Attachments
Background for the Guidance Note
In 2022, All Survivors Project (ASP) undertook research as an implementing partner of the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) to produce the report “Responding to conflict-related sexual violence against boys associated with armed forces and armed groups in reintegration programmes”.
As ASP’s research with the OSRSG-CAAC points out, “At the domestic level, CAR’s 2010 Penal Code is gender inclusive insofar as it criminalises rape (defined in Article 87 of the Code as “any act of sexual penetration of whatever nature committed by one person upon another through violence, constraint, threats or surprise”). Article 86 criminalises “indecent assault” of a child “of any gender” with or without violence while Article 87 provides that “any indecent assault, committed or attempted, on a child below 15 of any gender is qualified as rape”. The Penal Code incorporates war crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual slavery, rape, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilisation and other forms of sexual violence of a similar level (Articles 153-157).”[1]
The report’s findings highlighted that “the lack of understanding of the scale and nature of sexual violence against boys in CAR ensures that protection strategies for boys are neither developed nor built into the design and implementation of responses for survivors”.[2]
Research has shown that this lack of awareness, demonstrated by a failure to document sexual violence against boys either qualitatively or quantitatively, results in a lack of gender-sensitive resources and services. Efforts to improve the response to boy victims/survivors of sexual violence must therefore bring attention to the issue and develop a range of appropriate services and approaches to address it.
The main purpose of this note, produced by ASP, the Child Protection (CP AoR) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV AoR) Areas of Responsibility and the Government of Central African Republic (Ministère de la Promotion du Genre, de la protection de la Femme, la Famille et de l’enfant) in CAR, is to guide all child protection stakeholders and associated entities (including in health, justice, education, etc.) in supporting and offering services to boy survivors of sexual violence in humanitarian settings.
This guidance note was produced at the request of child protection stakeholders in CAR following the completion and presentation of ASP’s research results and report in 2023 in Bangui and Bria. It is based on best practices developed by national and international child protection organisations.
This guidance note is not exhaustive but presents a summary of issues and recommendations to be considered by CP stakeholders. This guidance is intended to ensure that boy survivors can access their right to safe, ethical, survivor-centred, gender- and child-appropriate support and services in a way that does not divert attention or resources from the pressing needs of girls.
[1] Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC), Responding to conflict-related sexual violence against boys associated with armed forces and armed groups in reintegration programmes, 2022, p. 23. For more information on the legal framework regarding GBV in CAR, refer to the “Stratégie nationale de lutte contre les violences basées sur le genre, les pratiques néfastes et le mariage d’enfant en République Centrafricaine” (MPGPFFE, 2019, pp 14-20).
[2] (OSRSG-CAAC), Responding to conflict-related sexual violence against boys associated with armed forces and armed groups in reintegration programmes, 2022, p. 36.