SGBV

There is no doubt about it: Da’esh, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and many other terrorist groups mentioned in the report (S/2017/249) of the Secretary-General use sexual violence as a tactic of war, a weapon of terror and a source of financial revenue used to augment their resources and augment their power. They openly advocate those practices, which figure prominently among their strategic objectives and ideologies. No woman, girl, man or boy is spared. Women and girls suffer the most from the devastating consequences of conflicts and pay a heavy price because of their increased vulnerability. They are now offered up as the spoils of war. For their part, men and boys are often subjected to forced labour, domestic slavery, trafficking in human organs and even sexual exploitation. Sexual violence does not only affect the victims, it eats away at and rots communities and societies to their very core. Its goal is to hurt the body, tear down dignity, destroy the social fabric and obliterate reconstruction efforts from the onset. It destabilizes, destroys and terrorizes societies affected by conflicts. Those who commit such heinous crimes must be brought to justice and sentenced with the maximum punishment