International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts

June 19 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts, wanted by the United Nations to fight this brutal crime, which mainly affects women and girls, but which is also perpetrated against men and boys. In his latest report on this drama, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recalled the importance of Resolution 1325 (2000), the very first resolution that explicitly mentions the impact of war on women and their contribution in the resolution. conflicts for lasting peace. Unfortunately, the pandemic has highlighted the insufficiency of the progress achieved, often with difficulty, in this field and has amplified gender inequality, which is often one of the root causes of sexual violence in armed conflicts, but also in time of peace. As Guterres remarked, what happened in Ethiopia, during the conflict in Tigray, testifies that sexual violence is still used as “a tactic of war and torture” in those contexts where humanitarian and security crises overlap. this sense have been made, such as the creation of a specific office of the General Secretariat of the United Nations for sexual violence associated with conflict situations and of a network of international agencies engaged in specific country programs, the phenomenon continues to be underestimated, also due to the sense of shame that prevents victims and survivors from reporting what they have suffered, consequently making the collection of data very difficult for each theater of conflict. At the international level, a movement of opinion, born from civil society, is being strengthened in all possible ways to combat this crime and to support the victims it causes; in Italy, activities in this sense are coordinated by the “Italian Campaign against rape and sexual violence in conflicts – Stop Rape Italia”. “War rape is one of the many forms with which violence strikes civilians during conflicts and a brutal crime -says Giuseppe Castronovo, National President of Anvcg. “The Anvcg, since the 1950s, has been involved in this field, promoting the recognition of compensation for rape victims during the Second World War, whose rights have been disregarded for too long. It is also thanks to this commitment that the decision with which, in 1987, the Constitutional Court recognized this right to compensation was reached, a precedent that I hope will be repeated in all countries of the world. With this spirit, the Anvcg joined the “Stop Rape Italia” campaign, in the firm belief that sexual violence in conflicts is a threat to collective security and a shame for humanity ”.