Conflict affects women and girls and men and boys differently. The violence experienced by women and girls in conflict situations is not always seen and is highly underreported.

“In 2016, sexual violence continued to be employed as a tactic of war, with widespread and strategic rapes, including mass rapes, allegedly committed by several parties to armed conflict, mostly in conjunction with other crimes such as killing, looting, pillage, forced displacement and arbitrary detention,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says in a recent report.

Click here to read Guterres’ April 2017 report on conflict-related sexual violence.