About Us

All Survivors Project (ASP) was founded in December 2016 as an independent research project that was jointly hosted by the Williams Institute and the Health and Human Rights Law Project, UCLA School of Law. In December 2017, ASP registered as an independent charitable foundation in Liechtenstein and with the Charities Commission in England and Wales in 2020. ASP continues to maintain a strong intellectual partnership with UCLA School of Law and conducts its research following UCLA Institutional Review Board approvals.

Our Vision

ASP’s vision is of a world where everyone is protected against conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and all victims/survivors have access to appropriate and timely care, support and justice without discrimination.

Our Mission

ASP’s mission is to support global efforts to eradicate CRSV and strengthen national and international responses through research and action on CRSV against men, boys and/including people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and/or sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

Our Values

Committed to upholding human rights: ASP’s work is guided by international human rights and humanitarian norms and standards; the best interests, dignity and safety of all victims/survivors of CRSV, and principles of non-discrimination.

Survivor-centred: ASP prioritises the interests and perspectives of victims/survivors, working directly with them wherever possible to inform its research and action and to ensure that their needs and wishes guide efforts to end and respond to CRSV.

Ethical and accountable: ASP upholds ethical approaches in its research, advocacy and other activities and is committed to being accountable, including to the victims/survivors and partners with whom it works, and to women’s rights organisations working to respond to CRSV against women and girls.

Independent and impartial: To protect its independence, ASP ensures that all its funding is consistent with its mission and values. ASP preserves its impartiality and does not take sides in armed conflicts.

What We Do

Initially established to address CRSV against men and boys, ASP’s work has expanded over time to include the specific vulnerabilities of and responses to males with diverse SOGIESC. Over the course of the 2021-2025 strategy period, we plan to develop our work further to examine issues relating to other populations with diverse SOGIESC.

ASP seeks to complement and reinforce existing work on CRSV against women and girls, recognising the disproportionate impact of CRSV on them and the way in which gendered inequalities, institutions and identities drive this form of violence. Our work with men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC is aimed at enlarging the scope of research, analysis, action and responses to prevent and support victims/survivors to include those who are not always easily identified or supported within existing action on CRSV.

ASP works on preventing CRSV by:

Deepening knowledge and understanding of where, how and why men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC are subjected to CRSV, to inform prevention strategies and other protection measures.
Increasing awareness of the extent and nature of CRSV against them among national and international stakeholders.
Advocating for the adoption and implementation of gender-inclusive laws and policies that protect all persons against CRSV, and the removal of discriminatory laws and policies that can facilitate it.
Advocating for parties to armed conflicts to comply with international standards prohibiting CRSV against anyone regardless of, inter alia, sex, age, ability, ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, socio-economic status and/or SOGIESC.
Building the capacity of international and national actors to safely and ethically document CRSV involving men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC.

ASP’s work on restoring the rights and lives of victims/survivors is focused on:

Deepening knowledge and understanding of the experiences and implications of CRSV for male and/including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) victims/survivors, as well as the specific obstacles they face in accessing appropriate, timely responses, in order to inform the design and implementation of justice processes, and health and other services that respond to their rights, needs and wishes.
Advocating for laws, policies and action to ensure that perpetrators of CRSV will be held to account and that all victims/survivors, including men and boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC can realise their right to justice for the harms suffered.
Building awareness and capacity among relevant stakeholders, including human rights, health, humanitarian, law enforcement and justice actors to support more effective responses for male and/including LGBTI+ victims/survivors.

How We Work

We conduct research and analysis in selected conflict-affected countries and on thematic issues to build knowledge on the extent, nature, causes and consequences of CRSV against men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC, and on the availability and adequacy of responses to it.
We conduct international advocacy to build acknowledgement of and action by the UN Security Council, UN human rights mechanisms, departments and agencies, regional inter-governmental organisations and other key international stakeholders.
We conduct national-level advocacy and engage with national authorities, national human rights institutions, field-based UN operations/agencies including UN peacekeeping operations and UN Country Teams, as well as with humanitarian, civil society and other in-country actors to encourage and support stronger, gender-competent responses to CRSV.
We raise awareness, and deliver training and other forms of capacity building on CRSV against men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC for actors involved in documenting and responding to CRSV.
We seek to complement and reinforce existing work on CRSV against women and girls by challenging the power imbalances that underlie CRSV, and to understand and respond to other identities such as race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, (dis)ability and religion, that can make individuals vulnerable to it.
We put victims/survivors at the centre of our work to understand their experiences of CRSV and its impacts, as well their needs and wishes, including for justice, health care and other support.
We prioritise building long-term, collaborative partnerships with organisations in the countries where we work to ensure our work is context-specific and sustainable. We also engage with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders at the international and national level to share best practices, support mutual learning and develop and disseminate evidence-based guidance aimed at improving knowledge and practices in relation to justice, health and other responses for male and/including LGBTI+ victims/survivors.

Our Objectives

Objective 1: To strengthen measures to prevent CRSV against men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC within broader efforts to eradicate CRSV.

Objective 2: To improve access to justice for men, boys and/including people with diverse SOGIESC who have been victims/survivors of CRSV.

Objective 3: To improve availability of and access to timely, quality, survivor-centred medical and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) responses for male and/including LGBTI+ victims/survivors of CRSV.