United Nations & Syria: A Muddled Affair amidst a Refugee Crisis and a Pandemic

Smriti Shashikant Naik
V. M Salgaocar College of Law, India.

Volume III, Issue IV, 2020

Sexual conflicts have been addressed at length for the longest time. However, more often than not sexual conflict by men in uniform is usually not seen as a crime or a wrongdoing. Time and again through real life accounts and cases that have emerged, its evident that sexual crime against victims during war is a tool of psychological humiliation against the enemy. The persistent pervasive sexual violence against victims have impugned the core of Human Rights.

When we talk about Sexual violence, we usually tend to associate it to women. But over the past few decades the victims of rape and assault during war and conflict have been against men too. However, its safe to say that girls and women of all ages are the primary targets when it comes to any form of violence per say.

With the several wars taking place in the past and present, we know that War by itself has had a detrimental effect to the tranquillity and peace of a country. However along with War there are several ancillary problems that surfaces like Wartime crimes and sexual violence . Not once had these issues been acknowledged as a crime against humanity until just recently. Poring deeper into the crime, its not just a threat to the Human Rights but is a major threat to the very basis of any constitution of a country which is to uphold Peace, security and equality.

The ratio and the cases of Wartime rape varies significantly around the world. There are several forms of sexual conflicts that are perpetrated against women during the time of War. Regardless of the form of the War whether it be the cross-border wars, ethnic and non-ethnic wars, sexual violence in form of rape, assault and molestation is usually inflicted on women and men too.