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 >>

INTERNATIONAL: United Nations Women Focuses on Priority Areas

The United Nations (UN) Women, the newest UN entity, said on Tuesday that it will be working together with governments, women and other associations and stakeholders by focusing on four priority areas to ensure women's equality and their empowerment in the community they live.

DRC: UN Security Council Calls on DRC To Do More to Prosecute Perpetrators of Abuses

The UN Security Council on Monday called on the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to strengthen efforts to prosecute perpetrators of human rights and sexual abuses.

Brazilian UN Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency for February, made the statement to reporters here.

DRC: Continuing Insecurity Threatens Civilians in North Kivu

Simmering insecurity continues to force Congolese civilians in North Kivu to flee their homes and seek security in places like Kalinga, one of many camps for the internally displaced in the volatile region.

UNITED STATES: U.N. Expert Examines Violence Against Women in the U.S., Gov't Response

Robin Levi has a simple point of view when it comes to violence against women in the United States and what the government should be doing to stop abuses. “What's really important is reminding ourselves the United States is not immune from human rights law,” said the human rights director of San Francisco Bay area-based Justice Now.

AFRICA: African Women Fight Back

Yet as conflict continues to unfold, from the Ivory Coast to the ever-turbulent Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is still mostly a silent disaster.

It remains out of donors' reach and almost invisible in the media, increasing during and after disasters as already fragile structures of law and order break down.

But does this mean African women are always helpless, voiceless victims in places of conflict?

FIJI: Increase in Physical and Sexual Abuse

There are serious concerns about the increase in the number of domestic violence, rape, child abuse and sexual harassment cases.

Statistics from the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre show more than 10,000 such cases were reported to the centre over the past 10 years.

There were 379 rape cases, 8632 domestic violence cases, 318 sexual harassment and 690 cases of child abuse.

DRC: Fighting Congo's Ills With Education and an Army of Women

For years, diplomats, aid workers, academics and government officials here have been vexed almost to the point of paralysis about how to attack this country's staggering problem of sexual violence, in which hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, many quite sadistically, by the various armed groups who haunt the hills of eastern Congo.

HAITI: Rape Flourishes in Rubble of Haitian Earthquake

Halya Lagunesse thought she knew despair. Nearly seven years ago, the soldiers who had killed her husband gang-raped the Haitian woman and her daughter Joann, who was 17 at the time.

But that pain pales in comparison to the torment of learning last March that her 5-year-old granddaughter had been raped.

Pages