Out

SEMA was created in June 2017, in Geneva, Switzerland, following the first global retreat of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence that brought together representatives from 14 countries. They collectively decided to set up a global network for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in order to advocate for survivors’ rights globally, promote solidarity, and build and exchange knowledge among themselves. The word SEMA means “to speak out” in Swahili, and connects survivor-led activist networks at the local, national, and global levels in order to speak out about the realities of conflict-related sexual violence and to call for its end. The network met once annually until the COVID-19 pandemic,  where they shifted to digital platforms to keep up their engagements. Over time, the network represents survivors from 26 countries across Africa, South America, the MENA region, and Europe.

Advocating for Survivors

The SEMA Network is intended to operate as a safe space for survivors to share their lived experiences of armed conflict, and to create oral histories that retain their memories in the face of systemic erasure and exclusion. Members of SEMA contribute to law and policy processes as well by advocating for systemic change in the ways in which conflict-related sexual violence is addressed.

The SEMA Network strives to build and maintain a safe international platform for victims and survivors (as they self-identify) to come together and to learn from and strengthen each other. It also strives to recreate the narrative on conflict-related sexual violence through advocacy and memorialization, and to break the silence on the causes and consequences of conflict-related sexual violence. Their main goal is to call for the end of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and for the enforcement of the rights of survivors, including access to justice and holistic care. The survivors work together to address stigmatization and build solidarity to ensure that survivors and victims are able to access the care they need and to end the culture of impunity for perpetrators.

The SEMA Network enables its members to share experiences, to learn directly from one another, sharing best practices. Members support one another, and strengthened are better able reach out to those still suffering in isolation. Every survivor in this network knows the weight and cost of the stigma they face, and this awareness continues to fuel their resolve to work in solidarity to break the silence, improve victims’ access to care, and end the impunity of perpetrators.

Milestones and Meaningful Change

Members of the SEMA Network have participated in a range of policy and lawmaking processes to advocate for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. For instance, at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Human Rights Council, and the UN General Assembly, they have advocated for holistic care and justice. They have also participated in shaping the Murad Code, a global code of conduct for those who document conflict-related sexual violence. Members from the SEMA Network have also contributed to the UN Women’s Female Military Officers’ Course, in-country exchanges for learning with survivors in a variety of countries, and in the launch of the Global Survivors Find, which is a reparations initiative under the aegis of Dr Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad.

In their consistent efforts toward building oral histories, they have also collaborated with Make Music Matter, where they wrote and recorded a song called Little Bird, which they performed in Geneva and The Hague. In 2022, they also recorded and launched a song called Solidarity, in collaboration with the singer, Zap Mama. The same year, members from the network worked with documentary photographer Rachel Corner to build a portrait series with stories of their personal journeys. The stories in the series were compiled into a book called “Breaking the Silence: Turning Pain into Power” and the photos were showcased in a photo exhibition at the Prevention of Sexual Violence Initiative Conference hosted by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office in London, and later at The Hague.

A key campaign and initiative of the SEMA Network is the Red Line Initiative campaign, which calls on holding states accountable to international obligations where they must take concrete actions to prevent, respond to, and repair grave harms caused by sexual violence in conflict.

Subverting Systemic Erasure

The SEMA Network is a historic effort bringing together survivors across time and place to advocate for themselves and to pursue justice. In a social, political, and cultural order that stigmatizes and silences survivors, the effort to both build oral histories of truth and to make the truth actionable is a brave effort to subvert systemic violence and erasure. Survivors are often forced to make lonely journeys – whether it is in pursuing justice or going back to their lives after facing violence – and the SEMA Network makes available the safety of both community and solidarity. This is particularly powerful – the power of community is a tremendous resource to lean on in the face of structural violence.

The systemic erasure and stigmatization of survivors produce realities where decisions, policies, and laws are made for survivors without their agency or consent. In doing so, institutions take away survivors’ right to exercise power and agency over their lives, choices, needs, and actions. The SEMA Network is fundamentally a commitment to restore the agency of survivors and to resituate the power to make decisions for themselves in their hands.

References

The SEMA Network. https://www.semanetwork.org/

Golovina, O. (2024). Women Support Women. https://iwpr.net/global-voices/women-support-women

ICRC (2022). ICRC campaign on the international day for the elimination of sexual violence in conflict. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-campaign-international-day-elimination-sexual-violence-conflict