The ICRC assists universities in raising awareness about sexual violence in armed conflict by providing teaching material about the issue. Based on its reference publication How does law protect in war?, it has has designed a ready-to-use, half-day workshop combining a film, presentations, group work and discussion.

The workshop is intended for use in law faculties, as well as in other training programmes. It enables students and teachers to explore the legal and practical issues linked to sexual violence. It focuses on applicable international rules in humanitarian law, human rights law and criminal law, while also addressing some of the causes and consequences of sexual violence and encouraging participants to think about the appropriate humanitarian response.

You can download the workshop materials via the links below:

User’s guide (.pdf)

Workshop structure (.pdf)

Legal provisions (.pdf)

Reading list (.pdf)

Presentation (PowerPoint)

Film: Congo Kinshasa: the hidden battlefield (.wmv)

The four-hour workshop is divided into two parts:

• An interactive presentation including a film, images and quizzes
• Group work using real cases taken from the IHL study guide How does law protect in war? (also available online).

This approach aims to involve teachers and students alike by getting them to apply the law to real-life events.

Questions put to participants include the following:

• “Can sexual violence constitute torture?”
• “Are acts of sexual violence against men unlawful?”
• “What are the practical obstacles to prosecuting acts of rape and sexual violence in armed conflicts?”

Students will have the opportunity to discuss such issues and come up with solutions together.

“The workshop was very well structured, very practically oriented.”

– Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, co-director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University.

 

“The best way to learn is when you apply the concepts to a practical area.”

– Marcia Porras Garzó, student

The workshop material covers everything that lecturers need in order to incorporate the subject into their course. The material is also suitable for use at conferences or panel discussions in their universities. The ICRC encourages lecturers and researchers to contribute to teaching, research and debate in their various academic institutions around the issue of sexual violence.

Watch this short clip to get a better understanding of what the workshop looks like: