Sexual Violence in Conflict: A Global Crisis Meets Digital Innovation
2,455 confirmed cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2022 paint a stark picture of a global emergency. Sexual violence in conflict is not incidental, it is a deliberate tactic of war, deployed to terrorize communities, fracture societies, and exert control.
According to United Nations data, 94 percent of those affected are women and girls, while one in three survivors is a child. These figures reverberate across continents and conflict zones, underscoring the scale and persistence of the crisis.
Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) shatters lives and erodes social fabric. Yet despite decades of international legal frameworks, resolutions, and advocacy, survivors and the practitioners supporting them often lack accessible, practical tools to understand state obligations and pursue justice. The gap between complex international law and front-line realities remains wide.
It is within this gap that a new form of innovation is emerging, one shaped by collaboration between Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries Without Borders), the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, and other advocacy partners, harnessing artificial intelligence to bring international law closer to those who need it most.
From Knowledge Access to Justice Access
For more than a decade, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (BSF) has redefined how knowledge is accessed in crisis-affected and underserved communities. Through tools such as the Ideas Box, digital libraries, and mobile learning platforms, BSF has consistently bridged information gaps for refugees, women, children, and learners living in fragile contexts.
This same philosophy now underpins its entry into the legal and justice space. In partnership with the Mukwege Foundation, BSF has supported the deployment of an AI-powered chatbot embedded in the Red Line Initiative’s Guidebook on State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. The guidebook, developed through two years of rigorous research and expert consultation, translates international humanitarian and human rights law into a structured reference that clarifies what states are legally required to do to prevent CRSV and support survivors.
However, as repeatedly emphasized during a recent stakeholder engagement event, law alone is insufficient if it remains inaccessible.
An Innovation Unveiled: Inside the Event
At the event, Lea Kor, The Project Manager, walked participants through the full journey of the innovation from conception to real-world application. She demonstrated the chatbot’s features, explaining how it interprets user questions, simplifies dense legal language, and directs practitioners to relevant obligations, frameworks, and accountability mechanisms.
Lea mentioned that, the chatbot is not designed to replace legal professionals, but to strengthen their capacity, especially in contexts where access to legal expertise is limited. By transforming a complex legal document into an interactive, intuitive tool, the innovation enables frontline actors to respond more effectively, confidently, and consistently to cases of conflict-related sexual violence.
Participants from diverse professional backgrounds, legal experts, protection officers, civil society actors, technologists, and advocates engaged actively with the tool, reflecting the collective and interdisciplinary thinking required to address CRSV. The room became a convergence point for innovative minds united by a shared goal: ensuring survivors are not left navigating justice systems alone.
Communicating Justice Through Technology
Adding depth to the conversation, Hassana Muhammad, Lead Communications, articulated the vision behind the innovation with clarity and conviction. She emphasized that this AI tool is fundamentally about democratizing access to justice-related information.
For Hassana, the innovation represents a shift in how knowledge is communicated away from static documents toward dynamic, responsive systems that meet users where they are. She highlighted how intentional communication design ensures the tool is survivor-centred, ethically grounded, and aligned with BSF’s AI policy, which prioritizes responsibility, inclusivity, and human dignity.
Her remarks reinforced the idea that technology, when thoughtfully deployed, can become a powerful ally in advocacy, amplifying voices, clarifying rights, and enabling action rather than confusion.
Voices from the Frontlines: Nigeria’s Call for Localization
In Nigeria, where conflict-related sexual violence continues to manifest in contexts ranging from insurgency to communal insecurity, the relevance of this innovation is unmistakable.
Samantha Sanangurai, Country Representative for Nigeria, reaffirmed BSF’s commitment to providing access to information and knowledge through ethical, human-centred digital solutions. She explained that the driving force behind the project was the urgent need for practitioners to have reliable legal information at their fingertips, information that can inform decisions, strengthen advocacy, and ultimately improve survivor support.
While praising the tool’s potential, she emphasized that localization is essential. For the chatbot to be truly effective in Nigeria, it must reflect local legal systems, cultural contexts, and operational realities. Mobilizing Nigerian legal experts, women’s rights leaders, and protection specialists to contribute to this contextualization will be critical to deepening its impact.
Participants such as Abubakar Turaki echoed this sentiment, noting that the innovation’s unveiling coincided meaningfully with the conclusion of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. He stressed that governments alone cannot shoulder the burden of responding to CRSV, sustained collaboration among civil society, practitioners, technologists, and communities is indispensable.
Toward an AI-Enabled Response to CRSV
The introduction of this AI-powered chatbot signals a pivotal shift in the global response to conflict-related sexual violence. It demonstrates how digital innovation, when grounded in human rights and ethical principles, can strengthen accountability, empower practitioners, and support survivors more effectively.
By reframing access to information as access to power, the power to understand rights, demand justice, and build resilient systems of protection, this initiative charts a hopeful path forward.
As conflicts persist and vulnerabilities deepen, such innovations remind the global community that technology, when guided by purpose and partnership, can move beyond abstraction to deliver real, life-changing impact for those most affected by violence.
