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.

For more resources on this Critical Issue, visit PeaceWomen Resource Center >>

SGBV

Extract: 

Human trafficking can constitute a war crime and is often connected to sexual violence as a method of warfare against civilians. Displaced persons are particularly vulnerable and prone to becoming the prey of criminals specializing in human trafficking for labour or sexual exploitation.

SGBV

Extract: 

We must emphatically condemn the fact that, in armed conflict, refugees, displaced persons and immigrants — particularly women and girls — are consistently extremely vulnerable to human trafficking, in addition to frequently being victims of abduction, sexual violence and abuse.

SGBV

Extract: 

The phenomenon becomes an even greater source of concern because these people are often subjected to forced marriage or even sexual slavery, for women and girls, or to forced labour, for men and boys, including in the mining sector, if they have not already become slaves or combatants.

SGBV

Extract: 

Fourth, we have to distinguish between the crime of sexual exploitation, which is one of the objectives of human trafficking, and sexual violence.

Fifth, human trafficking crimes, especially in women and girls, are not associated with any religion, nationality or civilization.

SGBV HR

Extract: 

Trafficking in human beings in conflict situations leads to sexual slavery, to the trade in women and girls, to forced marriage and to the most appalling human rights violations.

SGBV

Extract: 

We have also heard from someone who risked her life to rescue many of those victims, Ms. Ameena Saeed Hasan. Both of them, along with Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura, have explained how Da’esh is openly promoting the trafficking and enslavement of women and children, thereby defying the most elemental norms of international law.

SGBV

Extract: 

Trafficking in women and girls has become a tactic of terrorism, with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Boko Haram openly and systematically promoting the trafficking and sexual enslavement of women and girls. To address the nexus between human trafficking, conflict, sexual violence and violent extremism requires a holistic approach.

SGBV

Extract: 

I would also like to pay tribute to the Spanish delegation for bringing resolution 2331 (2016) forward, and to the analytical clarity with which Ms.

SGBV

Extract: 

Yet those of us who were in the Chamber a year ago, and again today, will never forget Nadia Murad’s testimony about Da’esh’s institutionalization of slavery and sexual violence, and the nihilistic use of Yazidi women as “trafficked flesh” to recruit male fighters.

SGBV

Extract: 

The callous barbarity of the treatment meted out to innocent people, most often women, girls and young men, is mind-numbing: being kidnapped, forced into marriage, raped, sexually molested and abused; sold into slavery, forced into prostitution; forced to be a suicide bomber, a combatant, a labourer; and even sent into battle with your baby strapped to your back.

Pages