The present report, which covers the period from January to December 2019, is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2467 (2019), in which the Council requested me to report on the implementation of resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1960 (2010) and 2106 (2013).
Sexual violence against women and girls in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been described by the UN and international human rights organisations as a “weapon of war”. Although it is acknowledged that men and boys have been among the victims of sexual violence, they have not been the focus of research or investigations. As a result, the scale and nature of sexual violence against males in CAR is little understood and men and boys have not been systematically factored in to protection strategies or into the design and implementation of responses for survivors.
The Trust Fund for Victims envisions a world where the rights of individuals are fulfilled and where survivors of the gravest human rights violations are empowered to live a life of hope, dignity and respect. The Trust Fund for Victims responds to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC by ensuring the rights of victims and their families through the provision of reparations and assistance.
Working in: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Northern Uganda.
(Nairobi) – The Central African Republic government should coordinate with United Nations peacekeepers to ensure that war crimes suspect Hassan Bouba, who was released from detention in defiance of court orders and escorted home by national gendarmes on November 26, 2021, is returned to custody, Human Rights Watch said today.
ONE MORE DAY – Have you signed up for the webinar? “A Comparison of Interventions for Reduction in Distress: Trauma Healing and Peace Education”.
Wed, 9th September, 1PM UTC. With presentations from Florence Ntakarutimana (Catholic Relief Services), Bill Froming (Palo Alto University) and Karen Bronk Froming (Palo Alto University) that focus on the work of Catholic Relief Services in the Central African Republic.
Register: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DF267XN
MHPSS.net is pleased to announce the first webinar in a series organised by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee #MHPSS Reference Group’s working group on ‘MHPSS and Peacebuilding’. This webinar series features case examples of practice in the field linking MHPSS and Peacebuilding objectives and approaches. The approaches and practices shared during this series are not formally endorsed or promoted by the IASC MHPSS Reference Group, but rather are shared in the spirit of enabling dialogue, debate and learning.
Learn more:
The protection of children in conflict – and with it the realisation of the promises made in the declarations, conventions and statutes of the 20th century – is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. The nature of conflict – and its impact on children – is evolving.
In today’s armed conflicts, there is often no longer a clearly demarcated battlefield: children’s homes and schools are the battlefield.
Increasingly, the brunt of armed violence and warfare is being borne by children. Children suffer in conflict in different ways to adults, partly because they are physically weaker and also because they have so much at stake – their physical, mental and psychosocial development are heavily dependent on the conditions they experience as children. Conflict affects children differently depending on a number of personal characteristics – significantly gender and age, but also disability status, ethnicity, religion and whether they live in rural or urban locations. The harm that is done to children in armed conflict is not only often more severe than that done to adults, it has longer lasting implications – for children themselves and for their societies
“Conflict-related sexual violence is now widely recognized as a war crime that is preventable and punishable. The United Nations Security Council has played an important role in the past decade
by passing successive resolutions that emphasize accountability for perpetrators and services for survivors.”
– United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
Sexual violence against men is one of the least told aspects of war. Yet men and boys are victims too of abuse that is frequently more effective at destroying lives and tearing communities apart than guns alone. It can take the form of anal and oral rape, genital torture, castration, gang rape, sexual slavery and the forced rape of others. It is so taboo that few survivors have the courage to tell their story. Besides feeling ashamed and afraid of being ostracised, many victims dare not challenge powerful myths about male rape in their cultures, experts say. A common belief is that a man who is raped becomes a woman.
Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, are still embroiled in, or emerging from, long-term warfare. Women and girls in these countries are most vulnerable to gender-based violence and need special protection measures. This study on the situation of war-affected girls and women in the region highlights programmes being implemented with partners to address the impact of conflict, and recommends how UNICEF can more proactively champion the rights of girls – particularly adolescent girls.
The report focuses on grave violations perpetrated against children in the Central African Republic and identifies parties to the conflict, both State and non-State actors, who commit grave abuses against children. In particular, the report highlights the fact that children have been consistently recruited and used by non-State armed groups, including Government-backed self-defence militias. The report shows worrisome trends of rapes and other grave sexual violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict throughout the territory. The report also notes the systematic and widespread use of abductions, especially in the north-west, by non-State armed groups and armed bandits as a means of recruiting children and to threaten and extort ransom from the population.