Conflict-Related Sexual Violence is defined by the U.N. as:

• rape

• sexual slavery

• forced prostitution

• forced pregnancy

• forced abortion

• enforced sterilization

• forced marriage

which occurs during or as a result of an armed conflict.

an armed conflict happens when a state is fighting another state or a non-state armed group.

• A non-state armed group is an organized collection of fighters who are not associated with the state.

• When the state is fighting a non-state armed group, they have to be doing so for a long time or else it is not considered an armed conflict.

• (Isolated moments of violence don’t count as an armed conflict)

CRSV is one of the most under-reported war crimes that exist. If there is an armed conflict, there is a possibility that CRSV has occurred. The problem is that there are several barriers that exist to connecting survivors to justice. Barriers like social stigma, fear of reprisals, displacement, and trauma prevent many survivors from reporting what happened to them.

Gesher Peace Initiative focuses on CRSV because the current response to it is lacking knowledge, capacity, resources, and in some cases, willingness.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of countries are not adequately prepared to address the conditions that lead to CRSV as well as CRSV survivors.

Since the number of global conflicts are rising, that means more people are at risk of CRSV in a system that was not designed to help them.

Our work focused on promoting standards that every country can adapt and implement to strengthen mitigation and prevention efforts, improve survivor support, and build more effective responses to CRSV.