A new report titled “Violence based on gender” has gathered testimony of 81 episodes of “extreme cruelty” of sexual violence against women in Colombia. The report was written by the Colombian government’s National Unit of Justice and Peace of the District Attorney’s office, together with the German government.
Most of the victims were women between 15 and 30 years old, and the episodes occurred between 1996 and 2005. It has taken most of the victims ten years to speak up — mostly for fear of retributions from the perpetrators.
Forty-three percent of the cases of sexual violence happened during a FARC or paramilitary attack/ invasion on a town. The women were told if they did not collaborate, their boyfriends or husbands would be killed. The report confirmed the use of women as a weapon of war.
The idea behind the report is to put together the versions from the victims with those from the demobilized guerrillas, and initiate reparations to the victims and their families.
Related:
Women as war trophies: impunity and sexual violence.
Report on violence based on gender and against women in Colombia.
Talking About Colombia 
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