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Sexual violence is any harmful or unwanted sexual act—or attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion—or an act directed against a person's sexuality without their consent, by any individual regardless of their relationship to the victim.[1][2][3] This includes forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed, and may be physical, psychological, or verbal.[3][4] It occurs in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread, and is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations.[5][6]
Sexual violence is a serious public health problem and has profound short- and long-term physical and mental health impacts such as increased risks of sexual and reproductive health problems,[7] suicide, and HIV infection. Murder occurring either during a sexual assault or as a result of an honor killing in response to a sexual assault is also a factor of sexual violence. Though women and girls suffer disproportionately from these aspects,[6] sexual violence can occur to anybody at any age; it is an act of violence that can be perpetrated by parents, caregivers, acquaintances and strangers, as well as intimate partners. It is rarely a crime of passion, and is rather an aggressive act that frequently aims to express power and dominance over the victim.
Sexual violence remains highly stigmatized in all settings, oftentimes dismissed as a women's issue, thus levels of disclosure of the assault vary between regions. In general, it is a widely underreported phenomenon, thus available data tend to underestimate the true scale of the problem. In addition, sexual violence is also a neglected area of research, thus deeper understanding of the issue is imperative in order to promote a coordinated movement against it. Domestic sexual violence is distinguished from conflict-related sexual violence.[8] Often, people who coerce their spouses into sexual acts believe their actions are legitimate because they are married. In times of conflict, sexual violence tends to be an inevitable repercussion of warfare trapped in an ongoing cycle of impunity.[9][10] Rape of women and of men is often used as a method of warfare (war rape), as a form of attack on the enemy, typifying the conquest and degradation of its women or men or captured male or female fighters.[11] Even if strongly prohibited by international human rights law, customary law and international humanitarian law, enforcement mechanisms are still fragile or even non-existent in many corners of the world.[5][6][12][13]
From a historical perspective, sexual violence was considered as only being perpetrated by men against women and as being commonplace and "normal" during both war and peace times from the Ancient Greeks to the 20th century. This led to the negligence of any indications of what the methods, aims and magnitude of such violence was. It took until the end of the 20th century for sexual violence to no longer be considered a minor issue and to gradually become criminalized. Sexual violence is still used in modern warfare as recently as in the Rwandan genocide and in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, targeting both Israelis and Palestinians.
- ^ World Health Organization., World report on violence and health (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002), Chapter 6, pp. 149.
- ^ [Elements of Crimes, Article 7(1)(g)-6 Crimes against humanity of sexual violence, elements 1. Accessed through "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)] - ^ a b McDougall (1998), para. 21
- ^ UN Women (6 December 2023). "FAQs: Types of violence against women and girls".
- ^ a b Lindsey (2001), pp. 57–61
- ^ a b c "Advancement of women: ICRC statement to the United Nations, 2013". icrc. 2013-10-16. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ Holmes MM et al. Rape-related pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a national sample of women. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1996, 175:320–324.
- ^ [Human Security Report (2012), Sexual Violence, Education and War: Beyond the mainstream narrative, Human Security Research Group, Simon Fraser University, Canada, Human Security Press]
- ^ International Committee of the Red Cross (2008). Women and War. Geneva: ICRC. p. 12.
- ^ OCHA (2007), pp. 57–75
- ^ Swiss S et al. Violence against women during the Liberian civil conflict. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1998, 279:625–629.
- ^ Physicians for Human Rights (2002). War-related sexual violence in Sierra Leone : a population-based assessment : a report. Boston, MA: Physicians for Human Rights. ISBN 978-1-879707-37-5.
- ^ OCHA (2007)