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War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone

A Population-Based Assessment

Authored by: Chen Reis, Lynn L. Amowitz, Kristina Hare Lyons, et al.

Categories: Statebuilding, Violent Conflict
Sub-Categories: Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health
Country: Sierra Leone
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 2002
Citation: Reis, Chen, Lynn L. Amowitz, Kristina Hare Lyons, et al. War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Population-Based Assessment. Washington, DC: Physicians for Human Rights, 2002.

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Abstract

Sierra Leone’s decade-long conflict has been marked by an extraordinary level of brutal human rights abuses, including summary killings, sexual violence against women and girls, abductions, amputations, and the use of child soldiers. The combined effects of prolonged conflict, pervasive human rights abuses, and massive forced migration in one of the poorest countries in the world have devastated the health and well-being of the Sierra Leonean people. The daunting process of rebuilding and reconciliation in the aftermath of such destruction requires the establishment of an accurate account of the nature and extent of abuses that have been committed. For this reason Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), with the support and participation of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), conducted a population-based assessment of the prevalence and impact of sexual violence and other human rights abuses among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sierra Leone.