TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
EUROPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
TERMINOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Azerbaijan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Bosnia and Herzegovina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Serbia (Kosovo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
GLOBAL OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
MIDDLE EAST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Angola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Burundi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Central African Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Côte d’Ivoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Democratic Republic of the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Ethiopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Guinea-Bissau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Mozambique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Republic of the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Rwanda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Sierra Leone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Somalia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Uganda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Zimbabwe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
THE AMERICAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Colombia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
El Salvador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Guatemala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Haiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Nicaragua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Peru. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
United States of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
ASIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Burma / Myanmar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Cambodia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
East Timor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Solomon Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Tadjikistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Israel and the Palestinian Territories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Kuwait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Lebanon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Yemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SECURITY SECTOR. . . 143
POLICING AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS
OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
IN ARMED CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
PEACEKEEPERS AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN
ARMED CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
ADDRESSING CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL
VIOLENCE IN DDR PROCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
CIVIL SOCIETY RESPONSES TO SEXUAL
VIOLENCE IN ARMED CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
BOXES
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
Reform of the Nicaraguan police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Post-conflict justice mechanisms in Sierra Leone . . 159
Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
“Reintegrative Shaming” in Bougainville . . . . . . . . 164
African Union firewood patrols in Darfur . . . . . . . . 170
Addressing sexual exploitation and abuse
in European Union peacekeeping missions . . . . . . . 176
7: Definition of DDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
8: Hakamas sing and dance for peace in their
communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9: “Bush wives”: abducted women and girls . . . . . . . . 184
10: DDR in Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
11: DDR and justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
12: Women’s courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
13: Isis-WICCE in Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
14: Colombia’s Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas
and Ciudad de Mujeres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
15: Challenging violent masculinities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
LIST OF ACRONYMS
DDR
Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration
DPKO
United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations
DRC
Democratic Republic of the Congo
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
IASC
Inter-Agency Standing Committee
ICC
International Criminal Court
ICTR
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
ICTY
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
IDP
Internally displaced person
MONUC
United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
NGO
Non-governmental organisation
PRIO
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
RHRC
Reproductive Health Response in Conflict
TRC
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
UCDP
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
UN
United Nations
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund
UNHCR
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
UNIFEM
United Nations Development Fund for Women
UNMIL
United Nations Mission in Liberia
WFP
World Food Programme
WHO
World Health Organization
6
Kula, a 47-year-old victim of gang-rape, at a centre for women traumatised by war in Monrovia. She wished to have her identity protected for fear of reprisals. © Keystone, AP, Ben Curtis, 2003
FOREWORD
Information about sexual violence perpetrated during
armed conflict is scarce, scattered and selective. Policy
makers, donors and humanitarian groups consistently
call for better documentation of sexual violence in
conflict. This Global Overview demonstrates the
horrifying scope and magnitude of sexual violence in
armed conflict. It brings to light sexual violence in the
world’s underreported conflicts, as well as in those
countries where it is notoriously commonplace, and
highlights the shared and varying vulnerabilities of
specific population groups within and between regions.
The report also shows that sexual violence is not
confined to African or European conflicts, or to conflicts
in developing or developed nations, but is a global
scourge.
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration
programmes may be perpetrators or survivors of sexual
violence.
Regrettably, in debates around “security” and security
sector governance and reform, sexual violence tends to
be considered a marginal issue, a side-effect of
insecurity rather than a key form of insecurity in itself.
It is very rarely the focus of specific initiatives within
the security sector. Not surprisingly, there is a lack of
information about good strategies within the security
sector to prevent and respond to sexual violence in
armed conflict, and in post-conflict security sector
reform processes.
In 2005, DCAF published a major study, Women in an
Insecure World, bringing its expertise in security policy
and security sector governance to an examination of
violence against women as a global phenomenon, and
of the role of women in peace-building.1 DCAF has
since developed a programme on gender and security,
focusing both on security sector responses to genderbased violence, and the participation of women in
security processes and institutions.
Security sector institutions are key in preventing and
responding to sexual violence in armed conflict. Police
services are responsible for identifying and arresting
perpetrators. The judiciary oversees the trial and punishment of perpetrators, and may be responsible for
awarding reparations to the victims. In some conflicts,
peacekeepers are mandated to protect women and girls
from sexual violence. Combatants enrolled in
7
This report, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Global
Overview and Implications for the Security Sector, proposes
various ways in which the security and justice sectors
can improve or develop strategies to prevent and
respond to sexual violence in armed conflict and postconflict situations. It is a resource for security sector
agencies, as well as for policymakers and researchers,
civil society groups and humanitarian agencies that
work with affected populations and security agencies.
DCAF hopes that this report will challenge security
institutions to develop their own good practice
standards in responding to conflict-related sexual
violence.
Ambassador Theodor H. Winkler
Director
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control
of Armed Forces (DCAF)
Endnotes
1
Vlachová, M. and Biason, L. eds. (2005) Women in an Insecure
World: Violence against women – facts, figures and analysis, DCAF,
Geneva.
8