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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KYRGYZSTAN: Victims Recount Horrors of Ethnic Violence in Kyrgyzstan

Lying on his hospital bed in Andijan, in eastern Uzbekistan, 65-year-old Khikmatullo Urunbayev, an ethnic Uzbek grandfather from Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, had tears in his eyes as he lifted his arm for us to see.

INTERNATIONAL: 16 Days Campaign: Militarism and Violence Against Women

CWGL-Center for Women's Global Leadership-is pleased to announce the theme for the upcoming 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign (2010). The following examples of issues that the campaign can address are central to the work of many IANSA women.

These include:

DRC: To Be Healed, Brutalised Congolese Need to See Justice Being Done

Three years ago, while Jolie Muhindo was returning from taking her exams in a city several hours away from her village, she was raped by the commander of an armed group. Since then she has been living with a host family in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, one of the most unstable parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

KYRGYZSTAN: U.N. Says 400,000 Uprooted in Kyrgyzstan

Some 400,000 people have been displaced by ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, the United Nations announced Thursday, dramatically increasing the official estimate of a crisis that has left throngs of desperate, fearful refugees without enough food and water in grim camps along the Uzbek border.

AFRICA: Speaking Out on Justice and Peace at the Women's Court

On Tuesday, 1 June 2010, the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice organized an all-day Women's Court during the Review Conference of the Rome Statute. The Women's Court featured 12 presentations from victims and women's rights activists from Uganda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan who comprised part of the Women's Initiatives' delegation to the Review Conference.

KOSOVO: Serbian Court Upholds Prison Terms for Perpetrators of Kosovo Massacre

A Serbian appeals court has upheld prison terms of up to 20 years for three ex-Serb paramilitaries convicted of gunning down 14 ethnic Albanian women and children a decade ago in Kosovo.

The court in Belgrade rejected appeals from the three appellants, who served in the notorious Scorpions unit during the 1999-2000 Kosovo war. A retrial was ordered for a fourth defendant.

SENEGAL: Silence Endangers Girls

Girls' safety hinges on families' willingness to speak out about sexual violence, researchers in Senegal's southern Casamance region said at the release of a study that reveals widespread violence against girls aged 10 to 13.

The study, by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the University of Ziguinchor, found that in Kolda, Sédhiou and Ziguinchor, family, social and cultural pressures bred silence and impunity.

SUDAN: ICC Prosecutor: Crimes Continue Against Civilians in Darfur

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court says crimes are continuing against civilians in Darfur refugee camps despite efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council Friday that rape and other such gender crimes remain unabated in the Darfur region of Sudan.

AFRICA: Marital Rape in Africa: The Right to Say No

"I own her. The dowry I paid for her means she's my property.”

For most of our conversation, 40-year-old Linus Kariuki seemed like a soft-spoken man, a town councillor in the village of Kanjuu, 90 minutes northeast of Nairobi. But when he talked about the controversial proposal to make marital rape a crime in Kenya, he became loud and agitated.

The reform, he insisted, was not in keeping with African tradition.

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