(ANALYSIS) On April 23, the U.N. Security Council heard a new report on sexual violence in conflict (conflict-related sexual violence, also referred to as CRSV) prepared by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres⁩. The report, which covers the period from January to December 2023, suggests that CRSV is on the rise. If the previous years were bad, the situation only got worse.

As the report notes, “In 2023, the outbreak and escalation of conflict exposed civilians to heightened levels of CRSV, fueled by arms proliferation and increased militarization. Weapon bearers from both State and non-State armed groups targeted civilians with rape, gang rape and abductions, amid record levels of internal and cross-border displacement.

Sexual violence curtailed women’s livelihoods and girls’ access to education, while generating profits for armed and violent extremist groups, including through conflict-driven trafficking in persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Women and girls were disproportionately affected by sexual violence, yet women’s voices are still muted or missing from key decision-making forums on matters of peace and security.”

The report discusses several situations globally. Some of these situations are mentioned here:

In Afghanistan, after the Taliban took over the country and erased women and girls from public life, sexual violence became more prominent, especially in detention. As the reports indicated, “The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls received credible reports of the beating, arbitrary arrest and detention of women protesters, who were subjected to gender-based violence, including sexual violence, often amounting to torture, by Taliban officers seeking information about demonstration organizers.”

The report emphasized the challenges in obtaining the data on the issue, including the fear of reprisals, and the fact that the protection and prevention mechanisms put in place were dismantled by the Taliban — including, special courts for the prosecution of violence against women and shelters.

In 2023, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) verified incidents of sexual violence perpetrated against six women, including rape and attempted rape, all implicating Taliban de facto officials. As part of the monitoring of grave violations against children, the United Nations verified rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against six girls and six boys by de facto authorities and unidentified perpetrators.

In 2023, the security and humanitarian situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo deteriorated due to escalating armed conflict, military operations and repeated breaches of the ceasefire between M23 and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, exacerbating risks of sexual violence. Among others, in 2023, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) documented 733 cases of sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, affecting 509 women, 205 girls, 18 men and one boy (with 88 cases having been perpetrated in previous years).

The majority, 556 cases, were attributed to non-State armed groups and 177 to State actors. As indicated in the report, “Sexual violence was often perpetrated during raids on villages in retaliation for perceived collaboration with rival armed groups or State forces.” Furthermore, “ongoing conflict and poverty drove displaced women and girls to forced prostitution as a means of survival, highlighting the nexus between food insecurity and sexual violence.”

In Iraq, sporadic attacks by Daesh continued in a tense political and security context. Cases of CRSV from previous years continued to emerge. Among others, the United Nations verified sexual violence perpetrated by Daesh against 11 girls, 3 of whom were abducted in 2014 and rescued in 2023. The remaining eight cases had occurred in previous years. The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (UNITAD) continued to document atrocities. In 2023, the U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of UNITAD for a period of one year.

The report commented on the visit to Israel of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, to gather, analyze and verify information on CRSV reportedly committed during the terror attacks of October 7 and in their aftermath by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. While the mission was not investigative in nature, it concluded that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that CRSV occurred during the October 7 attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations.”

It added that “the mission team received clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment occurred against some women and children during their time in captivity and has reasonable grounds to believe that this violence may be ongoing.”

Furthermore, United Nations-verified information confirmed reports that arrests and the detention of Palestinian women and men by the Israeli security forces following the attacks of October 7 were often accompanied by beatings, ill-treatment and humiliation, including acts of sexual assault, such as kicking genitals, threats of rape, and male detainees being stripped naked or half-naked.

In Sudan, reports of CRSV in Khartoum and in the Darfur and Kordofan Regions have emerged since the fighting erupted in Khartoum and Merowe in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.

More than 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, 8.1 million of whom have been displaced since April 2023, with women and girls facing increasing risks of sexual violence while fleeing conflict. In 2023, the United Nations documented cases of CRSV, including rape, gang rape, attempted rape, abduction and trafficking, perpetrated against 98 women, 18 girls, 1 man and 1 boy.

The incidents occurred primarily in Khartoum, South Darfur and North Darfur States. The United Nations further received “credible information regarding the abductions of over 160 women and girls held in captivity, including reports of women and girls being raped and kept in slave-like conditions. There are reports that women and girls abducted in Khartoum State were taken to other parts of Sudan, notably the Darfur region, allegedly in chains in the back of trucks. In almost all of these cases, Rapid Support Forces elements or affiliated militia were implicated. Some women and girls may have been subjected to forced prostitution or marriage, while in other cases families paid significant ransom for the return of family members.”

In Ukraine, reports of CRSV have been emerging since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. In 2023, the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine documented 85 cases of CRSV against civilians and prisoners of war, affecting 52 men, 31 women, one girl and one boy.

According to the report, “In most documented incidents involving adult male victims, sexual violence was used as a method of torture during their captivity by Russian armed forces and law enforcement authorities. CRSV included rape, threats of rape against victims and their relatives, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals, electric shocks to the breast, threats of castration, genital mutilation, unwanted touching, forced stripping and nudity.”

In Ethiopia, despite the Cessation of Hostilities agreement that ended fighting in the Tigray region, reports of sexual violence persisted. The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia concluded that in Tigray alone, between November 2020 and June 2023, some 10,000 survivors of sexual violence had sought health care in one-stop centers.

In Nigeria, CRSV continued to be a major protection concern for women and girls in north-east Nigeria in a context of protracted conflict and gender inequality. The United Nations verified incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence against 359 girls and 7 boys. In 2023, humanitarian service providers further registered cases of sexual violence, including sexual slavery, against 296 women, 211 girls and 4 boys.

As indicated in the report, “Non-State armed groups continued to abduct women and girls, subjecting them to rape and sexual slavery, as a reward for fighters and an incentive for new recruits, while some families resorted to agreeing to forced marriage as a coping mechanism to avoid abductions.”

As the situation of CRSV continues to deteriorate globally, it is crucial to find new ways to prevent the atrocities, but also address them once they occur. Among the new ideas is the proposal from Baroness Helic to establish a new permanent international commission on CRSV, to act as a centre of knowledge and expertise on how to investigate this crime. It is to bolster existing investigative capacity and help gather evidence — to hold the perpetrators accountable. As recent months and years have shown - inaction and ignoring the issue will not deliver a change.

This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.

Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.