Summer profiles: recognising and supporting survivors of sexual violence

Esther Dingemans

Conflict-related sexual violence has existed for as long as war itself – forever.

“It is a weapon of war. I would say it’s a weapon of mass destruction. It is really maximising harm,” says Esther Dingemans, Executive Director of the Global Survivors Fund.

In Inside Geneva’s final summer profile, we talk to a woman working to support survivors of sexual violence…from Sudan, to Ukraine, to Syria, or Chad.

“Young girls have been raped in front of their parents. Fathers are bound to chairs and forced to watch that. Or that an older – a woman in her 80s is raped in front of her son-in-law,” says Dingemans.

The 1949 Geneva Convention prohibits wartime rape and enforced prostitution. But even today there are few prosecutions. And what about the survivors?

“Survivors doubt themselves. Most victims of sexual violence will always question themselves. ‘Am I to blame?’” explains Dingemans.

The Global Survivors Fund works for reparation – not just money, but health care, counselling, and above all, recognition of the harm done.

“What is really important, particularly for survivors of sexual violence – which is often surrounded by so much shame and stigma – is that they are acknowledged, that harm has been done to them, and that it was not their fault,” concludes Dingemans.

Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva.

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