all throughout 2009, i’ve blogged about the abuse of women and children via the sex slave trade. similar attitudes are on brazen display on this under reported story from guinea.

i will pause from blogging my usual fare the next few days to give it the spotlight it needs:

Clinton: Guinea violence a “vile violation” of rights

Hillary Clinton says that the United States government is formulating a response the recent flare up of violence in Guinea in which government forces shot and raped hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a soccer stadium.

Last month, Clinton presided over a Security Council session that passed a resolution classifying rape as a tactic of war. Should the United States seek to take action through the UN, this may be the first opportunity to invoke the resolution at the council.   State Department spokesperson Ian Kelley suggested as much in recent comments to the press.  From All Africa:

It is precisely because of these horrific events of September 28 that Secretary Clinton went to the Security Council last week and called for urgent action to protect women and girls,” whom he described as “war’s most violated and vulnerable victims.” “The U.N. and the international community must act now to end this crisis,” [said Kelley]

These kinds of resolutions may seem like only  symbolic excersizes at the time, but they do lay the foundation for the kind of consensus upon which the council relies to take swift action.