Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

In every country, women from all walks of life experience violence, abuse and exploitation. But all women are not equally vulnerable to men's violence as the phrase “violence against women” somehow implies.

Some women and girls are more vulnerable to violence especially those who are poor, indigenous, migrants, ethnic minorities, widows, and living with disabilities for instance.

It is difficult to differentiate between violence committed by State actors, violence supported by the State and violence committed by private security agents.

In all cases, the lack of state accountability and the failure to bring perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) to justice remains a critical challenge to ending this form of violence.

Colombia is considered the most violent country in South America. Violence against women is a phenomenon that is historically tied to the country's culture and the construction of its identity. This acts to normalise violence and seriously affect the rights of women.

The news announced earlier this week that rebels from the M23 movement had finally withdrawn from the DRC city of Goma, was met with much relief. But what does this withdrawal really mean for the DRC – in particular for women, who face a shocking rate of sexual violence, as victims of the ongoing conflict?

The local Geneva press seems not to have caught up with the 16-day world campaign to stop violence against women. At least I have not seen any reference to it although a good number of non-governmental organizations located in Geneva, among them WILPF International, are actively engaged in this world-wide campaign.

The African Union declared this decade, 2010-2020 as the African Women's Decade. In Africa, political leaders have signed on to a range of human rights treaties and declarations of commitment, including CEDAW, Resolution 1325 and Resolution 1820. The Maputo Protocol specifies that there should be clear protections for women from sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.

DR Congo has a bloody history of colonisation and slavery, and its current situation is characterised by extremely grave violations of human rights. The liberation in the 1960s has been followed by political struggles, dictatorship, poor distribution of the country's wealth, armed conflict between different fractions of the national army and guerilla groups, conflict related systematic rape and corruption.

The massive amounts of violence perpetrated against women are a blatant violation of human rights and our WILPF members are citizens to countries where armed violence against women takes place daily. One of the main questions we ask here at Reaching Critical Will and WILPF International is, why are women's rights and security so neglected at the local, national, and international levels?

For millions of Burma's women, especially women of ethnic and religious minorities, life has become just that much more bizarre and dangerous in the past 18 months.

Millions of people, in particular women, are affected daily by direct and indirect consequences of use, production, stockpiling and sales of weapons. These consequences come from all types of weapons, from nuclear weapons and other WMDs, to conventional weapons and explosive remnants of war, and most significantly, small arms and light weapons. The Arms trade is big business and weapons flow in and out of countries uncontrollably.