Browse by Theme: Conflict & Fragility

CARE’s discussion event at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict explored how the trauma of conflict permeates society long after conflict ends, made recommendations about the role of education in challenging attitudes and behaviours, and identified some of the challenges for scaling up this work to achieve long-term change.

Four days; over 120 states represented at senior levels from ministries of foreign affairs, defence, gender, education, justice and health; over 1,000 civil society activists; unscheduled demos from neglected conflicts and the movement against deportation of rape survivors; movie stars; the mad, the bad, the good (and yes, some of the insane) – this summit was an unprecedented exercise in international events addressing a global policy issue.

CARE’s discussion event at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict asked panellists to share their experience on what works in engaging men and boys – and what are their practical recommendations for scaling up this work and finding tangible global solutions to the problem of sexual and gender-based violence.

CARE International is calling for increased attention to engaging men and boys on gender-based violence at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. This is not an uncontroversial stance. Some say it risks distracting from, or worse undermining, efforts to tackle violence against women and girls. Others fear that projects to engage men and boys inevitably get dominated by them.

Over recent years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a kind of laboratory for different initiatives to tackle impunity for war rape. Last year, the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie visited the DRC and CARE’s projects for survivors of sexual violence in North Kivu province. What are the key lessons that CARE’s Country Director in the DRC, Yawo Douvon, hopes they will take to the Global Summit on ending sexual violence?

The upcoming global summit (from June 10–13 in London) shines the spotlight back onto the subject of sexual violence in conflict. Newcomers to the subject might gasp and rightly point out: “This is horrifying, this is awful, something must be done!” – and so it must. But some humanitarian practitioners, speaking quietly from the back of the room, might say: “Excuse me, we have been working on this all along”.

In June, a huge array of governments, NGOs and activists will descend on London for a four day summit aimed at making sexual violence in conflict a war crime as reviled as using chemical weapons or laying landmines. CARE will be at the heart of the action. Here's a preview of what's coming up.