Parliamentary Session: Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Globally

On 6 July 2026, the Coalition for Genocide Responses, together with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), hosted a Parliamentary session on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against religious minority women and girls and the issue of impunity. The session marked the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict (19 June) and the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (22 August). 

CRSV remains one of the gravest crimes committed during armed conflict, yet impunity continues to be the norm despite significant developments in international criminal law. CRSV includes rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced marriage, forced sterilisation and other forms of sexual and/or reproductive violence committed during, or in connection with, armed conflict and situations of atrocity crimes. Increasingly recognised as a tactic of war, it has been prosecuted as a war crime, a crime against humanity and, in some circumstances, an act of genocide.

IBAHRI Director and patron of the Coalition for Genocide Response, Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, chaired the session that brought together leading experts from law, journalism, civil society and the arts, including IBAHRI Senior Programme Lawyer, Dr Ewelina U. Ochab, Judge Theodor Meron CMG, Alex Crawford OBE, Zahra Joya and Rebecca Hawkins.

During the session, Dr Ochab officially launched her new book, Global Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: Genocide, Impunity and Justice, which examines some of the recent manifestations of sexual and/or reproductive violence as atrocity crimes, and especially, prohibited acts to bring about genocide, the responses to these crimes, and issues that continue to be neglected, including in relation to the duty to prevent.

Read more: https://lnkd.in/etq-46Fa