Jennifer Leaning is senior advisor on international and policy studies at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, professor of the practice of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

"Rape and sexual violence have always been a feature of war and conflict across time and cultures," says Leaning, who chairs this panel. "Societal norms and legal constraints have evolved in the face of this violence, and yet these behaviors persist. The potential for these behaviors and their impact on the victims vary with different war tactics, disciplinary regimes, and design and use of weapons."

Women are not the only ones who experience sexual violence. According to Leaning, "the infliction and perpetration of this kind of war violence extends to men, as well as women."

Leaning concludes by introducing the panelists.