Breaking the silence: Empowering survivors of conflict-related sexual violence
- UNAA
- Jun 19
- 3 min read
19th June 2025
Conflict-related sexual violence undermines social cohesion by destroying community bonds and leaving lasting trauma for survivors and their families.
Conflict-related sexual violence is a war crime, a crime against humanity and a constituent act of genocide under international law, posing threats to individual and collective security and hindering lasting peace.
Its impacts are far-reaching, causing physical and psychological trauma, stigma, and poverty that can affect survivors and their families for generations. In some communities, survivors may face ostracization, which limits their access to vital social support and healing resources.
Additionally, the consequences can be magnified if pregnancies result from such violence, potentially leading to further societal rejection of children born in these circumstances. This form of violence is often connected to other wartime atrocities, including the abduction and recruitment of individuals into armed groups.
A frontal attack to social cohesion
Conflict-related sexual violence undermines social cohesion by destroying community bonds and leaving lasting trauma for survivors and their families. Many survivors remain silent due to fear of reprisals, lack of support, and the stigma placed on them instead of the perpetrators.
Empowering survivors of CRSV through healing and community support
As a global community, we must seek to examine the long-term effects of conflict-related sexual violence. We need to widen the aperture to illustrate how conflict-related sexual violence affects families and communities across time and space. If left unaddressed, its harms compound over time.
To break this cycle and promote healing, access to mental health and psychosocial support is crucial. Survivors require trauma-informed care to help navigate their experiences and build resilience. Effective intervention strategies include community-based support, child-friendly resources for young survivors, educational initiatives, and legislative changes aimed at preventing conflict-related sexual violence. By addressing intergenerational trauma, we can foster an environment where survivors and their children are empowered to reclaim their lives, transforming their experiences of horror into hope and healing.
Background
Definition and prevalence
The term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. The term also encompasses trafficking in persons when committed in situations of conflict for the purpose of sexual violence or exploitation.
A consistent concern is that fear and cultural stigma converge to prevent the vast majority of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence from coming forward to report such violence. Practitioners in the field estimate that for each rape reported in connection with a conflict, 10 to 20 cases go undocumented.
UN Resolutions
On 19 June 2015, the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/69/293) proclaimed 19 June of each year the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, in order to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence, to honour the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world and to pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives to and lost their lives in standing up for the eradication of these crimes.
The date was chosen to commemorate the adoption on 19 June 2008 of Security Council resolution 1820 (2008), in which the Council condemned sexual violence as a tactic of war and an impediment to peacebuilding.
In response to the rise in violent extremism, the Security Council adopted resolution S/RES/2331 (2016), the first to address the nexus between trafficking, sexual violence, terrorism and transnational organized crime. Acknowledging sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism, it further affirmed that victims of trafficking and sexual violence committed by terrorist groups should be eligible for official redress as victims of terrorism.
Like to get involved? Become a Member of UNAA
Like to Find Out more about UNAA
or make a valuable donation to UNAA's work
Comments