United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict

UN Action is an inter-agency mechanism that brings together 26 UN entities across the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding spectrum to coordinate a one-UN response to conflict-related sexual violence. UN Action’s activities on political advocacy, operational impact through catalytic projects, and knowledge building are implemented jointly by at least two, though often more, member entities.  

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All of UN Action’s work focuses on preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence and addressing its root causes.  

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UN Action has provided support and guidance, including to Senior/Women’s Protection Advisors, on the implementation of the Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Arrangements for CRSV (MARA), or similar mechanisms, where they have been established. UN Action is currently undergoing an analysis of the operationalisation of the MARA since Security Council resolution 1960 (2012) and conceptualising improvements to the MARA (or the MARA 2.0) to better fit the needs of a changing context.   

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UN Action has supported over 60 joint catalytic projects across 18 conflict-affected countries focused on providing holistic, comprehensive support to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, and addressing the root causes of sexual violence. UN Action is currently funded through the Conflict-related Sexual Violence – Multi-Partner Trust Fund (CRSV-MPTF), which was set up in 2020. The CRSV-MPTF has since supported projects in: Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan DRC, Mali, Ukraine, South Sudan, and Sudan. All UN Action’s projects take a survivor-centred approach and aim to tackle the root causes of CRSV. 

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Following UN Action’s publication ‘Early Warning Indicators of CRSV Matrix’, which lists the early warning signs that allow prompt action to prevent instances of CRSV, and its socialisation in-country, UN Action developed and launched the Framework for the Prevention of CRSV, which serves as guidance to better understand what it means, and what it takes, to prevent conflict-related sexual violence at its onset (primary prevention) and to prevent further harm from happening once it has occurred (secondary prevention). UN Action piloted the roll-out of the Prevention Framework in Ukraine in 2023, and is anticipating further implementation in other situations of concern. 

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UN Action serves as the global knowledge hub on conflict-related sexual violence. Leveraging the expertise and experience from its 26 member entities, it develops new, gap-filing, knowledge, guidance, and tools to support practitioners, policymakers, and others to respond to conflict-related sexual violence and disseminates/socialises this knowledge for practical implementation. Thematic areas include: trafficking-in-persons and conflict-related sexual violence, mental health and psychosocial support to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, economic empowerment for survivors and communities affected by sexual violence, implementing the conflict-related sexual violence mandate in the wake of mission transitions and drawdowns, and what it means to take a survivor-centred approach to CRSV. UN Action has also provided trainings on the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence on an ad-hoc basis. 

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In 2023, UN Action developed a resource page on technology-facilitated gender-based violence as seen in contexts of conflict-related sexual violence. Through a working group made up of member entities UNODC, UN Women, UNFPA, and UNICEF, UN Action looks forward to exploring how it can contribute knowledge building and operational impact in this area of work.

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In Somalia, UNODC is implementing a project funded by UN ACTION to pilot the UNODC/WHO tool on strengthening the medico-legal response to sexual violence. Police officers were trained on criminal justice response to gender-based violence in conflict.

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UNICEF and WHO, supported by UN Action funds, organized a technical meeting on Responding to the Psychosocial and Mental Health Needs of Sexual Violence Survivors in Conflict-Affected Settings from 28 to 30 November 2011. Hide

The UN Action Secretariat organized the consultative process with the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and Member States and drafted the Secretary-General’s 2nd report on the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1820 and 1888.The UN Action Secretariat worked with UN Women to organize the consultative process and drafting of the Paper for the Secretary General’s Policy Committee on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. The Secretary General’s Policy Committee decisions included the preparation of guidance notes by the Office of the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict on monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements for conflict-related sexual violence ; the development of early-warning indicators of spikes in sexual violence by UN Action; the engagement of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and senior UN officials in dialogue with parties to armed conflict to elicit protection commitments to prevent and address sexual violence, and implementation of these commitments will be monitored as part of the application of listing and delisting criteria; the development of new guidance by UN Women, OHCHR, and other UN entities, on reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence.From 28 September to 6 October, Margot Wallström, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Chair of the UN Action network, visited Walikale in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war in this conflict, particularly with regard to the mass rapes of late August 2010. The Special Representative of the Secretary General briefed the Security Council on her return. Ms. Wallström also visited Bosnia from 22-25 November to meet with survivors of sexual violence from the conflict of the early 1990s and hear about their experiences in accessing justice and reparations. Her visit shone a spotlight on issues of impunity in the aftermath of the conflict in the region.The UN Action Secretariat has translated Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice into French and Spanish for distribution to peacekeeping training centers.UN Action continues to pursue its advocacy campaign using a variety of communications efforts, including the Stop Rape Now website.Active involvement of former UNIFEM now part of UN Women continued in the work of the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, most especially in the areas of mediation, trainings for peacekeeping, reparations for survivors, and advocacy. As a key member of UN Action as well as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict, UNFPA is actively involved in addressing issues of sexual violence in conflict via ongoing programmatic interventions in countries that are in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings.In the past six months UN Action’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund has provided funding for the following projects:• A series of meetings among several stakeholders in Bosnia to discuss obstacles to Bosnian women’s participation in accountability mechanisms for incidences of sexual violence, spearheaded by UNFPA.• A technical meeting on responding to the psychosocial and mental health needs of sexual violence survivors, led by WHO.• The development of a guidance note and trainings for mediators on issues of sexual violence, spearheaded by DPA.• A new two-year post within DPKO to work on the full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1960.As part of its work with UN Action, WHO, with US Center for Disease Control (CDC), is developing two survey instruments for measuring conflict related sexual violence and to understand men's motivations, risk factors and perpetration of such violence. Hide