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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UGANDA: Maiming Women: Society and Judiciary Not Doing Enough

Grisly and ghastly are probably the most apt words to describe the story that appeared in this newspaper yesterday, of a young woman whose hands were chopped off by an angry ex-husband (Man held over attack on ex-wife, Daily Monitor, February 6).

MOZAMBIQUE: Woman, 35, Gang Raped in Mozambique

35-year-old woman walked through a field in northern Mozambique, near where a group of teenage boys were undergoing their ritual circumcision into adulthood.

DRC: Narratives of Rape in the DRC: Helpful, but Perpetuating Stereotypes?

Women Under Siege is a fascinating new initiative of the Women's Media Center that focuses on rape and sexual violence used as tools of control in instances of war, conflict, and genocide throughout the world.

SOUTH AFRICA: Raping young South Africa

THE rape of babies and children screams to be at the very top of South Africa's national agenda – the most urgent of our many urgent debates.

With it we need to place the rape of women and even men.

SOUTH AFRICA: What's Love Got to Do With It?

IT IS widely accepted that strategies aimed at ending violence against women have to focus on perpetrators and survivors. Gender-based violence - domestic violence and rape - is largely aimed at women because they are women. The fact that they disproportionately affect women more than men has led to a recognition by the constitutional court that such violence is a form of gender discrimination.

SOUTH SUDAN: Help Arrives For Victims Of Violence in South Sudan

WFP has rapidly scaled up food assistance to more than 80,000 people forced from their homes and farms by an outburst of fighting between rival groups in the South Sudan state of Jonglei.

“The violence in Jonglei is only one of the many challenges that South Sudan is currently facing,” said WFP Deputy Executive Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva during a visit to the region.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women and Children Targeted in South Sudan Ethnic Violence

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Government of South Sudan to take decisive action to identify and prosecute those responsible for recent violent attacks in the Jonglei region.

SOUTH SUDAN: Violent Raids, Thousands Displaced

Recent attacks by ethnic tribes in the Jonglei state, South Sudan have killed an estimated 3,000 people and left approximately 100,000 displaced. Women and children account for the majority of people abducted and murdered.

SUDAN: Darfun Women Take on Hard Labour

Across the Darfur region of western Sudan, female workers weighed down by heavy buckets are a common sight on building sites.

The work is arduous and the pay pitiful, but many women in Darfur have no other way of earning a living.

INTERNATIONAL: Q&A: Gloria Steinem on Ending Rape in Rar

It doesn't matter where you look; sexualized violence is intrinsic to conflict. Qaddafi's soldiers committed rape in the last days of Libya's regime. The Egyptian military has been sexually violating female journalists and protesters in that revolution.

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