Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) theme focuses on the incidence and prevalence of violence against women in conflict and post-conflict settings. Polarisation of gender roles, proliferation of weapons, militarisation, and the breakdown of law influence SGBV.

The risk of SGBV is heightened during conflict by aggravating factors, including the polarization of gender roles, the proliferation of arms, the militarization of society, and the breakdown of law and order. The subsequent long-term and complex impacts of SGBV continue to affect individuals and communities after conflict ends.

SGBV is addressed in all five resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. In SCR 1888, the Security Council expresses its intention to ensure peacekeeping mandate resolutions contain provisions on the prevention of, and response to, sexual violence, with corresponding reporting requirements to the Council (OP11). The resolutions deal with protecting women from violence (1820,OP3, 8-10; 1888,OP3,12); strengthening local and national institutions to assist victims of sexual violence (1820,OP13; 1888,OP13); and including strategies to address sexual violence in post-conflict peacebuilding processes (1820,OP11). SCR 1820 also calls for the participation of women in the development of mechanisms intended to protect women from violence (OP10).

Lastly, SCR 1960 creates institutional tools and teeth to combat impunity and outlines specific steps needed for both the prevention of and protection from conflict-related sexual violence. The new “naming and shaming,” listing mechanism mandated in the Resolution is a step forward in bringing justice for victims and a recognition that sexual violence is a serious violation of human rights and international law.

Addressing SGBV is an integral aspect of the overall Women, Peace and Security agenda. SGBV affects the health and safety of women, and also has significant impact on economic and social stability. The Security Council recognises that sexual violence can threaten international peace and security, and that it is frequently used as a tactic of war to dominate, humiliate, terrorise, and displace.

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SGBV PK

Extract: 

Preventing sexual exploitation and abuse, especially when perpetrated by peacekeepers, must be a priority.

Protection, SGBV

Extract: 

I particularly deplore the hypocrisy and lip service that many Governments display with regard to the plight of the women and girls who are major victims of human trafficking. I urge that they abandon such behaviour and get down to business.

SGBV

Extract: 

Rama was looking for a better life. A young woman in war-torn Syria, Rama was working in a café when a man offered her a restaurant job in Lebanon with a much higher salary. She jumped at the opportunity, but instead of taking her to the well-paying job he had promised, the man took Rama to a run-down brothel in a slum.

SGBV

Extract: 

As the Secretary-General has previously reported, there is a clear nexus between conflict- and post- conflict-related sexual violence and human trafficking, such as sexual slavery, forced labour and organ removal. The list is long. I will, however, focus on sexual exploitation predominantly targeting women, and girls and boys.

SGBV

Extract: 

Terrorist organizations openly advocate slavery as a tactic of war. Da’esh has targeted minority groups for forced labour and sexual exploitation. It has established slave markets where women and children are sold with a price tag attached. Men, women and children fleeing conflict are extremely vulnerable to numerous forms of modern slavery, including sexual exploitation, forced labour and even organ trafficking.

SGBV

Extract: 

Women and girls in particular are targeted again and again and again. We see brutal sexual exploitation, including forced prostitution, forced marriage and sexual slavery. Smugglers often coerce and manipulate individuals for profit and make them victims of sex or labour trafficking. Terrorists and violent extremists use sexual enslavement as a tool for recruitment.

2349 SGBV

PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Extract: 

1. Strongly condemns all terrorist attacks, violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights by Boko Haram and ISIL in the Region, including those involving killings and other violence against civilians, notably women and children, abductions, pillaging, child, early and forced marriage, rape, sexual slavery and other sexual and gender-based violence, and recruitment and use of children, including increasingly the use of girls as suicide bombers, and destruction of civilian property, and calls for those responsible for these acts to be held accountable, and brought to justice;

 

2348 SGBV

PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Extract: 

Acknowledges the crucial role of United Nations Women Protection Advisers deployed in MONUSCO in supporting the Government of the DRC to implement its commitments on addressing sexual violence in conflict and calls on MONUSCO to ensure they continue to work closely with the Government of the DRC at both strategic and operational levels;

Progress made by the DRC on the implementation of the 31 December 2016 agreement and the electoral process, including on the provisions of paragraphs 1 to 6 above, as well as on the ways in which MONUSCO will be best prepared to address security risks and to monitor and report on human rights violations and abuses in the context of the elections, including in terms of deployment of the Force in areas identified as potential zones of instability and configuration of civilian an d police component of MONUSCO, sexual violence and the impact of conflict on women and children, and any gender considerations made;

Security Council Resolution 2344 (2017)

PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Protection
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Human Rights
Extract: 

Expressing its deep concern about the record number of civilian casualties, as noted in the February 2017 UNAMA report on Protection of Civilians in armed conflict and condemning the suicide attacks, often in civilian-populated areas, and the targeted and deliberate killings, in particular of women and girls, including high-level women officials and those promoting women’s rights, as well as journalists,

Reaffirming that all parties to armed conflict must take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of civilians, especially women, children and displaced persons, including from sexual and gender-based violence, and that perpetrators of such violence must be held accountable,

Without global solidarity the women’s movement will collapse

Without global solidarity the women’s movement will collapse.pdf

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