DEATH

ANNEX 3
FURTHER DATA AND CASE STUDIES
ON CHILDREN WHO EXPERIENCE SEXUAL
VIOLENCE IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS
• n In Côte d’Ivoire in 2007, 30% of girls who left armed forces and groups reported having been raped. n
The proportion of teenage mothers was up to 75% in some communities. 302 In the post-election violencen
of 2010 and 2011, over half of reported cases of sexual violence were children. 303 n
• n Survivors of sexual violence who were especially badly injured as a result of rape had difficulty walking, n
and experienced bleeding and discharge in the genital area. Most women interviewed reported severe painn
for weeks, months, or even years after the rape, especially in the abdomen and vagina. 304 n
• n With regards to conflict settings specifically, sexual violence spreads due to a combination of factors including
poverty, social unrest, insecurity, increased vulnerability, and weakened social and legal structures. 305 In addition,
research indicates that gang rape (rape by multiple perpetrators) is much more common in war than in peacetime. 306
It is generally perceived that incidence rates of rape increase in all conflict settings, but recent research indicates
that rates differ depending on certain variables. 307 62% of the conflicts in the study period involved significant rape
in at least one conflict year; however 15 wars provided no reports of rape. The report found that forcible recruitment
through random abductions provides a statistically significant explanation for the occurrence of wartime rape. Converse
to popular perception, rape is not more likely during ethnic conflicts or genocides. Similarly, gender inequality has not
been shown to be associated with the prevalence of wartime rape. 308 n
• n Over 50% of children surveyed in the Central African Republic reported having been the victims of sexual n
exploitation and abuse. 309 n
• n In the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008, the UN Population Fund recorded 16,000 cases of sexual violence
against women and girls. Nearly 65% of cases involved children, mostly adolescent girls. An estimated 10% of victims
in this period were children less than ten years old. 310 In the first half of 2012, 74% of sexual violence survivors n
treated at the HEAL hospital in Goma, DRC, were children. 311 n
• n More than 70% of the sexual violence cases seen by the International Rescue Committee in Sierra Leone were girls
and more than 20% of those were girls under 11. It is thought that somewhere between 215,000 and 257,000 Sierra
Leonean women and girls may have been subjected to sexual violence. 312
68 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH: CHILD PROTECTION IN EMERGENCIES