Actions taken:
The United Kingdom (UK) remains a global leader in tackling conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). In November 2022, the UK hosted the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Conference with over 1,000 delegates in attendance, including states, international organisations, survivors, and civil society from different geographical regions. At the conference, the Foreign Secretary launched the UK’s new PSVI Strategy, backed by up to £12.5m of new funding with four clear objectives:
• to strengthen global response;
• prevent sexual violence in conflict;
• promote justice; and
• support survivors.
Strengthen Global Response
The UK’s Government presented Political Declaration at this event, which sent a clear message that these heinous crimes must end and outlined steps to achieve this. 53 countries and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Pramila Patten, endorsed the Political Declaration, with 42 countries making national commitments detailing the tangible actions they would take to tackle CRSV.
In 2023, the UK launched the International Alliance on PSVI, which drives global action on tackling CRSV and currently has 26 members including governments of conflict-affected states, such as Ukraine and Colombia, civil society, international organisations and survivors.
The UK supported efforts at the UN towards establishing a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity, which if negotiated, would have the potential to strengthen the international legal architecture on preventing and prosecuting atrocity crimes, including CRSV. We have led work to develop proposals for how such a Convention could tackle CRSV, informed by feedback from survivors and civil society, including at a UK-hosted CRSV survivor retreat at Wilton Park in March 2023.
Prevention of CRSV
In November 2020, Lord Ahmad, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Commonwealth and United Nations launched the ‘Declaration of Humanity’ alongside faith and belief leaders at the Annual Freedom of Religion or Belief Ministerial Conference in Poland. The Declaration, the first of its kind, calls for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and denounces the stigma too often faced by survivors. It unites multiple faiths and beliefs in a common front to challenge damaging societal norms and calls for support for survivors of sexual violence internationally. The Declaration has been endorsed by over 50 faith and belief leaders, community leaders, and faith-based organisations in a range of countries, including Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, The Vatican, Kosovo, and Iraq.
In 2023, The UK, through Synergy for Justice, funded £300,000 towards the successful development of four tools to support a toolkit for assessing stigma in criminal justice systems, available in English, Spanish, Ukrainian and French. Through pilots conducted in South Sudan, this programme supported capacity building in South Sudan aimed at breaking the cycle of stigma.
The UK’s £67.5million ‘What Works to Prevent Violence’ programme launched a grant of £15 million to support projects addressing social norms around sexual violence in Somalia reaching over 117,000 people.
Since the PSVI conference in 2022, the UK has delivered three sanctions packages targeted at CRSV perpetrators, including 14 across Central African Republic, DRC, Iran, Mali, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Syria.
In August 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence deployed a senior Army officer to the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC). This appointment has brought armed forces expertise into the OSRSG-SVC for the first time and recognises the vital importance of security sector actors in addressing sexual violence in conflict. The focus of this role has been to advance the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on sexual violence in conflict by enhancing the prevention and response strategies of security sector actors. This has been achieved through the delivery of technical expertise and programmatic innovation at the intersection of security sector reform and sexual violence in conflict.
Strengthen Justice for survivors of CRSV
The UK has contributed sizeable funding to a number of CRSV-related programmes.
In 2022, the UK launched our ACT for Survivors initiative, which provided up to £8.6m towards projects aimed at strengthening accountability for CRSV in affected countries. The initiative has supported capacity building with national institutions to prevent and respond to CRSV, including in Ethiopia, Ukraine, and Colombia.
Under this initiative, the UK provided further funding to the Global Survivors Fund (GSF), most notably in November 2022, £5.15m of funding for a three-year period. This latest contribution brings total UK contributions up to £7.85m since the GSF’s inception in 2019. The UK also sits on the GSF’s board.
In 2023, in partnership with the Mukwege Foundation, the UK launched the Guidebook on State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, designed to improve states’ understanding of their obligations, and to empower civil society and survivors to hold states to account.
Since 2022, a member of the UK Government’s PSVI Team of Experts has supported the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General in developing its CRSV strategy and to help ensure survivor-centred justice. The UK has provided £6.2m to support projects aimed at building the domestic capacity of war crimes investigations, including through projects under the Atrocity Crimes Advisory (ACA) Group. The ACA is a joint UK, United States and European Union coordination mechanism to support Ukraine’s domestic investigations and prosecution of international crimes.
Support for survivors of CRSV
The UK has been dedicated to putting survivors of CRSV at the heart of our work. The PSVI has followed a survivor-centred approach and proactively involves survivors in determining with all policies and practices following the ‘do no harm’ principle.
We have further embedded survivor voices in our approach. The Survivor Advisory Group (SAG) was convened in 2023 to provide a key forum for survivors to shape PSVI policies and programmes, particularly ahead of the PSVI Conference, along with the PSVI Survivor Champions. The Group included survivors from across the world and met roughly every quarter.
In October 2023, the UK chaired the first High-Level Meeting of the International Alliance on PSVI to drive global action on CRSV. The Alliance was launched in March 2023 and has 26 members including governments, multilaterals, survivors, and civil society. In November 2023, the UK formally handed over the Chair of the Alliance on PSVI to Colombia for 2024 but the UK will remain as Vice Chair this year.
In December 2023 the UK launched, with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a new Virtual Reality app to help deliver survivor-centred justice.
The UK has supported the UN’s draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention (CAHC), which has the potential to strengthen the domestic and international legal architecture on preventing and prosecuting CRSV and other atrocity crimes.
