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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BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: "Butcher of Bosnia": Inhumanity of a War Criminal

Ratko Mladic, the Serbian General wanted for war crimes including the killing of over 8,000 men and boys around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian conflict was finally captured after 16 years on the run. United Nations General, Ban Ki -moon described the arrest by Serbian commando units as “a historic day for international justice”.

INTERNATIONAL: Wallstrom Making Progress in Fight Against Rape in Conflict

The Libya conflict has also included an element of war that former Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom is dedicated to fighting against; the rape of women as part of conflict. She described the evidence from two Libyan soldiers who had been ordered into a house, where the occupants had been shot in the legs to disable them, and the young women were taken upstairs where an estimated 20 soldiers raped them.

IRAQ/UGANDA: Ugandan Women Tricked into Domestic Slavery in Iraq

The BBC has the first detailed accounts of how Ugandan women ended up in domestic slavery in Iraq, and the extraordinary story of their rescue.

A Kampala company called Uganda Veterans Development Ltd was recruiting women to work for high wages in shops in US Army bases in Iraq.

She signed up, along with 146 other Ugandan women.

INTERNATIONAL: Landmines data. Rape data

How many rapes are too many in war? Of course, one violent sexual attack on a woman is one too many. A single incident could be a war crime....

And yet, gathering data to document the prevalence of this crime in the Congo and Colombia, in Afghanistan and Burma, and now in Ivory Coast and Libya, by our own countries' militaries, is critical to understanding the scale and scope of these atrocities.

INTERNATIONAL: The Security Sector: An Awkward Space for Engagement

Alongside powerful arguments against militarism, we are hearing an increasingly significant voice from within the security sector, including women in uniform, working on ways to improve the security sector's own understanding and response to issues of women's rights and security. Jessica Horn reports on the debates at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference.
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PAKISTAN: Impunity for Rape, Abduction and Forced Conversion of Women

The Masihi Foundation of Pakistan reports that two Christian girls of the Punjab region of Pakistan were abducted, raped and forced to convert to Islam. The human rights advocacy group reported that the two sisters, Rebbecca Masih and Saima Masih, were kidnapped in Jhung the district of Faisalabad by a gang of Muslim men.

PAKISTAN: Victims of Acid Attack

When I was a student in Boston, I rode the subway almost every day. There was a woman who I saw more than once on the Red Line; her face was unforgettable, but not because she was a great beauty.

PAKISTAN: Raped Pakistani Activist Awaits Appeal Decision

Almost a decade after Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped, her legacy after years of activism and legal battles that made her Pakistan's most famous champion of women's rights now rests on the fate of her final appeal.

Ms. Mai made front-page headlines when she started her campaign for justice in 2002, challenging not only her attackers but the tribal code of honour that endorses rape as a tool of discipline in rural villages.

INTERNATIONAL: Every Act of Violence is a Choice

In a caucus to gather input for the global campaign 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women, one of its founders Charlotte Bunch reiterates the basic feminist point, now underlying human rights-based laws and policies on sexual violence- that “rape is about power, not sex”. If we take that basic premise to be true, then how do we understand why sexual violence happens in conflict?

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: If This is 'Peace', When Does it Start for Women?

Bakira arrived late at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference at Montebello, an envoy from a nightmare period of ethnic cleansing and mass rape nearly twenty years ago. The US-brokered Dayton Accords may have stopped the killing in Bosnia, but Bakira, founder of the Association of Women Victims of War, is not living in peace. 'It's difficult when you meet perpetrators who are still at large -- so many thousands of them.

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