A/HRC/47/26 B. Rape as a grave, systematic and widespread human rights violation, a crime and a manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls 8. Globally, 1 in 3 women and girls has been subjected to gender-based violence, and 1 in 10 girls has been a victim of rape.7 Rape has been criminalized in a large number of States and yet it remains one of the most widespread crimes, with the majority of perpetrators enjoying impunity and the majority of women victims not reporting it.8 9. Currently, the international human rights framework and jurisprudence recognizes rape as a human rights violation and a manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls that could amount to torture. Under international humanitarian law and international criminal law, rape can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide when the other elements of the crimes are present.9 10. However, these international standards have not been fully incorporated at the national level. States criminalize rape using different definitions (based on force or on lack of consent), protecting different persons (only women or all persons), including or excluding marital rape, covering different types of penetrations, prescribing different aggravating and mitigating circumstances, setting different lengths of sentences, prescribing ex officio or ex parte prosecution of rape, and providing or not providing at all for different statutes of limitation for its prosecution. 11. Additionally, their implementation is influenced by the surrounding general context of different forms of discrimination and gender-based violence against women, myths and gender-based stereotyping on rape by the media and the criminal justice system. 12. All these factors contribute to the fact that rape is frequently not reported. If rape is reported, it is seldom prosecuted; if prosecuted, the prosecution is rarely pursued in a gendersensitive manner and often leads to very few convictions, the revictimization of survivors and high attrition rates, resulting in a normalization of rape, a culture of rape or silence on rape, stigmatization of victims and impunity for perpetrators. 13. Governments’ failure to address all the structural, normative and policy factors that result in impunity for perpetrators is now being challenged by many women’s marches and protests, feminist movements, the Me Too movement and civil society movements that are breaking the silence on rape. Examples include those in Chile,10 Spain,11 and India.12 14. Recent reports on rape by civil society organizations have also highlighted the shortcomings of laws, policies and practices at the national and international levels. For example, Equality Now produced an overview of the main gaps in legislation on rape;13 Amnesty International produced recommendations for the International Criminal Court and an overview of the situation in Europe;14 International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 World Health Organization, Violence against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2018: Global, Regional and National Prevalence Estimates for Intimate Partner Violence against Women and Global and Regional Estimates for Non-Partner Sexual Violence against Women (Geneva, 2021); and United Nations Children’s Fund, Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children (New York, 2014). In some jurisdictions, the term “sexual assault” is used to encompass rape and other manifestations of sexual violence. Security Council resolution 1820 (2008). A song by the Chilean group Las Tesis, “Un violador en tu camino” (“A rapist in your path”), has become a rallying cry across the world. The gang rape of an 18-year-old woman in 2016 in the La Manada (Wolf Pack) case resulted in a change to the definition of rape under Spanish legislation. In 2012, a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered on a bus, leading to intense protests and changes to legislation. Equality Now, The World’s Shame: The Global Rape Epidemic – How Laws Around the World Are Failing to Protect Women and Girls from Sexual Violence (2017). Amnesty International, “Rape and sexual violence: human rights law and standards in the International Criminal Court” (2008) and “Right to be free from rape: overview of legislation and state of play in Europe and international human rights standards” (2018). 3