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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SOUTH AFRICA: Let's Fight Abuse Together

Everywhere I go there is a palpable sense of anger and sadness at the recent spate of abuse and killing of women and children in our country. The shocking incidents in Reiger Park and Westbury where children were killed have no place in our society. Government is saddened by these deaths and I convey my deepest condolences to the families and friends who lost their loved ones.

IRAQ: Sexual Violence as a War Strategy in Iraq

In the last few days, while the world has been overwhelmed by the flow of information about atrocities committed by Islamic State (IS) jihadists, public officials and local media channels have confirmed that hundreds of Yezidi and Christian women have been abducted, some of them buried alive and others subjected to rape and sexual slavery.

GAZA: The Needle in the Haystack: Finding the Women, Peace and Security Norms in the Gaza Conflict

Operation Protective Edge and the costs of war in the latest round of the Israel-Palestine conflict have dominated all our newspaper headlines in the past month. Images of harm and horror have come to be the stock and trade of the media reporting on the ongoing hostilities. International law has been repeatedly invoked in this war, although often in ways that suggest its breach and even impotence.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Congo's Women Deserve Action

Too often the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is reduced to ‘the rape capital of the world,' a tragic title that has worn out its welcome. We see DRC as the world's capital of survivors, of courageous women whose bodies – and humanity – have come under attack, but who carry remarkable hope. And their hope deserves not only our attention, but our action.

NIGERIA: Women's Right: From Battle To Peace Table

The Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women is still missing, but progress on other dimensions of this issue has taken place rapidly since the early 1990s and also as part of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The UN Security Council has expressed its views strongly and effectively on this issue for the first time in its history.

IRAQ: Isis 'Orders Female Genital Mutilation' for Women in Mosul

The UN says militant Islamist group Isis has ordered all women and girls in Mosul, northern Iraq, to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).

UN official Jacqueline Badcock said the fatwa, or religious edict, applied to females between the ages of 11 and 46.

She said the unprecedented decree issued by the Islamists in control of the city was of grave concern.

COLOMBIA: Colombian Aspirations for Peace, A Regional Wish

The aspirations to achieve peace and reconciliation in Colombia were at the center of proposals in three regional forums on the situation of the victims of the armed conflict that has affected that South American nation for the past five decades.

AFRICA: Women in Conflict Zones At Risk of Violence, Discrimination

U.N. Human Rights experts are expressing concern about the widespread violence and discrimination to which women in conflict-ridden Central African Republic and Syria are subjected. C.A.R. and Syria are two of eight countries examined by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which monitors States Compliance to existing rules.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: UN Hails Appointment of Senior Adviser on Sexual Violence, Child Recruitment

The appointment of a presidential adviser on conflict-related sexual violence and child recruitment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) marks “a new dawn” in tackling these scourges, senior United Nations officials said today.

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