A/HRC/31/49 barracks. They had been on the way to the family farm to collect food. Witnesses told the assessment team that three women had gone missing in Mondikolo village, including a 49year-old blind woman. The witnesses assumed that they had been abducted by SPLA, which had swept through the area; if they had been killed, their bodies would have been found, the witnesses suggested. Sources believed that several women had been abducted and remained on as “wives” of soldiers in the SPLA barracks. 38. Rape, including gang rape, is a serious violation of international human rights law. Sexual violence is prohibited by the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Rape committed in connection (nexus) with an armed conflict breaches international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime. 9 Additional brutality or humiliation accompanying the rape may constitute an outrage upon personal dignity and cruel treatment. 10 39. Rape has been an element of an apparently intentional strategy for terrorizing and punishing the population; if established before a court of law, and depending on the circumstances, it may amount to a crime against humanity or/and a war crime. In addition, if committed on discriminatory grounds, such as on the basis of ethnicity of the victim, it may, if established by a court of law, constitute persecution and a crime against humanity. 3. Recruitment and use of children in hostilities 40. The assessment team received numerous testimonies of boys who had been abducted and taken to the SPLA barracks in Bentiu to be conscripted. During a visit to Bentiu and Leer, the team observed young boys wearing SPLA uniforms and carrying guns. Moreover, members of the team spoke with children in Leer town who referred to regular recruitment of boys by SPLA in the area. According to credible sources, in Upper Nile State, the militia led by Major-General Olonyi (prior to his defection to the opposition) allegedly conducted forced recruitment of a significant number of children in Shilluk communities on the west bank of the Nile (see S/2015/296, para. 43).11 41. Recruiting children who have not reached the age of 15 years or using them to take part in hostilities is prohibited under article 4(3)(c) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, according to section 31 of the Child Act of 2008, the minimum age for conscription or recruitment into armed groups in South Sudan is 18 years, and children must not be used in any military or paramilitary activities. 12 4. Destruction and looting of civilian property 42. According to reports received from victims and witnesses on the SPLA offensive in Unity State in 2015, government forces and their allied militias systematically burned homes and entire villages and looted property. In most instances, shelters were deliberately burned after household items, including clothes and food, had been looted. Many people who had fled their villages ahead of the attacks later returned to find their homes completely gutted by fire or empty. In some instances, food stocks and seeds stored in huts that could not be taken had been burned. Satellite imagery provided by UNOSAT allowed the team to corroborate testimonies of the systematic destruction of towns and villages in 9 10 11 12 8 Additional Protocol II, art. 4(2)(e). See also International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Furundžija case, judgment of 10 December 1998, and Kunarac et al case, judgment of 22 February 2001. See also Rome Statute, art. 8(2)(e)(vi). Rome Statute, art. 8(2)(c)(i) and (ii). See also OHCHR – UNMISS, The State of Human Rights (see footnote 2), paras. 66-67. The exemption of persons who have not reached the age of 18 years from military activity is also codified in article 17 of the transitional Constitution (2011) and section 22 of the SPLA Act (2009).