UN Security Council Resolution 1820

UN Security Council resolution 1820 was adopted in June 2008 to address the issue of widespread sexual violence in conflict, either when used systematically to achieve military or political ends, or when opportunistic and arising from cultures of impunity. Resolution 1820 identifies sexual violence as a matter of international peace and security that necessitates a security response, by recognizing that such acts can exacerbate situations of armed conflict and can impede the restoration of peace and security.

Resolution 1820 calls specifically for:

Strengthening the protection of women from sexual violence, including by:

• evacuating and protecting women and girls under imminent threat of sexual violence, training troops on the categorical prohibition of sexual violence, and enforcing military discipline and justice;
• ensuring that peace operation planners develop and implement effective mechanisms for protecting refugees in and around UN-operated camps and in demobilization centres;
• enacting Security Council measures such as state-specific sanctions against parties to armed conflict who perpetrate sexual violence;
• ensuring that individuals from disarming groups who are known to have participated in sexual violence are excluded from integration into post-conflict security sector institutions.

Strengthening advocacy aimed at ending conflict-related sexual violence, including by:

• exposing myths that fuel sexual violence at the country level;
• developing system-wide training programmes for all UN-deployed humanitarian and peace operations personnel to strengthen prevention and response.

Supporting victims of sexual violence, including by:

• developing and strengthening services and national capacities, such as basic health services, maternal care and psychosocial counselling.

Countering impunity and strengthening accountability, including by ensuring that:

• transitional justice mechanisms reject impunity and develop appropriate systems to account for and prosecute sexual violence;
• sexual violence is excluded from amnesty provisions in peace processes;
• national capacities and institutions are strengthened, including the capacities of health and judicial systems to collect data and evidence to enable prosecution of perpetrators.

Strengthening women's participation locally through:

• increasing dialogue between the United Nations and regional, state and civil society actors on the role and contribution of women and women’s organizations in peace processes and governance;
• encouraging special envoys to include women in discussions on conflict prevention, conflict resolution, post-conflict peacebuilding and governance;
• empowering civil society networks that advocate for an end to sexual violence and support victims.

Increasing women’s representation and integrating gender perspectives in peace operations, including by:

• deploying more female peacekeepers, police officers and civilian personnel in all operations and at all levels;
• taking appropriate preventative action, including providing pre-deployment and in-theater awareness training for peace operations personnel;
• strengthening the responsiveness of peace operations personnel in protecting civilians from sexual violence during and after conflict;
• implementing and enforcing zero-tolerance policies on sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations.