Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-9346-2787

Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Award

Best Senior Thesis in International Relations

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Jennifer Taw

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Anjali Thakore

Abstract

The ubiquity of sexual violence, with its devastating physical and psychological consequences, has rendered conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) one of the most effective and enduring “invisible crimes” of war. Despite receiving growing attention across academic, political, and activist circles, wartime sexual violence remains pervasive in contemporary conflict zones. Against the backdrop of these frequent and recurring violations, this thesis explores the dissonance between high-level rhetorical commitments to preventing and punishing CRSV and on-the-ground realities. What soon emerges is a troubling pattern in which gendered violence—and women’s lived experiences more generally—while increasingly visible in theory, remains marginalised in practice. By investigating the limitations of existing frameworks, this thesis explores why current efforts have failed to mitigate sexual and gender-based crimes in conflict settings. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with humanitarian workers, this study introduces the concept of “preparedness” as a critical factor in strengthening CRSV resilience, emphasising the importance of context-specific, gender-sensitive, and survivor-centred interventions across all stages of the conflict cycle. It concludes by outlining several policy recommendations for future practice and theory-building related to CRSV preparedness.

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