Introduction
Rape and sexual violence in conflict are crimes that show no mercy or discrimination. Little girls are sexually abused. The breasts of nursing mothers are hacked off. Teenage boys are forced to rape their grandmothers. Women are gang raped publicly. Men are castrated. The list goes on.
Sexual violence can happen to anyone. Age and gender are no barrier. Nor is what you do or who you are. You can be a priest, a soldier, a mother or a newborn and still be brutally sexually assaulted. And just as survivors of sexual violence can be anyone, so too can the perpetrators.
It is not just armed rebels or the military that commit sexual crimes. Assailants can be family members or a neighbour you have lived next door to all your life. They can be doctors who have saved countless lives or peacekeepers that brought hope of security with them. During the chaos of conflict, aggressors can be almost anyone.
And when anyone can be sexually violated and anyone can violate, seemingly with impunity, lives and communities break down. Survivors of rape and sexual violence face medical, psychological and economic challenges, which can also affect their families. They are often severely stigmatised socially, as are the children born of rape.
When survivors do not have the right kind of support, the cost of seeking justice outweighs its benefits and perpetrators remain free. Grievances can deepen and communities fracture. Ceasefires break and conflicts endure. The impact of sexual violence is devastating and far-reaching.
Preventing and bringing an end to sexual violence in conflict is critical not just for the countries affected, but critically also for world peace and security. Supporting survivors, breaking the taboos around wartime rape and creating a culture of zero tolerance against perpetrators is vital to enable individuals, societies and countries traumatised by conflict to heal, find peace, grow and move on.
The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in 2014 marked a turning point in the fight against sexual violence in conflict, and should be applauded.
However, it takes more than declarations and commitments to end sexual violence.
Sexual violence in conflict continues: Girls in northern Nigeria have been taken from their homes and schools by Boko Haram and used as sex slaves. Boys and men in detention in Syria still face sexual violence as a form of torture. Islamic State continues to capture women, forcing them to have children for fighters. In Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia and countless other countries, women and girls, boys and men are still raped. This is why we must keep up the momentum to end sexual violence in conflict, keep a light shining on it and not rest until sexual violence in conflict exists only in the past.