ABSTRACT
Violence is a peculiar thing; it intrigues some people, horrifies others, and yet others just become numb to it from too much exposure. At an international level, the UN Security Council is gatekeeper to the use of lawful and legitimate violence under its mandate to maintain international peace and security. This chapter begins by examining the justificatory discourse of the P5 on the relationship between sexual violence in war and the finding of a threat to the peace. It discusses how the choice of language largely excludes all forms of sexual violence outside of a heteronormative, male perpetrator/female victim framework and explains why this is problematic, in spite of the good work being done to address sexual violence. The chapter discusses the context of the Security Council debates about the problem of sexual violence in war before examining the positions taken by each of the P5 on the question of whether it could constitute a threat to the peace.
