The following is a post written by Dinah-Kareen Jean, who joined Vital Voices in the fall of 2009 and is currently a Consultant with the Vital Voices Human Rights Program. Dinah-Kareen graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Political Science and Community Health.

On January 29th, 2010 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced his decision to appoint Margot Wallström as his Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict position was created in response to Security Council Resolution 1888, adopted on September 30th, 2009. The resolution called for the Secretary General to create the position in order to coordinate efforts between non-government organizations, governments and the military to address the issue of sexual violence in armed conflict.

Ms. Wallström is currently the outgoing Vice-President of the European Commission for Institutional Relations and Communications and was previously the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Ministerial Initiative. Her career in politics began in 1979 when she was elected to the Swedish Parliament. Ms. Wallström plans to apply her wealth of knowledge and experience to an issue that she regards “as one of the most important and yet one of the most overlooked and ignored in modern conflicts.”

In her role as a Special Representative of the Secretary General, Ms. Wallström will be given the opportunity to provide first hand observations of conflict situations to the Secretary-General and to communicate the issues of those working on the ground to the greater UN community.

Curbing sexual violence in conflict is ‘mission irresistible’ for new UN envoy-UN News Centre