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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INTERNATIONAL: Crime Not Shame: Challenging the Ideology of Rape

When American feminist Susan Brownmiller published ‘Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape' in 1975, thousands of women all around the world who'd been victims of war-time rape were suffering pretty much in silence.

INTERNATIONAL/CANADA: Nobel Winner Calls on Canada to Lead Effort Against Rape

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams arrived in Ottawa this weekend with a mission for Canada: to reclaim its image as the white knight of international human rights.

A key player in a series of human-rights breakthroughs in the 1990s, including the ban on landmines that Williams spearheaded, recent setbacks such as the failure to get a seat on the UN security Council have cast doubt on Canada's international cachet.

INTERNATIONAL: The Mass Crime of Rape: Ending Impunity

A group of us gasped when one tiny mother of five, who looked no older than my 20-year old daughter, lamented, “When I think about my life here, I often feel I'd rather be back in the bush with the Lord's Resistance Army, at least there I had a community". While we are making some progress in fitful efforts at prosecution, we are failing victims of rape miserably, reports Susannah Sirkin.

BANGLADESH: Bangladeshi Women Scarred by Acid Attacks

She is a keeper of healing secrets. Every now and then Nurun Nahar would gently squeeze a woman's hand and whisper, "It will hurt; you might not recognise your face, but if I can get through, so will you."

INTERNATIONAL/DRC: Female Nobel laureates gather in Montebello: Peace Prize Winners Launch Campaign Against Rape as a Weapon of War

‘My family and I were all sleeping when the soldiers arrived. They tied my husband's hands behind his back and then they took turns raping me. Afterward … they killed him. I spent three weeks in the forest until one night I was able to escape. When I arrived home, I discovered that my little child was dead.'

— Panzi Hospital patient, Democratic Republic of Congo

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Women After Osama's Death

After the US killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1, the organization Women for Afghan Women reported an eerie quiet in Kabul, the capital of strife-torn Afghanistan.

DRC: Congo Calls for Gradual Withdrawal of UN Peacekeeping Force, Citing Security Improvements

Congo called Wednesday for the U.N. peacekeeping force in the central African nation to be gradually withdrawn "without delay," saying the security situation has been stabilized in nearly all parts of the country.

AFGHANISTAN: The Afghan Desert Community Where Women are Hidden Away and Child Brides Sold for $20,000

It is the malaria season in Khan Neshin, the wild south of Helmand, just 50 miles from the border with Pakistan.

Mosquitoes thrive in the fetid pools along the river. In the dry fields the last of the poppy harvest is being gathered - and this year it's a bumper crop.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Official: Talks with Taliban Will Not be at Expense of Women

As Afghanistan looks to a future without U.S. troops, the Kabul government says reconciling with the Taliban is critical to making peace after nearly 10 years of war. Some human rights activists are concerned that reconciliation could lead to a return of the repressive conditions they suffered during Taliban rule.

INTERNATIONAL: Sexual Violence: The Healing Imperative

“The context is the scar” once reflected Guatemalan Nobel Women's Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum. Her enigmatic words have haunted me as I have listened to testimonies of women survivors of conflict in West and Central Africa over the past four years; testimonies that give witness to the truism that conflict does not end when warring factions agree to lay down their arms.

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