S/2017/249 war. Survivors who have no opportunity to disclose abuse or are forced to delay disclosure due to safety concerns and a lack of services have been found to suffer higher rates of post-traumatic stress and depression. While stigma is often framed as a persistent, long-term problem, it must be addressed in a strategic manner, because stigma can kill. As documented in many contexts, it has led to lethal retaliation, “honour” crimes, suicide, untreated diseases, unsafe abortion, economic exclusion and indigence. 11. To change conduct at the level of individuals and institutions alike, it is critical to challenge the underlying social norms that prescribe and proscribe behaviour and perpetuate victim-blame. This entails bridging the formal and informal sphere to ensure that legal and policy approaches and community-driven responses are mutually-reinforcing. There is a discernible trend of outdated and incomplete definitions of sexual violence at the level of national law, which often fail to criminalize rape in marriage, ignore coercive circumstances, and exclude males from the scope of protection, leading to permissive attitudes in wartime about sexual violence in the context of forced marriage, slavery or detention. These practices tend to be justified as “legitimate” by certain belligerent and extremist groups, and can become “normalized” and more deeply entrenc hed in the postconflict phase. Similarly, legislative immunity for members of the armed and security forces can translate in wartime to a “licence to rape”. Male control over women’s production and reproduction can pave the way for sexual violence being deemed an acceptable and effective military strategy: a reward, an entitlement and a form of group bonding. This indicates a need for both government officials and traditional leaders to make clear through their public pronouncements and behaviour that the prohibition of sexual violence is categorical and that the stigma of culpability rests squarely with the perpetrator. Transitional justice can provide an opportunity to transform both inadequate laws and harmful social norms, by ensuring that the gravity of sexual violence is registered on the historical record and in the public memory. 12. For peacebuilding and reconciliation to take root, justice must be done, and be seen to be done, for sexual violence survivors. Otherwise, the trauma, disease, perceived dishonour, and desire for vengeance will fester within communities. Unless those who have suffered sexual violence and the children born of rape are reintegrated into their societies and economies, they will remain susceptible to exploitation and recruitment. In some cases, women and girls released from armed groups have been shunned by their communities, including on account of sexual violence, and left with no option but to rejoin the group that they had fled. Some women and girls who were ostracized following their release from violent extremist groups have fallen victim to sex trafficking, both internally and across borders. To guard against these risks, safe houses and economic livelihood programmes are urgently required for individuals released from circumstances of captivity, abduction, forced marriage, forced prostitution and/or sexual slavery. 13. There is a demonstrated link between economic security and autonomy, and physical security and autonomy. The present report finds that the vast majority o f victims of conflict-related sexual violence come from marginalized, destitute and often displaced communities. Cross-national patterns show a strong correlation between economic desperation and exposure to sexual violence/exploitation, including trafficking, forced prostitution, and resort to harmful coping mechanisms, 17-05090 5/33