The term international framework of sexual violence refers to the collection of

international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

legal instruments – such as

treaties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

, conventions,

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

, case law, declarations, resolutions and recommendations – developed in the 20th and 21st century to address the problem of

sexual violence Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...

. The framework seeks to establish and recognise the right all

human beings Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...

(especially but not only

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

) to not experience sexual violence, to prevent sexual violence from being committed wherever possible, to punish perpetrators of sexual violence, and to provide care for victims of sexual violence. The standards set by this framework are intended to be adopted and implemented by governments around the world in order to protect their citizens against sexual violence. Even though

international humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war ('' jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pro ...

(IHL) strongly prohibits sexual violence in all armed conflicts and

international human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, a ...

(IHRL) and

international customary law Customary international law is an aspect of international law involving the principle of custom. Along with general principles of law and treaties, custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its ...

strongly prohibit it at all times, enforcement mechanisms are fragile or do not exist in many parts of the world. Acts of sexual violence can be charged as a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

, war crime, or grave breach of the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...

Background

Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to,

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

. Although there is no agreed upon definition of sexual violence, commonly applied ones encompass any act of a sexual nature or attempt to obtain a sexual act carried out through coercion. Sexual violence also includes physical and psychological violence directed at a person's sexuality, including unwanted comments or advances, or acts of traffic such as forced prostitution or sexual slavery. Sexual violence, in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread and considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common violations human beings suffer. It is a serious public health and human rights problem and has profound short- and long- term impacts on physical and mental health. Though women and girls suffer disproportionately from this kind of violence, it can occur to anybody at any age. It is also an act of violence that can be perpetrated by parents, caregivers, acquaintances, and strangers, as well as intimate partners. Sexual violence is rarely a crime of passion; it is an aggressive act that frequently aims to express power and dominance over the victim. Sexual violence remains highly stigmatized in all settings; thus, levels of disclosure of the assault vary between regions. In general, it is widely under-reported; thus, available data tend to underestimate the true scale of the problem. In addition, sexual violence is also a neglected area of research; thus, deeper understanding of the issue is needed to promote a coordinated movement against it. It is important to distinguish between domestic sexual violence and conflict-related sexual violence. Often, people who coerce their spouses into sexual acts believe their actions are legitimate because they are married. In times of conflict, sexual violence tends to be an inevitable repercussion of warfare trapped in an ongoing cycle of impunity. Rape is often used as a weapon of war, as a form of attack on the enemy, typifying the conquest and degradation of its women or men or captured fighters of any gender.

International humanitarian law

References to sexual offences and violence provided in IHL instruments are only partially expressed in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and even more vaguely considered in the 1977 Additional Protocols. By prohibiting sexual violence in a non-discriminatory manner,

ensures that women are protected through a two-tiered approach, being covered by general (equal protection as men) and specific protections. IHL mandates special protections to women, according to their additional needs in situations in which they find themselves more vulnerable, for example women who are widows, sick and wounded, migrants, internally displaced, or held in detention.

International criminal law

Although evidence of sexual atrocities such as

mass rape Mass sexual assault is the collective sexual assault of individuals in public by a group. Typically acting under the protective cover of large gatherings, victims have reported being groped, stripped, beaten, bitten, penetrated and raped. Egy ...

s is acknowledged in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and

Tokyo Tribunal The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conve ...

, references to sexual violence in their respective charter are absent. Nonetheless, the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

(ICTR), the

International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

(ICTY), the hybrid

Special Court for Sierra Leone The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibil ...

and the

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC; french: Chambres extraordinaires au sein des tribunaux cambodgiens (CETC); km, អង្គជំនុំជម្រះវិសាមញ្ញក្នុងតុលាការ� ...

consider sexual violence as a public tool of war rather than a private crime. Groundbreaking case law both by the ''ad hoc'' Tribunals of ICTR and ICTY established unprecedented developments by classifying acts of

and sexual violence as crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. International Committee of the Red Cross provided clarification with ''Aide-memoire'', the prohibition of rape under the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The issued statements cover the breach of willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, not only rape but also any other attack on a woman’s dignity. The ''Aide-memoire'' covers the legal breadth of prohibitions enumerated under Article 147. The Akayesu case goes beyond

domestic law Municipal law is the national, domestic, or internal law of a sovereign state and is defined in opposition to international law. Municipal law includes many levels of law: not only national law but also state, provincial, territorial, regional, ...

definitions of sexual violence and is the first case in which sexual violence is perceived as an integral part of

as defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. On 2 September 1998, the

(ICTR) found

Jean-Paul Akayesu Jean-Paul Akayesu (born 1953 in Taba) is a former teacher, school inspector, and Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) politician from Rwanda, convicted of genocide for his role in inciting the Rwandan genocide. Life Akayesu was the mayor of T ...

guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, and "sexual violence" is cited more than 100 times in the judgment. The trial chamber also held that "sexual violence was an integral part of the process of destruction, specifically targeting

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

women and specifically contributing to their destruction and to the destruction of the Tutsi group as a whole". The first trial solely focused on the perpetration of systematic sexual violence (

rape camps Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader ...

) and on crimes against humanity committed against women and girls was in the Foca case, a ruling before the

(ICTY). The Statute of the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...

(ICC) also explicitly incorporates rape and other forms of sexual violence in the list of war crimes and therefore recognizes sexual violence as a grave breach of

and of the

Human rights law, the United Nations, and further developments

International conventions and declarations

An extensive amount of both

hard Hard may refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series * Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock supe ...

and

soft law The term ''soft law'' refers to quasi-legal instruments (like recommendations or guidelines) which do not have any legally binding force, or whose binding force is somewhat weaker than the binding force of traditional law. Soft law is often contras ...

instruments set rules, standards and norms for the protection of victims of sexual offences. Among the wide range of international human rights law instruments are the following:

UN resolutions and reports

The

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...

ECOSOC The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...

and the

UN Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of ...

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

addressed the impacts of armed conflict on women was in Resolution 1325 (2000). The document focuses on the need for specific protections for women and girls in conflict and expresses the need to consider gender perspectives in mission, UN peace support operations, and post-conflict processes. Resolution 1820 (2008) of the

declares that

and other forms of sexual violence "can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide".

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict

Resolution 1888 (2009) is perceived as an advancement in international law as it created the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC). The first Special Representative,

Margot Wallström Margot Elisabeth Wallström (; born 28 September 1954) is a Swedish politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019 and Minister for Nordic Coope ...

, was appointed in April 2010. The second Special Representative

Zainab Hawa Bangura Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (; born 18 December 1959) is a Sierra Leonean politician and social activist who has been serving as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) since 2018, appointed by United Nations Secretary-Ge ...

served in the position from September 2012 to April 2017, when the third Special Representative

Pramila Patten Pramila Patten (; born 29 June 1958) is a Mauritian barrister, women's rights activist, and United Nations official, who currently serves as the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Under-Secretary-General of ...

took office. The Office identified eight priority countries:

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

;

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

(CAR); Colombia;

Cote d’Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

;

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

(DRC); Liberia;

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

and Sudan. SRSG-SVC is also engaged in the Middle East ( Syria) and in Asia and the Pacific (

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

). Key priorities of the Office are: # to end impunity for sexual violence in conflict by assisting national authorities to strengthen criminal accountability, responsiveness to survivors and judicial capacity; # the protection and empowerment of civilians who face sexual violence in conflict, in particular, women and girls who are targeted disproportionately by this crime; # to mobilize political ownership by fostering government engagement in developing and implementing strategies to combat sexual violence; # to increase recognition of rape as a tactic and consequence of war through awareness-raising activities at the international and country levels; # to harmonise the UN's response by leading

UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) a cross-UN initiative that unites the work of 24 United Nations entities with the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict. The inter-agency network is composed of 24 UN entiti ...

, a network of focal points from 13 UN agencies that amplify programming and advocacy on this issue in the wider UN agenda; # to emphasize greater national ownership. Resolution 1960 (2010) reaffirms that sexual violence is systematic, rampant and widespread. The resolution creates new institutional tools for the prevention and protection from sexual violence. The aim of the resolution is to provide further steps for combating impunity and recognizing sexual violence as a serious breach of human rights law and international humanitarian law. Resolution 2106 (2013) reasserts fundamental requirements for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict setting: gender equality, women empowerment, and the importance of implementing the full range of commitments found in resolution 1325.

References

External links

ICRC Resource Center. Sexual violence in armed conflicts: questions and answers

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict

UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict Brochure

Stop Rape Now. UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict

Reporting and interpreting data on sexual violence from conflict-affected countries

UN Action against sexual violence in conflict: Progress Report 2010-2011

Addressing Conflict Related Sexual Violence: An analytical inventory of peacekeeping practice

Global Solution to Sexual Violence in Conflict, Chatham House, 18 February 2013. Speech of the UN SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura.
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