Wartime sexual violence

"The Bulgarian Martyresses", 1877 painting by the Russian painter Konstantin Makovsky. It shows Bulgarian women who had been raped in a war between Russia and Bulgaria, a year earlier.

Wartime sexual violence is when soldiers or other occupying forces commit sexual violence (such as rape), during an armed conflict. The sexual violence is often associated with looting and pillaging. The idea is also to humiliate the opponent. More than half of the victims of these rapes are children, according to a study by Save the Children.