• The separation of men and women during military operations; • The use of civil spaces to shelter armed forces; • The vulnerability of displaced persons or refugees; • The conscription of child soldiers within armed groups; • The use of propaganda or hate messages; • Specialized public or moral order and other policing units and; • Behaviour of women or of a specific group. 46. The consent of victims in periods of conflict and crisis It is considered to be impossible for the victims of sexual violence to give their consent under the circumstances of generalized violence and mass atrocities in which international crimes are committed. For this reason, to avoid any risk of additional injury, the victim must not be questioned about consent. This question must only be allowed when the defence has presented evidence attesting to the consent of the victim, and only with the express permission of the judge. This procedure must take place in private, as must any questioning of the victim regarding consent, if authorized. 47. Types of individual criminal liability 47. 1. Investigators, judges and prosecutors in charge of establishing liability in the perpetration of international crimes of sexual violence must take into consideration all types of individual criminal liability provided for under international criminal law (direct and indirect criminal liability). 47. 2. States must take the necessary measures to guarantee that members of security and defence forces, non-State actors and their respective superiors who are responsible for the perpetration of acts of sexual violence can be held liable for their actions before the criminal courts. 48. Peacekeeping operations 48. 1. States involved in the peacekeeping operations (PKO) of the African Union, the United Nations or any other intergovernmental organisation must implement a vetting procedure to prevent the deployment of persons against whom substantiated accusations of sexual violence have been made. When there is sufficient, reliable and consistent evidence of the alleged responsibility of personnel from a PKO having committed acts of sexual violence during their mission, the personnel must immediately be repatriated to their country of origin to face prosecution and be sentenced according to the laws of that country. 48. 2. States must take the necessary measures to ensure that any of their citizens working in PKO are given training on international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including aspects related to sexual violence, before and during their missions. 49. Creating specialized legal divisions 49. 1. To deal specifically with situations where international crimes have been committed, States are encouraged to create a specialized judicial division within their national legal system with a temporary and specific mandate that is in charge of investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of international crimes, especially crimes of sexual violence and especially when these crimes are committed in situations of conflict or crisis. 49. 2. These legal divisions must have specialized personnel, including but not limited to criminal investigation officers, investigating judges, prosecutors, and interpreters, all of whom are specifically trained and accredited in techniques for investigating and prosecuting international crimes of sexual violence and 38 GUIDELINES ON COMBATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN AFRICA