Rape as a weapon of war: the urgent need to recognize women’s vulnerability in armed conflicts
Rossana Gemeli Roncato Carloto
Abstract: This article analyzes sexual violence in armed conflicts, focusing on rape as a weapon of war recognized by UN Security Council Resolution 1820. It examines victim-centered responses and ICC precedents (Ntaganda, 2019; Ongwen, 2021), highlighting advances, gaps, and needed reforms.
War Against Women’s Bodies
Throughout history, wars have not been fought only on battlefields. As Rosenhaft observed, “women are invisible in history unless we are looking straight at them” (quoted in Cook 2006). While some have emerged as leaders, such as Boudicca or Queen Durgawati, women have far more often been victims. Enslavement, massacres, and sexual violence have long been used as tools of domination. From the Massacre of Chios (1822) to the Balkan Wars and World War I, gendered violence has remained a constant feature of conflict (Cook 2006).
By the end of the twentieth century, this reality was no different. The adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) marked a turning point, urging states to consider the impact of conflict on women and guarantee their participation in peacebuilding. Since then, nine additional resolutions have expanded the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, but implementation remains uneven (UNDP and IPU 2019).
Both the New Agenda for Peace (United Nations 2023) and the Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (United Nations 2024) stress the urgency of transforming gendered power dynamics. The 2024 report shows how sexual violence intensified amid rising militarization, with both State and non-State actors committing rape, abductions, and trafficking. In contexts such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, South Sudan, and Sudan, armed groups use sexual violence to recruit fighters and consolidate control. Between 70% and 90% of cases involve small arms, showing how arms proliferation directly facilitates these crimes. Women in displacement camps and detention facilities, from Mozambique to Yemen, face heightened risks, while in Afghanistan, poverty and denial of education have fueled forced and child marriage. Digital misogyny and gendered disinformation have further curtailed women’s participation in public life (United Nations 2024).
Numbers that Shock
Conflict-related sexual violence is difficult to quantify, but the indicators are devastating. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly one in three women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence (WHO 2021). UNICEF calculates that more than 370 million girls and women alive today were raped or sexually assaulted in childhood, rising to 650 million when non-contact forms are included (UNICEF 2024).
In armed conflicts, the numbers are even more harrowing: tens of thousands of women were raped during the war in Bosnia and hundreds of thousands during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda (Bassiouni 1994; Human Rights Watch 1996). As Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert famously stated, “It is perhaps more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in an armed conflict” (UN News 2008).
UN monitoring confirms the ongoing scale: 134 children born of rape in Mali (2016–2021); 621 in Nigeria; and over 3,000 in Darfur since 2015 (UN, S/2022/77). Historical conflicts also reveal staggering figures, thousands of pregnancies during the Rwandan genocide, around 8,000 children born of rape in Uganda, and 20,000 in Sierra Leone. Each statistic represents a life permanently marked by trauma.
Recognition of Rape as a Tactic of War
Since the early 2000s, the UN Security Council has developed a robust normative framework. Resolution 1325 (2000) initiated women’s participation in peace and security processes. Resolution 1820 (2008) explicitly recognized sexual violence as a tactic of war, followed by Resolutions 1888 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2331 (2016), and 2467 (2019).
The 2024 report of the UN Secretary-General notes that pregnancies from conflict-related rape are often linked to abduction, sexual slavery, or forced marriage, leaving survivors stigmatized and excluded. In contexts from the Central African Republic to Syria, women continue to be victim-blamed or presumed complicit with armed groups.
Despite progress, impunity remains the norm. Survivors face reprisals, lack of legal aid, and dependence on discriminatory customary justice. Yet there have been breakthroughs: in 2023, a Congolese court delivered the first national conviction for forced pregnancy as a crime against humanity; Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace opened Macro Case 11 on sexual and gender-based violence; Iraq allocated $12 million in reparations for Yazidi survivors; and Guatemala established a national day for victims of sexual and domestic slavery linked to the Sepur Zarco ruling. Still, more than 70% of listed perpetrators remain persistent violators (United Nations 2024).
Instruments like the Arms Trade Treaty (2013) and the 2023 Global Framework for Conventional Ammunition Management are vital to preventing arms transfers that enable gender-based violence. Transforming gendered power relations in peace negotiations and arms control remains essential to ending impunity.
International Justice: Progress and Gaps
International justice has made undeniable progress, but unevenly. The Rome Statute (1998) codified rape and other forms of sexual violence as crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Precedents like Bosco Ntaganda (2019) and Dominic Ongwen (2021) show that the Court can deliver justice. Yet most perpetrators still enjoy impunity, due to stigma, intimidation, weak capacity, and the difficulty of proving sexual violence in court.
The Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I forbid sexual violence as an outrage upon personal dignity. The ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) clarified that rape can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or even an act of genocide (Akayesu 1998; Furundžija 1998). The ICC consolidated these precedents, explicitly codifying rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and enforced sterilization as crimes against humanity under Article 7(1)(g) and as war crimes under Articles 8(2)(b)(xxii) and 8(2)(e)(vi) of the Rome Statute.
These norms represent a moral and legal evolution — yet without effective enforcement, they remain fragile victories.
Beyond Physical Wounds
The consequences of rape in war go far beyond physical trauma. Survivors may live with lifelong pain, forced pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and social exclusion. Children born of rape often face discrimination and statelessness, perpetuating cycles of violence and poverty. As Johan Galtung (1969) argued, true peace is not merely the absence of war but the dismantling of structural and cultural violence.
Eliminating sexual violence in conflict therefore requires transforming power relations, ensuring accountability, and promoting women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding. Without such efforts, cycles of trauma and exclusion will continue to undermine any fragile peace.
What Must Change
UN assessments converge on a clear message: the norms exist, but coverage and consistency remain insufficient. Priorities include breaking the silence surrounding wartime rape; expanding women’s participation in peace processes; guaranteeing access to justice and health services; and holding perpetrators accountable without the shelter of amnesties.
Crucially, societies that tolerate gender-based violence in peacetime create fertile ground for its escalation during war. Cultural transformation is as vital as legal reform. The challenge is not only to end conflict-related sexual violence but to dismantle the social and institutional structures that normalize it.
Working with International and Regional Frameworks
Regional and national frameworks reinforce this agenda. Within NATO, conflict-related sexual violence has been integrated into the Alliance’s Human Security policy, strengthening commitments to prevention, protection, and accountability (NATO 2023). The European Union has advanced the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda through its Strategic Approach and Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2019–2024), which includes sanctions against perpetrators and promotes the mainstreaming of gender perspectives across all external actions (Council of the EU 2019).
Brazil co-sponsored United Nations Security Council Resolution 1960 (2010) and has adopted two National Action Plans (2017, 2023), which include gender-sensitive training for peacekeepers and guidelines for women’s participation in decision-making. However, implementation remains a challenge. As an emerging voice in global peacebuilding, Brazil could play a stronger role in promoting accountability and survivor-centered policies across multilateral forums.
Italy, a founding member of both NATO and the European Union, has also been a leading advocate of the WPS agenda. Through successive National Action Plans — most recently the IV Piano d’Azione Nazionale su Donne, Pace e Sicurezza (2020–2024) — Italy integrates gender perspectives into peacekeeping, conflict prevention, and humanitarian assistance, effectively bridging NATO and EU approaches to human security.
Conclusion
Rape as a weapon of war is not an inevitable by-product of conflict but a deliberate strategy that strikes at what is most intimate: human dignity. Recognizing women’s particular vulnerability in war and enforcing existing legal frameworks with consistency is not only a matter of justice for survivors — it is essential to building sustainable peace.
Ending wartime sexual violence demands dismantling systems of gender inequality, confronting stigma, and ensuring women’s meaningful participation in decision-making. As long as women’s bodies are treated as battlefields, wars will never truly end. Yet if the international community commits to transforming both institutions and mindsets, the promise of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 can finally move from aspiration to reality — protecting women in conflict and redefining the very foundations of peace.
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Rossana Gemeli Roncato Carloto: Brazilian-Italian interdisciplinary researcher with a Master’s in Law (UFMS, 2024) focused on Human Rights, and postgraduate training in international relations, international and constitutional law, conflict resolution and negotiation, history of war, digital and public law. Her research covers the right to peace, IHL, international and environmental law, digitalized warfare, and defense. She works in Portuguese, Italian, English, Spanish, German, and French.