Displacement

First, we should consistently recognize and condemn the impact of sexual violence on international peace and security. In South Sudan, for example, in December 2016, United Nations human rights investigators said that rape was being used as a tool for ethnic cleansing and that sexual violence in South Sudan had reached “epic proportions”. In January 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that refugees arriving from the Equatoria region of South Sudan had cited rape and sexual abuse of women and girls as one of their primary reasons for fleeing. There were even reports that militias and armed groups were using rape as a sort of tax to be paid by female refugees fleeing the country.