Nothing About Us Without Us: Sexual Violence in Conflict - How to End Impunity?

Sexual violence, mostly targeting women and girls, is a widespread and systematic feature of many wars and conflicts both in history and across the contemporary world. It is a phenomenon that destroys lives and communities, and leaves a terrible legacy for survivors and their families. But the challenge of addressing this pervasive reality is made all the more difficult when impunity is the rule and not the exception.

This report examines the issues around impunity for sexual crimes in war and conflict, maps the organisations and initiatives that are working for justice in the area, explores the instruments and capacities available in making progress against impunity, and makes recommendations to the Norwegian authorities as to what they might do to improve their contribution.

What can be done to reduce impunity? There is an international consensus to combat sexual violence in conflict which is based on various instruments and declarations, including United Nations resolutions on women, peace and security, and the founding Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. But these lack effective reporting mechanisms through which they can be enforced. So although the means to prevent and halt sexual violence in conflict exist, there are questions over how to ensure the accountability of governments, states, local actors and the international community itself to the human-rights norms that would ensure this.