A survivor-centric policy framework for the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence

Conflict-related sexual violence can be prevented, but there is limited information available on evidence-based preventive interventions that can be adapted across conflict situations. The framework presented in this paper seeks to provide policymakers, practitioners and advocates with a high-level overview of survivor-centric and trauma informed policy approaches that can contribute to the conceptualization, design and implementation of conflict-related sexual violence prevention strategies. Prevention is understood broadly within the public health framing of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention to address the prevention of the occurrence of conflict-related sexual violence, the prevention of the continuation and escalation of conflict-related sexual violence once it has occurred, and the prevention of further harms caused by the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence. The framework embraces a multisectoral and collaborative approach to prevention that is coordinated and integrated across the fields of atrocity, conflict, and sexual and gender-based violence prevention. This allows prevention programming to address the common risk factors, protective factors and root causes that underlie and fuel diverse forms of conflict related sexual violence. Prevention programming is in this sense understood comprehensively, as ranging from addressing the structural factors that may contribute to the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence, through establishing preventive protection mechanisms, to supporting accountability mechanisms. In advancing prevention programming, the framework emphasizes the need for a nuanced understanding of the conflict situation and dynamics of conflict-related sexual violence perpetration to inform programming that responds to lived realities.