LEGAL DEFINITION

For the Secretary General of the United Nations, "the term 'conflict-related sexual violence' covers acts such as rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilisation, forced marriage, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys, and directly or indirectly related to conflict" [1].

While sexual violence is punishable as a constitutive element of international crimes under various texts, it is not clearly defined. WWoW took part in the work of civil society to draw up the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice Declaration on Sexual Violence. The Declaration aims to define sexual violence, and to provide guidance on what makes an act "sexual" and when an act of a sexual nature can become an "act of sexual violence".

CHARACTERISTICS

Sexual violence in conflicts is a fully-fledged military or political strategy.

They are defined, decided upon, and ordered at the highest levels, just as the bombing of a village, the extermination of a people, or the gassing of a community is decreed. While rape in war has always existed, rape as a tool of war has become endemic and almost systematic in contemporary conflicts.

Rape then becomes a tool used to humiliate, destroy, and seize power, employed against women (DRC, Kenya, Bosnia, Rwanda) as well as against men (Libya, Uganda, Ukraine, Chechnya) and children (Syria, CAR, DRC).

These acts of violence are carried out using varying modus operandi, depending on the context and objective for which they are employed: rapes are often collective, committed in public, or in front of the victims’ families, with or without the use of instruments…

They differ from sexual violence in peacetime due to:
– the context in which they occur: conflict, a crisis climate, state collapse, institutional breakdown, migration routes…
– the profile of the perpetrator: often linked to an armed group, whether state or non-state (e.g., FARC, Wagner, Boko Haram, or the Islamic State)
– the profile of the victim: targeted because of their belonging to a political, ethnic, or religious minority, their sexual orientation, or their gender identity…

OBJECTIVES

Conflict-related sexual violence is frequently used as a tool to instill fear among populations, disrupt family units and social cohesion, dismantle communities, and sometimes even eradicate the ethnic identity of a specific group of people. They can also be a deliberate means of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV, and lead to sterility in women and men.

So, just like the organisation of a terrorist attack or an armed robbery, conflict-related sexual violence is thought out and planned to achieve specific objectives. Here are a few examples:

Ethnic cleansing and purification
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, or more recently against the Yazidi community or the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.

Guarantee of recruitment

For the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or Boko Haram, for example. For these criminal organizations, the promise of sexual access serves as a key recruitment tool. More recently, in Sudan, recruitment was carried out with the guarantee of access to "women," often as young as 10 years old.

Tool for indoctrination
As advocated by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—leader of the Islamic State—in October 2015, in a letter addressed to his men: convert to Islam through rape. ISIS has made war rape a supreme and integral weapon of its warfare strategy. Similarly, Boko Haram in Nigeria targets young girls by abducting those attending school, repeatedly raping them, and forcibly marrying them off to members of the terrorist organization.

Political and Economic Strategy
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Central African Republic. In these countries, rape is widespread in regions rich in diamond mines and other precious minerals. The use of sexual violence is intended to force populations into exodus in order to seize control of these resources.

Tool of terror and torture
In Ukraine, Iraq, Libya, Syria, or even South Sudan... In the Sahel, sexual violence is used by armed groups (Mali, Burkina Faso, etc.) as well as on migration routes, where it has become systematic. Moreover, gangs also use sexual violence as a tool of terror. Gang violence in Haiti or in certain Latin American countries is characterized by extremely violent rapes, often against very young girls but also boys. This violence is almost systematic.

Tool of political repression
Particularly targeting opponents, as seen in Guinea-Conakry, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, as well as in Libya and Syria.

On the routes of exile

Sexual violence is widely used along migration journeys. Migrants often find themselves "hostages" of smugglers, with rape being the price to pay. However, sexual violence is also perpetrated by those in positions of authority (guards, police, military, gang leaders, etc.). Notably, among women—who make up 51% of migrants—90% have experienced sexual violence.

Human trafficking for forced prostitution is another growing issue and a reason for exile. LGBTQI+ individuals are particularly targeted, often suffering a “double punishment” as they face both persecution and stigma within migrant communities. Lastly, the passage through Libya is marked by countless acts of violence, including sexual violence.

While it is evident that conflict-related sexual violence has existed throughout history—serving as war booty, as in the abduction of the Sabine women, or as an act of vengeance by victors, as seen during World War II—what is new over the past 30 years is its institutionalization.

Examples such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Sahel, or ISIS in Iraq and Syria, demonstrate that the use of sexual violence has been deliberately theorized. Manuals and guides on sexual slavery have been developed, women’s markets have been set up with price lists based on age, virginity, and the victim’s community of origin. These groups have fully integrated sexual violence into their terrorist strategies, aware of the long-term individual and collective impact of such crimes.

Conflict-related sexual violence has thus become a tool and a weapon of terrorism. It is now even considered in counterterrorism strategies. More recently, in 2022 in Ukraine, the aggressor state has used sexual violence as a tool of terror. Non-state actors, such as the Wagner private military company, have made it an almost systematic weapon.

THE GRADUAL RECOGNITION OF CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE

For centuries, sexual violence during conflict was considered inevitable, seen as collateral damage of war. Rape was also long regarded by armies as a right granted to victors over the vanquished, without facing any punishment. For example, during World War II, all sides of the conflict committed mass rapes—whether opportunistic, retaliatory, or with ethnic objectives in Germany.

However, the Tokyo and Nuremberg military tribunals, established to prosecute war crimes, remained silent on acts of sexual violence and issued no convictions for such crimes.

Over time, wartime sexual violence began to be criminalized and sanctioned under international law. The first major milestone in this shift was the adoption of the four Geneva Conventions on August 12, 1949 [2], later supplemented by the Additional Protocols of 1977 [3].

It was truly during the conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s that sexual violence was recognized as a distinct issue by the international community and the United Nations. In 1992, the United Nations Security Council condemned the "mass, organized, and systematic detention and rape of women, particularly Muslim women, in Bosnia and Herzegovina" [4].

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was the first to criminalize acts of conflict-related sexual violence. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) also contributed to the development of jurisprudence on this crime, before other international courts and national judicial systems took up the issue.

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In the early 2000s, the United Nations Security Council took up the issue of conflict-related sexual violence and developed a legal framework.

Resolution 1325 (2000) [5], establishing the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, calls on parties to an armed conflict to take specific measures to protect women and girls from acts of gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

In 2007, the UN launched the United Nations Campaign Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (or UN Action), a network that brings together 21 UN entities to coordinate efforts between institutions to address the issue of conflict-related sexual violence [6].

Resolution 1820 (2008) is the first resolution dedicated to conflict-related sexual violence. It states that such violence is an obstacle to the restoration of peace and international security, and declares that sexual violence is used, among other things, as a weapon of war. It also stipulates that sexual violence in conflict “may constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an element of the crime of genocide” [7]. Another series of resolutions on this topic was adopted in the following years [8], including Resolution 2467 (2019).

In 2009, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict was created. Each year, this office produces an updated report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (see the latest report from June 2023).

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to conflict-related sexual violence crimes, as evidenced by the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two prominent figures in the fight against conflict-related sexual violence. The prize was awarded in 2018 to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor of genocide (and sexual slavery) by the Islamic State and activist, and Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist and founder of the Panzi Hospital, which provides care to victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

REFERENCES

[1] Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies, Violences sexuelles liées aux conflits, Rapport du Secrétaire général, S/2021/312, 30 mars 2021, §5.

[2] Comité international de la Croix Rouge, Conventions de Genève du 12 août 1949, 1949. L’article 3 commun de ces conventions ne cite pas expressément le viol et les autres formes de violence sexuelle, mais interdit "les atteintes portées à la vie et à l’intégrité corporelle" ainsi que "les atteintes à la dignité des personnes". Convention (IV) de Genève de 1949, article 27 §2 : “Les femmes seront spécialement protégées contre toute atteinte à leur honneur, et notamment contre le viol, la contrainte à la prostitution et tout attentat à leur pudeur”.

[3] Comité international de la Croix Rouge, Protocoles additionnels aux Conventions de Genève de 1949, 1977. Notamment le Protocole additionnel (I), 1977, article 76 : “Les femmes doivent faire l’objet d’un respect particulier et seront protégées, notamment contre le viol, la contrainte à la prostitution et toute autre forme d’attentat à la pudeur.” Protocole additionnel (II) 1977, article 4 §2 : prohibe “les atteintes à la dignité de la personne, notamment les traitements humiliants et dégradants, le viol, la contrainte à la prostitution et tout attentat à la pudeur”.

[4] Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies, Résolution 798 (1992), S/RES/798(1992), 18 décembre 1992.

[5] Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies, Résolution 1325 (2000), S/RES/1325(2000), 31 octobre 2000, §10.

[6] Bureau de la Représentante Spéciale du Secrétaire Général chargée de la question des violences sexuelles commises en période de conflit, Campagne de l’ONU contre la violence sexuelle en temps de conflit.

[7] Conseil de Sécurité des Nations Unies, Résolution 1820 (2008), S/RES/1820(2008), 19 juin 2008, §4.