CRSV Mobile Justice Team delivered training on conflict-related sexual violence and other detention-related crimes and on the PEACE model of interviewing for regional prosecutors and investigators of the Security Service and National Police of Ukraine in Sumy.
GRC’s Karine Ardault and Anastasiia Moiseieva, along with the dozens of participants, discussed, among other things, specific forms of CRSV identified in detention, including in makeshift detention places, indicators of these types of crimes, their legal qualification under IHL as well as evidence used to prove such crimes.
The PEACE Model training delivered by GRC’s legal advisors is built on and for the Ukrainian context and takes into account all relevant legal provisions applicable in Ukraine.
“The investigation of conflict-related sexual violence remains challenging for Ukrainian law enforcement authorities, including because of the trauma and stigma associated with such crimes. The support of GRC to prosecutors and investigators in regions provides these central actors of the accountability process with victim-centred and trauma-informed tools and skills to ensure that investigations are conducted in accordance with best practices,” said Karine Ardault, senior investigator and team lead of CRSV MJT.
“Many victims of conflict-related sexual violence struggle to openly talk about their experience with the law enforcement agencies. That is why our training, among other things, aims at increasing the Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators’ capabilities to identify CRSV, including by detecting red flags of this category of crimes.”, indicates Anastasiia Moiseieva, deputy team lead of CRSV MJT.
While the exact extent and scale of conflict-related sexual violence is still unknown, the available information indicates that detention-related CRSV committed by Russia may have a widespread and systematic nature. Among the documented forms of sexual violence committed against Ukrainians in detention settings are rape, violent acts to sexual body parts including electrocution of genital, forced nudity, forced witnessing of sexual violence, and threats of sexual violence. Outside of detention settings, sexual violence, especially rape, has also been documented in all areas that have been under the Russian Federation occupation.
Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) oversees investigations in more than 280 cases of CRSV crimes.