Unspeakable Crimes Against Children: Sexual violence against children

Save the Children warns that children make up the majority of victims of sexual violence in world’s conflict and post-conflict zones. In the report ‘Unspeakable Crimes Against Children’, figures and testimonies are collated from a range of countries affected by conflict over the past decade, including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Colombia. Reliable data on the issue is limited, as much sexual abuse goes unreported, but taken together, the figures collated in the report indicate that children frequently make up the majority of sexual abuse victims in war and its aftermath. Despite this, programmes to prevent children falling victim to sexual violence and help them recover from attacks remain chronically underfunded. The most recent complete global figures show that less than a quarter of the budget needed to protect children and women in emergencies was available. During its leadership of the G8, the UK government has vowed to prioritise the issue of sexual violence in conflict

Tug-of-War: Children in armed groups in DRC

A study on the push and pull factors influencing children to join armed groups ‘voluntarily’ in North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is a tendency in the literature and in policy debates to discuss children joining armed groups almost exclusively in terms of forced recruitment. Yet, some are joining voluntarily. How does it happen? Why does it happen? Who are the children more prone to make this choice? Is it really a choice?

Male Rape Victims in the Lord’s Resistance Army war and the Conflict in Eastern Congo

Sexual violence against men in Uganda is an underreported crime. Sexual violence against men is considered taboo in most cultures. It is an issue not talked about because many consider the rape of men nearly impossible. It is clear that men have also been victims of rape in armed conflicts all over the world. The laws that define rape should be revised to include men and boys as victims of rape.

Weapon of war: Sexual violence against children in armed conflict

This report presents the very first quantitative analysis of the risk of sexual violence against children in conflict for the period 1990–2019. The report flags remaining data gaps, shortcomings in child-centred and gender-responsive service delivery, and impunity for these crimes. Our findings also show the urgency of the broader call for gender equality and child rights, including increased focus on girls’ empowerment initiatives, recognising that girls are disproportionately affected. Sexual violence in conflict is a weapon, whether it is used tactically or opportunistically. While children face increasing risk of sexual violence in conflict, the international community struggles to adequately address this human rights violation. The scale and gravity of sexual violence against children in armed conflict call for immediate and concerted action by the UN, states, donors, the humanitarian community, researchers and civil society to meet their obligations to ensure children are safe from harm.

The War on Children: Time to end grave violations against children in conflict

This report identifies concerning trends for the safety and wellbeing of children living in areas impacted by conflict, through analysis of the United Nations Annual Reports of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) and new research by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). The research utilizes figures that are published, independently verified and credible, but one of the key findings of the data mapping process is that there is a significant and worrying gap in child-specific data in conflicts.

Although all warring parties are obliged to protect children, in conflicts around the world heinous attacks are committed against children on a daily basis, for which the perpetrators are not being held to  account. What is more, many of these violations are increasing, driven bybrutal conflicts like the war in Syria. There is an urgent need for action to end what is too often a war on children.

Stop the War on Children

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

Stop the war on children 2020: Gender matters

The third report of Save the Children’s Stop the War on Children campaign reveals shocking trends in the threats to the safety and wellbeing of children living in areas impacted by conflict. While fewer children are living in conflict-affected areas, those who do face the greatest risk of falling victim to serious violence since systematic records began. This report delves into the differences between boys’ and girls’ experiences through a gendered analysis of the six grave violations of children in conflict.

Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies: Guide to Developing a Field-Level Road Map

The toolkit is designed for field-based colleagues interested in developing a Call to Action Road Map for their setting. Initially, the primary users will likely be Call to Action Advisors engaged to support the project and field-based colleagues from the global Call to Action partnership. As the project takes hold, the toolkit will be a useful guide for national and local Call to Action stakeholders. Call to Action global focal points can also use it as a resource to increase their support for field-based efforts and strengthen action and accountability under the Call to Action.

The toolkit is a step-by-step guide that walks the reader through the process of developing a fieldlevel Road Map. It includes resources for the drafting process and for implementation. We hope colleagues in other settings will also take up this effort. Partners should consider this toolkit a living document that can be updated to capture good practices as we continue to learn from one another.

It is available in English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

Transitional Justice – time for a re-think

What would justice look like in the conflicts in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia? What would we expect it to achieve? For more than two decades, the field of transitional justice has sought to answer such questions. Transitional justice is generally understood as a package of measures including criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations for victims and reform of abusive institutions.

Barriers to Justice: Implementing Reparations for Sexual Violence in the DRC

The final report evaluates reparations awarded by courts in the DRC to survivors of sexual violence, and the extent to which these reparations are being implemented. First, the report introduces the mobile court system and other judicial institutions that address sexual violence, specifically in Eastern DRC. Second, the report examines barriers to the implementation of reparations awarded by these courts. Third, the report offers recommendations to the international community to help ensure the payment of reparations to victims in the DRC and strengthen their access to justice.

War Trauma Foundation

Works toward its vision by supporting capacity building within psychosocial care initiatives of local organisations through training and supervision, access to information and resources, and strengthening and linking of the local organisations. The WTF works together with local and international staff and professionals of humanitarian aid organisations, service and educational institutions, and other community members, such as teachers and parents. The aim is to promote wellbeing, peace and stability through building and networking the psychosocial care capacity at local, country, regional and international levels. In this way, psychosocial expertise is embedded in the local community, and integrated into lasting, local structures, ensuring sustainability, cultural relevance and effectiveness.

Investigating Rape at the International Criminal Court: The Impact of Trauma

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been characterised by the widespread and systematic perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Rape has been committed by all actors in the conflict, including those operating in the Ituri region of the country, and the use of rape by Lubanga’s Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) in particular has been widely reported and documented by the UN and NGOs alike.

Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict

Sexual violence is committed against men more frequently than is often thought. It is perpetrated at home, in the community and in prison; by men and by women; during conflict and in time of peace. It has been written that, in some respects, the situation facing male rape victims today is not so different from that which faced female victims, say, two centuries ago.

TRIAL International

TRIAL International is a non-governmental organization fighting impunity for international crimes and supporting victims in their quest for justice. TRIAL International takes an innovative approach to the law, paving the way to justice for survivors of unspeakable sufferings. The organization provides legal assistance, litigates cases, develops local capacity and pushes the human rights agenda forward.

Access to Justice for Male Victims of Sexual Violence; Focus on Refugees in Uganda

Sexual violence against men has garnered increasing publicity in recent years but still remains extremely under-researched and under-reported. This paper will examine the challenges facing male victims of sexual violence. The paper will look at the broad international framework, including definitions of sexual violence and international jurisprudence in the area as well as generally looking at how the term sexual or gender-based violence has come to be associated with violence against women (the article can be found on page 7).

Hope in the Shadows: Male Victims of Sexual Assault in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

As a result of ongoing conflict, poverty and instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese men and women have been subjected to various forms of sexual violence by warring rebel militia, government forces, and noncombatants. Most humanitarian aid, money, and international attention supports female victims of sexual violence, but male victims are largely left in the shadows. Simplified narratives of gender violence often define men as villains and women as victims. This narrative aligns with traditional conceptions of gender roles; however, the oversimplification often leaves male victims overlooked by policy responses designed to address sexual violence.

In some refugee groups, more than one in three men are said to have suffered sexual violence

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.

Male victims of sexual violence: war’s silent sufferers

Sexual violence is a tactic of war, used to humiliate, dominate and instill fear. It is also increasingly being used as a tactic of terrorism. While the focus has largely been on women and girls as victims of sexual violence, boys and men are equally at risk. Sexual violence against men and boys takes on a range of heinous acts, including anal and oral rape, genital torture, castration and coercion to rape others. Many of these acts are seen as emasculating, and while many male victims are willing to give accounts of what they witnessed, they are less likely to express what they themselves had experienced in conflict (webpage).

Male rape victims in the Lords resistance army war and the conflict in Eastern Congo

Sexual violence against men in Uganda is an underreported crime. Sexual violence against men is considered a taboo in most cultures. It is an issue not talked about because many consider the rape of men nearly impossible. It is clear that men have also been victims of rape in armed conflicts all over the world. The laws that define rape should be revised to include men and boys as victims of rape.

Study of community-based child protection mechanisms in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo

By mapping existing community-based protection initiatives, structures and approaches, the study intended to identify effective and sustainable community-based mechanisms and offer recommendations in order to help support the development of its community-based child protection strategy in Uganda and in the DRC.

Understanding and coping with traumatic stress, Part Three: Cultural issues

Traumatic stress is not just a problem for western humanitarian workers who relocate (usually temporarily) to developing countries and disaster zones for the sake of their job. In fact, the majority of humanitarian workers worldwide are from non-western cultural backgrounds, working in their home country (from page 12).

Child soldiers as zones of violence in The Democratic Republic of Congo: three cases on medico-legal evidence of torture

This article sets medico-legal light on torture of three former child soldiers by comparing torture methods, consequences of torture and medical observations. It is focused on these child soldiers as representatives of the many abuses of children as soldiers in armed groups.
(This is not an open-source article, but it is an important publication.)

The impact of conflict on women and girls in West and Central Africa

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.

Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, April 2006

In 2006, DRC continues to endure the world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis, with more than 38,000 people dying every month as direct and indirect consequences of the armed conflict, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Approximately 45 percent of these deaths occur among children under age 18. In addition, children are targets of human rights violations committed by armed forces and groups on a daily basis. The overwhelming majority of these crimes are committed in an environment of utter impunity. (Both in French and English)

Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Alternative report prepared for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 36th session  7-25 August 2006

The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is unstable and rapidly shifting in some areas. This report contains the most current information available about Congolese children up to early June 2003.

Rights of the Child in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Concluding observations