Violence against women - including sexual violence in crises - has reached epidemic proportions. In many conflict and post-conflict settings, women submit to sexual abuse in order to obtain food and other basic life necessities. Rape is used to brutalize and humiliate civilians, as a weapon of war and political power and as a tactic in campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Violence against women by an intimate partner or husband is reportedly common in refugee and internally displaced camps.

The violence and the inequalities that women face in crises do not exist in a vacuum but are the direct results and reflections of the violence, discrimination and marginalization that women face in times of relative peace. There are, however, particular aspects relevant to sexual violence in conflict.

This section contains links to documents relating to sexual violence in crises. Documents focusing on specific conflicts are generally available through the links on the country page.

• UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls, UNHCR, 2008
  
• Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women & Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 2008
  
• Getting it Done and Doing it Right, A Global Study on the United Nations-led, Monitoring & Reporting Mechanism on Children and Armed Conflict, Watchlist, 2008
• Girls in fighting forces: moving beyond victimhood. Why include girls in post-conflict programmes? M. Denov, Capacity Development Web Site, Canadian International Development Agency , 2007
  
• Will you listen? Young Voices from Conflict zones, Global Youth Action Network (GYAN), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and Women’s Commission for Refugee Children and Women. 2007
• Stop Violence Against Women, Rape as a Tool of War: A Fact Sheet, Amnesty International.
  
• Internally Displaced People (IDP), ICRC, 2007
• 2006 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons, UNHCR, 2007
• The Shame of War: sexual violence against women and girls in conflict’, IRIN, 2007
• Sexual violence: weapon of war, impediment to peace, Forced Migration Review, Issue 27, January 2007
• UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women & Girls, Provisional Release for Consultation Purposes, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2006
• Overview of International Standards and Policy on Gender Violence and Refugees: Progress, Gaps and Continuing Challenges for NGO Advocacy and Campaigning,  Edwards A., International Refugee Rights Conference: Panel on Gender Violence and Refugees, 17-19 June 2006, Toronto, Canada
• What happened to the women? Gender and reparations for human rights violations, Rubio-Mar¡n, R., Social Science Research Council (SSRC), USA, 2006
• Bibliography on Gender-based Violence in Conflict-affected and Displaced Settings, updated 2006
• Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in War and its Aftermath: Realities, Response and Required Responses. UNFPA, 2006
• Documenting Sexual Violence in Conflict: Data and Methods - An Annotated Bibliography, Alliance for Direct Action against Rape in Conflicts and Crises (AllianceDARC), 2006
• Overview of International Standards and Policy on Gender Violence and Refugees: Progress, Gaps and Continuing Challenges for NGO Advocacy and Campaigning, Presentation by, Alice Edwards, Refugee and Migrants’ Rights Officer International Secretariat, Amnesty International to the Canadian Council for Refugees International Refugee Rights Conference: Panel on Gender Violence and Refugees 17-19 June 2006, Toronto, Canada.
• Breaking the Code: Building capacity to investigate sexual abuse and exploitation by humanitarian workers. Evaluating ICVA’s Building Safer Organsations (BSO) Project, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2006
• Violence against girls in Africa, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Holst-Roness, 2006
• Delaney, S. Protecting children from sexual exploitation and sexual violence in disaster and emergency situations: a guide for local and community based organisations, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT International), 2006
• Clinical Management of Rape Survivors, Revised 2005 edition - guide to the development of protocols for use in refugee and internally displaced person situations
• Information Brief on Sexual Violence in Conflict and HIV/AIDS, WHO, Department of Gender Women and Health, 2004
• Lives Blown Apart: Crimes against women in times of conflict, Amnesty International ACT 77/075/2004, 2004
• In War as in Peace: Sexual Violence and Women’s Status, Human Rights Watch, 2004
• Emerging Issues in Programs Serving Displaced Populations, Beth Vann, RHRC, 2003
• Unifem- Women War and Peace Report, The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building 2002
• If Not Now, When? Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Refugee, Internally Displaced, and Post-Conflict Settings, A Global Overview. Jeanne Ward. RHRC 2002
• The Role of International Law in the Struggle Against Sex-Based and Gender-Based Violence Against Refugee Women, Maya Steinitz, RHRC consultancy report, 2001
• Women Facing War, Lindsey, C. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) , 2001
• Violence Against Women Living in Situations of Armed Conflict, Report on a WHO/ISS workshop in preparation for the international conference : the role of health professionals in addressing violence against women, Naples, Italy 12-13 October 2000. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.
• Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict: United Nations Response, UN Division for the Advancement of Women / United Nations (UN) Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), 1998
• Sexual Violence as an International Crime, Human Rights Watch, 1998
• Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict.  Report of the Special Rapporteur on Systematic Rape in Armed Conflicts United Nations, June 1998

• Sexual and reproductive health in conflict areas: the imperative to address violence against women. Cottingham J, García-Moreno C, Reis C. BJOG; 115(3): 301-3. 2008
  
• Psychosocial challenges and interventions for women affected by conflict, Hutton, D.; Omidian, P.; Miller, K.E., Critical Half 4(1)2006
• Recognising rape as torture: legal and therapeutic challenges, Hargreaves S, The Lancet - Vol. 363, Issue 9424: 1916-1917, 2004 (registration required)
• Padmasayee Papineni, Children of bad memories, Lancet 2003;Volume 362, Number 9386 : 825-26, 2003 (registration required)
• W. Holmes, HIV and human rights in refugee settings, Lancet Volume 358, Number 9276, 2001 (registration required)
• Sally Hargreaves, Rape as a war crime: putting policy into practice, Lancet, Volume 357 Issue 9258 Page 737, 2001 (registration required)
• L Shanks, N Ford et. al. Responding to rape, Lancet, Volume 357, Number 9252, 2001 (registration required)
• Shanks Leslie, Michael J. Schull. "Rape in war: the humanitarian response". CMA, 163(9) 1152-6, 2000

• Coalition for Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations
• DARC, Alliance
• Gender and Disaster Network
• Internally Displaced Women - Gender Based Violence, IDMC
• ReliefWeb
• Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium
• Unifem- Women War and Peace Portal
• Video - Everywoman – Girl Child Soldier
• Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children