Hospitals and other healthcare facilities should be beacons of safety and healing for all those injured in conflict, including the survivors of sexual violence. These are fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law."
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Hospital security is critical to helping survivors of sexual violence heal
The world is currently experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II, resulting in a record 117 million people forced to flee their homes. Disregard for international law, arms proliferation, and increasing militarization are exacerbating sexual violence and posing serious threats to the safety of civilians, including vulnerable groups.
Attacks on civilian infrastructures, such as healthcare facilities, are intensifying, depriving communities of fundamental rights such as the right to health and posing challenges for safe reporting and response. This poses serious threats to the safety of civilians, including vulnerable groups such as survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, as hospitals are essential to provide life-saving assistance in conflict-affected areas.
Conflict-related sexual violence has long-lasting harmful effects on victims and is used as a tactic of war, torture, and terrorism. It has devastating physical, sexual, reproductive, and mental health effects and destroys communities' social fabric. Women and girls face brutal forms of sexual violence, and armed groups often control access to medical services. Most women and girls do not seek medical attention owing to fear, stigma or prevailing insecurity. Destruction of health facilities, killing of health workers, and humanitarian access constraints hinder life-saving assistance for survivors.
let us pledge to eliminate this scourge, stand in solidarity with survivors, and reaffirm our commitment to protecting hospitals and healthcare facilities during conflict
António Guterres
Military use of hospitals: A threat to facilities, personnel and patients
Attacks on healthcare facilities in conflict zones have devastating consequences for pregnant, nursing, and new mothers, including the unprecedented scale of women and girls reported to have died before or during childbirth. It's crucial to ensure their safety, provide comprehensive care, and support survivors to prevent long-term harm and marginalization. Ensuring the safety of hospitals in conflict zones is paramount for the well-being of survivors of sexual violence and persons at risk and supporting their quests for justice and redress.
The military use of hospitals threatens the civilian nature of these institutions and exposes patients and medical personnel to increased risks. International humanitarian law protects hospitals from attacks and emphasizes the principles of distinction and proportionality.
The international community needs to ensure the protection of these structures as they are vital for survivors of sexual violence. Financial support should prioritize survivor-centered responses in conflict situations, including comprehensive support services, access to justice, and socioeconomic reintegration.
We must guarantee safe and equitable access to inclusive and quality education, including digital literacy for all.
International cooperation must be enhanced to counter increasing sexual and gender-based violence, harassment and hate speech occurring both offline and online, as these pose a real threat to democracy by weakening women and girls’ participation in society.
2024 Event
Attacks against healthcare in conflict-affected areas: impacts for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT
Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Conference Room 11, UNHQ, New York
Event to commemorate the 10th official observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict co-hosted by the Office of the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Office of the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict, and the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations.
The purpose of the event is to stand in solidarity with survivors, and those supporting them, to spark hope, knowledge and inspiration as we lift our voices to say: “#EndRapeInWar”.
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.
Resources
- General Assembly resolution establishing the International Day (A/RES/69/293)
Reports of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence
- 2024: S/2024/292
- 2023: S/2023/413
- 2022: S/2022/272
- 2021: S/2021/312
- 2020: S/2020/487
- 2019: S/2019/280
- 2018: S/2018/250
- 2017: S/2017/249
- 2016: S/2016/361
Other reports
- Conflict Related Sexual Violence MPTF Annual Progress Report 2021
- Team of Experts Report 2022
- Team of Experts Report 2021
- UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action):
- More reports
Publications
Related websites
- Say #NoToHate
- Stop Rape Now: UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict
- UN Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict
- Rape: Weapon of war
Multimedia
"If you look at the history of war, and the conflicts around the world, and time immemorial, sexual violence has been used in every war as a tactic of war" - Pramila Patten (Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict)
Listen to the interview in Awake at Night S3-Episode 26: It Breaks Your Heart to Hear About the Brutality
"“The issue of impunity, the knowledge that one can rape a mother, a daughter, a son, a child and get away with it, feeds the pathology that keeps this issue dire and growing”, Zimbabwean American actress Danai Gurira.
Exhibition: ‘Horror and hope’
