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The Red Line Initiative
Welcome to the Mukwege Foundation’s Red Line Initiative.
Our mission is to put an end to the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in all its forms, including when used as a weapon of war. We believe that conflict-related sexual violence violates our shared humanity and cannot be accepted as an inevitable consequence of war.
We believe that the use of sexual violence in conflict can be prevented and must be prioritised as wholly unacceptable.
The Red Line Initiative closely collaborates with SEMA, the Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence.
What we do
Conflict-related sexual violence is not only opportunistic. It is also used as a method of warfare and to terrorise, persecute, and displace civilian populations and vulnerable groups. States do not adequately prevent and respond to CRSV, perpetrators largely go unpunished, and survivors rarely receive redress.
To break this cycle of violence and impunity, we focus on three pillars of work.
Moral Outcry
We seek to evoke a clear rejection of CRSV in all its forms.
Legal Strengthening
We work to strengthen and clarify States’ legal obligations relevant to CRSV.
Political Will
We advocate to build political will for more robust and timely responses at the national and international level when CRSV occurs.
How we do it
Action-driven
We identify gaps in international and domestic legal frameworks and propose concrete solutions to them. We have created two resources that aim to improve States’ awareness of their international obligations and to assist survivor groups and civil society organizations in their advocacy efforts.
The “Guidebook on State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence” compiles the applicable international law relevant to CRSV across the thematic areas of prevention, justice and accountability, humanitarian response, and reparations.
The “Core State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: An Overview of International Law” identifies the “core” obligations that are consistent across the legal frameworks analysed in the Guidebook.
Survivor-centred
Together with SEMA, the Global Network of Victims and Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence, we support the Survivors’ Call to Action. In thirteen demands, survivors call on States to meet their international obligations by taking concrete actions to prevent, respond, and repair the harm CRSV causes. In all our advocacy, we strive to advance these demands.
The Red Line Initiative is informed by survivor input and direction through the SEMA RLI working group and survivor participation in outreach activities. With SEMA, the Red Line Initiative aims to ensure survivors’ rights to justice and redress and to prevent future occurrences of CRSV.
