Guidance Note of the Secretary General: Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Title: 
Guidance Note of the Secretary General: Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence
Document Type: 
Documents by United Nations Bodies and Agencies
Reference: 
(Geneva: United Nations, 2014)
Annotation: 

This note aims to provide policy and operational guidance for United Nations engagement in the area of reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. Reparations are reflective of victims’ internationally-enshrined right to an effective remedy. This includes activities to advocate for, and/or support the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of, reparation programmes and initiatives directed at victims of conflict-related sexual violence. The note sets out eight guiding principles to encourage operational engagement. These include the principles that judicial and/or administrative reparations should be available to victims of conflict-related sexual violence, and that these victims should be meaningfully consulted in the creation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of reparations. The note recognizes the need for reparations that are specifically tailored to the consequences, sensitivity and stigmas attached to the harms of sexual violence, as well as the needs of its survivors.