Gender-Based Violence

The escalation of conflict typically coincides with an increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in both the public and private spheres, targeting mainly women and girls, but also affecting men and boys. These crimes can have devastating, long-term effects in the lives of victims, their families and communities.

Armed actors have systematically deployed sexual violence against civilians as a means to achieve military and political ends. In recent conflicts, countless women and children have been abducted into armed groups and subjected to multiple forms of abuse, including sexual slavery. And heightened tension and militarization in society can spur increased violence at home, in schools and in the workplace. Both conflict and displacement significantly increase a country’s risk of becoming a source of human trafficking, enforced prostitution and other crimes.

Moreover, sexual and gender-based violence has persisted in some countries long after the end of conflict. These problems can be exacerbated by cultures of impunity that often arise out of conflict, as well as by the absence of effective institutions to protect citizens and bring perpetrators to justice.

Despite increased focus on the causes and consequences of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, as evidenced by the adoption of UN Security Council resolutions 1820 and 1888, the implementation of meaningful measures to address the problem is still lagging. An effective response to SGBV in conflict requires political will from the highest levels at the United Nations and in Member States. It further requires coordinated efforts of international, regional and national actors to strengthen security sector institutions and justice systems, and to promote gender equality.

UN Women’s Work

To this end, UN Women has mobilized a number of initiatives at the international, national and local levels, including:

• Co-hosting a Colloquium on Sexual Violence & Peace Negotiations, which brought together eminent mediators, thematic experts, peace activists and leaders of women’s organizations from conflict-affected countries to help overcome the absence of provisions on sexual violence in most mediation processes;
• Developing a multi-country programme to support community-led strategies aimed at addressing sexual and gender-based violence;
• Partnering with the Rwanda Defence Forces to train several thousand military officers to understand, prevent and respond to SGBV;
• Strengthening the capacity of organizations such as the African Union and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to effectively mainstream gender perspectives into policy responses at the regional level; and
• Supporting local women’s groups, such as women who have organized training workshops for police and community leaders on combating domestic violence and trafficking.

Within the framework of humanitarian response, UN Women participates in the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility Working Group under the Global Protection Cluster Working Group, as well as GBV sub-clusters in countries affected by a humanitarian crisis caused by a conflict or a natural disaster.

For more information on these issues and UN Women’s work, see the following pages:

• Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
• Human Trafficking