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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LIBERIA: Indian Women Peacekeepers Hailed in Liberia

They are trained in sophisticated combat tactics and weaponry, crowd and mob control, counter-insurgency. They patrol the streets of the Liberian capital, expected to keep the peace after years of war.

IRAN: Iranian Women's Rights Activist Recounts Decision To Cast Off Hijab

On a cold winter day, Iranian women's rights activist and journalist Fariba Davoodi Mohajer made an about-face: Having worn the hijab for 25 years, she decided to cast her head scarf into the sea. That was in 2006. But she still remembers every detail of that day in Ireland: how she walked along the seaport in Dublin for several hours pondering the act; how she watched as her head scarf was pulled away by the waves.

IRAN/IRAQ: Iranian Attacks Should Not Target Iraqi Civilians

Iran needs to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians at risk of serious harm from artillery bombardment and other military operations in an area that includes dozens of Kurdish villages inside northern Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.

CHECHNYA: A Fearless Activist in a Land of Thugs

Natalya Estemirova is gone now. Her executioners forced her into a car in front of her home in Chechnya and sped away with her on Wednesday morning. She managed to shout that she was being kidnapped, her last known words documenting the beginning of the crimes against her, just as she had documented crimes against uncountable others.

CHECHNYA: Rights Worker's Killer Is Known, Medvedev Says

A year after a human rights worker, Natalia Estemirova, was abducted outside her home in Chechnya and found dead beside a highway, the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said the authorities had identified her killer and were searching for the person who ordered her murder.

IRAQ: 3 women, 1 child killed in Attack on Family in Iraq's Anbar

Three women and a child from one family were killed and six others wounded when gunmen attacked a house near the city of Fallujah in Anbar province early on Wednesday, a provincial police source said.

IRAQ: Iraq still blackspot for human rights, says UN

A UN report on Iraq shows human rights in the country remain a cause for concern, in spite of improvements in security.

IRAN: Iran's Assault On Civil Society

Addressing a meeting of the Community of Democracies in Krakow, Poland, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of the importance of robust, non-governmental civic organizations to prosperous, democratic societies: "Citizens," she said, "must be free to come together to advocate and agitate, to remind those entrusted with governance that they derive their authority from the governed."

IRAN: Woman who Fled After Iran's Summer Unrest Tells of 'Revenge' Attack in Turkey

A woman who fled Iran after alleging that she had been raped in detention during its post-election upheaval has reported being physically attacked by Iranian agents while seeking refuge in Turkey.

HAITI: Rape in the Camps: Lacking Security, Women Organize to Protect Themselves

Something that gets lost in all the coverage of the Haiti earthquake is how people on the ground organize in the face of adversity. Rape and violence against women has become increasingly widespread in the tent camps across Haiti. While Haitian police and UN forces have done little, women on the ground are organizing to protect themselves. We spoke with Malia Villard Appolon, of coordinator of KOFAVIV, the committee of women for survival.

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