PB

The impact of sexual violence in armed conflict is dramatic for survivors and detrimental to communities. Individuals do not only suffer serious and long-term physical and psychological harm, they also face stigma, double victimization, trauma, the risk of discrimination and social exclusion. For communities, sexual violence means a form of collective persecution of ethnic and religious minorities; the loss of their identity through forced conversion and indoctrination and the destruction of their social fabric through forced marriage and stigmatization.