Giving Compass' Take:

• Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Maria Teresa contributes an article to Global Citizen on how she believes that rap survivor's voice is the missing link to create lasting change, but in order to tackle sexual violence globally, collaboration is crucial. 

• How can donors help launch initiatives and harness financial resources while placing survivors at the heart of the solution process? 

• Learn more about seeking justice for war rape victims. 

It has been said that rape is an inevitable consequence of war. That women victims are so powerless, and their perpetrators so immune, that we could not stop it if we tried. I believe this to be wrong. We can refuse to accept it as an inevitable expression of the human condition.

Few have attempted to tackle the use of rape as a weapon, and even fewer have done so with the help of survivors. The horrors they have suffered continue to be inflicted, to be silenced by the courts, and ultimately accepted. Meanwhile, survivors live with extreme internal injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive system complications, not to mention chronic pain. Anxiety disorders, traumatic syndromes and suicide attempts – due to the unbearable burden of shame, stigma and social marginalisation — extend beyond the survivors themselves to affect their families and communities for generations. How can the world live with itself, I wonder? For me, doing something about this is no longer a question: it is an inevitability.

Read the full article about ending rape as a weapon of war by Maria Teresa for Global Citizen.