CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND THE APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT OF RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT (RToP)

Abstract

This paper aims to consider and analyze activities against conflict-related sexual violence, which are carried out within the UN system and represent or may serve as examples of the implementation of the concept of responsibility to protect (RtoP) on the path to effectively combating sexual violence in armed conflict. RtoP is a relatively new instrument of political relations that presupposes the responsibility of the state to adequately protect the population in its territory from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing, on the one hand, and the responsibility of the international community to encourage and assist states in their primary responsibility and taking timely and decisive measures when primary responsibility is clearly absent, on the other. These responsibilities are seen in the context of the so-called three pillars of the RtoP concept, through which the protection of individuals (mostly women, but not exclusively) from conflict-related sexual violence can also be observed.