The Elusive Peace: Ending Sexual Violence during and after Conflict

Citation:

Atuhaire, Pearl Karuhanga, Nicole Gerring, Laura Huber, Mirgul Kuhns, and Grace Ndirangu. 2018. The Elusive Peace: Ending Sexual Violence during and after Conflict. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace. 

Authors: Pearl Karuhanga Atuhaire, Nicole Gerring, Laura Huber, Mirgul Kuhns, Grace Ndirangu

Annotation:

Summary:
"The consequences of sexual violence during armed conflict include trauma, social stigma, cyclical poverty, health issues, and unwanted pregnancies. Furthermore, the impacts of sexual violence during armed conflict last generations, disrupting societies and making peace elusive. Recognizing the scale of the problem, the United Nations Security Council in 2008 adopted Resolution 1820, which condemned sexual violence as a tool of war and offered specific actions to address the causes and consequences of wartime sexual violence. The implementation of Resolution 1820 has primarily focused on sexual violence committed by armed actors, but ten years of programming and research demonstrate clear connections between conflict and sexual violence that extend beyond wartime. Other forms of sexual violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse, domestic sexual violence, and violence targeted at women in politics, are often exacerbated by armed conflict and increase insecurity. This report defines this violence as conflict-associated sexual violence. Conflict-associated sexual violence contributes to the normalization of violence, undermines social cohesion, and worsens structural inequalities. The harmful impacts of conflict-associated sexual violence threaten the security of women, communities, and states, and disrupt peace processes. The United Nations and its member states, civil society organizations, media outlets, the private sector, and academia must recognize and address the detrimental impacts of conflict-associated sexual violence. The policy community must consider conflict-associated sexual violence as both a public health and a security concern” (Atuhaire et al 2018, 1).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Economies, Poverty, Domestic Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Political Participation, Peace Processes, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1820, Violence

Year: 2018