International framework of sexual violence

The standards set by this framework are intended to be adopted and implemented by governments around the world in order to protect their citizens against sexual violence.

Sexual violence is rarely a crime of passion; it is an aggressive act that frequently aims to express power and dominance over the victim.

[10][11] Rape is often used as a weapon of war, as a form of attack on the enemy, typifying the conquest and degradation of its women or men or captured fighters of any gender.

In no other area is our collective failure to ensure effective protection for civilians more apparent – and by its very nature more shameful – than in terms of the masses of women and girls, but also boys and men, whose lives are destroyed each year by sexual violence perpetrated in conflict.References to sexual offences and violence provided in IHL instruments are only partially expressed in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and even more vaguely considered in the 1977 Additional Protocols.

[15] Rape and other forms of sexual violence that amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law entail individual criminal responsibility and must be prosecuted.

The issued statements cover the breach of willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, not only rape but also any other attack on a woman’s dignity.

[22][23] On 2 September 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, and "sexual violence" is cited more than 100 times in the judgment.

[22] The first trial solely focused on the perpetration of systematic sexual violence (rape camps) and on crimes against humanity committed against women and girls was in the Foca case, a ruling before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

[26][27] An extensive amount of both hard and soft law instruments set rules, standards and norms for the protection of victims of sexual offences.

In the process, we will begin to transfer the stigma of this crime from the survivors, to the perpetrators.The UN Security Council, ECOSOC and the UN Commission on Human Rights do not take into account the nature of the conflict with respect to the protection of women in war time.