Rape in war demands more attention from medical editors and health professionals
Rape in war is common, devastating, and too often ignored, says a new editorial in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. The staggering toll of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 1991 - 5.5 million deaths, 1.5 million displaced people, and up to half a million victims of sexual violence - demands attention be paid to the unconscionable use of rape as a weapon of war, which has also been documented for conflicts in Burma, Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia, among others. The International Criminal Tribunal recognised rape as a crime of genocide under international law in 1994, but rape continues to be conducted with impunity in many armed conflicts, leaving women and communities devastated. Rape is still largely ignored by the international community, the editorial argues...