|
|
Improving Women's Safety During Armed Conflict
The Red Cross
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is not limited to rape but also encompasses forced prostitution, sexual slavery, forced impregnation, forced maternity, forced termination of pregnancy, enforced sterilization, indecent assault, trafficking, inappropriate medical examination and strip searches.
A number of factors increase women's vulnerability to acts of sexual violence during conflict.
For example, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the breakdown of value, judicial and social systems and a general increase in the level of violence. In addition, women are often unaccompanied for longer periods when male relatives have either fled, are detained, missing or engaged in hostilities. Also, women are usually unarmed reducing their ability to resist.
Moreover, in many cultures, women are often perceived as symbolic representatives of caste, ethnic or national identity and therefore a target for the enemy. Poverty may also render women vulnerable to sexual exploitation in order to meet their basic food needs.
Abduction, trafficking and sexual slavery often increase in armed conflict. Women are more vulnerable to trafficking for sexual purposes due to social, political and legal breakdown. They are often abducted from displacement camps for sexual slavery. This is often a systematic attack on the civilian population in order to dissolve family and community bonds.
|
|
