Wartime sexual violence on the decline - report

Wartime sexual violence is uncommon worldwide and likely on the decline, Canadian researchers said Wednesday in a report, challenging the notion that rape is increasingly used as a weapon.

The study by the Human Security Report Project, a research center affiliated with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, criticized non-governmental organizations and the media for suggesting that extreme abuses were the norm.

“Indirect evidence suggests (the incidence of wartime sexual violence) has declined worldwide over the past two decades,” said the 84-page report called “Sexual Violence, Education and War:

Beyond the Mainstream Narrative.” It noted that rape and other wartime sexual abuses “continue to pose a grave threat,” citing horrific crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan’s Darfur region, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Bosnia.

But researchers concluded the incidents in those countries were “the exceptions, not the rule.” “The large majority of sexual violence is domestic in origin, perpetrated by family members or close acquaintances -- not by rebels, militias or government troops,” said the report, which was released at the United Nations.

AFP