S/2017/249 Syrian Arab Republic 69. Sexual violence continues to be used by parties to the Syrian conflict as a systematic tactic of warfare, terrorism and torture. Women and girls have been most vulnerable in the context of house searches, at checkpoints, in detention facilities, after kidnapping by pro-Government forces, and at border crossings, while men and boys have been subjected to sexual violence during interrogations in Government run detention centres. In areas controlled by ISIL, Syrian women and girls languish under severe restrictions, with their access to education and employment curtailed. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were captured in Iraq in August 2014 and trafficked to Syria continue to be held in sexual slavery, while new reports have surfaced of additional women and children being forcibly tra nsferred from Iraq to Syria since the start of military operations in Mosul. As the conflict enters its seventh year, forced marriage, including successive temporary marriages, has become increasingly prevalent, placing adolescent girls at particular risk of rape, early and unwanted pregnancy and trauma. Women and children, who represent the vast majority of those internally displaced, have also experienced sexual exploitation in camps. Given social norms around honour and shame, the stigma associated with sexual violence causes acute humiliation to survivors, their families and communities. The parents or husbands of survivors often reject them in the wake of rape or because they assume that women and girls were raped while in detention. The lack of services and fear of retaliation has compelled many survivors to flee the country. 70. In neighbouring countries, which host approximately 80 per cent of Syrian refugees, financial resources have been largely depleted. Families have turned to harmful coping strategies, such as exploitative labour and the withdrawal of children from education to enter into employment or early marriage. While these coping mechanisms may help a family to meet its immediate needs, they often come at the cost of increased exposure to sexual violence. It also remains a challenge to register children whose fathers are missing, including children born to survivors of rape, which places them at heightened risk of statelessness. Women, adolescent girls and unaccompanied minors are also at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse by informal employers, landlords and criminal organizations, including forced prostitution and trafficking networks. Limited services are available to male survivors of sexual violence, who may be at risk of arrest purs uant to laws that criminalize same-sex relations. 71. The establishment in 2016 of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board, to provide recommendations to the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria throughout the political process, recognized the importance of women’s participation. In the intra-Syrian talks of 2016, the proportion of women in the main delegation was 20 per cent. In terms of accountability, although not a single sexual violence crime committed by parties to the conflict has been prosecut ed, either in Syria or abroad, the adoption in December 2016 of resolution 71/248 by the General Assembly, in which it calls for the establishment of an international, impartial and independent mechanism to support prosecution for the most serious crimes under international law, is an important development. In the terms of reference for the mechanism the need for dedicated expertise on sexual violence is noted. 17-05090 21/33