Women, War, Peace and Violence Against Women

• Introduction
• Key Terms
• International Organizations
• UNIFEM Action
• Tools & Checklists
• UN Documents
• Experts' Assessment
• Archive
• PeaceWomen - NGOs

Introduction

Around the world, women and girls are victims of countless acts of violence. In a great many of these instances, the violence is not random — women and girls are victims because they are female. The range of gender-based acts of violence in conflict is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb. Among other abuses, violence against women includes: rape, sexual mutilation, purposeful infection with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STI), forced impregnation, forced abortion, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual harassment, trafficking, forced prostitution, dowry-related violence, domestic violence, battering, and marital rape. Violence against women and girls occurs in every segment of society — regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, country or whether the country is at peace or war.

Women’s bodies, deliberately infected with HIV/AIDS or carrying a child conceived in rape, have been used as means to undermine, disgrace and threaten the perceived enemy. In Rwanda , at least 250,000 — perhaps as many as 500,000 — women were raped during the 1994 genocide. more… Women often face violence in wartime due to the nexus between their gender and their other identities. In Bosnia , Muslim women were targeted for rape as part of the “ethnic cleansing” campaign to form a ethnically pure Greater Serbia. Over 20,000 women are thought to have been raped during the war.  more…

At the series of women's conferences and other UN conferences between 1975 and 1995, the international community has come to acknowledge the range — and frequency — of gender-based violence, and has redefined how these acts of violence are dealt with in international policies. The most comprehensive international policy statements about gender-based violence are the Declaration against Violence against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the Platform for Action from the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. These documents define gender-based violence as a violation of women's human rights, as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and a form of discrimination that prevents women from participating fully in society and fulfilling their potential as human beings. 

Key Terms

Violence against Women: The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."

Article 2 of DEVAW elaborates that violence against women encompasses but is not limited to the following: (a) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; (b) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution; (c) Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.

International Organizations & Instruments

• INSTRAW’s Programme on Men’s Roles and Responsibilities in Ending Gender-based Violence (2001): more...

• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): more...

• Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict: more...

• Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography: more...

• Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences: more...

• Special Rapporteur on Torture: more...

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): more...

• The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (VTFT): more...

• The World Health Organization (WHO): 2002 World Report on Violence and Health

• United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women: more...

UNIFEM Action & Analysis

UNIFEM is committed to eliminating violence against women and girls by investing in prevention, protection, and advocacy strategies.  Examples of UNIFEM’s work in this area include:

• The UNIFEM administered Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women serves as a grant-making laboratory to explore new, innovative strategies and best practices.
• With an End in Sight was developed to share strategies and analyses that have come out of projects supported by the Trust Fund. It highlights initiatives in seven countries and shows how women's organizations can work together with judicial and law enforcement systems, community and youth groups, policy-makers and international organizations to end gender-based violence.
• Not a Minute More, highlights many of the achievements of the last few decades on combating violence against women and promoting women's empowerment.
• In January 2005, UNIFEM, UNICEF and the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium convened a consultation and planning workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya: Enhancing Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Populations Affected by Armed Conflict. Workshop materials and resources are available online. The workshop report will be released soon.
• In September 2005 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Gender and Humanitarian Assistance produced the “Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings; focusing on Prevention of and Response to Sexual Violence in Emergencies.”more...

Tools & Checklists

• Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings (2005) (Arabic & French).
• International Labor Organization: Gender Equality Tool

• Oxfam: Protection into Practice: An introduction

• Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium: Gender-Based Violence Tools Manual for Assessment & Programme Design & Monitoring & Evaluation in conflict-affected settings

• The Media/Materials Clearinghouse at Johns Hopkins University and UNIFEM: Picturing a Life Free of Violence

• The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI): more.. 
• UNFPA: Interactive Centre on gender-based violence

• UNIFEM, UNICEF and the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium: Enhancing Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Populations Affected by Armed Conflict

• UNIFEM Desk Review on Fuel Provision and Gender-based Violence: more...

• US National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women: Toolkit to End Violence Against Women

• World Health Organization (WHO): Information packet and  posters to combat violence against women  

UN Documents

• International Humanitarian Law, Geneva Conventions: The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 are the principal instruments of humanitarian law. The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 protect women (and men) as members of the civilian population not taking part in an armed conflict. Women (and men) as members of the armed forces are also protected when captured by the enemy.
• Human Rights Law: The UN Charter was the first international instrument to acknowledge “human rights.” Unlike many constitutional rights, the Charter does not invoke natural law as a basis for the existence of human rights (see preamble). Rather, human rights are inherent in human dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (1966) are often referred to by some western scholars as the “International Bill of Rights.” Beginning with the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in 1993, women activists joined together to call for the recognition of women’s rights as human rights.
• Refugee Law: The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was drafted as a result of a recommendation by the newly established United Nations Commission on Human Rights, was a landmark in setting standards for the treatment of refugees. The 1967 Protocol extended the application of the Convention to the situation of "new refugees" more...

• The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW)

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

• The Optional Protocol to CEDAW (OP)

• Convention on the Political Rights of Women, 1954

• Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict

Independent Experts' Assessment & Recommendations

The Independent Experts' Assessment on Women, War, Peace and Violence Against Women and the accompanying recommendations can be accessed in this archive: Violence Archive