How to Use U.N. Sanctions to Stop Rape in War

Sexual violence is prevalent in many modern conflicts—sometimes even used intentionally by government forces or militias to achieve military objectives. In this video, GIWPS’ Sophie Huvé explains an under-utilized tool to prevent rape in war and coerce perpetrators to change their behavior: United Nations sanctions.

Huvé discusses her review of eight sanctions regimes, which reveals that the United Nations Security Council’s current approach to sanctions is characterized by inconsistency across sanctions regimes, delayed focus on sexual violence, and weak implementation of sanctions. She concludes that the sanctions tool offers significant—yet underutilized—potential to advance women’s protection from sexual violence in situations of armed conflict, and makes a series of recommendations for the Security Council and other stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of sanctions as a tool against sexual violence.