WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Researching, Documenting and Monitoring Sexual Violence in Emergencies

Sexual violence in humanitarian emergencies, such as armed conflict and natural disasters, is a serious, even life-threatening, public health and human rights issue. Growing concern about the scale of the problem has led to increased efforts to learn more about the contexts in which this particular form of violence occurs, its prevalence, risk factors, its links to HIV infection, and also how best to prevent and respond to it. Recent years have thus seen an increase in the number of information gathering activities that deal with sexual violence in emergencies. These activities often involve interviewing women about their experiences of sexual violence.