President Biden wants his administration to consider whether acts of sexual violence in a conflict zone were committed when identifying possible targets for sanctions by the State Department, Treasury Department and other federal agencies.
On Monday, Mr. Biden will sign a presidential memorandum to promote accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV). A senior White House official called CRSV a “too-often overlooked and underreported crime.”
“We are seeing this proliferate in places like Ukraine. The (presidential memorandum) will clarify that an act of CRSV committed by either state or non-state actors may constitute a serious human rights abuse,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Sunday.