unspeakable crimes against children[1]
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Unspeakable crimes
against Children
sxu vo of
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Unspeakable Crimesagainst Children
su c cfc
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Save the Children works in more than 120 countries.We save childrens lives. We ght or their rights.We help them ull their potential.
Published bySave the Children1 St Johns LaneLondon EC1M 4ARUK+44 (0)20 7012 6400
savethechildren.org.ukFirst published 2013
The Save the Children Fund 2013
The Save the Children Fund is a charity registered in England and Wales (213890) andScotland (SC039570). Registered Company No. 178159
This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without ee orprior permission or teaching purposes, but not or resale. For copying in any othercircumstances, prior written permiss ion must be obtained rom the publisher, and a eemay be payable.
Cover photo: Emma was raped by an armed soldier on her way to work in the elds.Shes 12. Emma didnt get medical assistance ater she was attacked because ghting inthe eastern Democratic Republic o Congo made it unsae to travel to the health clinic.(Photo: Save the Children)
Typeset by Grasshopper Design CompanyPrinted by Page Bros Ltd
AcknowledgementsWritten by Vronique Aubert with Alison Holder and contributions rom Yvonne Agengo,Saba Al Mobaslat, Saullah Amarkhail, Michel Anglade, Dia Abu Mosleh, Lucy Batchelor,Bill Bell, Annie Bodmer-Roy, Roberta Cecchetti, Roger Davila, Nadja Dolata, Emily Echessa,Clare Feinstein, Asmara Figue, Karen Flanagan, Marcela Forero, Isabel Gomez, GeorgeGraham, Henrik Halvardsson, Duncan Harvey, Christophe Hodder, Ashley Jones,Salma Kahale, Heather Kerr, Ruba Khoury, Rachel Maranto, Christine McCormick, RobMcGillivray, Marion McKeone, Elin Martinez, Karen Mets, Jennier Moorehead, Helen Mould,Lalitha Mylvaganam, Nastasia Paul-Gera, Ned Olney, Asa Olsson, Laura Ossa, Lisa Parrott,Laura Payne, Hiba Qaraman, Katie Seaborne, Ylva Sperling, Hanne Stevens, John Sullivan,Nadine Theabeurey, Katy Webley, David Wright, Jumanah Zabaneh, Serena Zanella,Olivia Zinzan and many other colleagues across Save the Children.
Please note: This report contains distressing reports and quotes rom children aected
by seual violence in confict. All names throughout the report have been changed toprotect identities.
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Contents
Executive summary v
PART 1: UNDERSTANDING SExUAL VIOLENCEAGAINST CHILDREN IN CONFLICT 1
1 What is the scale o the problem? 2
2 Who suers sexual violence in confict? 4
3 Where does it happen? 5
4 Who are the perpetrators? 9
5 Why does it happen? 10
6 What is the impact on children? 15
PART 2: PREVENTING AND RESPONDING TOSExUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN 19
1 The DeliverEmpowerChangeReorm model 20
Deiercomprehensive child-centred services 20
Empowerchildren and their communities (especially women and girls) 23 Change social norms to reduce the likelihood o seual violence against children 24
Reorm laws and institutions and build political will to prevent and respond to seual violence 25
2 Gaps in unding or protection in emergencies 29
Conclusion 36
What were calling or 37
Endnotes 38
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Madeleine and her older sister weretaken rom their home in a village in theDemocratic Republic o Congo by twosoldiers. They were orced to walk or ourhours and then raped.
Two sodiers came to our house. They had guns
and they stoe a the money we had.
Then they took me and my sister and tod usthey were going to ki us. My parents coudntdo anything because the sodiers had guns. I wasso scared.
They waked me and my sister in sience intothe bush. It took our hours and they were hittingus with their guns to make us wak aster. It wasnight-time. I kept aing oer in the mud because
it was so dark.
We arrived at their place in the bush. There wereother soldiers there. They were saying things to
me and my sister but I didnt understand becausethey were speaking in another language. A soldiertook my sister away. Another soldier then took meand raped me. I was thinking, Will I ever be ableto go home again? Maybe Ill get pregnant. I I do what will happen? What will I do?
Ater that they took me back to my sister andet us go. I was ery upset and in a ot o pain.
I haent tod my riends. I dont know how theywoud react. Maybe I woud get a bad reputationin my iage. But my amiy knows and theysupport me.
It has happened to other girs. When there isconict, women and girs suer a ot. We mustteach the goernment and the eaders so that the
sodiers dont do these things.
madeleine, 16
PHOTO:KATIESEABORNE/SAVETHECHILDREN
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v
I cant orget what happened. My head is u othese things what happened to my riends, myamiy. Its not peaceu in my head.
Aissatou,1 aged 15, refecting on events in Mali in early 20122
I want to te the word that we need peace stop the war. We need to make sure chidren andwomen are protected. Peope who rape need tobe arrested.
Flicit, aged 13, who was raped in the Democratic Republic o Congoater being displaced rom her village in December 20123
Seual violence is one o the most horric crimescommitted during confict. No one should have toendure the pain and humiliation o rape and seualeploitation and violence, and it is particularlydeplorable when a child is subjected to this brutality.
The prevalence in confict o seual violence againstchildren is shocking. Save the Childrens research andprogramming eperience indicates that girls especiallybut also boys under the age o 18 oten make up themajority o survivors o seual violence in confict andconfict-aected countries; sometimes more than 80%o those aected by seual violence are children.4
In countries across the world where Save theChildren works Aghanistan, Colombia, CtedIvoire, the Democratic Republic o Congo, Jordan,Lebanon, Mali, Myanmar (Burma), the occupiedPalestinian territory, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria and in reugee camps, including those in Ethiopiaand Kenya, thousands o girls and boys are subject toseual violence.
Seual violence may be committed by armed groups,gangs and/or governmental armed orces. Children arealso victims o seual violence in detention and arerecruited and/or used by armed orces and groups orseual purposes. They may become the property oone or more ghters, to whom they provide seualservices, or act as wives to individual ghters.
But seual violence in times o war is also committedby amily members, community members, other
children, teachers, religious leaders, peacekeepers andhumanitarian sta trusted people rom all walks olie. In countries where women and girls are alreadyheavily discriminated against, young girls ace thegreatest threat. They are particularly eposed to highlevels o rape, but also early or orced marriage andunintended pregnancy. Although less apparent, seualviolence against boys is also common. Both girls and
boys are oten reluctant to report the crime, becauseo the social stigma and ear o retribution.
High levels o seual violence plague children inpost-confict situations, too, as they are subjected toviolations including seual abuse, seual eploitationand tracking.
The impact o seual violence on children iscatastrophic physically, psychologically and socially.Children who have been victims o seual violence
are oten let with serious physical injuries, which canbe particularly severe because their growing bodiesare not yet ully developed. Damage to childrensreproductive systems can leave them incontinent,inertile and condemned to a lietime o bleeding andpain. They are at high risk o contracting seuallytransmitted inections, including syphilis, gonorrhoeaand HIV. Girls who become pregnant can suerlie-threatening complications during childbirth, willoten be orced to drop out o school, and can acesocial eclusion and stigmatisation. Their chances
or urther education, livelihoods and marriage maybe severely diminished or completely eliminated,condemning them to a lietime o etreme povertyand increased vulnerability to urther eploitation.For the thousands o children who survive seualviolence, the key priority is to try to recover romthe trauma. Too oten, however, there is little or noappropriate response to their needs, and this deepenstheir suering immeasurably. Even worse, we know agreat deal about how to protect children rom seualviolence, even in emergencies, but lack o political willand unding means we arent always able to put inplace sucient programming.
exeCUtive sUmmary
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UNSPEAKABLECRIMESAG
AINSTCHILDREN
vi
In 2013 there is a historic opportunity to change the
way the world thinks about sexual violence in confict:
during its leadership o the G8, the UK government
(and Foreign Secretary William Hague in particular) has
made a commitment to prioritise the issue o sexual
violence in confict. William Hague has described sexual
violence in confict as our generations slave trade: acomplex issue that was once seen to be unsolvable but
was eventually addressed with the help o concerted
international action.
But there is a danger that even with this welcomeleadership, the opportunity to make real progresson the ground will be missed unless we address thespecic challenges acing children. We are calling onthe G8 countries to take the ollowing action:
1 Place children at the centre o internationalaction on sexual violence in confict
Children, and especially girls, oten make up themajority o survivors o seual violence in confict, buttheir particular needs are too requently neglected.To ensure that this doesnt happen, we are caingon the G8 countries to pace chidren at the centre
o internationa action on sexua ioence in conict.
When we consider the problem o seual violencein confict rom the perspective o children, it alsobecomes clear that preventing seual violence rombecoming widespread in confict in the rst placeshould be at the top o our priority list. Preventivemeasures include a wide range o activities, rom
providing adequate lighting in reugee camps, buildingtoilets inside camps and buildings and ensuring accessto education and shelter, to securing a change inattitudes and behaviours by tackling discriminationagainst women and girls.
2 Fund the protection o children
and the prevention o violence
In spite o increasing international attention to theissue o seual violence in confict, there remainsa severe lack o unding and political priority orpreventing and responding to seual violence (andother protection concerns) on the ground in confict-aected countries. Our analysis shows, or eample,that only 22% o humanitarian unding needs or theprotection sector were met in 2011. This should beseen as essential, not optional, and receive the samelevel o priority as other sectors such as ood, shelter
HUMANITARIAN FUNDING BY SECTOR IN 2011Funding needs Commitments/ % Gap between($US) contributions unding and
($US) commitments
1 Food 2,848,202,388 2,257,011,715 79 591,190,673
2 Coordination and support services 603,597,993 392,401,072 65 211,196,921
3 Health 1,228,381,112 787,218,660 64 441,162,452
4 Saety and security o sta and operations 7,270,516 4,099,367 56 3,171,149
5 Agriculture 771,350,586 384,924,176 50 386,426,410
6 Water and sanitation 745,971,596 340,419,671 46 405,551,925
8 Multi-sector 999,783,070 451,601,069 45 548,182,001
7 Education 305,981,906 136,518,374 45 169,463,532
10 Mine action 62,715,909 25,476,855 41 37,239,054
11 Shelter and non-ood items 399,089,308 147,445,839 37 251,643,469
12 Economic recovery and inrastructure 305,978,894 88,709,973 29 217,268,921
13 Protection/human rights/rule o law 639,040,697 140,709,422 22 498,331,275
15 Sector not specied 486,926,155 N/A 486,926,155Total 8,917,363,975 5,643,462,348
Average 48
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ExECUTIVESUMMARY
vii
and water. Save the Childrens eperience shows thatseual violence is not an inevitable part o confictand that barriers can be built between childrenand violence. When sucient unding and priorityis attached to the protection sector, programmesacross what we call the DeliverEmpowerChange
Reorm5
spectrum can prevent and respond to seualviolence in ways that address the particular needs andvulnerabilities o children. We are thereore aso caingon G8 countries to ensure that unding to protect chidren
is prioritised in eery humanitarian response.
3 End impunity or sexual violence
against children
In contets where state authority has collapseddue to confict, laws are no longer enorced andcombatants or civilians can commit seual violence,usually with complete impunity. Prosecutions orseual violence in confict aected countries are notprioritised on either global or national levels, andsurvivors ace many hurdles in seeking accountability.G8 countries shoud exert maximum pressure on
goernments and/or armed groups to respect their
obigations under internationa humanitarian and human
rights aw, by immediatey hating a acts o rape and
other sexua ioence and recruitment or use o chidren,
and to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice;
by ratiying the Rome Statute o the InternationalCriminal Court (ICC); and by strengthening national
laws and policies relevant to rape and seual violenceand to ensure that international criminal law ascodied in the Rome Statute is incorporated intonational law. G8 countries should also assist eortsat documenting seual violence, or eample, bymaking available epert investigators, with a view to
ensuring accountability.
4 Ensure the UN has the mandate, capacity
and resources to play its role in protecting
children rom sexual violence
UN peacekeeping troops, or eample, must havea clear mandate to provide eective protectionto civilians, and must prioritise the protection andpromotion o childrens rights. The UK is currentlythe lead on the UN Security Council on protectiono civilians, and thereore has a particular window oopportunity to infuence now. Also, the coordinationmechanisms o the UN that can play a role inpreventing seual violence in confict are chronicallyunder-nanced. With minimal additional resources,the UN coordination mechanisms could work moreeectively to prevent seual violence in confict rombecoming widespread. G8 countries shoud ensure thata parts o the UN that can pay a roe in preenting
and responding to sexua ioence in conict hae the
necessary resources, skis and poitica backing to tacke
the issue.
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Sandra lives in an area o a city in Colombiathat is known or the presence o armedgroups, confict and violence. When Sandrawas ve she was raped by her uncle.
I hae ied here or 13 years and eery day
there is more conict, more troube or chidren.Beore they used to respect chidren but nowthey dont care whether theyre chidren, babies,pregnant mothers they sti ki them.
And its common that gang members rape girs.
I hae been raped. I was fe years od. Mymother was working and my ather too and myoder sister was studying. So I was with my unce.He gae dinner to my two itte sisters but he
didnt gie me dinner. We went to bed me withmy sisters but I coudnt seep so he took me tohis room. He raped me.
The next day my mother was heping me take abath and there was bood. My mother asked mewhat had happened so I tod her eerything. Wereported my unce. He was captured and put in
jai but then he escaped. Now he is in the streets.
Its ery difcut to expain to you how it makesyou ee. The schoo heped me with psychoogicahep but I sti haent conronted it competey.I cant orget it. I try to ee the same way asother chidren but its difcut.
For the past two years, Sandra has beenattending a project supported by Save theChildren, where children learn about theirrights and have opportunities to epressthemselves through writing, drawing, dance,
theatre and music.
sandra, 15
PHOTO:PAULSMITH/SAVETHECHILDREN
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part 1Understanding
sexUal violenCe
against Childrenin ConfliCt
During confict and instability, children6 are eceptionally vulnerable to a widerange o human rights abuses and protection risks: separation rom their amilies;detention; orced displacement; torture; lack o ood and shelter; lack o access tohealth and education services; abduction; recruitment and use by armed orces orgroups; rape, and seual abuse and eploitation.
Seual violence is dened or the purposes o this report as any act, attemptor threat o a seual nature that results, or is likely to result, in the physical,psychological or emotional harm o an individual, including seual abuse andseual eploitation. This includes rape, incest, harassment, orced prostitution,seual slavery and se tracking.7
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When we consider that 7595% o rapes arenever reported to the police in England,8 itshould come as no surprise that we knowlittle about the ull extent o sexual violencecommitted in confict and post-confict settings.
The problem o seual violence against children isenough o a scourge even in countries that are not
confict-aected: the UN estimates that up to 50% oseual assaults wordwide are committed against girlsaged under 16.9 One o the ew global studies o theseual abuse o children across a number o countries mostly rich countries that are not eperiencingconfict ound that 21.2% o emales and 10.7% omales were victims o seual abuse between the ageso zero to 18; this means an average o nearly 16%o all children.10 I we apply these global child seualabuse prevalence rates just to the population ochildren living in confict-aected countries, we canestimate that nearly 30 million children have been orwill be seually abused beore their 18th birthday.11And it may well be more.
The ew gures available and Save the Childrenseperience in confict-aected countries indicate thatchildren especially girls but also boys oten makeup the majority o survivors o seual violence inconfict-aected countries.12 In some cases, morethan 80% o those aected by seual violence inconfict-aected countries are children: InSierraLeone,morethan70%ofthesexual
violence cases seen by the International RescueCommittee (IRC) were girls under 18, and morethan 20% o those were girls under 11.13 Anotherestimate rom the confict period estimates thatas many as 215,000 to 257,000 Sierra Leoneanwomen and girls may have been subjected toseual violence.14
Inpost-conictLiberia,83%ofsurvivorsofgender-
based violence in 201112 were younger than 17,
and almost all o these cases involved rape.15
IntheDemocraticRepublicofCongo(DRC)in
2008, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) recorded16,000 cases o seual violence against women andgirls. Nearly 65% o cases involved children, mostlyadolescent girls. An estimated 10% o victims inthis period were children less than ten years old.16
In2009inColombia,morethanhalfofthevictims
o seual violence helped by the International
Committee o the Red Cross (ICRC) in oneprogramme were children.17
IntheCentralAfricanRepublic,nearlyhalfof
gender-based violence survivors who receivedsupport rom the IRC were girls under the ageo 18.18
Almostone-fthofgirlsinHaitiscapitalPort-au-Prince were raped during an armedrebellion in 2004 and 2005.19
Duringthepost-electioncrisisinCtedIvoire
between 1 November 2010 and 30 September2011, children made up 51.7% o cases o seualviolence. In more than hal o the cases o seualviolence against children, the survivors werebelow 15 years o age.20
1 What is the sCale
o the problem?
Aissatou (aged 15, Mali) remembers the day
the rebels rst entered her town and raped herriend Ines:
The rebes went into the iage and took girs not
women, but girs. They were 15, 16, 17. They said they
needed the girs to go and prepare ood or them.
They took them into their cars and brought them into
the bush. They et them in the bush ater they had
fnished raping them but they beat them beore
eaing. I know because my riend was one o them.
There were 16 girs in tota. My riends name is Ines;
she is 15 now. She was 14 then, ike me we went toschoo together.22
AISSATOU21
2
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3
Why is it so dicult to have accurate statistics about
sexual violence in confict? Part o the problem is
the sensitive nature o the issue o sexual violence
in all cultures, and the especially extreme sensitivity
in some countries. Across the world, the taboo
against acknowledging sexual violence is constant
and prevalent. In some countries, survivors osexual violence may be ostracised, punished or even
criminalised because o what happened to them, as we
have seen in Aghanistan, where children and women
who report being victims o sexual violence have been
accused o crimes and publicly stoned or punished,23
and where a boy, aged 13, was charged with moral
crimes ater being raped.24
We wi neer take our case to [ofcias], because they
wi neer support us, nor wi eders eer assist us in
addressing issues o ioence. a participant in a Save the Children ocus group discussion
(December 2012) with reugees who have fed Somalia
WEAKNESSES IN REPORTINGMECHANISMS AT COUNTRY LEVEL
While under-reporting o sexual violence is a signicant
issue or all survivors, the barriers to reporting
violence against children may be even more signicant.
The lack o age-appropriate reporting mechanisms andchild- and youth-ocused services means that very ew
child survivors are recorded or assisted.
Many survivors lack inormation and awareness owhere to report seual violence cases and where toaccess services. Some services might not recognisechildrens particular vulnerabilities and needs whichare dierent or boys, girls and adolescents aswell as their levels o physical, cognitive and socialdevelopment, and tend to be better suited to the
needs o adult women. The stigma attached to seualviolence means that girls and boys aected may beunlikely to report.
Peope hae to report the things that happen. Can you
imagine i no one had seen what that man was doing
to my daughter? She might neer hae tod me.
Maria, recounting the rape o her ve-year-old daughter Diana inColombia by a stranger in a village they were visiting25
WEAKNESSES IN INTERNATIONALDATA COLLECTION
There are signicant weaknesses in data collection atthe international level too.26 In general, the data thatdoes eist is not disaggregated by age and ecludes
the eperiences o younger children. Data on menand boys is particularly rare.
Eisting data collection initiatives, such as the GBVIMS(Gender-Based Violence Inormation ManagementSystem), need greater unding and more support.More international organisations and UN agenciesshould support the GBVIMS and not create newor parallel data collection systems. The inormationgathered by the GBVIMS could be made moreaccessible at the international level (it is currently
managed at the individual country level), andsynthesised data (ie, that not at risk o compromisingthe security or identity o any individual survivors)could be made more available or policy andadvocacy purposes.
Other eisting data collection eorts could alsobetter cover the issue o seual violence againstchildren. UNICEFs Multiple Indicator ClusterSurveys (MICS) could epand the questions askedto incorporate data on seual violence against
children. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)programme does ask a series o questions aboutseual violence, but the youngest girls to whom thesequestions are put are over the age o 15.
1WHATISTHESCALEOFTHEPROBLEM?
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Adolescent27 and younger girls are recognisedas the main victims o seual violence againstchildren. Adolescent girls constitute oneo the groups most at risk on account otheir physical development and age. Theyare particularly eposed to high levels oseual violence such as rape, but also seual
eploitation, early or orced marriage, andunintended pregnancy. But very young girlsand boys and even babies are not immune toseual violence.
A man who was rom another pace was there and he
saw the chidren. He took my daughter and raped her.
Nobody saw him. My husbands brother reaised this
was happening and took my daughter rom this man.
She was screaming and crying. At frst, nobody in the
amiy knew.
Maria, recounting the rape o her ve-year-old daughterDiana in Colombia, while visiting amily in another village28
The prevalence and consequences o seualviolence against boys during armed confict, as wellas in pre- and post-confict situations, must not beunderestimated. In the DRC, or eample, men andboys make up an estimated 410% o the survivorso seual violence who seek treatment.29 Anotherstudy in DRC ound that 9% o all men (and 22%o all women) surveyed reported having directly
eperienced seual violence during the confict.30
Even though seual violence against men and boyshas been increasingly recognised by the internationalcommunity during the last decade and there is agrowing body o literature on the subject, the issueo seual violence against boys in particular remainslargely overlooked.
Seism and socio-cultural attitudes in pre-confictsituations infuence and determine vulnerability to
seual violence, abuse and eploitation in time o war.
2 Who sUers sexUal
violenCe in ConliCt?
4
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5
CHILDREN CAUGHT UPIN ACTIVE CONFLICT
During periods o armed confict, levels o violenceacing children are greatly increased, and places wherechildren previously elt sae become targets or attack.Children can be attacked on the roads, in the elds,inside their homes, in schools or on their way to orrom school, as they walk with their amilies to attendreligious gatherings, or when they are seeking ood,water or rewood.
Three girs were waking to the market They were
three riends: the odest one was 18 the midde
one was 16, and the youngest was 14 The rebes
grabbed the girs and took them with them Three
days ater, they brought the girs back and et them
in ront o their homes The girs said that there
were many men there. They treated them bady, unti
they were exhausted. They coudnt see how many
men there were; they said it was hard to count in that
state I saw the bood on their cothes. They coud
barey wak The odest one, Djeneba, started getting
sick not ong ater, and throwing up Thats when
they ound out she was pregnant She ost her baby
at six months. Since then, shes been sick It was nine
months ago that this happened, and shes ony starting
to get better now.
Aminata, aged 27, describing the rape o three girls during theconfict in Mali. They were grabbed on their way to the market.31
Seual violence against a child, including rape, maybe accompanied by beatings, threats or other actso torture, and household possessions or goods thatchildren might be carrying may be looted. The child orother amily members may even be killed.
Collective rape o adolescents and younger girls canalso happen, and rural populations are particularlyvulnerable to attack. Typically, groups attack a village,killing civilians and raping women, girls and boys,
beore making o with the communitys cattle, toolsor clothing, and sometimes setting re to the houses.
The rebes were raping women In [one area] they
took two girs: one was 13 and the other was 14
Then they took a 15-year-od There were 15 or 16
o them [men]. The one who was 13 died because they
beat her so bady.
Barakissa, aged 29, describing the abduction andcollective rape o young girls in Mali32
Moreover, it is generally reported that in most armedconficts, seual violence is occurring throughout thecountry, even in areas where the level o confictis lower.
My major responsibiities were washing cothes,
ceaning, carrying frewood, spying and messenger.
There was one more responsibiity which I didnt ike
at a and I dont want to remember. I was raped
eery night by dierent commanders. I sti remember
the day when I was raped the frst time. I was raped
three times that night. I started eeing that a the
things being said about reedom were ake. I wanted to
escape rom them but didnt get chance.
Amita, remembering the three years she spent (romthe age o 13) with a Maoist militia in Nepal33
During armed confict, children are also particularlyvulnerable to abduction, recruitment and/or use byarmed orces and groups. Both boys and girls are usedby armed orces and groups or seual purposes, atrend which is prevalent across a range o confict-aected countries, including Colombia, the DRC,
South Sudan and Aghanistan. Children oten becomethe property o one or more ghters and areorced to provide seual services or them. Childrenmay also attach themselves to individual ghters orcommanders as a sel-protection strategy.
Seual violence and abuse o children does not stopwhen the ghting ends, including or those whohave been associated with armed orces or groups.Continuing contact with or control by combatantscan result in girls involvement in eploitative,
commercial se or orced prostitution. Girls whohave borne children while with armed groups ace
3 Where does it happen?
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UNSPEAKABLECRIMESAG
AINSTCHILDREN
6
additional challenges when attempting to reintegrateinto their amilies and communities, risking rejectiono themselves or o their children. As a result,adolescent girls may eel they have no choicebut to settle outside their communities o origin.Despite a ocus on community-based interventions
in reintegration programmes, such girls may missimportant socio-economic support, which in turn mayorce them to engage in risky, eploitative activitiesto support themselves and their amilies. The socio-economic situation o many children and amilies inthe atermath o confict may also orce some childrento engage in transactional se or other eploitativeactivities in order to survive.
SExUAL VIOLENCE IN THE
CONTExT OF DISPLACEMENT
Children who are orced by confict to fee toneighbouring countries as reugees, or who becomeinternally displaced within their own countries, areeposed to danger and insecurity. They may berepeatedly displaced and separated rom their amiliesduring attacks, and are oten compelled to walk ordays with no protection. In these conditions they areespecially vulnerable to seual violence.
There is a recent case o a gir who has sueredrom sexua abuse. She is now 11, and is rom one o
the communities in the countryside. There the peope
hae arms, but many peope rom this area hae
been dispaced, not just by iega armed groups and
guerrias but aso by the army, because the army
needs paces to keep watch. This has aso ed to cases
o chidren being raped. Famiies are scared o this, so
they eae their homes.
A humanitarian eld worker in Colombia34
Internally displaced or reugee children living in ormaland inormal camps or within host communities arealso vulnerable to violence, eploitation and abuse.
In Syria, or eample, it is estimated that nearly4 million people are currently in need o assistancewithin the country, and an estimated 80,000 internallydisplaced people (IDPs) are sleeping rough in caves,parks or barns.35 Some temporary shelters andbasic items are provided by Syrian or internationalhumanitarian agencies to people displaced in the
country, but challenges to responding mean the level
o assistance is ar below international standards. Aswe are seeing through Save the Childrens responseto the crisis, this particularly aects girls: theconditions that amilies are living in are cramped,allowing girls in particular little privacy. Girls are otenaraid to leave their shelter at night: the alarming
presence o armed men means that ear o seualviolence is pervasive.36
According to the Child Protection Working Group,there are reports that girls as young as 12, and alsoboys, have been seually abused and that seual abuseis taking place in detention.37 The prevalence o suchabuses is hard to establish, as survivors oten donot report the attacks or ear o dishonouring theiramily or bringing about reprisals. But ear o seualviolence is repeatedly cited to Save the Children as
one o the principal reasons why amilies fee theirhomes, and there are increasing reports o earlymarriage as parents take desperate measures toprotect their daughters rom seual violence.38
Saety and security measures to prevent situationsin which girls and boys may be more susceptible toabuse are oten not taken into account sucientlywhen humanitarian agencies establish a shelter orcamp. For eample, children (especially girls) indisplacement camps set up in government-run schoolsin Lebanon or Palestinian reugees in 2007 reportedbeing seually harassed while visiting toilets locatedout in the playgrounds. Save the Children raisedthe problem, and the toilets were moved inside thebuildings. Save the Children also raised awareness othe problem among parents and carers o children sothey could make sure that children were not let togo to the toilets alone at night.
In camps in Ethiopia, more than 69% o the Somalireugee population is composed o children under theage o 18 (33% girls and 36% boys).39 In ocus groupdiscussions, most women and girls reported havingheard o or eperienced seual violence in the camps,including girls o 13 or younger.40 Women and girlsreported eeling most at risk o rape when collectingrewood; to do this they had to move outside theimmediate vicinity o the camp, which let themalone and particularly vulnerable. In one set o ocusgroup discussions almost all the women and girlsinterviewed reported having witnessed or survivedrape (including gang rape) while collecting rewood.
Given the requency o the attacks, some women have
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stopped collecting rewood, with severe implicationsor their ability to cook and ensure adequate levels onutrition or their amily.
I aways go to the his praying that I return sae or
my chidren, and that God wi rue out rape or physica
ioence this time.
a emale participant in a Save the Children ocus group(December 2012) discussion with reugees who have fed
Somalia, on her ears about collecting rewood
Sexua ioence/rape is preaent in our camp,
especiay as women and girs go to coect frewood,
and we are aways risking our ies as our chidren
woud stare i we didnt put our ies at stake.
a pregnant participant in a ocus group (December 2012)discussion with reugees who have fed Somalia
In the Dadaab reugee camps on the Somalia-Kenya
border, young girls and adolescents in particular arerequently attacked while searching or rewood,going to the toilet or walking to collect water, all owhich activities mean walking to the outskirts o thecamp or arther, which eposes them to increasedrisk. Across the Dadaab camps there are alsorequent cases o seual violence against young boys.
Displaced or reugee children are particularlyvulnerable to seual abuse and physical harm whenthey become separated rom their parents. This can
be a result o the death o one or both parents, or thechildren may be sent to live elsewhere in the beliethat they will be saer or have better education andother acilities. In Myanmar, or eample, children aresent to camps by parents in the hope that they will beable to access better education.41
Girls living in oster care or etended amilies can beespecially vulnerable to seual abuse once they enterpuberty and start to develop. In addition to seualviolence, girls living without their parents were more
susceptible to being taken out o school, overworkedand pushed into a orced or early marriage.
At that time, I was fe years od. My mother was
working, and my ather too, and my oder sister was
studying. So I was with my unce. He gae dinner to my
two itte sisters but he didnt gie me dinner. We went
to bed me with my sisters but I coudnt seep so
he took me to his room. In that moment, eerything
happened. He raped me.
Sandra, now aged 15, describing how she was raped by her uncleater she was sent to live with etended amily in Colombia 42
Early or orced marriages are also prevalent in reugeeand IDP camps. As the eamples below show, in somecases girls are orced to marry their rapist, either bytheir parents to avoid the shame such violence bringsto the amily and the girl, or under pressure rom theattacker himsel. In other cases, amilies pressurise
girls to marry in the belie that she will have accessto services or in return or services or supplies orthe amily.
In the Dollo Ado camps in Ethiopia, Somali reugeegirls as young as 11 are oten married to preventdishonour or both the girl and her amily inthe event that they are raped or seually abused.Moreover, young girls who have been raped orseually assaulted might also then be married tominimise dishonour or the amily.
It is very important or a girl to get married soon,as she will be sae rom any risks and abuses in the
community. Furthermore, only ew girls can control
themselves and many would engage in unnecessary
sexual behaviours that are against the culture and the
religion o the society. We dont want to hear things like
Your daughter was seen with a boy, or Your daughter
did this or that. As a amily we want to be dignifed, and
this can be achieved through getting girls married at
an early age, otherwise many will end up in prostitution
and bring shame to their amilies and clans.
a 64-year-old male participant in a Save the Children ocus group(December 2012) discussion with reugees who have fed Somalia
Similarly, in the Dadaab camps in Kenya, early marriageo girls as young as 13 is also widespread. Oneadolescent girl reported to Save the Children thatmen with money would oten oer athers theirdaily bread in return or marrying their daughters.Girl survivors o rape at the camp also reported toSave the Children that they elt powerless to reuse tomarry their attacker or lack o other options and the
ear o being rejected by their amilies, pushed out othe camps, sent back to Somalia or even killed.
Early marriage o adolescent reugee girls romSyria in Lebanon, some as young as 14, is usedas a protection and coping mechanism. Whileearly marriage was common among the Syrianpopulation when they were still at home in Syria,with displacement to Lebanon there is evidence thatan increased number o girls are being married tocommunity members to protect them rom rape,
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while some are being married to rich men romthe reugee or host community to oset living andaccommodation costs.43
SExUAL VIOLENCE IN DETENTION
The problem o seual violence against children indetention is a major concern within the juvenilejustice arena in general. It springs rom a disregard olegislation and normative guidance to protect childrenwithin justice systems (that suggests, or eample,not placing children in the same detention acilityas adults). Within confict, particularly where justicesystems are weak and normal rules o detention areoten misapplied or not enorced, the risk o suchstandards being disregarded is even greater. Certain
children are also at signicant risk because o theirethnicity, nationality or perceived association witha political or armed group, or because they haveeperienced or witnessed seual violence. This caninclude being tortured in a seual manner.
Children are particularly at risk o seual violencewhen they are detained and targeted or inormation,because o the unequal power dynamics betweenadults and children. Evidence rom the Middle Easthighlights the particular vulnerability o boys to such
violence in that region. Recent reports on Israeland the OPT by the UN Security Council WorkingGroup on Children and Armed Confict documentedsi cases o Palestinian boys being seually assaultedby Israeli security orces and 20 cases in which boyswere threatened with seual assault.44
In Syria, seual violence in detention has reportedlybeen used in order to torture boys, and includes rapeand other penetration, seual groping, orced nudityand beatings to genitalia.45
SExUAL VIOLENCE IN PRE- ANDPOST-CONFLICT SETTINGS
It is important to recognise that seual violenceis not a problem eclusive to times o confict seual violence, as well as other orms o violence,is prevalent and problematic in peacetime in allcountries. It disproportionately aects women andgirls, although boys are subject to it as well.
In confict or post-confict situations, worseningpoverty and the undermining o traditional socialnorms may orce children into new orms o seualviolence, eploitation and abuse, such as transactionalor commercial se. Girls, in particular, may beencouraged or orced by their amilies to engage in
transactional se with community members such asteachers or store owners in echange or materialsand other items.46
One report in the eastern DRC estimated that upto 80% o unaccompanied children were engagingin transactional se.47 A urther report detailed thecauses and controllers o such eploitation.48 Poverty,the lack o means to access education and the impacto confict were reported by both boy and girlrespondents as the main drivers or their engagement
in transactional se. The general age o children wasbetween 12 and 14 years (though some children asyoung as eight were also noted). And in Colombia,it is estimated that 20,000 to 35,000 children havebeen orced into commercial se work as a directconsequence o the culture o violence and povertyresulting rom the armed confict.49
Some amilies living in confict areas may view sellingtheir children into tracking as a way o securingtheir saety rom the confict. Save the Children staworking in confict-aected areas report cases o girlsbeing tracked in northern Myanmar to be bridesin China. This eploitation was primarily controlledby civilians, but civilians and military personnel werereported to be clients.
Looking at the long-term consequences o seualeploitation and tracking coming out o confictsettings it is commonly believed that the requentseual eploitation o girls and tracking or seualpurposes witnessed during the Balkans War has led tothe continuing and worryingly high level o trackingo young girls or seual purposes rom and withinSouth-East Europe seen today.50
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9
Armed actors, whether rom governmentarmed orces or rom non-state armedgroups, are likely to be the primary group operpetrators o seual violence in confict.However, it should not be orgotten that asignicant proportion will be civilians.
Such is the nature o confict (particularly chronic,
long-term or cyclical confict and instability) that abreakdown o socio-cultural norms combined withstrained economic conditions and likely impunity orperpetrators can result in an increase in the numbero civilians committing seual violence against children,within the home and community. Indeed, reportsrom IDP camps in northern Uganda showed thatseual violence committed by civilians (other campresidents) was much higher than that committed byarmed actors.51
The man who raped me was the husband o mybrothers sister He was a man who was reated to
the paramiitary group or guerrias Im not sure
which Ater he raped me, I et awu, I et sad, I
cried and cried. I was pregnant. I reay wanted to
die. I coudnt eat anything. He was near to my house
and I was ery scared. I didnt go out, because I was
scared it woud happen to me again. He went away
and I et better, but then when he came back I et the
same horribe eeings again. I was 18 when he raped
me. This happens a ot. There is a ot o ioence and
peope dont report it. Angie, aged 23, recounting the eperience o
being raped in Colombia when she was 1852
However, in many cases the stationing o troops,including those serving in peacekeeping missions,has also led to increases in the levels o seualeploitation o children. A joint study conducted bySave the Children and UNHCR in Sierra Leone in2002 highlighted, or the rst time, shockingly highlevels o seual eploitation and abuse o civilians bypeacekeepers and other humanitarian sta (including
volunteers and incentive workers53). It ound relieitems being provided in echange or seual avoursand/or inappropriate relationships as a result othe unequal power relations between displacedcommunities and those who are mandated to protectand assist them.54
It should also be noted that while men are likely torepresent the majority o perpetrators o seualviolence and eploitation against children, womenare also responsible, particularly in relation to
the control or eploitation o children engaged intransactional se as a result o their economic andamily situations.55
4 Who are the
perpetrators?
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10
There are many dierent and sometimesoverlapping reasons why armed and non-armed individuals commit seual violenceagainst children during confict. This sectioneplores the primary actors.
GENDER AND POWER INEQUALITIESSeual violence perpetuates power inequalities ininterpersonal relations and in society, reproducingthe structures that enable this type o violence toeist beore, during and ater confict. Such powerinequalities include those based on gender (male/emale and male/male) as well as those based on age(adult/child). An overwhelming actor at the hearto gender-based violence is the pervasive inequalitybetween males and emales and the discrimination
that women and girls ace within societies as a whole.There is a direct link between discrimination againstwomen and girls in peacetime and the intensiedviolence inficted on women and girls in times o war.
[Justifed reasons or beating ones wie incude]
a woman taking to another man in the market or
esewhere, osing the ood ration, not taking good care
o the house-ceaning and washing, deaying in doing
chores, negecting chidren, burning ood or preparing
ood which is not tasty, arguing with the husband oer
inappropriate use o ood rations. a 28-year-old emale participant in a ocus group (December
2012) discussion with reugees who have fed Somalia
In many confict-aected countries, the act thatemales are considered second-class citizens is closelyrelated to the violence inficted on women and girls,and to the discriminatory absence o appropriatemeasures on the part o the state to combatsuch violence.
There is a probem o physica abuse here o women
by men. Many o the men are chauinistic. Some
women get used to this abuse, but its difcut and they
neer report it. Maria, aged 33, describing violence against
women in her area o Colombia56
In many pre-confict settings, women and girlsoten suer economic, social, cultural and political
discrimination, and many do not know o the rightsand protections that may eist under national orinternational law. Social customs and customary lawsare also oten highly discriminatory against womenand girls, and oten take precedence over nationallaws in relation to acts o violence against women inthe community. In Aghanistan, or eample, despitea national law enacted in 2009 criminalising rape andall orms o seual and other violence against women,women who have been raped are oten subjected to
lengthy prison sentences pursuant to the Aghan PenalCode,57 and punishments o fogging and stoning oradultery have been reported.58
A key tool or perpetrators is their ability to maketheir victims believe they (the victims) are to blameor their abuse. In distortions o power betweenadults and children that are infuenced by gender(ie, between adult and adolescent males and girls),attitudes that girls are to blame or rape or that theywant to be raped are common, and in turn can uelurther abuse.
Gender inequality and power relations are alsorelevant in the contet o dening cultural valuesand practices, and within the wider ramework osocial relations between amilies and communities(or eample, racial, ethnic, caste and social classinequalities).59 In some countries, superstition andetishism are a urther motivation o some ghters,many o whom reportedly believe that having seualrelations with a pre-pubescent child will make themimmune to disease, including HIV, or will cure themi they already have contracted HIV, or protect themrom injury or death during combat.60
5 Why does it happen?
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CHANGING AND WEAKENINGOF SOCIAL NORMS
The most difcut thing to change is the cuture
this sexua ioence has become a way o ie The
thing that makes me sad is how the cuture has got to
this. I dont understand how this has become part othe cuture.
A humanitarian eld worker in Colombia61
Armed confict destroys many normal orms oprotection, and in particular governmental andcommunity mechanisms, such as pre-eisting lawenorcement, statutory social or child welare systems,schools and religious structures. Families are alsooten separated. Children are thereore made morevulnerable to seual violence during confict whenthe amily and community support systems that areso essential to a childs survival and development areractured or collapse.
During confict, traditional institutions such as amilies,schools or religious institutions, which play a role inthe development o children through the provisiono protection and guidance (including on their socialdevelopment and se education), are oten unableto provide support to children, leaving them atgreater risk o violence and abuse. In many amilies,particularly in rural communities, parents and otherprimary carers o children do not know how toeectively protect their children during confict (oreample, considering it appropriate or children toengage in hazardous and eploitative activities, or notknowing how to protect their children rom threatswithin communities).62
The protective role o parents and other carers ochildren is oten undermined and damaged by theeects o confict and worsening socio-economicconditions, eacerbating situations where amily and
community members are or can become perpetratorso violence themselves. Poverty also has a negativeimpact on the support children receive rom theiramilies, as it encourages the use o children togenerate income. In certain contets, amilies can evenencourage or take advantage o a child eperiencingseual violence or abuse: Today some cases oseual violence are authorised by parents they areno longer capable o taking charge o their childrenand that is why when it comes to the application o
the law, many parents preer an inormal settlement(arrangement amiabe) because a cow is really asource o wealth.63
Where children are not able to turn to suchinstitutions or guidance in social and seualdevelopment, they are likely to turn towards other,more counterproductive groups, and even perpetrateviolence themselves. In this way, seual violence canbe cyclical i not adequately addressed: Cycles o
violence emerge as children who have been deeplytraumatised by violence join armed groups, streetgangs or live on the street because their amilynetworks cannot support them.64
SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANDCULTURAL BREAKDOWN
In non-confict or pre-confict settings, the socio-economic situation o amilies has been seen to be a
key driver o childrens vulnerability to seual violenceand eploitation.65 The destabilising eect o conficton amilies and communities economic stability cancontribute to childrens vulnerability.
Loss o livelihoods and a perceived loss o manhoodare also cited as creating psychosocial pressure onmen that can increase the prevalence o violence.Participants in ocus group discussions with reugeepopulations who have fed Somalia, or eample,described psychosocial pressure on men leading to
the increased use o cigarettes and abuse o chat/khat (a fowering plant with an amphetamine-likestimulant), which may result in increased seualviolence in homes and in the camps.66
A lack o economic opportunities or access tomarkets and income sources as well as increases inemale, single-parent and child-headed householdscan lead women and girls to engage in transactionalse in order to gain essential items or contribute tohousehold income. In countries with long histories
o confict and instability, there is evidence that theeconomic impact o confict, including reduced wagesand high unemployment, can be seen in parts o thecountry that are not directly aected by confict, aswell as in those areas that are.
In Kinshasa, local organisations have reportedamilies sending girls as young as eight to engage intransactional se.67 In a study o children living andworking on the street in Kinshasa, 63.3% o girlsinterviewed stated that transactional se or survival
se was their main source o income.68
Engagementin risky seual survival strategies such as transactional
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se can lead to greater vulnerability to other seualviolence and abuse. Reduced economic conditionswithin amilies may also contribute to an increasein early or orced marriage, as levels o poverty maymake dowries appear more useul than having a girlwithin the home.
RAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR
Combatants use rape as a deliberate strategy o warare,
perpetrated in many cases with the encouragement
or at the behest o commanding ocers. The rape o
children in particular can be used to deliberately and
strategically destabilise opposing orces by terrorising
and humiliating the men, women and children o the
community rom which they believe their adversaries
originate. Fighters also commit rape to secure control,through ear and intimidation, over the population o the
territory they want to occupy, with the ultimate aim o
gaining access to, or maintaining control over, territories
that are rich in natural resources.
As with rape against women, rape against childrencan be used as a orm o reprisal against individuals,amilies and communities. The rapists also seek toattack the undamental values and social abric othe community, principally through maimising the
humiliation and debasement o children and witnesses.In the DRC, or eample, cases eature the rapeo mothers and daughters in ront o their amily,mass rapes, rapes in public and orcing victims tohave se with amily members as ways to attack theundamental values o the community.69 In Sri Lanka agrandmother described how the army raped both herand her daughter in ront o her grandchildren: Thearmy made us strip completely in ront o the children.All the women were made to walk around thesoldiers in a circle. The soldiers were laughing at us.
All the women were then raped in ront o everyone.My daughter and I were raped in ront o her children.I was raped in ront o my grandchildren. 70
In many cultures keeping women chaste is seen to beimportant to the honour o amilies and communities.Girls and women that are seually assaulted or rapedmay be perceived to bring dishonour to the amily andcan be ostracised. In some cases girls and women caneven be killed by their own amilies i their behaviour
is seen to threaten their honour. In war this dynamicis used to urther dishonour and humiliate amiliesand communities.
The gir they took was 16 They had uniorms they
were a dressed the same. They coered their eyes so
she didnt know who they were. They had guns. There
were fe o them, and they a orced her to seep with
them. They didnt hit her, but they ruined her.
Maimouna, 24, describing the abduction andgang rape o her 16-year-old neighbour in Mali 71
Seual violence can have a clear ethnic dimensionin some cases, with ghters deliberately singling outtheir victims rom among an opposing ethnic group.Inter-ethnic violence can etend to seual violence,and numerous women are targeted or rape solelybecause o their ethnicity. The goal is to undermine
community bonds, weaken resistance and perpetuateethnic cleansing by targeting individuals in a particularethnic group and using rape as a way to destroyunwanted groups o a dierent ethnicity or religion,including through deliberate inection with HIV ororced impregnation o women.
UNDISCIPLINED SECURITY FORCES
The very institutions that are supposed to keep
children sae rom violence can sometimes perpetuatethe problem. In many instances, attacks on thepopulation, including children, are linked to corruptiono the police orce, or poor capacity o the nationalarmy. The army not only ails to ull its duty toprovide security or the civilian population, butperpetrates violations against children themselves. Theincreased presence o national armies, police orcesand international peacekeeping orces in confict canperpetuate the problem o seual violence.
As we know rom a number o high-prole eamples,international peacekeeping orces have themselvescommitted acts o seual eploitation and abuse(SEA) during conficts in, or eample, Cambodia, theDRC, East Timor, Eritrea, Haiti and Liberia. Despitemeasures taken within the UN system to addressSEA, such as the Secretary-Generals Bulletin, and theintroduction o training and disciplinary procedures,such misconduct within UN missions continues tobe challenging.
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WIDESPREAD CLIMATE OF IMPUNITY
Rape and other orms o seual violence areprohibited by most national laws as well as byinternational human rights law73 and internationalhumanitarian law. When committed on a large scale
or systematically during confict, such conduct alsoamounts to a crime against humanity in additionto constituting a war crime. And yet rape andother seual violence are seldom prosecuted, andperpetrators rarely ace any legal or disciplinaryconsequences or their crimes. As a result, a cultureo impunity is entrenched, encouraging urther rapesand seual violence, as perpetrators know that theywill not be held accountable.
Its ery difcut. This man is dangerous to others
and inked to armed groups because o his brother.He knows that a the neighbours know what has
happened. The mother herse returned rom the
hospita and tod a the neighbours that the gir [aged
two and a ha] had aso been raped. But the man
knows he can be fne. He says hi to a the neighbours
and stays there camy because he knows that nothing
has eer happened to him. He knows the poice wont
do anything. So much ioence happens here and the
poice are here eery day morning and aternoon
but they neer do anything.
Susana, aged 36, recounting the rape o one o herneighbours children, aged just two and a hal, in Colombia74
International humanitarian law specically requiresparties to a confict to protect women and childrenrom rape and any other orm o assault. Theprohibition o rape and seual violence during confictis actually widely considered to be a principle ocustomary international humanitarian law. States
have an obligation to ensure that their national lawsare compliant with the prohibition and must takesteps to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punishperpetrators o violations.
While states have primary responsibility orprosecuting these crimes, international criminallaw allows alleged perpetrators to be tried in aninternational court, such as the International CriminalCourt, or at specic ad hoc tribunals (as or Rwanda,the ormer Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone), or in a
domestic court o a third state invoking universaljurisdiction. In practice, however, the number oprosecutions in such courts is eceedingly low.
Even where national laws are in line with internationallaw, customary practice still prevailing in many partso some states penalises survivors or eample,through charges o adultery or homoseuality, whenthey try to report a seual attack.
Evidentiary and procedural barriers to prosecutionsor rape and seual violence can also contribute
to the culture o impunity. An etreme eample isSudan, where many judges require that our male
In 2002, a ground-breaking report by Save theChildren and UNHCR highlighted the etento eploitation and abuse o women and girls
by peacekeepers and humanitarian workers inSierra Leone and Liberia, where common items ohumanitarian aid (ie, ood and non-ood rations)and other items or promises were echangedor seual avours. In response to this the UN andNGOs started to put in place codes o conduct;training o personnel; and reporting, investigationand disciplinary procedures. This has culminated inthe UN Secretary-Generals Bulletin on prevention
o seual eploitation and abuse by all UN sta,the establishment o the Inter-agency StandingCommittee Task Force on Protection rom Seual
Eploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises (aspart o the humanitarian reorm process), individualand inter-agency codes o conduct, investigationprocedures and trainings. Despite these measuresand some improvement in reducing the scale o theproblem, the level o eploitation is still worryinglyhigh, as highlighted in the 2008 report No One ToTurn To.72
ABUSES COMMITTED BY PEACEKEEPERS AND HUMANITARIAN WORKERS
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witnesses testiy that the rape took place beore aconviction can be secured.75 Any rigid approach tothe prosecution o seual oences, such as requiringproo o orce or physical resistance, also risks leavingcertain types o rape unpunished.
Other barriers preventing national courts rom
unctioning properly or at all include insucientor poorly trained law enorcement and judicialpersonnel, insucient nancial resources, and poornational legal rameworks establishing criminal liability.Judicial personnel are oten poorly and irregularly paidand have no incentive to carry out their duties. Manyrape survivors and their amilies who wish to seetheir attackers brought beore the courts do not trustthe police and the judicial system enough to lodgea legal complaint. Victims ace other obstacles to
pursuing their right to an eective remedy, includingnancial ones.
The lack o protection or child victims and witnessesis another actor impeding justice or survivors o
seual violence. In the contet o armed confict,child survivors are oten insuciently protected bythe authorities, police or peacekeeping orces againstghters or civilians who intend to intimidate themor perpetrate urther violence against them. Fear oreprisals also prevents child survivors or their amilies
rom reporting these crimes.Reporting crimes o seual violence in thesecircumstances is also likely to intensiy the traumaeperienced by child survivors. Although courts maybe required by law to oer psychological support tovictims o seual violence, this happens rarely i at allin the contet o armed confict. It is essential that thepolice and other law enorcement ocers, as well aslawyers and the judiciary involved in each case, put thechilds best interests at the oreront o any decision
to proceed with a case, during the proceedings andwhen deciding what reparations should be awarded.
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Survivors o seual violence continue tosuer and have their rights violated in theatermath o rape through a lack o accessto healthcare or social reintegration, whichdeepens their suering immeasurably.
For survivors o seual violence, recovery rom theirtrauma, both physical and psychological, is a priority.
Most survivors suer physical injuries or illnesscaused by rape but have no medical care because oinsucient ront-line service provision in emergenciesand the destruction o health inrastructures. Accessto anti-retroviral medicines within three days can helpprevent rape survivors becoming inected with HIV,but is rare.
It was horribe. My daughter got sick because she
had been injured by what the man had done when he
moested her. She was beeding, she had a eer and
she stayed in the hospita or eight days. Maria, recounting the medical eects ater the rape
o her ve-year-old daughter Diana in Colombiaby a stranger in a village they were visiting76
The physical, psychological and social impact onboth girls and boys o eperiencing seual violenceis signicant, in both the short and the long term.The impact o the violence on childrens bodies maybe very severe given their smaller size and physicalimmaturity and the risk o inertility. Injury and illnessdue to violence is considerable, as is the psychologicalimpact, which is oten worsened by amily andcommunity rejection. Girls in particular, and thosewho become pregnant as a result o rape, will otenbe orced to drop out o school, be prevented romaccessing vocational training and ace social eclusionand stigmatisation. Their chances o urther education,livelihoods and marriage are severely diminished orcompletely eliminated. This condemns them, especiallygirls, to a lietime o etreme poverty and increasedvulnerability to risky or eploitative economic
practices as children and then as adults, with povertyspreading across generations.
PHYSICAL ANDPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT
The brutality o seual violence requently causesserious physical injuries requiring long-term andcomple treatment. The consequences can beparticularly severe or children, in particular girls,since their bodies are smaller and less developed.
Girls may suer uterine prolapses (the descent othe uterus into the vagina or beyond), vesico-vaginalor recto-vaginal stulas and other injuries to thereproductive system or rectum, oten accompaniedby internal and eternal bleeding and discharge.Fistulas oten result in urinary or aecal incontinence,a condition that is dicult to hide rom publicknowledge, which adds to the survivors distressand embarrassment, and may make them reluctantto seek healthcare even when it is available. Other
injuries, such as a broken pelvis, can occur i etremeorce is used against girls during rape. Other eectso seual violence on girls can include gastrointestinalproblems, eating disorders (especially bulimianervosa) and gynaecological symptoms or eample,dysmenorrhea (severe pain or cramps in the lowerabdomen during menstruation) and menorrhagia(abnormally heavy or prolonged bleeding duringmenstruation).77
There hae been so many cases o rape here in the
camps. Two months ago, I saw a 14-year-od gir rapedin ront o my own eyes. She was so bady damaged
that she coud not een hod her urine in.
a participant in a Save the Children ocus group (December2012) discussion with reugees who have fed Somalia
Boy survivors o rape can also suer severe physical
injury, including damage to the anus, pain during
urination, blood in the stools and severe anal, rectal,
penile and testicular pain.78 Physical symptoms
commonly suered by both girls and boys include
headaches, nausea, stomach pains, rashes, sleeplessness,atigue, and sexual dysunction or adolescents.79
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Long-term seual health problems are also prevalentin many cases, including inertility and diculties inmaintaining normal seual relationships.80 Many suchinjuries generally require long-term treatment, butin situations o armed confict children oten lackaccess to proper treatment because o the lack o
unctioning health centres and hospitals equippedwith the appropriate drugs, materials and trainedpersonnel.
In addition to the physical injuries and inectionssuered by most child survivors o seual abuse,young girls who become pregnant ater having beenraped are at greater risk o maternal mortality ormorbidity because their bodies are not sucientlydeveloped to bear children. Even in peacetime,pregnancy is the leading cause o death among girls
aged 1519, due to complications o delivery andunsae abortion. Adolescents aged 1519 are twice aslikely to die during pregnancy and childbirth, and girlsunder 15 are ve times more likely to die, comparedwith women aged 20 and older.81
A month ater I reaised that I had not had a period.
My mother had expained to me that i you miss a
period that means you are pregnant. So I knew then
that I had got pregnant rom the rape. I was so sad
and angry. I then went to te my mum that I had not
had a period she said nothing but just ooked at me
and sowy shook her head.
Myriam, aged 15, who was raped in the DRC82
The risks are higher in confict situations, wherematernal health services are likely to be unavailableor inadequate as a result o the confict. Inant andmaternal mortality rates in countries ravaged byseual violence in conficts are among the highest inthe world, and there is evidence to show that confictand high inant mortality rates are linked.83
Abortion is illegal in many countries where armedconfict is taking place, and while some countries havean eception or pregnancies resulting rom rape,this is not always the case, and women and girls acesevere penalties or attempted or actual abortion (inthe DRC the penalty is a minimum sentence o veyears imprisonment). Consequently, many survivorsresort to unsae and unproessional methods,including sometimes sel-induced abortion, which isdangerous or the mother and can lead to severehaemorrhage and sometimes death.
In countries most aected by rape, the prevalence oseually transmitted inections (STIs) is also a actor.These STIs include syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV.
Destruction o genital tissue caused by the violenceassociated with rape or gang rape on children greatlyincreases the chances o inected rapists transmittingSTIs to the child survivor.84 Fear o having acquiredSTIs, HIV and unwanted pregnancy also intensiesthe trauma.
The psychological consequences or child survivorso seual violence can be multiple and long-lasting,including emotional eects (such as post-traumaticstress disorder, somatic and conversion disorders),intense eelings o terror, shock, rage and shame,depression, loss o sel-esteem, loss o condence,sel-blame, memory loss, nightmares and day-timefashbacks to the rape. Many o these symptomsoverlap, and i let untreated, the psychological impacto seual violence and abuse can strongly infuence
childrens ability to orm meaningul relationships asadults with others, including their own children.85However, therapeutic support and treatment arerare in countries aected by conficts, and very ewsurvivors have access to the services they need.
Ater it happened Diana was scared and coudnt
seep. She became scared o her ather. This ast year
has been awu and reay difcut or Diana in schoo.
She has needed a ot o support and I think she sti
needs more psychoogica support.
Maria, recounting the psychological eects ater therape o her ve-year-old daughter Diana in Colombiaby a stranger in a village they were visiting 86
The psychological and social impacts o seualviolence can aect children who are not attackedthemselves but who witness attacks on amily, riendsor other members o their community. This meansthat over and above the hundreds o thousands o
Nine-year-old Nasa fed rom one regiono Somalia to another in May 2012 with herstepmother and siblings ater witnessing thebeating and seual assault o her mother bymilitias. She arrived on oot.
I came here with my stepmother. It was 12 days ago,
I think. I saw my mother being tortured by miitias.
They beat her and used the butt o a gun to torture
her What makes me most sad is when I reca
the beating o my mother. It terrifes me. It gies me
ery bad dreams and makes me scared. I want to be
with her.87
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children who are themselves survivors o seualviolence, there are many times more who needsupport and care because o what they have seenhappen to others.
STIGMATISATION, REJECTIONAND SOCIAL ExCLUSION
Children who have been raped oten encounterwidespread discrimination and rejection by theiramilies and communities, including insults andthreats and/or eclusion rom school. Social andamily rejection also carries enormous economicconsequences or the victims, who are not onlymarginalised and cut o rom schooling andlivelihoods, in particular or adolescents.
Children who are born rom rape can also acesevere discrimination and are oten reerred to asthe child o the enemy.88 Fear o rejection and socialisolation prevents many survivors rom seeking helpor speaking out. The widespread ear o HIV can alsocontribute to the stigmatisation o rape survivors andtheir children.
Girls in particular ace severe consequences as aresult o stigma and social eclusion. Rape duringconfict can leave them marginalised and isolated romtheir amilies and communities, and oten ecluded
rom school, which has a drastic lielong impact ontheir uture prospects. Seual assault or rape also hasa severe impact on a girls prospects or marriage. Incultures where girls are mainly valued as wives, theirchastity is a prime asset and hence, when it is lost,their ability to nd a husband is limited, and little
other means o support may be available to them. Asa consequence, rape and other orms o seual abusecan have a lielong eect on the livelihoods o girls.This is especially so or girls who become pregnantas a result o rape: their chances are even urtherreduced given the challenges o continuing educationwhile caring or small children.
Flicit (aged 13, Democratic Republic o Congo)was raped by the chie o a local armed groupwhile supporting her amilys income by helpingto sell beer ater feeing her village in 2012.
I dont go to schoo nowadays I dont ee up to it.
I dont ike to hang around with other girs in my area
either, because they gossip and tak a ot. Today I ee
ike Im i I dont ee right. I ee ike I am suering
rom something and I dont know what it is. I think
about what happened a ot.89
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Fatim and her amily had to fee their villagewhen armed men attacked them. They arenow living in an inormal camp in Mali.
I came here because o the rebes. They wereraping girs some were 16, 14, 13.
They came to get me, too. They came to ourhouse with their guns. I was terrifed. They hitmy ather and tod him to gie me oer. Thatswhen I ed.
Fatim managed to hide in a neighbours house.
Im sti in touch with my riends back home.They te me there are many girs missing now.I dont know exacty how many, but its a ot.Theres another gir, my riend, too the same
thing happened to her. They went inside herhouse and took her. Wheneer they decide theywant a gir, that they ike her, they just take her.Nobody can stop them. She was 15 years od.
atim, 16
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part 2Preventing and
resPonding to
sexUal violenCeagainst Children
Is seual violence an inevitable part o confict? Are we powerless to protectthe huge numbers o girls and boys rom seual violence in wartime? No.Save the Childrens eperience shows that seual violence is not an inevitable parto confict and that barriers can be built between children and violence. Whensucient unding and priority is attached to the Protection sector, programmesacross what we call the DeliverEmpowerChangeReorm spectrum can preventand respond to seual violence in ways that address the particular needs andvulnerabilities o children.
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We can delivercomprehensive, child-ocused
services by:
ensuringchildrenhavesafeaccesstoshelter,
education, and water/sanitation/cooking uel creatingchild-andadolescent-friendlyspaces
strengtheningcommunity-basedearlywarningand
mitigation schemes supportingcommunity-basedchildprotection
systems, including child protection committees developingreferralpathwaysandprovidingsupport
or service providers to ensure they meet theneeds o children.
We can empowerchildren and their
communities by:
supportingchild-ledgroupsandincreasing
childrens voice and participation supportingparentsandcarers
ensuringchildrenandcommunitieshaveasafeway to earn a living even in times o crisis.
We can change attitudes and behaviours by:
raisingawarenessofsexualviolenceamong
children and their communities tacklingdiscriminationagainstwomenandgirls
workingwithmenandboys
increasingtherepresentationofwomeninpost-confict planning and peace-building.
We can reform laws and institutions and
build political will:
atthenationallevelby:
ensuring that national armies and police orcesare trained and screened, and that ormercombatants are properly reintegrated
strengthening national legal and policyrameworks and ensuring their enorcement to address seual violence
strengthening national health systems strengthening national education systems strengthening national child protection systems
attheinternationallevelby:
strengthening protection mandates opeacekeeping operations
supporting international coordination,including through the UN.
1 DElIvER COMPREHENSIVECHILD-FOCUSED SERVICES
ENSURING CHILDREN HAVE SAFE ACCESSTO SHELTER, EDUCATION, ANDWATER/SANITATION/COOKING FUEL
In the Dollo Ado camps in Ethiopia, or eample,reugee Somali girls at times rerained rom usingthe toilets because o the levels o uncleanliness,and because the doors did not always lock saely.They eared rape and the risk o seual violence.
The inability to use sanitation acilities led reugeecommunity members to deecate on the perimetero the camps, which some believed increased tensionbetween the reugee and host communities and waseven seen as a cause o violence against the reugeegirls and women.
But humanitarian organisations can implementprotective measures to diminish the risks o seualviolence occurring in areas where they are operating,including by improving the design o camps. Measures
that have been ound to improve protection includeensuring sae access to water/sanitation (or eample,through gender-segregated and lockable latrines andseparate toilets), organising patrols to ensure saeaccess to cooking uel and other goods and services,and ensuring appropriate lighting in public spaces.
Ensuring sae access to education can also helpto reduce seual violence: the concept o schoolsas zones o peace is an instrumental part o anystrategy to reduce seual violence in confict. Sae
school policies can support similar actions to preventchildren being targeted or seual eploitation andtracking. Codes o conduct or education sta,
1 the deliverempoWer
Changereorm model
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1THEDELIVEREMPOWERCHANGEREFORM
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reporting mechanisms and disciplinary proceduresmust be developed and implemented together withlie skills and child-led behaviour change activities asa way to address the high levels o seual harassment,abuse and eploitation that are known to eist inschools, particularly in confict-aected countries.
CREATING CHILD- ANDADOLESCENT-FRIENDLY SPACES
The parents oe the project. Theyre worried that the
kids spend their ree time doing bad things. They know
that the chidren are sae when they come to the Sae
the Chidren spaces and they know that were heping
the chidren to grow. They ask us to come and work
in their neighbourhoods; they oe the project a ot.
The chidren oe it too. They ee ree here. These are
paces where they can participate, share, speak up and
earn to ie together.
A humanitarian eld worker in Colombia90
How does it aect children? There are so many
dangers in the street. This is why its great that Save the
Children is opening sae houses or children, especially
in the most dangerous neighbourhoods. Children then
have sae spaces. Parents are confdent to send their
children to the sae spaces, because i the kids are in
the streets theyre exposed to violence and bad things
that happen, whereas i theyre at the Save the Children
space they are sae, learning and very happy.
Viviana, aged 15, describing a child protection project in Colombia91
Child-riendly spaces and adolescent-riendlyspaces are drop-in centres to provide children andadolescents aected by crisis with a comortingenvironment that helps them cope with theuncertainty around them, lets them learn and play,gives them space to act as children and protects
them. Children can access recreational opportunities,psycho-social support, and lie-training skills such aschild protection, mine-risk education and hygieneawareness. Adolescents additionally receive inormaleducation and vocational training and are trained inpeer education and peer mediation on topics suchas gender norms, cultivating resilience and peace-building skills. It also gives parents the opportunity torebuild their lives while their children are with trustedcaregivers rom their community.
STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY-BASED EARLYWARNING AND MITIGATION SCHEMES
Community-based early warning and mitigationschemes involve early warning communicationbetween members o communities (or eample,members o key community structures such asschools, places o worship, markets and health clinics),and raising awareness o potential threats o seualviolence, particularly by armed groups.
Such schemes include tet-message trees which can
allow parents, teachers and other key communitymembers to adopt additional strategies to help
We are running our child-riendly spaces. Theconcept o the spaces is that they look the sameand are built the same as the childrens houses.We make sure that the minimum basic services
are available or children a toilet with a septictank, water, electricity and that they are sae orchildren. For eample, we build better, saer, elevatedwooden walkways or the children to get to thespaces. In these communities, all the houses areraised o the ground and connected by woodenwalkways, as the water rom the sea comes into here.
In the spaces, we hold sessions by age group. Thereare three dierent groups: 38-year-olds, 913-year-
olds and 1418-year-olds. The children and youngpeople in each o these groups normally have school
in the morning or the aternoon, so they come tothe space or the other hal o the day to ll theirree time. We also work with parents.
We have some distinctive strategies that are
adapted to the situation here, and were puttingtogether a guide and strategies with input rom thechildren. Our our main ocuses are:1. rights o the children children learn about
their rights and how to protect themselves2. teamwork and artistic ormation children can
eplore their own belonging through singing,dancing, drawing, etc
3. protective schools we work with schools andthe educational system
4. protective amilies we work with parents.Contributed by a humanitarian eld worker in Colombia
CASE STUDY: CHILD-FRIENDLY SPACES IN COLOMBIA92
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protect children (or eample, keeping children at orcloser to home, changing responsibilities or collectingwater/rewood, etc).
Another eample is regular risk mapping (linkingwith mapping also done by children and parents)that identies areas within communities which pose
the greatest threats o seual violence to children(or eample, schools, military barracks, markets, andoutskirts o towns and villages). Doing such mappingat a community level and including similar mappingdone by children and parents can help communitiesaddress risks themselves and help them take betterresponsibility or the protection o children.
An additional action on early warning that could betaken at the international level is that the eistingmatri o Early-Warning Indicators o Confict-
Related Seual Violence93 adopted by UN Actionin December 2012 could be epanded to includechild-specic indicators.
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY-BASED CHILDPROTECTION SYSTEMS, INCLUDINGCHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEES
Child protection committees are groups ocommunity members who volunteer to worktogether to protect children, oering support,
inormation and reerrals. Child protectioncommittees can play a key role in mediation withamilies and authorities, in providing direct supportto children (and amilies) and ongoing monitoringo security situations, and in reerring children andamilies to appropriate services. Their status in thecommunity means they have the capacity to intervenein the early stages o a crisis, or in time o peace, tomonitor and prevent seual violence. For eample,in Cte dIvoire the child protection committeeshave been speaking with UN peacekeeping missions,
emphasising the need or strict adherence to ethicalbehaviour by visiting troops.
Care needs to be taken to ensure that community-based child protection groups saeguard childrenin the course o their work and that these groupsthemselves ollow international norms and standardson the care and protection o children.
DEVELOPING REFERRAL PATHWAYS AND
PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS TO
ENSURE THEY MEET THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN
Save the Childrens work with survivors o seualviolence tends to ocus on establishing reerralpathways (to reer child survivors to local medical
acilities, or eample) and rehabilitation programmes,as well as advocating or child-ocused services andworking to build the capacity o medical personnel,security sta, lawyers and police.
Oten the NGO, or the local umbrella network oNGOs, has agreements with health centres andhospitals to provide ree health services, or hassecured international NGO unding or medical care,at least to a certain level. Condential spaces shouldbe available in health centres or private consultations.
Children may also be reerred to other actors whocan provide support such as livelihoods training.As with education, reinserting children throughvocational training is essential to empower them andenable them to recover a role as cont