tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/sexual-violence-in-conflict-10963/articles
Sexual violence in conflict – The Conversation
2023-12-11T13:15:27Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219301
2023-12-11T13:15:27Z
2023-12-11T13:15:27Z
Hamas’ use of sexual violence is an all-too-common part of modern war − but not in all conflicts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564356/original/file-20231207-21-k8uhp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial is left inside a bomb shelter near the Supernova music festival, where eyewitnesses reported Hamas members gang-raping and killing women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/makeshift-memorial-is-left-inside-a-bomb-shelter-near-where-news-photo/1791613498?adppopup=true">Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two United Nations human rights experts said on Jan. 8, 2024, that there was growing evidence of Hamas’ use of sexual violence against people on Oct. 7, 2023 – and that the attacks on civilians likely amount to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml">crimes against humanity</a>. </p>
<p>“As armed Palestinian groups rampaged through communities in Israel bordering the Gaza strip, thousands of people were subjected to targeted and brutal attacks, the vast majority of whom were civilians,” Alice Jill Edwards, an independent expert on torture, and Morris Tidball-Binz, an expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/un-experts-demand-accountability-victims-sexual-torture-and-unlawful">said in a statement</a>. “The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/28/exp-un-women-israel-hamas-sexual-violence-sarah-hendriks-112801p-cnni-world.cnn">United Nations</a>, women’s groups and human rights groups previously faced criticism for not quickly condemning Hamas fighters for raping and sexually violating Israelis <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/">during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html">Most critics cite rising antisemitism</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/technology/hate-speech-israel-gaza-internet.html">as the reason</a> some experts and advocates did not quickly rally behind Israel’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1217668564/israel-hamas-rape-sexual-violence-oct-7#:%7E:text=For%20two%20months%2C%20Israeli%20officials,including%20more%20than%20300%20women.">repeated claims</a> that Hamas fighters committed sexual violence. </p>
<p>There is strong evidence that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-rape-israeli-women-oct-7-rcna128221">Hamas committed sexual violence</a>, including <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181">eyewitnesses’</a> and first responders’ testimony, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-hamas-oct-7-attack-rape-bb06b950bb6794affb8d468cd283bc51">medical assessments</a> of released hostages and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/widespread-sexual-gender-based-crimes-committed-hamas-attack-105406464">independent investigations</a> from media outlets such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html">The New York Times</a>. This includes rape, gang rape, sexual torture and sexual mutilation of Israelis of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-hamas-oct-7-attack-rape-bb06b950bb6794affb8d468cd283bc51">diverse genders and ages</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond antisemitism, were there other reasons for the initial hesitation to identify sexual violence as part of Hamas’ attack? </p>
<p><a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/faculty/dyan-mazurana">We are scholars</a> <a href="https://nutrition.tufts.edu/profile/faculty/anastasia-marshak">who work directly</a> with victims of war-related sexual violence and other serious crimes. </p>
<p>We believe that some experts may have hesitated because <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032329208329755">Hamas hasn’t been known in the past to use sexual violence</a> in its attacks against Israeli civilians. We take this factor into consideration as we suggest why Hamas may have made a decision to use sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a dark jacket with Hebrew words on it and a kippah stands at a wooden podium and speaks to people seated. He stands in between two Israel flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564355/original/file-20231207-27-w01m0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Simcha Greinman, an Israeli volunteer who helped collect victims’ remains on Oct. 7, speaks at a United Nations event in New York on Dec. 4, 2023, about Hamas’ use of sexual violence in its attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/simcha-greinman-speaks-during-special-event-to-address-news-photo/1827102296?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Sexual violence in war</h2>
<p>Research on sexual violence in armed conflicts has grown rapidly over the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-102620">past 15 years</a>, as feminist scholars increasingly took women’s and girls’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203100943">experiences of war seriously</a>. </p>
<p>This research helps explain what motivates people, governments and armed groups to <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/sex-and-world-peace/9780231131827">fight wars</a>. It also helps illuminate, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=692503">among other</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=692503">things</a>, why some armed forces and groups commit sexual violence during wars and how to prevent and <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-894-wood.pdf">address such violence</a>. </p>
<p>Armed forces and armed groups sometimes intentionally use sexual violence to carry out attacks and achieve military goals, leading to the term “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4078677.stm">rape as a weapon of war</a>.” </p>
<p>Rape <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/17/darfur-rapid-support-forces-allied-militias-rape-dozens">can be used to terrorize and brutalize civilians of the opposing side</a> and to destroy the morale and fighting spirit of enemy forces. In a number of recent conflicts, rape has been a potent weapon to <a href="https://www.rescue.org/node/7116">motivate populations to flee</a> instead of fighting back. </p>
<p>Sexual violence has been most recently used against civilians in wars in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-war-crimes-sexual-violence-c2f47284aa80f164cb822f716cc2a0f6">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes">Ukraine</a> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/un-experts-alarmed-reported-widespread-use-rape-and-sexual-violence-against">and Darfur</a>. </p>
<p>Sexual violence’s effects on victims, their families and their communities include serious short- and long-term, <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/they-came-two-guns-consequences-sexual-violence-mental-health-women-armed-conflicts">physical, psychological, social</a> and economic harm.</p>
<h2>When and where it tends to happen</h2>
<p>One of the best publicly available datasets on sexual violence in war is the <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict data project</a>.</p>
<p>Created by professor <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/dara-kay-cohen">Dara Kay Cohen and housed at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government</a>, this <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SVAC-3.0-Coding-Manual_020121.pdf">public data project</a> analyzes rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, sexual torture and other sexual crimes in 189 armed conflicts in 86 countries, from 1989 through 2021. </p>
<p>Our analysis of this data shows that, first, sexual violence does not occur in all conflicts. Sexual violence was reported in approximately half of the 189 armed conflicts.</p>
<p>Second, sexual violence may be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032329206290426?casa_token=GnhDC5GoGOYAAAAA:rLUFDBBBDtQ830b7vkOFsTIl95yrZ0dvRzCsTsRzlJ9gVns-1ndlURHM0uBKTUWVrMg2%20**DOI**zEsBQkdK">used by some,</a> but not all, groups fighting in a conflict. It also does not happen consistently throughout a conflict.</p>
<p>Third, government forces are twice as likely as rebel and insurgent groups to use sexual violence, with government forces committing sexual violence in 28% of the years of conflict versus rebel groups doing so in 14% of years of conflict. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/women-seen-targeted-by-myanmar-forces-with-rape-other-violence/7033057.html">armies of Myanmar</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes">Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/07/29/they-treated-us-monstrous-ways/sexual-violence-against-men-boys-and-transgender">Syria</a> are notorious for their use of sexual violence against civilians. </p>
<p>Finally, although rebel groups are less likely to use sexual violence, when they do they are significantly more likely to use systematic and <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">widespread sexual violence</a>, as opposed to isolated occurrences. </p>
<h2>The case of Israel and Palestinian territories</h2>
<p>Previous research overwhelmingly finds that after 1948, the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups has very low levels of reported sexual violence committed by either the <a href="https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/003232920832,9755.pdf">Israeli military or Hamas</a>, which formed in 1987. <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/conflict-and-society/9/1/arcs090105.xml">Some scholars</a> question these findings. </p>
<p>There are credible reports of Israeli security forces sexually torturing Palestinians in eight of the 31 years between 1989 to 2021 and also <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ending-censorship-idf-admits-officer-jailed-in-2017-raped-a-palestinian-woman/">raping Palestinians</a> during this time frame. These acts of sexual torture and rape are found in infrequent <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">and isolated reports</a>, and most occurred when Palestinians were detained.</p>
<p>Hamas’ <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/israel-and-palestine">international law violations</a>, including using human shields, taking hostages and killing civilians, are well documented.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows that Hamas does not have a history of using sexual violence <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/dataset/">against Israelis</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three young women stand with red tape covering their mouths. Two wear white clothing that appears stained with red coloring and one has the words 'me too.. unless you're a Jew.' They stand across the street from the UN in New York City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564357/original/file-20231207-25-24ut6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists supporting women who were sexually assaulted during the Hamas terrorist attack stand outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Dec. 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/more-than-hundreds-activists-mostly-women-rally-at-dag-news-photo/1831794485?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/VIEWpress</a></span>
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<h2>The intent of Hamas’ attack</h2>
<p>Given this history, how do we make sense of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/middleeast/rape-sexual-violence-hamas-israel-what-we-know-intl/index.html">the many reports now emerging of</a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hamas-rape-israeli-women-oct-7-rcna128221">Hamas’ use of sexual violence</a> in the Oct. 7 attack? </p>
<p>Researchers have determined that much of the sexual violence during armed conflict is men communicating their own masculinity to others, while demonstrating other males’ inability to protect women and girls <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2021/08/10/what-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-tigray-really-means/">or defend themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Male perpetrators also use sexual violence to demonstrate their power over women, girls, men and boys, as well as over their victims’ families and, symbolically, over the larger community or country <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2021/08/10/what-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-tigray-really-means/">they are fighting against</a>.</p>
<p>Female and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/18/2/253/361968">male victims of sexual violence</a> can experience a range of physical and psychological harms, some of which can last a lifetime. They may experience <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/they-came-two-guns-consequences-sexual-violence-mental-health-women-armed-conflicts">stigmatization, discrimination and rejection by their families and communities</a>, which can cause long-lasting social and economic harm. Female victims can become pregnant. Some in such cases will terminate their pregnancies, while others <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/challenging-conceptions-9780197648315?cc=us&lang=en&">give birth to children</a> as a result of their rape. </p>
<p>Hamas sexually brutalized the women and men they raped, with reports that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-05/ty-article/.premium/israeli-and-jewish-women-implore-a-reticent-un-to-confront-hamas-sexual-violence/0000018c-369b-dc03-a9ec-3efbfcb90000">murdered women’s genitalia and breasts</a> were severely mutilated. Hamas also reportedly <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181">shot and killed women </a> either while or after they raped them on Oct. 7. </p>
<p>These violent acts suggest an intent to utterly destroy their victims, while also terrorizing the Israeli public and humiliating Israeli men, Israel’s military and the state of Israel. </p>
<p>We also think that Hamas’ use of sexual violence was intended to outrage and provoke Israel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html">to engage in a permanent state of war with Hamas</a> and attack civilian spaces in Gaza. Hamas hopes in doing so to consolidate power and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html">keep the Palestinian crisis alive</a>.</p>
<p>Was Hamas’ use of sexual violence part of a predetermined strategy or fighters acting opportunistically without orders? At least a year in advance, Hamas mapped and planned the attack with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html">painstaking detail</a>. </p>
<p>They also carried out an intense daylong exercise that mimicked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html">the actual Oct. 7 attack</a>. Given this level of planning and Hamas’ previous lack of using sexual violence, it is highly unlikely that Hamas’ sexual violence committed against Israelis was the result of some men who went rogue. More likely, sexual violence was part of Hamas’ war tactics and strategy. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-commission-investigate-hamas-sexual-violence-appeal-evidence-2023-11-29/">United Nations</a> and the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231203-icc-prosecutor-vows-to-further-intensify-gaza-probe">International Criminal Court</a> are now, rightly, investigating Hamas’ use of sexual violence as possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. </p>
<p>Under international law, surviving victims have <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/basic-principles-and-guidelines-right-remedy-and-reparation">a right to justice and a range of assistance to aid in their recovery</a>. Families of the victims who were killed have a right to information about what happened to their loved ones. Throughout it all, everyone directly affected by sexual violence has a right to be treated with care and dignity. </p>
<p><em>This article, originally published on Dec. 11, 2023, was updated on Jan. 11, 2024, to reflect news about the United Nations’ statement.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dyan Mazurana receives funding from several governments, foundations, United Nations agencies and international humanitarian organizations to support her research with populations affected by armed conflict. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Marshak receives funding from USAID and Action Contra Famine.</span></em></p>
Sexual violence can be used as a weapon of war. Hamas’ use of sexual violence was likely meant to show its power over Israeli women and girls and to humiliate Israeli men and Israel’s military.
Dyan Mazurana, Research Professor of Global Affairs, Tufts University
Anastasia Marshak, Assistant Research Professor of Nutrition, Tufts University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210318
2023-07-27T16:34:35Z
2023-07-27T16:34:35Z
Indian women’s struggle against sexual violence has had little support from the men in power
<p>Two recent instances of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/india-further-reports-of-sexual-violence-emerge-in-manipur/a-66320674">vicious sexual violence</a> against ethnic minority women in the Indian state of Manipur involving gang rape and murder have highlighted the problems of impunity and weak laws dealing with violence against women in India.</p>
<p>Video footage emerged on July 20 depicting <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/20/asia/india-manipur-sexual-violence-video-intl/index.html">an incident on May 4</a> where two Kuki women were stripped naked and forced to parade in front of a group of men from the dominant Meitei tribe. The footage went viral on social media prompting a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/20/modi-speaks-out-after-video-of-sexual-assault-on-women-in-manipur-emerges">strong response from the prime minister, Narendra Modi</a>. </p>
<p>Referring to the women as the “daughters of Manipur”, Modi said that what happened can “never be forgiven”. He added that the incident had “shamed India” – and that the guilty would be punished. Manipur’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, echoing this focus on punishment, said strict action would be taken against the perpetrators including the possibility of capital punishment.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, reports of <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-manipur-another-fir-on-rape-murder-of-2-young-women-family-in-dark-about-probe-8853540/">another complaint</a> lodged with state police concern the alleged abduction, rape and murder of two Kuki-Zomi women. The complaint says that the women were taken from the car wash where they worked and “brutally murdered” in their rented accommodation on May 5 “after being raped and gruesome(ly) tortured by some unknown persons”, believed to be “about 100-200” in number.</p>
<p>The incidents were part of long-running communal tensions in India’s northeastern state of Manipur over land ownership between the mostly Hindu Meitei majority ethnic group and the mainly Christian Kuki hill tribes. There has been escalating violence in recent months between as the state government has forced the eviction of Kuki villagers from their homes. Kuki villages have been burned down and churches have been <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/294a12ac-26df-11ee-9959-3da1f328ac3c?shareToken=ebb68e4ba724935239e902a1b9258c8e">demolished</a>.</p>
<p>When members of the Kuki and Naga tribes (the two largest minority peoples) <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/why-is-indias-manipur-state-grip-ethnic-violence-2023-07-21/">protested against their treatment on May 3</a>, it sparked an orgy of violence, since which more than 140 people have died. More than 60,000 people have lost their homes in the conflict and are living in relief camps. </p>
<p>Local state machinery seems incapable of ensuring the maintenance of law and order. For two months, opposition parties in parliament <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/India-opposition-presses-Modi-on-persistent-Manipur-violence">have been calling</a> for the central government to intervene, but it wasn’t until reports of the video footage of the sexual violence emerged that there has been any significant government reaction.</p>
<h2>Identity-based sexual violence</h2>
<p>Within India, rape as a weapon to inflict harm upon minority communities has a tragically long history – often with distinct caste, ethnic, or religious motivations. During the partition of India in the late 1940s, 75,000 women <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple">were raped</a> and many were also mutilated in the accompanying sectarian violence.</p>
<p>During Bangladesh’s war of independence in the 1970s, Pakistan’s army raped a reported <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/lets-pay-homage-to-3-million-killed-200000-women-raped-by-pak-army-in-1971-tirumurti/article33287520.ece">200,000 women</a>, often with the deliberate intention of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/03/52-years-bangladesh-birangona-women-mass-rape-surviviors">impregnating Bangladeshi women</a> with Pakistani blood. Meanwhile, riots in the state of Gujarat, along India’s west coast, in the early 2000s were also marked by <a href="https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/rape-2002-gujarat-bilkis-bano">mass rapes</a>, murders, and the extreme mutilation of women’s bodies. </p>
<p>With women being too afraid to speak out, or being too afraid to approach state agencies such as the police – who often comprise officers recruited from the same community as alleged perpetrators – much of this sexual violence was never adequately investigated. Since the 1990s, with a greater awareness that sexual violence was being perpetrated, and conscious efforts to distance victims from culturally constructed notions of “honour”, efforts have been made to support women through a judicial process. </p>
<p>But these efforts have met with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66254008">limited success</a>, and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/18/indias-modi-government-approved-release-of-bilkis-banos-rapists">impunity</a> for sexual violence in conflicts continues to be all-too common. </p>
<p>Shame and stigma continues to discourage women from talking openly about sexual violence while intimidation and the barriers to access the justice system remain a disincentive for complainants. Only where there’s a clear political motive for politicians to get involved, have there been moments of success in recognising and responding to sexual violence against women. </p>
<h2>Efforts to overcome impunity</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, women’s organisations united in their demands for better <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/sexual-harassment-at-workplace/">safety for women</a>. This followed the caste-motivated rape of Bhanwari Devi. Devi was a social worker who prevented a child marriage but was allegedly gang raped by men from the upper-caste community who had arranged the wedding – apparently to both punish her and deter other social workers from interfering in what they saw as their cultural rights. The public response was significant and successfully pressured the then government to introduce guidelines surrounding <a href="https://scroll.in/article/899044/dalit-womans-rape-in-92-led-to-indias-first-sexual-harassment-law-but-justice-still-eludes-her">sexual harassment at work</a>. </p>
<p>But nobody <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bhanwari-devi-justice-eluded-her-but-she-stands-resolute-for-others-101631811309362.html">was convicted of the rape</a>. The court’s reasons for not finding the accused guilty included the idea that higher-caste men cannot rape lower-caste women – and neither could men in positions of power or elderly men.</p>
<p>In 2002, during the Gujarat riots 20,000 homes were destroyed, and around 150,000 people were displaced, with the majority being <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/04/they-burnt-my-parents-alive-gujarat-riots-still-haunt-victims/">local Muslims</a>. Between 800 and 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/India0402.htm">killed</a> and there was <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/asa200022005en.pdf">widespread sexual violence</a> and the mutilation of women’s bodies, again with people’s identity, in this case their religion, as the motive. Only one woman withstood social pressure and testified against her attackers. The accused were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison but served less than ten after the state government <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/18/indias-modi-government-approved-release-of-bilkis-banos-rapists">enabled their early release</a>.</p>
<p>In 2019, in another caste-motivated attack, a lower-caste Dalit woman was gang-raped, assaulted and paraded naked in <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/four-accused-in-2019-alwar-gang-rape-case-imprisoned-for-life-898148.html">Rajasthan’s Alwar district</a>. The complainant and her husband were verbally assaulted by the police when trying to report the case. But once the news broke, politicians lined up to show sympathy with the survivor – presumably to secure lower-caste votes in the state. </p>
<p>The accused were tried in a fast-track court, found guilty the following year, and <a href="https://theprint.in/ground-reports/manipur-video-sets-alwar-gang-rape-victim-back-by-4-years-she-wants-right-to-be-forgotten/1684131/">sentenced to life in prison</a> – where they remain. It shows that fast and effective state responses can be achieved, particularly when there is political pressure. </p>
<p>But sexual violence against women has been minimised for too long – and responses all-too-often remain inadequate. Governments must make more effort to guarantee justice and eradicate victim-blaming within the judicial system in rape cases. Prosecutions in the two most recent cases in Manipur would be a start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Severyna Magill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Two recent incidents involving gang rape and murder have highlighted the problems of sexual violence against women in India.
Severyna Magill, Senior Lecturer in Law and Human Rights, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196720
2023-01-04T20:44:20Z
2023-01-04T20:44:20Z
By helping Rohingya women, Canada can do the right thing and demonstrate global leadership
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503105/original/file-20230104-22-6g4jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=82%2C14%2C4896%2C3426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women display a poster during a rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims outside the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN Security Council recently adopted its <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/22/un-security-council-resolution-demands-end-to-myanmar-violence">first resolution on Myanmar</a> in more than seven decades. The resolution demanded an end to the violence and called on Myamnar’s military junta to release all political prisoners. In 2021, the military seized power in the country in a violent coup that saw thousands killed and jailed. </p>
<p>In 2022, Canada announced its long awaited Indo-Pacific strategy. The strategy focuses on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-launches-new-indo-pacific-strategy-focus-disruptive-china-2022-11-27/">deepening economic ties with Pacific countries and boosting Canada’s military and cyber security in the region</a>.</p>
<p>The strategy also states that Canada will “<a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/indo-pacific-indo-pacifique/index.aspx?lang=eng">speak up for universal human rights</a>” and defend “human rights in the region, including women’s rights.”</p>
<p>Since 2017, Canada has been providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya. The <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/crisis-crises/myanmar-phase2.aspx?lang=eng">Canadian government</a> has pledged $288 million in humanitarian aid.</p>
<p>A strategy that truly stands up for women’s rights would advance Canada’s global leadership through offering greater support to the Rohingya, who are described as the “<a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/es/content/recognizing-the-rohingya-and-their-horrifying-pers/">world’s most persecuted minority</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman stands in a queue carrying a baby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502449/original/file-20221221-19-qhm714.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rohingya refugees board a ship as they are ferried to Bhasan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Saleh Noman)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who are the Rohingya?</h2>
<p>The Rohingya are an ethnic minority group in Myanmar. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/12/5/humans-are-for-the-grave-karen-face-myanmar-military-violence">Along with other minority groups</a>, they have been the regular target of state violence by the <a href="http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/myanmar">Myanmar military</a>, also known as the Tatmadaw.</p>
<p>In August 2017, the Tatmadaw launched a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/24/myanmar-no-justice-no-freedom-rohingya-5-years">brutal campaign in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state</a>. Many international organizations, including the UN, reported evidence of widespread <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2021.1931136">sexual violence</a> as well as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/">massacres and the destruction of villages</a>.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled to neighbouring Bangladesh where they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/23/five-years-rohingya-refugees-2017-bangladesh-myanmar-military-crackdown">live in poor conditions</a>. </p>
<p>The government of Myanmar has systematically denied the population the right to education in their own language and <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis">discriminated against them based on their religion</a>. Myanmar’s leaders have repeatedly branded the Rohingya as <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/10/enemies-of-the-state/">illegal immigrants</a>, denying them fundamental rights to education and to seek employment. </p>
<h2>Sexual violence during the 2017 Rohingya genocide</h2>
<p>Several UN member states, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/canada-accuses-myanmar-of-genocide-against-rohingya">including Canada</a>, have condemned Myanmar’s actions, labelling them genocide. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/myanmar-ffm/sexualviolence">A 2018 UN report</a> documented how sexual violence was “<a href="https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/sexual-violence-and-genocide-the-international-court-of-justices-ruling-on-rohingya/">strategically deployed</a>” against Rohingya women and girls.</p>
<p>Reports from health-care providers indicate that in 2017, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13038-7">conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV)</a> was perpetrated by the Myanmar military. Along with mass rapes, the military would beat and shoot the victims who were predominantly women. Sometimes, they would also murder family members in front of the victims. </p>
<p>Evidence published by the UN and other human rights organizations indicate that the Myanmar militia’s use of <a href="https://restlessbeings.org/articles/genocidal-rape-analysis-of-tools-and-tactics-to-dehumanize-a-community">rape was a tool of genocide</a> to result in the complete and partial destruction of the Rohingya community. Survivor testimonies published by the UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other organizations reveal that sexual violence and rape were meticulously planned. </p>
<p>The military raided Rohingya villages and <a href="https://thesecuritydistillery.org/all-articles/weaponisation-of-female-body-the-genocidal-rape-of-the-rohingya-people">forcefully entered households</a> where women were gathering. Survivors recounted how soldiers would take turns raping the women. </p>
<p>CRSV is causing a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-020-00329-2">public health crisis</a> for Rohingya women in refugee camps. While urgent health care was dispatched by human rights organizations, much of it focused on treating infectious diseases and physical trauma. </p>
<p>CRSV can be particularly stigmatizing for the victims, especially in conservative patriarchal societies. Survivors may feel reluctant to report the crime because of the shame that could bring them and their families. </p>
<p>Lack of access to health care is also a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/06/30/rohingya-refugees-facing-medical-crisis-bhasan-char">major deterrent</a>. Many refugee women often live in conservative environments where the use of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2021.100246">contraceptives</a> is frowned upon. Furthermore, pregnant refugee women are <a href="https://www.unicef.org/rosa/stories/ante-and-post-natal-care-ensure-health-rohingya-mothers-and-children">encouraged to stay at home by their families and not seek medical assistance due to superstition and fear</a>. </p>
<h2>What can Canada do for Rohingya women?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/crisis-crises/myanmar.aspx?lang=eng">Canadian government’s response</a> to the Rohingya crisis focuses on alleviating the humanitarian crisis and encouraging positive political developments in Myanmar. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a woman with blond hair wearing a beige coat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502974/original/file-20230103-19747-b7g1y5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly announced Canada’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This kind of a top-down approach focuses on assisting fragile states with political tools and financial resources to build political stability and prevent violence. But the risk with this approach is that persecuted communities remain at the bottom of the power hierarchy, where they continue to remain vulnerable. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://brownpoliticalreview.org/2018/10/bottom-approach-foreign-aid/">bottom-up approach,</a> the focus is on ensuring healing for survivors and empowering them to access resources that aid in their social and psychological rehabilitation. </p>
<p>By applying a bottom-up approach, Canada should engage with local women’s and human rights organizations working with survivors who can also weigh in on post-conflict recovery.</p>
<p>There must be greater understanding of how race, ethnicity and gender relations contribute to women’s vulnerability during genocide and conflict. By addressing the crimes of sexual violence, Canada can work to bring survivors’ lived experience to the centre of humanitarian responses and help to prevent future abuses.</p>
<h2>Localize humanitarian responses</h2>
<p>Canadian policymakers and stakeholders need to understand and engage with historical identities, gender relations and survivors’ everyday lived experiences. </p>
<p>Localizing humanitarian engagements by partnering with grassroots organizations and community-led initiatives can help create healing and inclusive spaces for survivors of sexual violence.</p>
<p>This is a way Canada can ensure that survivors are protected and have access to the resources they need. </p>
<p>Canada needs to follow through on its commitment to combat <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/un-onu/statements-declarations/2020-07-17-VTC_conflict-conflits_visio.aspx?lang=eng">conflict-related sexual violence</a> and lead the international community in seeking justice for the Rohingya people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deeplina Banerjee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Canada’s new Indo-Pacific strategy must include providing assistance to Rohingya women who have suffered sexual violence.
Deeplina Banerjee, PhD Candidate, Gender, Sexuality and Women Studies, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181690
2022-07-20T14:44:00Z
2022-07-20T14:44:00Z
How to ensure justice for the survivors of wartime sexual violence in Ukraine
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474691/original/file-20220718-18-r6d178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8640%2C5755&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ukrainian women picket in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2022, calling for the rescue of Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Donbas city of Mariupol amid Russia's invasion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-to-ensure-justice-for-the-survivors-of-wartime-sexual-violence-in-ukraine" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Amid evidence of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, <a href="https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs">the foreign affairs minister of the Netherlands</a>, the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/otp">Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court</a> and the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024/reynders_en">EU Commissioner for Justice</a> recently hosted the <a href="https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/ukraine-accountability-conference-uac">Ukraine Accountability Conference</a>. </p>
<p>At that conference, 45 countries — including Canada — <a href="https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/documents/diplomatic-statements/2022/07/14/political-declaration-of-the-ministerial-ukraine-accountability-conference">adopted a statement</a> strongly condemning the use of sexual violence as a method of warfare in Ukraine and underlining the need for specialized support and gender-responsive treatment for survivors. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bald man with a beard and glasses in a navy suit with a light blue tie." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474708/original/file-20220718-24-3jj63a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Justice Minister David Lametti participates in a news conference on Parliament Hill in June 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti also indicated that Canada is supporting a number of international and domestic justice efforts <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2022/07/prioritizing-the-interests-and-needs-of-survivors-and-victims-of-core-international-crimes--focus-on-sexual-and-gender-based-crimes.html">to address conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine</a>. </p>
<p>Conflict-related sexual violence has been reported in Ukraine since the 2014 takeover of Crimea and installation of Russian-controlled forces in Donbas. </p>
<p>The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/conflict-related-sexual-violence-ukraine">multiple examples</a> of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/arbitrary-detention-torture-and-ill-treatment-context-armed-conflict">conflict-related sexual violence between 2014-21</a> against both women and men.</p>
<h2>Tortured while detained</h2>
<p>Most incidents occurred while the victims were detained or otherwise deprived of their freedom by armed groups and government forces. Perpetrators used beatings and electrocution of the genitals, rape, threats of rape and forced nudity to torture, punish, humiliate or extract confessions from the victims. </p>
<p>To further pressure the victims, the perpetrators threatened also to detain, abduct, rape, injure or kill the victims’ children and other relatives. Sexual violence against women was also documented outside of detention, including in residential areas close to military positions. </p>
<p>In addition, female victims reported being subjected to forced nudity, sexual touching and sexual assault in exchange for passage through checkpoints.</p>
<p>Given these and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur50/3255/2020/en/">other similar reports from human rights organizations</a>, it’s unsurprising that the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/itemsDocuments/191205-rep-otp-PE.pdf">Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court concluded in 2019</a> that there’s reasonable basis to believe that the war crimes of rape and other forms of sexual violence have been committed in eastern Ukraine.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman pushes a baby stroller past a damaged apartment building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474695/original/file-20220718-76291-qpy6jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman pushes a baby stroller near a building damaged during a Russian attack in Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, in June 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Risk factors increase</h2>
<p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent occupation of Ukrainian towns and cities significantly magnified the risk factors for conflict-related sexual violence. </p>
<p>That’s because of the presence of armed forces in populated areas, large-scale internal displacement, destruction of homes and infrastructure, deprivation of liberty and restrictions on freedom of movement — including through the use of checkpoints — and the collapse of law and order.</p>
<p>All of these heighten vulnerability for women and children, in particular, in the midst of war.</p>
<p>In view of these risk factors, and the history of sexual violence in eastern Ukraine and Crimea since 2014, it is wholly unsurprising that reports of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1093339262/ukraine-russia-rape-war-crimes">sexual violence</a> began to emerge in 2022 from areas that had been occupied by Russian forces.</p>
<p>In April 2022, following the attacks by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61071243">human rights ombudsperson documented</a> cases of approximately 25 girls and young women aged 14 to 24 who were detained, raped and impregnated by occupying Russian soldiers in a basement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tombs with crosses are seen in the dirt in a cemetery. Some have flowers, decorations and flags on them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474706/original/file-20220718-68552-20djtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tombs of people who died after the Russia invasion are seen in the Bucha cemetery on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2022/05/ukraine-update-human-rights-council-special-session">United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights</a>, the UN Secretary-General’s <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1119832">Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict</a>, the <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/f/a/515868.pdf">Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/03/ukraine-apparent-war-crimes-russia-controlled-areas">other groups</a> have reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence, particularly rape and forced nudity, across the country.</p>
<p>These assaults often take place in conjunction with other crimes, including killings.</p>
<p>Rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence are crimes against humanity and war crimes under the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court</a>. </p>
<p>The International Criminal Court has <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-01/04-02/06-2666-red">successfully prosecuted</a> various forms of rape and sexual slavery. Other international criminal tribunals have done the same, and also recognized <a href="https://unictr.irmct.org/sites/unictr.org/files/case-documents/ictr-96-4/trial-judgements/en/980902.pdf">acts such as forced nudity</a> as violations.</p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>Even amid the evidence and suitable legal categories for various offences, there are many challenges to safely, ethically and effectively investigating conflict-related sexual violence for the purposes of holding individuals accountable. That’s regardless of whether the investigations are conducted through the International Criminal Court, Ukraine’s domestic justice system or the justice systems of other countries. </p>
<p>Among those challenges:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Russian-occupied areas and areas of live warfare are often not accessible to investigators. </p></li>
<li><p>Survivors may lack physical security, could be living in an atmosphere of impunity, may fear retaliation and stigma and may be suffering from physical and psychological trauma. </p></li>
<li><p>Survivors may be focused on providing for their and their families’ immediate needs. </p></li>
<li><p>Survivors may not have access to health care or other assistance. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>This is why investigations of conflict-related sexual violence by the International Criminal Court, the government of Ukraine and others require a co-ordinated, survivor-centred and trauma-informed approach.</p>
<p>The international community has learned many lessons over the course of prosecuting sexual violence stemming from <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/732/addressing-the-use-of-sexual-violence-as-a-strategic-weapon-of-war">conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, the genocide in Rwanda, the civil war in Sierra Leone</a> and elsewhere.</p>
<p>This has led to the development of best practices in how to document, investigate and prosecute conflict-related sexual violence. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with long dark hair wearing a blue shirt sits with headphones on in front of a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474883/original/file-20220719-10097-oyfnrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad attends an event in Germany in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kay Nietfeld/Pool via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, Nobel Prize recipient and sexual violence survivor <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2018/murad/facts/">Nadia Murad</a> worked with a team to launch the <a href="https://www.muradcode.com/murad-code">Murad Code</a>, a global code of conduct for those collecting information from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. </p>
<p>The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has implemented a <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/otp/OTP-Policy-Paper-on-Sexual-and-Gender-Based-Crimes--June-2014.pdf">policy paper</a> on investigating and prosecuting sexual and gender-based crimes, and the United Kingdom’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative created the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/598335/International_Protocol_2017_2nd_Edition.pdf">International Protocol on
the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict</a>. These best practices are being used in Ukraine today. </p>
<p>The good news is that investigators, law enforcement and civil society representatives working in Ukraine recognize the need for careful organization of their collective efforts to avoid, as much as possible, retraumatizing the survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. </p>
<p>This was one of the goals behind the recent Ukraine Accountability Conference: to ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine see some measure of justice through co-ordinated, carefully planned action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie Oosterveld receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>
Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine deserve some measure of justice through co-ordinated, carefully planned action.
Valerie Oosterveld, Professor of International Law and Associate Director, Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137541
2020-05-10T08:31:15Z
2020-05-10T08:31:15Z
Sexual and gender-based violence during COVID-19: lessons from Ebola
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332748/original/file-20200505-83725-1uiyp1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence suffer trauma that lasts long beyond medical crises.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Corbis News via GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020">pandemic</a> is a disaster that has severely disrupted the normal functioning of populations around the world and continues to proliferate indiscriminately. </p>
<p>Disease outbreaks like COVID-19 threaten the health of all. But women and girls are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marianneschnall/2020/04/17/putting-a-gender-lens-on-covid-19-thought-leaders-weigh-in/#57fa9cb25b23">disproportionately affected</a>. During epidemics, the very measures taken to protect populations and keep health systems afloat leave women and girls especially vulnerable to violence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/sexual-and-gender-based-violence.htm">Sexual and gender-based violence</a> is a hidden consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As communities around the world are forced to stay at home, women and girls are at a heightened risk of <a href="http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcseriesblog/2020/04/08/integrating-domestic-violence-prevention-and-mitigation-into-global-covid-19-preparedness-and-relief-efforts/">domestic violence</a>, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30092-4/fulltext">intimate partner violence</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/coronavirus-child-abuse.html">child abuse</a>, and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Because disasters exacerbate pre-existing gender inequities and power hierarchies, violence in the home may worsen as prolonged quarantine and economic stressors <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/COVID-19_A_Gender_Lens_Guidance_Note.pdf">increase tension in the household</a>. Women and girls are isolated from the people and resources that can help them, and they have few opportunities to distance themselves from their abusers. </p>
<p>During epidemics, it’s harder for sexual and reproductive health workers to appropriately screen for sexual and gender-based violence. And referral pathways to care are disrupted. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97637-2_8">research</a> shows that an increase in sexual and gender-based violence was observed during the 2013-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. During that outbreak, response efforts focused on containing the disease. </p>
<p>This focus was important, but protocols were never established to protect girls and women from violence during the outbreak. Quarantines and school closures were put in place to contain the spread of disease. This left women and adolescent girls vulnerable to coercion, exploitation and sexual abuse. </p>
<p>There is already concern that COVID-19 is leading to an increase of sexual and gender-based violence. </p>
<h2>Rising levels of violence</h2>
<p>Sexual and gender-based violence does not begin with disasters like COVID-19. But the chaos and instability they cause leave women and girls more <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/humanitarian-action/facts-and-figures">vulnerable</a>. </p>
<p>The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, has sounded an alarm on a “<a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2020-04-05/secretary-generals-video-message-gender-based-violence-and-covid-19-scroll-down-for-french">horrifying global surge</a>” of domestic violence. </p>
<p>In Kenya, cases of sexual, gender-based and domestic violence have <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/coronavirus/fighting-%E2%80%98shadow-pandemic%E2%80%99-violence-against-women-children-during-covid-19">increased significantly</a> since the country began its response to the virus. In <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005253/domestic-violence-cases-surge-during-covid-19-epidemic">China</a>, domestic violence reports nearly doubled after cities were put under lockdown, with 90% related to the epidemic. </p>
<p>Helpline calls have increased in <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061132">Malaysia, Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/issue-brief-covid-19-and-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5006">France, Argentina, Cyprus and Singapore</a>. A sharp drop in calls in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-violence/in-italy-support-groups-fear-lockdown-is-silencing-domestic-abuse-victims-idUSKBN21M0PM">Italy</a> suggests that the lockdown also prevented many women from seeking help. </p>
<p>According to the World Health Organisation, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women">35%</a> of women around the world have already experienced some form of sexual and gender-based violence in their lifetime. In some crisis settings, this number skyrocketed to more than <a href="https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/actionaid_policy_report_on_the_frontline_catalysing_womens_leadership_in_humanitarian_action.pdf">70%</a>. </p>
<h2>Ebola experience</h2>
<p>Increases in sexual and gender-based violence were observed during the 2013-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Estimates concerning the scope are difficult to obtain and vastly under-reported. Survivors of violence <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/02/the-ebola-rape-epidemic-west-africa-teenage-pregnancy/">were ignored</a> as health workers counted the number of Ebola cases. </p>
<p>According to some reports, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ebola-women/violence-against-women-rises-in-ebola-hit-nations-ministers-idUSKBN0ME30520150318">Guinea</a> reported a 4.5% increase in sexual and gender-based violence and twice as many rapes. More often than not, this violence was evident only by its devastating consequences for women and girls. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of Ebola, both <a href="https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2015-press-releases/children-report-increased-exploitation--teenage-pregnancies-in-e">Sierra Leone</a> and <a href="https://plan-international.org/news/2014-11-17-teenage-pregnancy-rates-rise-ebola-stricken-west-africa">Liberia</a> saw an upswing in teenage pregnancy rates.</p>
<p>The parallels between the response to Ebola and COVID-19 are striking. Public health infrastructure during Ebola came to a grinding halt. In a desperate attempt to control the virus, governments employed many of the current social distancing strategies. These included school closures, curfews, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330085671_Gender-Based_Violence_Among_Adolescent_Girls_and_Young_Women_A_Neglected_Consequence_of_the_West_African_Ebola_Outbreak_Medical_Anthropological_and_Public_Health_Perspectives">quarantines</a>. </p>
<p>As Ebola spread throughout West Africa, heavily burdened relief efforts failed to account for particularly vulnerable populations. The needs of women and girls, especially concerning sexual and gender-based violence, were largely ignored in response and recovery planning. </p>
<p>Many organisations waited until Ebola was under control before addressing these needs. By then it was too late. </p>
<h2>Lessons learned</h2>
<p>One of the key lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak was that epidemics leave women and girls especially vulnerable to violence. Mistakes made during the Ebola epidemic are valuable lessons in the COVID-19 response. </p>
<p>Governments must ensure the protection of women and girls right from the beginning of an epidemic. However, a <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/701805">top-down approach</a> is not enough. Prevention and mitigation initiatives need to be integrated across sectors. </p>
<p>Research has found independent women’s groups to be the <a href="https://wps.unwomen.org/pdf/en/GlobalStudy_EN_Web.pdf">single most important factor</a> in addressing violence against women and girls. In light of this, women and girls should be involved in the development and delivery of services during COVID-19. And comprehensive data on the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/75296.pdf">gendered impact of COVID-19</a> should be collected.</p>
<p>All protective services for women and girls must be classified as “essential” during any disaster. Domestic violence hotlines, safe spaces, sexual and reproductive health services, referral pathways, and justice mechanisms are necessary in pre-pandemic times, and even more important in crisis. </p>
<p>Governments should identify organisations already focused on sexual and gender-based violence and give them the tools and resources to continue supporting women and girls during the pandemic. Since social distancing limits screening opportunities, these organisations should explore <a href="https://gbvguidelines.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interagency-GBV-risk-mitigation-and-Covid-tipsheet.pdf">alternate entry ways for women to access care</a>, especially in places like <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/31/824720162/france-announces-plan-to-aid-domestic-abuse-victims-during-coronavirus-crisis">supermarkets and pharmacies</a>. </p>
<p>As hospitals and clinics deal with infected patients, the health sector should collaborate with gender-violence organisations to deliver services creatively and strengthen referral pathways in accordance with virus mitigation measures. </p>
<p><a href="https://iawgfieldmanual.com/manual">High-quality clinical care</a> for survivors should be accessible at all times. <a href="https://wcaro.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPA-WCARO-Ebola-Crisis.pdf">Community gatekeepers</a> including religious, traditional, women, and youth leaders should play a key role in both virus and violence mitigation initiatives. They can also serve as early warning and alert groups within the community.</p>
<p>Frontline workers should be trained to recognise and safely refer cases of sexual and gender-based violence. And women should be aware of the increased risk during times of crisis, and where to access help.</p>
<p>The consequences of sexual and gender-based violence do not end when medical crises are contained. The impact of COVID-19 will be wide scale, longstanding, and likely generational. Response and recovery planning must ensure that those most impacted by COVID-19 are not forgotten.</p>
<p><em>Additional research was done by Alexandra Regan, a Master of Public Health candidate at Boston University School of Public Health</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
During epidemics, the measures taken to protect populations and to keep health systems afloat leave women and girls vulnerable to violence.
Monica Adhiambo Onyango, Clinical Associate Professor, Global Health, Boston University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131626
2020-03-06T10:04:14Z
2020-03-06T10:04:14Z
Justice for sexual violence: organisations on frontline need better tools to collect evidence
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318943/original/file-20200305-106616-xa8etf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C22%2C1257%2C820&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenyan women launched the #HerLifeMatters campaign in Nairobi in 2019 against femicide. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kariuki James</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice is extremely difficult, especially in conflict zones. <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1052041">One in three</a> women experience such violence, according to the World Health Organization, but perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. </p>
<p>The suffering caused by sexual violence is compounded for women and girls in developing countries and in rural communities affected by conflict, where prosecutions are even more difficult. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589871X19301330">our research</a>, if more perpetrators are to be successfully prosecuted, we must get better at collecting evidence in sexual violence cases. And the voice of survivors must be heard by those who make policies to tackle sexual violence. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/preventing-sexual-violence-in-conflict-initiative">Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative</a> (PSVI) is one of the most rigorous international efforts to date to end impunity. It was launched in 2012 and led by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). At a PSVI <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/2014-global-summit-to-end-sexual-violence-in-conflict">global summit</a> in 2014, leaders from around the world committed to take action to end sexual violence in conflict.</p>
<p>At the summit, the PSVI also launched the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-protocol-on-the-documentation-and-investigation-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict">International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict</a>, which sets out the legal elements for establishing sexual violence as a weapon of war. The protocol also provides guidance on how to conduct interviews with victims and witnesses to get testimonial evidence to support investigations and prosecutions.</p>
<h2>Falling short</h2>
<p>The UK’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-protocol-on-the-documentation-and-investigation-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict">Independent Commission for Aid Impact</a> (ICAI) recently gave the PSVI an <a href="https://icai.independent.gov.uk/html-report/psvi/">amber-red rating</a> for its overall effectiveness. The ICAI said while the initiative was “an important body of work on a neglected topic”, the UK government did not take practical action on pledges that had been made and so “fell short of the government’s stated ambitions”. Perhaps most worrying, the commission concluded that while the PSVI had appointed “survivor champions”, survivors were not meaningfully included in the choice, design and implementation of its programme. </p>
<p>The FCO was due to tackle this concern at the latest <a href="https://psviconference2019.co.uk">PSVI conference in late 2019</a>, but it was postponed because of the UK election. </p>
<p>However, the ICAI applauded the international protocol as one of the PSVI’s achievements. It found the protocol is being used in 16% of the justice and accountability programmes it reviewed, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burma, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Uganda and Iraq.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589871X19301330">recent research</a> reveals the significant role the protocol plays in supporting prosecutions. It outlines legal requirements for establishing sexual violence as a crime against humanity, and evidence-based interview techniques for obtaining testimonies to support prosecutions. </p>
<p>But the organisations that need this information the most don’t have the capacity to use the protocol. This became clear when we consulted with the FCO on the revision of the protocol before its publication in 2017. The knowledge base on which the protocol relies was also developed largely with criminal investigators in mind, and its usefulness in developing countries with non-specialist interviewers is unproven. </p>
<h2>Not available at the grassroots</h2>
<p>One of us (Wangu Kanja) is also the executive director of a foundation that works with survivors of sexual violence in Kenya, and the convener of a network of survivors in the country that helps them get justice. But we’ve seen first-hand that little has changed for survivors seeking justice in Kenya since the global summit and the introduction of the protocol.</p>
<p>The job of helping affected communities largely falls to grassroots organisations, including local charities and survivor networks. We’ve shown that understanding the varied contexts in which these organisations operate is vital to develop the tools that are needed to investigate, document and prosecute sexual violence cases.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-forensic-science-to-fight-back-against-sexual-violence-in-conflict-47794">forensic science</a> can play a key role in the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence cases, there is limited capacity for using it in innovative ways in developing countries. In response to these challenges, our current research is testing <a href="https://theconversation.com/innovative-dna-recovery-techniques-could-help-victims-catch-rapists-in-kenya-107618">novel DNA recovery kits</a> that could recover and preserve valuable evidence where medical and forensic examinations aren’t available.</p>
<h2>Involving survivors</h2>
<p>Another challenge we’ve identified is a shortfall in training non-specialist interviewers to document sexual violence. Our ongoing research is investigating whether vastly improved evidence, in survey completion rates and data accuracy, can be obtained by survivors of sexual violence who have been trained as interviewers. They are trusted by their communities and can build empathy based on their shared experiences.</p>
<p>Identifying the limitations of the protocol in collaboration with these survivors can shed light on the realities that need to be addressed. In an effort to build this knowledge, the Wangu Kanja Foundation has partnered to develop <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/global-goals/igi/index.aspx">an app</a> that lets survivors of sexual violence in Kenya report, document and track cases.</p>
<p>This knowledge is patchy at best in many developing countries, such as Kenya, partly due to the under reporting of these violations. Victims who report violence are sometimes killed in the belief it will <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203846988/chapters/10.4324/9780203846988-16">preserve their family honour</a>. Survivors also encounter discrimination and hostility within the criminal justice system due to <a href="https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_justice_deficit.pdf">attitudes, beliefs and values</a> held by the police and other officials who condone sexual violence.</p>
<p>Unless we also learn from survivors of sexual violence and grassroots organisations, we may miss critical information on improving the delivery of justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather D. Flowe's research receives funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund (UK Research and Innovation, AHRC, ESRC) the University of Birmingham (UoB) Institute for Global Innovation, the UoB ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and the Elrha (Humanitarian Innovation Fund). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Smith receives funding from Elrha (Humanitarian Innovation Fund) and The Foundation Peace Dialogue of the World Religions and Civil Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wangu Kanja is the founder and executive director of the Wangu Kanja Foundation. She is a member of the Survivors of Sexual Violence in Kenya Network. </span></em></p>
An international protocol to document and investigate sexual violence in conflict is falling short.
Heather D. Flowe, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, University of Birmingham
Lisa Smith, Professor of Criminology, University of Leicester
Wangu Kanja, Affiliated Researcher, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114887
2019-05-29T08:58:11Z
2019-05-29T08:58:11Z
Female military peacekeepers left feeling overwhelmed after inadequate training
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276798/original/file-20190528-42571-1rbblfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rwandan peacekeepers in Mali in 2014. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/14283028072/sizes/l">United Nations Photo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Female military peacekeepers deployed to complex UN missions often feel overwhelmed and ill-prepared when providing assistance to local women and girls who’ve been the victims of violence. </p>
<p>The UN expects female peacekeepers around the world to <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/increasing-female-participation-peacekeeping-operations">improve the effectiveness of missions</a> by gaining access to members of local communities that male peacekeepers cannot reach. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13533312.2018.1503934">my recent research</a> in Rwanda showed that women peacekeepers need more support. </p>
<p>I looked at whether the kind of training women from the Rwanda Defence Force received before their deployment in mixed-gender battalions to the <a href="https://unamid.unmissions.org/">UN Mission in Darfur</a> (UNAMID) and the <a href="https://unmiss.unmissions.org/">UN Mission in South Sudan</a> (UNMISS) was sufficient for the challenges they would face on their mission. I asked 24 Rwandan women from the military awaiting deployment and 22 who had returned from missions about their perceptions of the training they received, and how it related to the expectations and realities of working in UN and African Union (AU) peace operations.</p>
<h2>Insufficiently prepared</h2>
<p>Women waiting to deploy felt confident that the training equipped them for all <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/protection-of-civilians-mandate">protection of civilian tasks</a> they would be assigned. But women who’d returned from dangerous peace operations felt the pre-deployment training didn’t adequately equip them. They found it especially challenging to handle complex cases where women and girls had experienced sexual violence related to conflict, were extremely traumatised, or required urgent assistance. These challenges were exacerbated by the difficulty of communicating with local woman through an interpreter – a skill that had to be learnt on the job in difficult circumstances.</p>
<p>A 27-year-old liaison officer, who was critical of the military training’s emphasis on processes and procedures, suggested that “more information on the psychological impact violence has on survivors” was required. She said encountering gender-based violence in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) “was not easy” and the training hadn’t prepared her for sustained engagement with survivors. She added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I was on the ground and reached the [IDP] camp, you find this person who was raped for two or three hours and the people around her don’t want to communicate, they don’t care about what happened. You get this person, you put her in touch with the NGOs, you take her to hospital, but you need to spend three or four hours with her.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The women I interviewed also felt overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the assistance local communities required in Darfur and South Sudan. One 30-year-old major who deployed as a mechanic in UNAMID said there weren’t enough female peacekeepers to make a real impact.</p>
<h2>Gender biased training</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276799/original/file-20190528-42546-5qgeeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1129&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peacekeepers from the UN Mission in Sudan in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/6127493530/sizes/l">United Nations Photo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While gender advisers and military observers receive specialist community engagement training, most tactical-level female peacekeepers, like their male colleagues, receive military-led training two to three months prior to deployment. Typically, the programme comprises a mixture of training sessions in the classroom and field exercises designed by both the UN and local military. </p>
<p>These sessions introduce theoretical concepts but don’t provide practical knowledge about how people behave directly after experiencing violence, forms of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, and what to do during contact with survivors. Nor does the training desensitise peacekeepers in preparation for the distressing situations they’re likely to witness. One 32-year-old second lieutenant reflected on what was missing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We study gender issues theoretically, but in the mission area, when we start putting theory into practice, there are challenges. In training, my mate acts as a refugee and I act as I’m going to help her. But that is like theatre – you can’t grasp the reality well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gender biases also play a role. In Rwanda, senior leaders and trainers told me that female peacekeepers naturally knew how to respond to local women’s needs by dint of being the same sex. They believed women inherently possessed the required skill set, incorporating the traditional feminine traits of empathy, compassion, communication and the ability to care for vulnerable people. </p>
<p>There was also an assumption circulating that Rwandan women were good at providing victim assistance because of the country’s own history of conflict, where some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2017/06/11/rwandas-children-of-rape-are-coming-of-age-against-the-odds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.22a411aa8fcb">350,000 to 500,000 women were raped</a> during the civil war and genocide in 1994. Women awaiting deployment on peackeeping missions appeared to have internalised this stereotype, even though more than half of those I interviewed were between 18- and 23-years-old and born after 1994. This self-stereotyping resulted in a false confidence among the trainee peacekeepers that they were equipped to counsel and support traumatised women and girls.</p>
<h2>Training partnerships</h2>
<p>Rwandan female police peacekeepers I spoke to who had worked in UN missions in Darfur, South Sudan and Haiti, hadn’t felt as ill-prepared as their military colleagues. According to one senior female police peacekeeper, community engagement was a big part of their day-to-day job in Rwanda and they had significant experience helping those affected by violence. Yet currently, the Rwanda National Police and the Rwanda Defence Force run separate training programmes.</p>
<p>To help mitigate some of the issues I’ve found in my research, the police and military could share good practice and develop joint pre-deployment training sessions on the implementation of the UN’s protection of civilians mandate, including providing assistance to victims. At the same time, the UN, regional organisations and those countries that contribute troops to peacekeeping missions <a href="https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2019-05/peacekeeping-2.php">should continue to work together</a> to strengthen their training.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgina Holmes receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>
Interviews with Rwandan women from the military who had served on peacekeeping missions found many felt ill-equipped for what they had to deal with.
Georgina Holmes, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/108352
2018-12-07T08:03:49Z
2018-12-07T08:03:49Z
Sexual violence as a weapon of war: why the Nobel Prize for Peace matters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249280/original/file-20181206-128214-m4w3yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize: Nadia Murad (left) with Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Stephanie Lecocq</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For ordinary women and men, peace is vital – as essential as air itself. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize award of 2018, know this. </p>
<p>Mukwege is “the helper” who has provided medical care and surgery for thousands of survivors of sexual violence in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 1999 he founded the <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/#home">Panzi Hospital</a> that’s become known for its <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/the-panzi-model-1/#the-panzi-model">comprehensive support</a> to over <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/statistics/">48,482 survivors</a> of sexual violence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/2018/10/statement-by-dr-denis-mukwege-on-the-nobel-peace-prize-2018/">Mukwege´s response</a> to the Nobel Committee was both a call to action and a promise to all survivors of sexual violence that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the world refuses to sit idly in the face of your suffering.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For her part, Murad is “the witness”. A young woman from the Yazidi community in northern Iraq, she was abducted and held captive by the Islamic State just over four years ago. Now she’s a global voice against sexual violence, human trafficking and genocide. Murad displays relentless courage as an author, human rights activist, and story teller. As a survivor of human trafficking and sexual violence, she has challenged the UN, national governments, and international organisations to take action to ensure that she truly is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/books/review/nadia-murad-last-girl.html">“The Last Girl”</a> to experience such horrors. </p>
<p>The recognition of the role played by these two people matters enormously in strengthening the campaign against the use of sexual violence as a <a href="https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1148245/FULLTEXT01.pdf">weapon of war</a>. Although this isn’t a new concept, it’s nevertheless taken an eternity to be acknowledged. </p>
<h2>Patterns</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/reports/sg-reports/SG-REPORT-2017-CRSV-SPREAD.pdf">Forms</a> of conflict-related sexual violence include – but are not limited to – rape, forced pregnancy, slavery and torture. </p>
<p>Sexual violence can serve the purpose of humiliation, rewarding recruits, instilling fear or as a mechanism of ethnic cleansing. As such, it can become widespread, systematic and organised; or targeted, indiscriminate, opportunistic and merely tolerated; or a combination of both. </p>
<p>Patterns of sexual violence in wartime are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-the-red-cross/article/conflictrelated-sexual-violence-and-the-policy-implications-of-recent-research/9AD6D7059C9DE6A0926A701D53E1A86B">extraordinarily varied and complex</a>. It’s <a href="https://eba.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DDB-2015-5-Angela-Muvumba-Sellstr%C3%B6m_web.pdf">often perpetrated by a few armed actors</a>, rather than all of them. The <a href="http://www.sexualviolencedata.org/">Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict</a> data set shows that not all armed groups commit this violence.</p>
<p>My own research has provided additional insights. I reviewed <a href="http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:766398/FULLTEXT01.pdf">post-war sexual violence reports</a> between 1989 and 2011, of 23 armed actors in sub-Saharan Africa. Five didn’t have any sexual violence events attributed to them following settlement. Only eight were reported as responsible for 68% of abuses and assaults.</p>
<p>Reliance on material benefits is one explanation for <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Emh2245/papers1/apsr2006/MHJW08APSR2006_paper.pdf">brutal behaviour</a> against unarmed civilians. Living in an area with valuable commodities and natural resources has often been associated with the prevalence of wartime sexual violence. For example, in eastern DRC, the presence of minerals has contributed to organised armed violence, wartime rape and other forms of sexual violence. </p>
<p>This is backed up by research which has found <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X16300107">a higher risk of experiencing sexual violence outside of domestic relations</a>, in close proximity to mines and armed actors. One factor seems to be that easy access to weapons, lootable resources, and financing seems to make armed groups more organisationally incoherent. This means that they are prone to under-investing in discipline. In turn this leads to forced recruitment and other cheap and coercive means for mobilisation. Leaders who don’t need civilian support or <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100920580">who have abducted</a> their foot soldiers, strikingly, seem to enable gang rape as a form of socialisation within the ranks. </p>
<h2>The burden</h2>
<p>Other forms of violence in wartime can linger in the bodies and psyches of men and women for a long time. However, while soldiers are recognised for their heroism or courage, recompensed with a pension or integrated into a new army, survivors of sexual violence are silenced and ignored. </p>
<p>And yet many cannot bear children and are cast out of their communities as “polluted” or “unmarriageable”. <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8579754">They suffer</a> from disease, chronic illness and complicated sexual and reproductive health concerns. They must endure long-term, recurrent depression and anxiety, among many psycho-social-spiritual costs. They are made to feel worthless, disposable to society, marginal. They are often poorer, less able or likely to access education, training and opportunities. </p>
<p>These consequences intersect with social and familial constraints – stigma, impoverishment, alienation, fragmentation – which can accompany war and humanitarian crisis and have particularly negative consequences for survivors of sexual violence. </p>
<h2>Addressing the costs</h2>
<p>In the absence of structures and institutions and processes to address these consequences, Mukwege and Murad strive to shift stigma and shame away from the survivors, and to call on all to respond with social justice. </p>
<p>Mukwege’s work at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, in South Kivu, is increasingly taken up with more than general medicine. The foundation that grew from this facility now also provides social, economic, judicial and psychological assistance. </p>
<p>For its part, the Nadia Initiative works with advocacy tools to make life in the Sinjar province in northern Iraq of the Yazidi community possible, and to seek justice for sexual violence survivors.</p>
<p>Both Nobel laureates are highlighting the need to do more. Survivors and their communities deserve recognition for the atrocities that have been committed against them. But they also need material support in the form of services and fundamental human rights and justice.</p>
<p>A Nobel Prize for this work means recognising sexual violence as a weapon of war. But Mukwege and Murad probably don’t want us to stop there. After all, they and the women and men they champion need resources for health care, education and legal assistance and post-conflict reconstruction. Just as their bodies and spirits need healing, so do their countries and communities. </p>
<p><em>Research assistants Christiana Lang and Chiara Tulp contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Muvumba Sellström receives funding from the Swedish Research Council.</span></em></p>
The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad should strengthen efforts against the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Angela Muvumba Sellström, Researcher, Department of Peace and Conflict, Uppsala University, The Nordic Africa Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105234
2018-10-19T08:42:21Z
2018-10-19T08:42:21Z
Violence against women: Nobel Peace Prize is a start – but legal backing is long overdue
<p>The decision to award the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to two campaigners against sexual violence against women in conflict, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-nadia-murad-and-denis-mukwege-for-campaigns-against-sexual-violence-104494">Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege</a> has rightly been hailed as a much-needed signal that the international community recognises the severity of this problem in an increasingly conflict-ridden world.</p>
<p>Violence against women has been a topic engaging feminist legal scholars and international lawyers for a long time. A sustained feminist advocacy emerged around widespread reports of sexual violence experienced by women during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the early 1990s. This culminated in the creation of the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/">International Criminal Court</a> in 2002, whose statute enables the prosecution of a range of sexual harms.</p>
<p>So giving this prestigious prize to two frontline human rights activists does highlight the growing global recognition of the widespread and endemic sexual harms women suffer during wartime. But despite this welcome recognition – and in spite of the widespread reporting of sexual violence incidences in conflict – the international legal system lacks a binding legal convention on the prohibition of violence against women. There is therefore a gap between symbolism and legal reality.</p>
<h2>Personal ordeals</h2>
<p>Murad was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in relation to her experience as a Yazidi-Kurdish woman who survived sexual violence assaults – including numerous rapes and prolonged sexual enslavement at the hands of Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq in 2014. In 2016 she became the UN goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking, using her appointment as a platform to raise awareness of the widespread nature of human trafficking of women before the United Nations Security Council. </p>
<p>In 2017 she published <a href="https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2017/11/30/nadia-murads-tale-of-captivity-with-islamic-state">her memoir</a>, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, in which she recounts her ordeal at the hands of IS and advocates for the prosecution of IS fighters before the International Criminal Court. She has also continually reiterated the idea that rape and sexual slavery need to be conceptualised as weapons of war and treated as such by international criminal law. In a recent interview she said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rape has been used throughout history as a weapon of war. I never thought I would have something in common with women in Rwanda – before all this, I didn’t know that a country called Rwanda existed – and now I am linked to them in the worst possible way, as a victim of a war crime that is so hard to talk about that no one in the world was prosecuted for committing it until just 16 years before ISIS came to Sinjar.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mukwege gained worldwide acclaim for his work as a surgeon, gynaecologist and women’s rights activist. He founded the <a href="https://www.panzifoundation.org/panzi-hospital/">Panzi Hospital</a> in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 as a clinic specialising in gynaecological and obstetric care, performing complex surgeries on women who had been raped and viciously sexually assaulted during armed conflict in the DRC from 2003 to 2016. </p>
<p>Having treated 40,000 survivors of sexual violence, he is today considered one of the world’s leading experts on “repairing” the internal physical damage caused by gang rape. In addition to restorative surgery, the hospital also provides psychological support for victims and offers a one-stop hospital for rape survivors, as well as providing financial support for the women affected in order to enable them to reintegrate into society.</p>
<p>Both activists have brought to the world’s attention the gendered nature of armed conflict and have shone a light on a pervasive phenomenon of modern wars. This has also been one of the central concerns of the UN Security Council, which has passed <a href="https://www.peacewomen.org/why-WPS/solutions/resolutions">eight resolutions</a> on Women, Peace and Security, since 2000. </p>
<h2>Time for action</h2>
<p>But despite the powerful symbolic victory of the Nobel Peace Prize, the reality on the ground remains that a binding convention on the prohibition of gender-based violence in all its forms is still lacking. The <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/">1979 Women’s Convention (CEDAW)</a>, often heralded as the most significant treaty for the elimination of discrimination against women, does not contain a specific prohibition against gender-based violence. </p>
<p>Neither does the <a href="http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cedaw/cedaw.html">1992 CEDAW Committee Declaration No. 19</a> – a landmark declaration defining gender-based violence, which is symbolic rather than binding in nature. The UN Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, such as <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/">UN Resolution 1325</a> – which calls on all state actors and those involved in post-conflict reconstruction efforts to incorporate a gender-based perspective into the transitional peace process and emphasises the full and equal participation of women in all peace-related efforts – have not led to the securing of a binding resolution on the prohibition of gender-based violence. </p>
<p>There remains a persistent moral gap between rhetoric and practice when it comes to addressing gender-based violence. What is lacking is a clear political will to implement a multilateral convention that would impose obligations on state parties. As former UN special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/RashidaManjoo.aspx">Rashida Manjoo</a> told me when I interviewed her in 2015: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the challenges is that, whereas the rhetoric is that violence against women is a human rights violation, the reality is that there is an absence of responding to that in a deeper way that demands a different response. So when the rhetoric is that it is a human rights violation, and we do not acknowledge that it is pervasive, that it is systemic and that it has numerous structural causes, including socioeconomic causes, then actions must reflect this reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is especially important in light of the fact that gender-based violence almost always exists on a continuum of violence. Frequently, there is a link between the prolonged incidences of domestic violence in peacetime and the levels of sexual violence seen in armed conflict. This has been <a href="https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/ILJ/upload/Manjoo-McRaith-final.pdf">seen time and time again</a>, in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as in the DRC.</p>
<p>The recent recognition of the advocacy efforts of the two Nobel laureates therefore serves as a vital reminder that the actual work of drafting and putting into effect a binding convention for the prohibition of violence against women is an urgent priority, which can no longer go unaddressed by the international community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105234/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniela Nadj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There is an urgent need for a binding convention for the prohibition of violence against women.
Daniela Nadj, Lecturer in Public Law, Queen Mary University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104530
2018-10-05T21:01:08Z
2018-10-05T21:01:08Z
Warriors against sexual violence win Nobel Peace Prize: 4 essential reads
<p>In a world whose attention is <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/metoo-goes-global-and-crosses-multiple-boundaries">fixed on the victims of sexual assault and violence</a>, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Denis Mukwege of the Congo and Nadia Murad of Iraq “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”</p>
<p>The two winners, said the <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/The-Nobel-Peace-Prize-2018">Nobel committee in its award announcement</a>, “have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes. Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending these victims. Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others.”</p>
<p>The Conversation’s archives provide background on the problems the two winners are trying to address. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239541/original/file-20181005-72130-mdqeb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobel Peace Prize winners Denis Mukwege, left, and Nadia Murad, right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nobel-Peace-Prize/5899fc698d774153b360444ff6d20506/9/0">AP/Christian Lutz</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Helping the victims</h2>
<p>In 2015, scholar Lee Ann De Reus got ahead of the Nobel committee when she wrote an analysis for The Conversation headlined <a href="https://theconversation.com/denis-mukwege-deserves-the-nobel-peace-prize-for-his-work-in-congo-48489">“Denis Mukwege Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for His Work in Congo.”</a>. </p>
<p>Mukwege, a physician, runs a hospital for victims of sexualized violence in the Congo, the site of armed conflicts for the last 20 years. One 2011 study estimated that 48 women were raped every hour in that country. While what is known as the Second Congo War ended in 2003 with an estimated 5 million dead, violence has continued throughout the country since then, with rape frequently used by militias to terrorize civilians. </p>
<p>Hospital records documented that at the time De Reus wrote the article, Mukwege had “personally treated over 20,000 women, girls, men and boys who have suffered the physical and psychological wounds of traumatic rape.”</p>
<h2>2. Fighting IS</h2>
<p>Reports emerged from the Middle East in 2015 that the Islamic State group, or IS, was systematically raping women and girls under the pretext that their religion sanctioned such assaults on non-Muslims. Nobel winner Nadia Murad, a member of a minority in Iraq known as the Yazidis, was herself raped by IS members, along with thousands of other women and girls abducted by the militants. Murad was able to escape her captors and has subsequently devoted herself to publicizing the ordeal of IS victims. </p>
<p>“Beheadings, burning people alive, mass rape – these are <a href="https://theconversation.com/isis-has-changed-international-law-56781">the methods of IS terror,”</a> writes international law scholar Michael Scharf. But countries that wanted to fight IS and its brutal methods found themselves in a quandary, wrote Scharf. IS wasn’t a state, and international law made fighting such a group difficult. The need to fight IS, writes Scharf, would challenge international law’s very foundation. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239542/original/file-20181005-72100-1uxclua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 47-year-old rape victim in the refugee camp in the Liberian capital Monrovia in 2003. Kula, who wished to have her identity protected for fear of reprisals, was repeatedly gang-raped by rebels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nobel-Peace-Sexual-Violence-In-Conflicts/565bcd9781254669b0362ab2402df3f3/4/0">AP/Ben Curtis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. ‘Global pandemic’ of sexual violence</h2>
<p>Women across the globe experience sexual assault and sexual violence at shockingly high rates, write Valerie Dobiesz and Julia Brooks, <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-oreilly-and-weinstein-sexual-violence-is-a-global-pandemic-85960">experts in emergency medicine and legal research</a>. </p>
<p>From honor killings to female infanticide to forced marriages and trafficking, “This issue transcends national borders and class boundaries to touch the lives of roughly 33 percent of all women worldwide,” they write. </p>
<h2>4. Stopping sexual predation where it starts</h2>
<p>How to fight the scourge of sexual assault and violence in the U.S.? <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-prevent-sexual-harassment-and-assault-start-by-teaching-kids-85879">Begin with children</a>, write scholars Poco Kernsmith, Joanne Smith-Darden and Megan Hicks. </p>
<p>Right now, prevention programs focus on teaching girls and women how to minimize their risks of being assaulted. Instead, write the scholars, “Real prevention needs to focus on the only person who can actually prevent harassment: the potential perpetrator.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
With the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to two leaders who fight against sexual violence as a tool of war, we looked into our archive to find stories about those efforts across the globe.
Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy, The Conversation US
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104494
2018-10-05T11:14:30Z
2018-10-05T11:14:30Z
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for campaigns against sexual violence
<p>Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege have been <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/Uten-foreldre/The-Nobel-Peace-Prize-2018">awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize</a> for their work in trying to end sexual violence during war and armed conflict. There are many tragedies in war and among the worst are victims of sexual violence. Women’s bodies have become battle sites and sexual violence a weapon of war.</p>
<p>Murad is one such victim, developing a global witness as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to the abuse she suffered as a Yazidi at the hands of Islamic State. She has campaigned for the protection of survivors of human trafficking. </p>
<p>Denis Mukwege is a medic based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and he and his staff have helped thousands of victims abused in its prolonged and bloody wars - and many more forcibly removed people besides. Mukwege also speaks, at much risk to himself, against Congolese governments and others who shield military rapists.</p>
<p>It is a comment frequently made that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-curious-history-of-the-nobel-peace-prize-66609">Nobel Peace Prize</a> is a contradiction, founded for “the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” by an armaments manufacturer, notable for inventing dynamite. </p>
<p>Handing over the awarding of the Peace Prize to a five-person committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament, rather than to Sweden, reflects Norway’s long-established engagement in facilitating peace negotiations. Well before the Peace Prize was inaugurated in 1901, the Norwegian government was assisting the European Inter-Parliamentary Union’s work on mediation, an involvement in conflict resolution that continues to this day. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-curious-history-of-the-nobel-peace-prize-66609">The curious history of the Nobel Peace Prize</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The right choice</h2>
<p>Peace is itself often politically controversial, especially when powerful nation states and multi-state alliances have conducted the war – and the award of the Peace Prize is invariably disputed. The Peace Prize is notable for the illustrious people omitted from its list of laureates as for those recognised by its award.</p>
<p>Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel and Eleanor Roosevelt are among a number who have failed to muster the prize – Gandhi was nominated five times to no avail. But politicians abound among its laureates – including those with dubious reputations, even at the time, such as <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2096389_2096388_2096386,00.html">Henry Kissinger</a>. </p>
<p>Barack Obama, who was awarded in his first year as US president, seemed to get one simply for being elected as the first black president (he was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/barack-obama-stephen-colbert-nobel-peace-prize-a7367321.html">still puzzled</a> himself at the award even at the end of his second term). Relatively unsuccessful politicians can be given the award – for example one-term US president Jimmy Carter and unsuccessful presidential candidate Al Gore. People from Northern Ireland, with only 1.8m people, have won it twice. The US and the UK dominate the countries of recipients. It has also been won by 16 women – more than any other Nobel category.</p>
<p>It has been awarded to organisations on several occasions: the European Union won it for not being at war with itself since 1945, the International Committee of the Red Cross has won it three times, and the Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees twice. Only one nominee declined the prize, the Vietcong’s chief negotiator <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/tho/facts/">Le Duc Tho</a>, who described it as bourgeois sentimentality. Two members of the awarding committee resigned in protest when it was determined to make the 1973 award to Le Duc Tho and Kissinger, while the results of the peace negotiations were still uncertain. Kissinger gave his prize money to charity and did not attend the ceremony.</p>
<p>Political controversies aside, the award committee has often got it right and the recipient is met with general acclaim. The 2018 recipients are such a case. As the prize committee said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad have both put their personal security at risk by courageously combating war crimes and seeking justice for the victims.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Courage – in speaking out against sexual violence and in speaking for its countless victims – is the word that catches my eye in the <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/Uten-foreldre/The-Nobel-Peace-Prize-2018">committee’s comments</a>. I think this word apt, for it applies as much to the victims themselves who have to live daily – if they survive at all – with the consequences of sexual violence. </p>
<p>I like to think the award is as much in honour of those victims as the two deserving recipients.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Brewer receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, Forces in Mind Trust</span></em></p>
The prize recognises that violence against women has become a weapon of war.
John Brewer, Professor of Post Conflict Studies, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96946
2018-05-31T12:30:17Z
2018-05-31T12:30:17Z
Sexual violence is off the charts in South Sudan – but a new female head chief could help bring change
<p>A woman was recently elected as a senior chief in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/south-sudan-3008">South Sudan</a> – a not unheard of, but very unusual occurrence. This surely a positive change in a country ravaged by civil war and attendant sexual violence. </p>
<p>Rebecca Nyandier Chatim is now head chief of the Nuer ethnic group in the United Nations Protection of Civilians site (PoC) in Juba, where more than 38,000 people have sought sanctuary with United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/unmiss-poc-update-19-march-2018">peacekeepers</a>. Her victory is of symbolic and practical importance. </p>
<p>South Sudan’s chiefs wield real power, even during wartime. They administer customary laws that can resolve local disputes but also reinforce gender differences and inequalities, to the advantage of the military <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/113/451/192/135547">elite</a>. </p>
<p>So could a female chief work towards changing this? Admittedly, even if the new female chief is determined to effect change — which remains to be seen — the odds are against her. The chief and her community are vulnerable, displaced persons, living in a sort of internal refugee camp, guarded by UN peacekeepers. Fighting and atrocities have continued outside, especially in the devastated <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1008452">homelands</a> of the Nuer people. But the new chief has the support of the former head chief and a group of male paralegals, who have celebrated her victory as an advance for gender equality. Together, they might make a difference.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221023/original/file-20180530-120505-1j29yu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chief Rebecca Nyandier Chatim sits at the local community court between her deputy and secretary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Rachel Ibreck</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Women in power</h2>
<p>South Sudan needs more women in positions of authority. The appointment of a female chief gives a boost to the cause of women’s empowerment and provides a welcome distraction from the general despair and frustration with the country’s militarised, masculine leaders. In their internecine civil war, which broke out in December 2013, they have targeted civilians and killed more than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-unrest-un-idUSKCN0W503Q">50,000</a>. They have forced over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-unrest-un-idUSKCN0W503Q">200,000</a> people into UN protection sites within South Sudan, and over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-unrest-un-idUSKCN0W503Q">2m</a> across its borders.</p>
<p>Reports of sexual violence are off the charts: the UN <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17207&LangID=E">found</a> “massive use of rape as an instrument of terror”, and Amnesty International <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr65/6469/2017/en/">reported</a> it was “rampant”. Domestic violence is rife, too. <a href="https://www.rescue.org/report/no-safe-place">A recent study</a> from the Global Women’s Institute estimated that over 65% of women and girls had experienced some form of gender-based violence, double the global average. And recently accusations emerged of rape and sexual exploitation by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/24/un-peacekeepers-accused-of-child-in-south-sudan">peacekeepers</a> and aid <a href="https://www.enca.com/africa/scandal-hit-oxfam-faces-new-sex-claims-in-south-sudan">workers</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, women leaders cannot be expected to transform a violent patriarchal order alone. They often have ambiguous identities; and they can even have negative impacts. Chief Nyandier is now a chief but she was formerly a general in a rebel army, the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in Opposition (SPLA-IO). No doubt her military record has contributed to her status. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221808/original/file-20180605-119875-1xsf1fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new chiefs and their team of paralegals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachel Ibreck</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The appointment of a female chief is very unusual, although not <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/ourstories/female-traditional-leaders-pave-the-way-in-south-sudan.html">unprecedented</a>. There have been female Nuer chiefs since the 1990s, and there are other established ways in which women can gain authority within Nuer society, by becoming “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dech.12051">socially men</a>”, or through claims of divine possession as prophets. But such women may even be directly involved in violence. For example, in the current war, the prophetess <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/amet.12138">Nyachol</a> has wielded spiritual authority over armed young men, cultivating some limits on the use of violence, but also mobilising her followers to fight in defence of the community and in revenge attacks on their neighbours. </p>
<p>Still, South Sudanese women are uniting across ethno-political divides in <a href="http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article64225">protests</a> against atrocities or calls for inclusion at the peace table. They have yet to gain real traction. But in the latest round of peace talks, one women’s activist put their agenda <a href="https://twitter.com/RadioMiraya/status/997727631574552578">succinctly</a>: “Peace is for the people, not the leaders.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"997727631574552578"}"></div></p>
<h2>Patriarchal chiefs</h2>
<p>Chiefs are in a position to make changes to social norms and arrangements. They derive authority from their status as a formal institution of local government. Their legitimacy rests upon their relationships with the people who select them. </p>
<p>Chiefs act as mediators at community level and also try to “<a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/dealing-with-government-in-south-sudan.html">deal with government</a>”; they have variously adapted to or resisted successive predatory colonial and authoritarian regimes. Their customary courts are transparent, participatory affairs that can deliver swift, tangible judgements. They provide the most accessible, often the only available, judicial mechanism and they have continued to preside over cases, amid the disruptions of conflict, with little or no salary. </p>
<p>They rule on all manner of disputes and accusations, but are especially engaged in family matters, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, divorce and adultery. Overwhelmingly, chiefs’ judgements privilege the interests of husbands and families over those of women and girls; they can trap women in abusive marriages and administer harsh adultery or “elopement” punishments to unmarried couples.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221022/original/file-20180530-120499-lqdo0c.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A chief’s court in session under a tree.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Rachel Ibreck</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Judgements that violate human rights and treat women as a commodity have persisted even in PoC sites controlled by the UN, such as the one in Juba where the new chief takes up her post. But the chief’s authority is to some extent constrained by the setting, as UNMISS has established its own bodies for camp management, involving UN police, humanitarian organisations and local community structures, and they do not recognise the judicial authority of the chiefs’ courts. </p>
<p>However, internationals have no mandate to administer justice within the sites, and violent disputes, criminality and interfamilial conflicts have proliferated. Women have turned to the chiefs and appear in the court as complainants and defendants on myriad cases, ranging from arguments with neighbours to sexual violence and domestic abuse, as colleagues and I show in a recent research <a href="https://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles/10.5334/sta.568/">project</a> that documented over 300 court cases in the PoC. Among these cases, we find many examples of discrimination and violations of women’s rights. But we also find a few cases suggesting innovation and adaptation. This begs a question of whether and how good precedents might be sustained.</p>
<h2>Pros and cons</h2>
<p>The notion that chiefs might be trained to secure human rights has cropped up in optimistic proposals of international agencies in South Sudan for <a href="http://southsudanhumanitarianproject.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/formidable/Mennen-2008-Adapting-Resotrative-Justice-Principles-to-Princles-to-Reform-Customary-Courts-in-Dealking-with-Gender-Based-Violence-in-Southern-Sudan-annotated.pdf">years</a>. But there are many obstacles. </p>
<p>The chiefs are themselves a product of a system of repressive government. Customs have been forged in interaction with the predatory state since the colonial era, and customary laws serve the interests of what political scientist Mahmood Mamdani called the “decentralised despotism” of administrative tribalism, which includes the ethnic and gender segregations and hierarchies that enable repression and violent mobilisation. There are powerful interests in preserving this status quo. </p>
<p>But custom is also resilient for material and social reasons. It provides predictability and order in a radically unstable political environment. And it upholds the dignity of people as members of a community, even while it violates some individual rights.</p>
<p>Even under UN governance, customary law has flourished as a bulwark against insecurity. The painful irony that custom is also often at the root of conflicts makes reform necessary; but does not make it any easier to achieve where immediate responses are needed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221028/original/file-20180530-120484-1xppa7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Refugees from South Sudan at a camp in DRC, October 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/trocaire/37623337900/in/photolist-aUtJnZ-kMAJoc-cqNXLC-aUtJ1c-jmCaSL-ofAwEf-cqbfVf-aUtKxn-aUtDCx-aUtCX2-aUtJSt-kMD2Y7-aUtDUz-kMCMQC-bQJY6i-kMCTKo-h8R4sM-h8R3ez-kMASmX-kMAVCr-h8R1TZ-h8PS8Y-ZjDrBd-aUtL54-h8R6Vc-h8PYym-h8PLpH-grRL3V-TNBps2-aUtHEz-SLZkYH-SJdTbq-Axr2kz-TwSZjn-ramTZv-DPnGds-ZD54ZJ-ZjDrzE-h8PY9d">Nelly Maonde/Trócaire</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hope</h2>
<p>Yet the new chief, Nyandier has unique opportunities to take a lead on women’s rights under UN governance, whatever her previous experience or allegiances. Not least because she has allies in an informal network of young men trained as paralegals who are determined that their sisters and daughters should not be “treated as resources”. </p>
<p>The paralegals have learnt the basics of human rights law, are familiar with inherited custom, and have themselves experienced multiple injustices. They have engaged in the creative practical responses to disputes and they understand the opaque social, economic and cultural considerations that drive them. In contrast to the technical, idealised approaches to law reform often adopted by international “rule of law” programmes, these legal activists act at the margins in ways that resonate with problem-solving customary approaches. They are able to respond to a reality that everyday practices and social networks govern in South Sudan, more so than ideas and institutions. </p>
<p>This is why relationships between the new chief and young paralegal activists matter. And the stakes are higher than they may seem. My <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/113/452/347/78186">wider research</a> suggests that political elites rely upon pernicious combinations of statutory and customary law to sustain their violent kleptocracy in South Sudan. And legal activism at the margins might just help to transform it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Ibreck previously received funding for research in South Sudan from the Justice and Security Research Programme, a DfID-supported international research consortium.</span></em></p>
South Sudan’s chiefs wield real power, administering customary laws to resolve local disputes. But they often reinforce gender inequalities – could the new chief change this?
Rachel Ibreck, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Goldsmiths, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92872
2018-04-16T09:02:02Z
2018-04-16T09:02:02Z
How indigenous women who survived Guatemala’s conflict are fighting for justice
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211640/original/file-20180322-54881-17w9qcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In February 2016, Guatemalan women survivors and the alliance of organisations supporting them <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/guatemala-sexual-slavery-sepur-zarco-military-officers-jailed">successfully prosecuted</a> two former members of the Guatemalan military for domestic and sexual slavery in the groundbreaking Sepur Zarco trial. The trial marked the first time a national court has prosecuted members of its own military for these crimes. It was an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/feb/29/guatemala-sexual-slavery-verdict-womens-bodies-battlefields-sepur-zarco">historic achievement</a> in the fight to stop violence against women and secure justice for wartime sexual violence. </p>
<p>And yet, two years later, the Guatemalan government has not carried out most of the <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/10/feature-guatemala-sepur-zarco-in-pursuit-of-truth-justice-and-now-reparations">collective reparations measures</a> ordered by the court. In large part this is because the main cause of the violence – a <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2016/02/human-remains-presented-as-evidence-in-sepur-zarco-trial/">dispute over land</a> that historically belonged to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kekchi">Maya Q’eqchi people</a> – has still not been resolved, even centuries after it began. </p>
<p>Maya communities were first displaced by Spanish colonisation starting in the 16th century, and then displaced again in the mid-to-late 19th and early 20th century. Keen to attract foreign investment, the Guatemalan government encouraged European settlers to establish plantations on land expropriated from Maya communities and the Catholic Church. To this day, many Maya people do not have title to the land they live on, much of which is dominated by plantations growing coffee, sugar, bananas and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/31/global-food-crisis-palm-oil-guatemala">palms for oil</a>. </p>
<p>But they have been fighting back. I myself have been following the struggle centred on the dusty north-eastern village of Sepur Zarco – a case that pulls together all the threads of what has happened in Guatemala in the last several decades.</p>
<h2>The long haul</h2>
<p>Local indigenous people have been campaigning to settle on and get legal title to unused land in Sepur Zarco since the early 1950s when the social democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz passed a law to redistribute uncultivated land from the largest landowners to landless peasants. The land concerned included unused land held by the United Fruit Company, a US banana company with close links to the Eisenhower administration – the company disputed the compensation offered to it by the Guatemalan government, and demanded a much larger sum.</p>
<p>In the end, the land reform was stymied by a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/an-apology-for-a-guatemalan-coup-57-years-later.html">CIA-sponsored military coup</a> in 1954. That coup in turn sparked Guatemala’s bloody civil war which lasted until 1996. A post-war <a href="https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/migrate/uploads/mos_en.pdf">UN-led Truth Commission Report</a> concluded that during the conflict, an estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared, that rape was commonly used as a weapon of war, and that the Guatemalan state bore responsibility for the majority of the atrocities. It also concluded that <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/1997/02/truth-commission-guatemala">agents of the state committed acts of genocide</a>, since 83% of their victims were Maya and most of the conflict’s 626 documented massacres were of Maya communities.</p>
<p>Most of these massacres were committed in 1982-83 under the 17-month rule of recently deceased dictator, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/gen-efrain-rios-montt-obituary">Efrain Rios Montt</a>. Rios Montt took power in a coup, and was then removed by another. He was eventually prosecuted by the Guatemalan Supreme Court in 2013 and <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2013/05/rios-montt-convicted-of-genocide-and-crimes-against-humanity-the-sentence-and-its-aftermath/">found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity</a>. His trial featured testimonies of <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2013/04/witnesses-testify-to-rape-in-rios-montt-genocide-trial-defense-also-objects-to-documents/">rape and sexual violence</a> committed against Maya Ixil women, which were included to show that sexual violence was part of the genocide. </p>
<p>However, just ten days after his verdict, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2013/05/constitutional-court-overturns-rios-montt-conviction-and-sends-trial-back-to-april-19/">annulled the trial on procedural grounds</a> after sustained pressure from <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2013/6/17/historic-verdict-guatemala%E2%80%99s-genocide-case-overturned-forces-impunity-0">powerful sectors of Guatemala’s economy and society</a>. </p>
<p>At the time of his death, Rios Montt was <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2017/10/the-guatemala-genocide-trial-resumes/">once again being prosecuted for genocide</a> – but this time the trial was taking place with special provisions made to allow for his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/guatemala-rios-montt-genocide-trial-not-sentenced">diagnosed dementia</a>. Rios Montt was in office during the time that the crimes committed at the Sepur Zarco base were committed, but he was not prosecuted for those crimes in the Sepur Zarco trial.</p>
<p>The violence committed against Sepur Zarco’s women and their families seems to have been a response to their attempts to settle on and get title to the land, particularly in the late 1970s. According to an expert witness in the the Sepur Zarco trial, <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2016/02/human-remains-presented-as-evidence-in-sepur-zarco-trial/">Juan Carlos Peláez Villalobos</a>, the military was called in and the indigenous peasant farmers were denounced as “subversives”.</p>
<p>Women survivors also pointed to the link between the attempt to get land titles and the violence committed against them and their husbands. “The landowners gave them [the military commissioners] a list of names of men to disappear,” said one of them in <a href="https://www.ijmonitor.org/2016/02/your-husband-isnt-coming-back-more-stories-of-abuse-at-the-sepur-zarco-trial/">her video testimony to the court</a>. “They said we were troublemakers.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211641/original/file-20180322-54878-1du7jur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A banner illustrating reparations sought by the women survivors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">taken by Juliette Doman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After kidnapping and disappearing the men and burning down their families’ huts, the military forced their wives to work on the military detachment built in the Sepur Zarco community, in 1982. The women were organised into shifts to cook the soldiers’ food and wash their clothing. While at the base, all of them were systematically raped. </p>
<p>Some women fled into the mountains to escape the violence, where they spent up to six years struggling to survive with little shelter or food. Many of their young children perished because of these conditions. The base remained until 1988. Local men suspected of being “subversive” were also tortured there by the military. </p>
<h2>No justice without reparations mr</h2>
<p>In February 2016, the Guatemalan Supreme Court <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/guatemala-sexual-slavery-sepur-zarco-military-officers-jailed">ruled</a> that two former members of the military were guilty of forced disappearances and crimes against humanity in the forms of domestic and sexual slavery and the murders of one of the women enslaved on the base, along with her two young daughters. The court also held that the Guatemalan state had to provide collective reparations for the benefits of the village of Sepur Zarco and the surrounding villages. </p>
<p>The measures would provide basic social and economic rights frequently denied to Guatemala’s indigenous and rural communities. They also include the construction of the first local high school, a health clinic and a monument to the women’s husbands – but the state will not start the building work so long as Sepur Zarco’s people don’t have legal title to the land.</p>
<p>The Sepur Zarco case shows how seriously a community can be affected for decades, even centuries, by multiple overlapping injustices – from colonial-era crimes to more recent human rights violations. Resolving the resulting problems has proven hugely difficult. But after more than 30 years, the women and supporting organisations – the <a href="http://unamg.org/">National Union of Guatemalan Women</a>, <a href="http://www.mujerestransformandoelmundo.org/">Women Transforming the World</a> and the <a href="http://ecapguatemala.org.gt/">Community Studies and Psychosocial Action Team</a> – are determined to achieve the restorative justice that they have been struggling for all this time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juliette Doman receives funding from the John Lennon Memorial Scholarship fund and the Socio-Legal Studies Association Fieldwork grant. </span></em></p>
After colonisation, dispossession and decades of military violence, indigenous women in Guatemala are closing in on justice at last.
Juliette Doman, PhD Candidate in Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87147
2017-11-28T13:21:23Z
2017-11-28T13:21:23Z
Children born of sexual violence under Islamic State need support
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-caliphate-largely-gone-islamic-state-plots-another-way-forward-87036">collapse</a> of Islamic State’s (IS) “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, it is time to think about the next steps for those who have suffered under them. In particular, the children who have been born as a result of sexual violence perpetrated by IS fighters.</p>
<p>The precise number of children born within IS as a result of this violence is difficult to establish. But in March 2016 it was <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/over-31000-women-are-currently-pregnant-within-the-so-called-islamic-state-new-report-reveals-a6916756.html">estimated</a> that there were 31,000 pregnant women living within the caliphate. While the circumstances surrounding these pregnancies is unclear, a recent <a href="http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/HJS-Trafficking-Terror-Report-web.pdf">report</a> on the use of sexual slavery within IS highlighted an economic dimension. This includes the payment of an additional <a href="https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CTC-SENTINEL-Vol9Iss4.pdf">US$35</a> for each child born to a woman held as a sex slave.</p>
<p>These children suffer unique challenges. They are issued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/opinion/isis-children-european-union.html">birth certificates</a>, but as Islamic State is a non-state actor, they are effectively <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/07/children-isis-fighters-syria-raqqa-orphans-uncertain-future">stateless</a>. Indoctrinated with extreme ideology from birth, current IS fighters <a href="https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2725/files/2016/04/the-children-of-islamic-state.pdf">consider</a> these children to be potentially better and more lethal fighters due to the normalisation of violence.</p>
<p>These factors pose significant challenges for children who escape IS. These children lack a recognised nationality, bringing problems such as discrimination and lack of access to education and healthcare. They are also often viewed as a threat to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/05/islamic-state-trains-purer-child-killers-in-doctrine-of-hate">security</a>. Rather than being recognised as victims in need of support, children of IS are frequently seen as “guilty by association”. When entering a refugee camp north of Raqqa in May 2017, some of these children and their mothers were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/07/children-isis-fighters-syria-raqqa-orphans-uncertain-future">labelled “the Daeshis”</a>, meaning Islamic State families, and shunned by others in the camp.</p>
<p>Further, children born of sexual violence in conflict, which includes children of IS, exist in what the the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict has previously <a href="http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/key-documents/reports/">termed</a> an “accountability gap”. While children born of sexual violence have been <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2010_08.pdf">recognised</a> as victims eligible for reparations as a result of truth commissions or national legislation in places such as Timor Leste, Chile, Peru and Sierra Leone, there are often <a>strict criteria</a> such as the mother being single. Further, these children have been <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/forgetting-children-born-of-war/9780231151306">neglected</a> within the criminal justice processes developed in response to mass atrocities. </p>
<p>So, how should the international community respond? My tentative answer contains two elements. Firstly, the international community has a role to play in helping these children rebuild their lives. Secondly, consideration should be given to how the International Criminal Court (ICC), which <a href="http://www.redress.org/international-criminal-tribunals/international-criminal-court">integrates</a> retributive and reparative justice mechanisms, can hold IS members responsible for sexual violence and recognise children born of this violence as victims entitled to reparations. </p>
<h2>Rebuilding lives</h2>
<p>Firstly, these children will require legitimate documentation. Governments should therefore respond to calls by the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/stateless-people.html">United Nations</a> to grant citizenship to children born under IS. Some cases may be <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/23/children-caliphate">complex</a>. There may be cases where the child is born of one or two foreign parents; where the mother’s home country enforces discriminatory laws denying women the right to transmit their nationality to their children; or where the child is orphaned. The international community must establish cooperation and coordination mechanisms to deal with such cases and ensure the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/4566b16b2.pdf">best interests of the child</a> are respected.</p>
<p>Support <a href="https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2725/files/2016/04/the-children-of-islamic-state.pdf">networks</a> should also be established to coordinate integration into communities and entry into the education systems of national states.</p>
<p>Combating stigma of children born of war is key. Governments should adopt national stigma strategies with specific programmes to support mothers and children born from sexual violence, as recommended in the UK’s new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/645636/PSVI_Principles_for_Global_Action.pdf">principles</a> on this subject.</p>
<h2>Criminal prosecution</h2>
<p>Then, in order to close the accountability gap, it is imperative that IS members responsible for crimes of sexual violence are prosecuted and that children born of this violence are recognised as victims. While it has been <a href="https://www.utrechtjournal.org/articles/10.5334/ujiel.364/">reported</a> that some IS members have been tried in domestic courts, the ICC has yet to play a role. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1072146/un-calls-international-prosecution-isis-members">UN</a> has recently called for the ICC to exercise its jurisdiction with respect to crimes committed by IS in Iraq. But of course, prosecuting IS for international crimes raises a host of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-to-prosecute-islamic-state-fighters-for-war-crimes-55738">challenges</a>, including jurisdictional issues and lack of precedence. </p>
<p>Should members ever face prosecution at the ICC, children born of sexual violence may be captured within the definition of <a href="https://genderandsecurity.org/sites/default/files/Eng_-_Forced_Pregnancy.pdf">forced pregnancy</a>, an international crime for which individuals can be held criminally responsible under the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf">Rome Statute</a>. But the main element of this crime is <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2016_02331.PDF">confinement</a> of the mother, rather than the recognition of sexual violence that has resulted in the pregnancy and birth of a child.</p>
<p>Indeed, there is no specific crime of fathering a child through sexual violence. This gap in the legal framework has been identified by international criminal legal experts Patricia Seller and Maxine Marcus as something <a href="http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/centreforwomenpeaceandsecurity/20160616_prosecutingConflictRelatedSexualViolence_SellersAndMarcus.mp3">for future jurisprudence</a> at international criminal tribunals.</p>
<h2>Developments at the ICC</h2>
<p>Despite the lack of formal recognition of children born of sexual violence in current legal frameworks, such children have featured in cases at the ICC. </p>
<p>For instance, in the ongoing case against <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/uganda/ongwen">Dominic Ongwen</a>, who was charged with forced pregnancy, amongst other crimes in March 2016, ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, drew <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/Transcripts/CR2016_25802.PDF">attention</a> to “a whole category of other victims: the children born in captivity resulting from these forced marriages, who sometimes face hostility and taunts as a result of their parentage”.</p>
<p>Bensouda’s statement suggests that attention will be paid to children born of sexual violence within this case, perhaps at the <a href="https://www1.essex.ac.uk/tjn/documents/Paper_4_Children_in_Conflict_Large.pdf">reparations</a> stage, where the harms suffered by these children could be addressed.</p>
<p>There are of course <a href="https://theconversation.com/iccs-bemba-ruling-is-a-landmark-but-falls-short-of-a-big-leap-56687">limits</a> to international criminal prosecutions. But it is encouraging to see that, should IS fighters ever face trial, jurisprudence is being developed which may allow children born under their reign to be recognised within the process.</p>
<p>Children born under IS raise a host legal and social issues that require a sensitive and coordinated response from the international community. Rather than being punished for the life they have been born into, the cloak of stigma and suspicion surrounding these children should be removed – and they should be supported in moving forward with their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eithne Dowds does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Such children suffer unique challenges.
Eithne Dowds, Lecturer in International Criminal Law, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87754
2017-11-23T00:50:10Z
2017-11-23T00:50:10Z
Why we need to end impunity for sexual violence in armed conflict
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195985/original/file-20171123-6072-13ujhn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C17%2C4000%2C1844&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sexual violence survivors need more than recognition of what they have suffered.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Viktor Petrovich/shutterstock </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We now have a unique moment to ensure perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict do not go unpunished. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/11/15/angelina-jolie-full-keynote-address-un_a_23278905/">recent keynote address</a> to the UN Peacekeeping defence ministers’ summit in Vancouver, actor and global campaigner Angelina Jolie said it was a myth that sexual violence was not a “serious” enough crime to warrant prosecution and imprisonment.</p>
<p>She also said it was wrong to think nothing could be done to stop sexual violence in armed conflict, as many countries already have the “laws, the institutions, and the expertise in gathering evidence. What is missing is the political will.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber%2Fhansards%2Fc88411d8-89e6-4641-9141-3b3f92feb4e6%2F&sid=0120#.WhN0kZ65LFI.facebook">Australian Senate passed a landmark motion</a> last week, recognising the sexual violence Islamic State perpetrated in Syria and Iraq as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It has now called for thegGovernment to “investigate Australians who have allegedly perpetrated war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including through the use of sexual violence, and prosecute them as appropriate”.</p>
<h2>Survivors need more than recognition of their suffering</h2>
<p>Human rights activist Nadia Murad recently published a book documenting her story of captivity and her fight <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/nadia-murad-jenna-krajeski/the-last-girl">against Islamic State</a>. </p>
<p>In 2014, Murad was kidnapped from her village of Kocho in northern Iraq. Islamic State sold her into sexual slavery in Mosul, where she was beaten, tortured and gang raped before escaping her captors. She now lives in Germany and advocates for justice for women and girls like her who were subjected to gross sexual violence as part of Islamic State’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/who-yazidi-isis-iraq-religion-ethnicity-mountains">genocide of the Yazidis</a>. Last year, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. </p>
<p>Despite her heartfelt speeches to the UN calling for the investigation and prosecution of Islamic State fighters, not a single perpetrator has been prosecuted.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LehFq_3Uigk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nadia Murad sharing her story at the UN.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several UN agencies <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf">acknowledge</a> what happened to the Yazidis as genocide. The US State Department and <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/75">US Congress</a>, <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P8-TA-2016-0051&language=EN&ring=P8-RC-2016-0149">European parliament</a>, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-04-20/debates/16042036000001/DaeshGenocideOfMinorities">UK House of Commons</a>, French and <a href="http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5M-04130">Scottish parliaments</a>, and <a href="http://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/House/421/Debates/074/HAN074-E.PDF#page=38">Canada’s House of Commons</a> have also recognised the genocide. </p>
<p>But survivors want more than recognition of what they have suffered. They want justice. </p>
<h2>Foreign fighters returning home</h2>
<p>Of the estimated 30,000 people who travelled from 89 countries to fight with Islamic State <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/foreign-fighters-syria-iraq-is-isis-isil-infographic/26584940.html">in Syria and Iraq</a>, thousands came from countries like Australia, France and the UK. </p>
<p>As Jolie said in her address, suitable legal and justice institutions exist in these countries and sexual violence is criminalised. When sexual violence is perpetrated as part of an armed conflict, it is a war crime. When that violence is widespread or systematic, it’s a crime against humanity. And when it’s used to destroy in whole or in part, an ethnic, racial or religious group, it is genocide.</p>
<p>As the power of Islamic State declines in the region, many foreign fighters are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/10/25/scores-of-isis-foreign-fighters-have-returned-home-infographic/#5698e74d5e8e">returning home</a>. Others, like Australia’s Neil Prakash, are <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/neil-prakash-more-just-terrorist">facing extradition</a>. It is estimated that about 200 Australians travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight. Of the 2,000 French foreign fighters, an estimated 270 have returned home. 850 people joined Islamic State from the United Kingdom, almost half of whom have returned home. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195446/original/file-20171120-18561-wjeita.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Returned foreign fighters bar graph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Soufan Centre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What needs to happen</h2>
<p>The recent motion passed in the Australian Senate builds on one <a href="https://prosecutedontperpetrate.com/2017/09/08/parliamentary-motion-on-crimes-perpetrated-by-terrorist-groups/">passed in the House of Representatives</a> that also called for the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence in war. It is hoped that by the end of the year, the lower house will also pass a motion specifically on the Yazidi genocide. </p>
<p>In Australia, sexual violence in conflict is criminalised under Division 268 of the <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">Criminal Code Act</a>. The crimes perpetrated by Islamic State may also come under our slavery and human trafficking legislation, which fall under Divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code.</p>
<p>Once parliament has agreed the government needs to investigate and prosecute these crimes, resources need to be allocated so investigative organisations like the Australian Federal Police can work with their counterparts to can gather sufficient evidence that the <a href="https://www.cdpp.gov.au/">Commonwealth Directorate of Public Prosecutions</a> can make a case, and perpetrators can be convicted and sentenced. </p>
<p>If countries like Australia prosecuted their own nationals for sexual violence they perpetrated while fighting with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, it would go some way to achieving justice for the victims and ending impunity for sexual and gender based violence in conflict. With Australia’s example, we can advocate for other like-minded countries to do the same.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Tonight, the <a href="http://genderinstitute.anu.edu.au/prosecute-dont-perpetrate">Gender Institute</a> and <a href="https://law.anu.edu.au/research/cmsl">Centre for Military and Security Law</a> at the Australian National University will host a <a href="http://genderinstitute.anu.edu.au/prosecute-dont-perpetrate">public event</a> bringing together social justice campaigners with political and legal experts and representatives of survivors of the genocide to discuss how to address the barriers to justice for these crimes.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Hutchinson is the architect of the 'prosecute; don't perpetrate' campaign that calls on governments to investigate and prosecute sexual violence perpetrated as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Syria and Iraq. She is also on the Steering Committee of the Australian Civil Society Coalition for Women, Peace and Security.</span></em></p>
As foreign Islamic State fighters return home, there needs to be proper prosecution of sexual violence in armed conflict.
Susan Hutchinson, PhD Candidate, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64754
2016-09-15T15:35:09Z
2016-09-15T15:35:09Z
South Sudan won’t find peace as long as its women are excluded and silenced
<p>Coming after decades of conflict and a hard-won victory, there were high hopes that South Sudan’s independence would lead to a lasting peace. But those hopes have so far been thwarted. </p>
<p>Starting in July 2016, the world’s youngest country has been plunged back into another cycle of violence and an ensuing humanitarian crisis. The most recent relapse has prompted renewed peace negotiations to try and find a path towards establishing a protection force for war-ravaged civilians. The existing mandate of the UN Mission there, <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmiss/">UNMISS</a>, has been expanded by increasing the number of peacekeepers – but no new innovations to try and transform the conflict seem to be forthcoming.</p>
<p>And despite the significant impact that conflict violence has had on South Sudanese women, the international community’s response continues to ignore the conflict’s very gendered characteristics.</p>
<p>This is a very serious omission. If South Sudan’s civilians are to be meaningfully protected from violence, and if the country is ever going to establish a stable and just society, the response to the latest events has to start incorporating gender perspectives. </p>
<p>A globally recognised framework for making this happen already exists. Known collectively as the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/women/wps.shtml">Women, Peace and Security</a> (WPS) agenda, it was first established in 2000, and is designed to help ensure that women’s experiences inform the pursuit of peace and security. Essentially a constellation of eight UN Security Council Resolutions, it advocates National Action Plans for all UN member states to implement gender perspectives in their conduct of domestic and international public policy. </p>
<p>But even though many countries have done the same, there are significant gaps in its implementation. South Sudan itself <a href="http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/ArticleView/mid/519/articleId/19215/South-Sudan-Launches-National-Action-Plan-2015-2020-On-UNSCR-Womens-Right.aspx">launched a National Action Plan</a> for implementing the WPS agenda earlier this year, but gender relations continue to weigh heavy in the South Sudanese conflict. </p>
<p>To change the status quo, the country and those trying to help solve its problems need to focus on three areas: gendering peacekeeping, prosecuting sexual gender-based violence, and ensuring that local women’s groups can fully participate in the peace process.</p>
<h2>Keeping the peace</h2>
<p>As the UN prepares to expand UNMISS’s mandate, it must include more female peacekeepers in the mission. This is not a priority unique to South Sudan; <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/women/womeninpk.shtml">less than 5% of military peacekeepers around the world</a> are women, even though two of the WPS’s resolutions explicitly advocate that women be deployed in these missions. </p>
<p>In an arena such as South Sudan, female peacekeepers can be essential to building trust. For all the good peacekeeping missions can do, they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/leaked-report-details-un-peacekeepers-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-39004">notorious for incidents of violence and criminality</a> committed with impunity. Put simply, it is mainly <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35780777">men in uniforms</a> (of all stripes) whom South Sudanese women have to fear, and that greatly undercuts their confidence in troops sent to keep them safe. Putting more women in peacekeeping uniforms could both cut down on abuse and build trust that’s currently just not there. </p>
<p>And besides, as [Resolution 1888](http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/1888(2009) states, “the presence of women peacekeepers may
encourage local women to participate in the national armed and security forces, thereby helping to build a security sector that is accessible and responsive to all, especially women”. </p>
<p>In South Sudan, the main perpetrators of gender-based sexual violence are men affiliated with the official military or opposition militia. In one recent high-profile incident of rapes against both locals and foreigners, UN peacekeepers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/15/south-sudan-aid-worker-rape-attack-united-nations-un">failed to protect the victims</a>. This very particular form of violence is a huge problem – and yet there are almost no institutional mechanisms in place to prosecute those who commit it. </p>
<h2>Women on the ground</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://jmecsouthsudan.org/uploads/AUPSCreport.pdf">recent report</a> on the situation in South Sudan, the African Union concluded that existing institutions were simply not able to offer the justice that so many victims need and deserve. To compound the problem, the social stigma attached to victims of gendered sexual violence makes it very difficult to bring their assailants to justice with formal public investigations, which again tend to overlook women’s needs and experiences.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t just national; internationally mediated peace negotiations all over the world have a sad tendency to be gender-blind and to overlook and exclude women’s voices and experiences. The efforts to tackle the crisis in South Sudan are therefore far from unique in this regard. </p>
<p>But given the very gendered nature of the insecurity there and the fact that more <a href="http://www.genderconcerns.org/images/gal/Women%20in%20South%20Sudan.pdf">than 60% of the country’s people are women</a>, listening to and protecting them must be a critical priority.</p>
<p>An excellent way to do this would be to engage properly with South Sudanese women’s groups, which are already trying to get women a more central role in the peace process. If they’re given the chance, they can provide the framework for a gender-responsive peace and help disrupt the awful status quo.</p>
<p>The violence in South Sudan cannot be tackled as long as women are shut out of the process and the gendered aspects of the conflict overlooked. The framework for getting them involved and serving their interests has already been laid out; it’s long past time it was put into practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toni Haastrup does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The violence and instability that wracks South Sudan is profoundly gendered.
Toni Haastrup, Lecturer in International Security, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56687
2016-03-25T08:42:25Z
2016-03-25T08:42:25Z
ICC’s Bemba ruling is a landmark, but falls short of a big leap
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116388/original/image-20160324-17832-qlmnq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo enters the court room of the ICC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Jerry Lampen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>March 21 2016 heralded the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/21/icc-finds-ex-congolese-vice-president-jean-pierre-bemba-guilty-of-war-crimes">first conviction</a> for crimes of sexual violence at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. The case was against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. Bemba, a citizen from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), stood trial as president and commander-in-chief of the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) and was convicted of five counts of murder, rape and pillaging, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.</p>
<p>Bemba was found guilty for failing to prevent and stop crimes committed by MLC soldiers in the Central African Republic (CAR) from 2002 to 2003. The MLC had been <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mlc.htm">invited</a> to enter the CAR to assist former President Ange-Félix Patassé to fight against an attempted <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/1648658">coup d’etat</a>.</p>
<p>The Bemba conviction is hailed as a landmark case for two reasons. The case marks the first time that the concept of command responsibility has been used by the ICC. Also, the charges focused on the use of sexual violence as a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/21/icc-finds-ex-congolese-vice-president-jean-pierre-bemba-guilty-of-war-crimes">weapon of war</a>.</p>
<p>While the case is hailed as significant for the court, it would be prudent to exercise caution when calling this a historic victory. A dose of perspective is needed.</p>
<p>The recognition of sexual and gender-based violence has steadily developed in international law. While there were no specific prosecutions for these types of crimes in <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials">Nuremberg</a>, the judges denounced the use of sexual violence as a form of torture. At the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nuremberg">Tokyo tribunal</a> there were specific prosecutions that recognised the systematic use of 200,000 so-called “comfort women’ as sexual slaves by the Japanese military. </p>
<p>There have also been critical developments in the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals. According to the <a href="http://www.icty.org/en/in-focus/crimes-sexual-violence">Yugoslav tribunal,</a> almost half of those convicted have been found guilty of elements involving sexual violence. The <a href="http://unictr.unmict.org/en/tribunal">Rwanda tribunal</a> became the first international court to find a person guilty of rape as a crime of genocide. </p>
<p>All in all, international tribunals have widened recognition of sexual and gender-based crimes so that they fall under the umbrella of genocide, crimes against humanity, persecution, enslavement, torture and other inhumane acts.</p>
<h2>Wider implications</h2>
<p>The wider implications of the case can be divided into two categories: the known and the unknown.</p>
<p>What we know is that the verdict itself is an international act of retribution – the view that proportional punishment should be meted out for every crime. Whatever the consequences, justice must be done.</p>
<p>We also know that the ICC has re-committed itself to pursuing further cases dealing with sexual violence. This was demonstrated most recently in the confirmed case against <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/Pages/pr1202.aspx">Dominic Ongwen.</a></p>
<p>But we do not know the extent to which this decision will have any real impact in halting the sexual violence being perpetrated in the CAR and in other conflicts on the continent.</p>
<p>We also do not know if it will lead to a change in attitude of the civilian and military leadership controlling armed groups. One should be deeply sceptical about assuming that these individuals will now suppress a culture of savage violence and ill discipline among their ranks. </p>
<p>The deterrent effect of international law remains ambiguous and unproven. Value may lie in the message from the court rather than any hope for real world change. </p>
<h2>Commanders can’t wash their hands</h2>
<p>As a civilian and military commander, Bemba was held criminally responsible for atrocities committed by his soldiers that targeted the civilian population. The judges made clear that despite his lack of presence on battlefield or at the crime scene, Bemba knew that his ”<a href="http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/CPIaffbemba502ang2008.pdf">Banyamulengués</a>“ were committing crimes. The judges concluded that, as the commander with effective authority and control, Bemba had failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his power to prevent or repress the actions of the MLC.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116291/original/image-20160323-28178-8plxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Banyamulengué soldiers loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AFP/File / Desirey Minkoh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda released a <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/Pages/otp-stat-bemba-21-03-2016.aspx">statement</a> that serves as an unequivocal warning for those in positions of command or authority:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They cannot take advantage of their power and status to grant to themselves, or their troops, unchecked powers over the life and fate of civilians. They have a legal obligation to exercise responsible command and control over their troops.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Put simply, they cannot wash their hands of responsibility. </p>
<p>This is a powerful message that the ICC, as an institution, needed to send. The court’s relationship with Africa has been tumultuous, with claims of a biased prosecutorial strategy against Africa and charges that it represents a neocolonial tool of intervention. Ultimately, the ICC needed a good Africa story.</p>
<p>In the DRC many eagerly awaited <a href="https://justicehub.org/article/jean-pierre-bemba-eagerly-awaited-drc">the release of Bemba</a> and there were predictions that he would make a return to the political stage. He had once been a presidential candidate.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that on a regional level the conviction will come as a <a href="https://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/central-african-republic/21-march-icc-to-issue-long-awaited-verdict-in-trial-against-jean">welcome victory</a> for some and <a href="http://www.journaldebangui.com/article.php?aid=9743">a shock</a> to others in the CAR and DRC.</p>
<p>Many had believed that Bemba was beyond the reach of the law. The signal from the court may go some way to ruffling the feathers of individuals in positions of civilian and military leadership who themselves are suspected of committing atrocities.</p>
<p>As the first case in the institution’s history dealing with command responsibility, the conviction should be welcomed as progress.</p>
<h2>Prioritising sexual violence in conflict</h2>
<p>Sexual and gender-based violence has featured heavily in the conflicts under investigation at the ICC but been under-represented in terms of prosecutions. In a 2015 <a href="http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/countries/central-african-republic/">report by the UN Secretary General</a> to the Security Council, cases of conflict-related sexual violence were documented in the CAR. Further evidence revealed that these crimes were being systematically perpetrated by armed groups.</p>
<p>Condemning the use of rape as a weapon of war is neither unique nor limited to the work of the ICC. The deeper question arises of what impact international justice can have in dealing with sexual and gender-based violence in conflicts.</p>
<p>Bemba’s conviction serves as a reminder that international justice lags woefully behind the atrocities themselves and may do very little to address the physical, psychological and social impact on the victims’ lives. </p>
<p>As one victim told the court, being raped has left her stigmatised in the community because she is known as a <em>"Banyamulengué’s wife”</em> . </p>
<p>Given that it has taken the ICC nearly 14 years to get this far, the conviction should be viewed as making a significant yet modest contribution in the campaign for justice.</p>
<p>If sexual and gender-based violence are to truly become a global priority, then the ICC must be consistent and expedient in dealing with these crimes. </p>
<h2>Limits of international prosecutions</h2>
<p>While more than 5,000 victims were able to participate and express their views through their legal representatives in the Bemba case, countless others have been subjected to past and current victimisation. The Bemba case comes too little or too late for countless more victims in the CAR. </p>
<p>This case spotlights the limits of international prosecutions. To counterbalance this, the situation much closer to victims must be addressed. </p>
<p>Sexual and gender-based crimes are intensely personal yet cause irrevocable individual and societal harm. Justice will only truly be done when we accept that victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Africa should not bear the shame and stigma that society imposes on them. And when we acknowledge that serious sexual, mental and physical violence deserves redress beyond the courtrooms of the Hague. </p>
<p>So, while the Bemba case is a small step, the giant leap has yet to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yassin Brunger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo has been convicted for crimes of sexual violence during war in the Central African Republic. It’s a significant case, but not the historic victory it’s been hailed as.
Yassin Brunger, Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies, University of Leicester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52185
2016-02-23T14:37:22Z
2016-02-23T14:37:22Z
How to help the women and girls rescued from Islamic State
<p>Violence against women, especially in war, is so pervasive around the world it’s often not considered news. But the barbaric treatment of women by the group known as Da’esh or Islamic State (IS) has for once managed to attract some specific attention. </p>
<p>When IS <a href="https://theconversation.com/isis-sweeps-across-borders-and-takes-grip-of-an-iraq-collapsing-back-into-civil-war-27886">overran the city of Mosul and much of northern Iraq</a> in June 2014, it abducted <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/islamic-state-slaves-yazidi-girls-sold-isis-slavey-bought-back-families-years-salary-1728081">more than 5,000 women and girls</a> of religious and ethnic minorities (the vast majority being <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280">Yazidi</a>, Turkmen and Christians). They were systematically isolated from their families and many watched other family members being murdered, particularly men and older women. </p>
<p>Women often bear the brunt of war, but IS is responsible for some of the most egregious treatment of women in recent history, with girls and women effectively becoming weapons of war. These young women and girls (some as young as 12) are being systematically raped and assaulted nearly to the point of death, with many being forced into marriage and religious conversion, sold or given as “gifts”.</p>
<p>Initially, IS and its supporters denied that the women abducted were being sexually exploited. But in an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/22/islamic-state-sex-slave_n_6027816.html">October 2014 issue</a> of its publication Dabiq, the group publicly acknowledged it was keeping sex slaves. Justifying it with a predictably narrow and self-serving <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/islamic-state-releases-fatwa-for-male-owners-of-women-slaves/a-18950434">interpretation of Islam and Islamic law</a>, it stated it considers these women the “spoils of war”. </p>
<p>It states that these “apostates” are legitimately enslaved, declaring that “Islam allows it and we will do it”. The group even says that slavery and rape will benefit the girls and young women, as it exposes them to the “true Islam”. </p>
<p>It’s not uncommon for them to attempt suicide in captivity in a bid to end their suffering, and due to the conservatism of their communities, many who do somehow return home are ostracised. They may even face death at the hands of male family members eager to avenge their family’s loss of morality – a woman’s purity and chastity are linked to a family’s honour. This also contributes to the problem that the actual number of victims is unknown, as many rapes go unreported out of stigma and shame. </p>
<p>Sexual violence and physical abuse is one of IS’s key psychological weapons. It has driven thousands of families from the north and west of Iraq, expanding their territory in their wake. Some more <a href="http://icsr.info/2015/09/icsr-report-narratives-islamic-state-defectors/">cynical observers</a> also argue that the promise of sex slaves, cars and houses is a ploy to attract young men from countries where they have no prospects of marriage or wealth thanks to inequality and unemployment. </p>
<h2>Psychological impact</h2>
<p>Several hundred of the captured young women have since <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33964147">escaped</a> or been <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/02/22/report-islamic-state-releases-43-christian-hostages/80724820/">liberated</a> from multiple locations across northern Iraq and eastern Syria. Those who have returned are in dire need of physical assistance associated with sexual abuse (including unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV) and psychological support. </p>
<p>These women and girls are in a very unstable mental state, suffering from acute levels of stress, anxiety and depression with many showing strong suicidal tendencies. Many victims are unable to comprehend the barbaric treatment they have experienced and witnessed and are unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time due to nightmares and intrusive thoughts. </p>
<p>The precarious and monotonous conditions in the refugee camps are not contributing positively to their mental states either, with many feeling under constant threat of being captured. Because of this, many are desperate to leave Iraq, where they are constantly reminded of their time in captivity. </p>
<h2>Desperate for help</h2>
<p>Plenty of public attention is given to the physical needs of those affected by the conflict in the Middle East, but this often overshadows the scourge of serious psychological trauma.</p>
<p>There is little psychological assistance available for these destitute young women. One organisation that’s stepping in to help is <a href="http://en.wadi-online.de">WADI</a> the Association for Crisis Assistance and Solidarity Development Cooperation. This Iraq-German based nonprofit focuses on women’s rights in the Middle East and is providing psycho-social assistance to the traumatised female survivors of IS’s abuse. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107126/original/image-20160104-11938-xkitcs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">WADIs mobile teams take care of Yazidi girls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WADI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>WADI’s Dohuk teams consist of committed young women who visit refugee camps to offer psycho-social support. WADI has also established a women’s activity centre in Dohuk that provides a safe all-female environment and a break from the miserable conditions in the refugee camps. </p>
<p>The centre aims to make the women feel “at home”, empowering them and encouraging them to have a say in the peace and reconciliation process. The centre also offers referrals for much needed psychological aid and health care. Awareness training into women’s rights is also available. </p>
<p>Sadly, the current efforts are merely the beginning, and funding for such projects is scarce. Every day more women become victims; mental health is a taboo topic in many Arab countries, and efforts to help sufferers are therefore very poorly resourced. Although there has been an international response, it’s been direly inadequate given the scale of the challenges and needs. </p>
<p>And all the while, even though IS has <a href="https://theconversation.com/iraqs-battle-for-ramadi-isnt-just-about-defeating-islamic-state-52617">lost some ground</a> in Iraq and Syria, there’s no indication that this horror story will end any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52185/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leanne Simpson receives funding from the British Ministry of Defence via their Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. </span></em></p>
Domestic and sexual slavery are being used as weapons of war – and the victims are too often forgotten.
Dr Leanne K Simpson, PhD Student, School of Psychology | Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54975
2016-02-23T04:12:16Z
2016-02-23T04:12:16Z
Sexual violence: a weapon of war in eastern Congo for more than 20 years
<p><a href="http://www.panzihospital.org/about/dr-denis_mukwege">Denis Mukwege</a> has been treating female victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1996. The subject of a new documentary by Thierry Michel, <a href="http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-03-21-film-the-man-who-mends-women-salutes-doctor-treating-rape-victims-in-dr-congo">The Man Who Mends Women</a>, Mukwege has dedicated his life to caring for victims of rape and other forms of sexual abuse in Africa. It is an epidemic that continues despite the supposed end of the Second Congo War in 2003.</p>
<p>Sexual violence is often a hidden dimension of war. The film illustrates how survivors work to rebuild their lives, organise to resist aggressors and denounce their crimes. They do so even when trapped in seemingly endless conflicts.</p>
<p>Through the testimony and actions of these brave women, impressive progress has been made to mobilise support and build collective awareness of this tragic oppression. Yet 20 years after Mukwege began his work, the fact remains: no one is yet able to protect women in conflict zones and to end the use of rape as a weapon of war.</p>
<h2>The coming of the second war</h2>
<p>Knowing the region’s history is critical to understanding the gravity of the situation. In 1994, widespread attacks on civilian populations in the border provinces of eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) led to an influx of hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees, defeated soldiers and militia members fleeing the Rwandan civil war. Two years later, the Rwandan Patriotic Army - the armed wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front operating under the orders of Rwanda’s current President <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-paul-kagame-sur-orbite-jusquen-2034-53001">Paul Kagame</a> - destroyed the camps, forcing the refugees to flee deeper into the country.</p>
<p>In conjunction with Congolese opposition groups, the Rwandan army pushed all the way to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. In 1997 it brought down the regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko. Rwandan forces then occupied eastern Congo despite the hostility of the local population. By August 1998 when its senior officers were squeezed out of command positions in Kinshasa, Rwanda unleashed the Second Congo War.</p>
<p>By early 1999 the front line stabilised and the DRC was effectively partitioned. The strategists from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi had essentially achieved their goal. Now began a war within the war. Senior commanders of the occupying forces worked to enhance their own power, while their armies took on the administration and economic exploitation of conquered provinces - each in their own way and according to their own priorities.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/181/33459.html">December 2001 statement</a>, the United Nations Security Council noted that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the plundering of the natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues unabated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It condemned activities</p>
<blockquote>
<p>which are perpetuating the conflict in the country, impeding the economic developing of the DRC and exacerbating the suffering of its people.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Submission of populations</h2>
<p>The nature of the conflict then shifted because there was another war that had to be won - forcing occupied populations into submission for the long term. The war of conquest now overlaid a civil war - or rather, civil wars. In working to build national alliances and reduce local resistance, the occupying armies exploited and aggravated existing divisions between populations.</p>
<p>In the province of Kivu, the armies’ task was made easier by the multiplicity of community and tribal affiliations, ethnic groups and cultural areas (Bashi, Bahavu, Bavira, Bafuliru, Bahunde, Banyindu, Batembo, Banyanga…), tensions between shepherds and farmers, rivalries between professional organisations and various associations.</p>
<p><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111541/original/image-20160215-22593-19t8sdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A soldier of the UN force in Beni, in the north-eastern Congo, in March 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/13313977255/in/photolist-mhvBzZ-pRDYch-nmbViL-mhxvtA-mhvBce-nmbVqu-pKCYeE-pWS1H6-bsf4VC-pcdSh3-9A1XfW-7SstUb-nTiJUN-nTjt22-i4nJEg-Tiq8M-TeMM2-dj57Fg-mhsW96-ocz9dP-9JZ2ad-aRs3VB-LmLwa-85dAUz-CL89Cp-DckGrn-DhiEyd-7g6wA7-mhvBWa-5HA5Fq-Cn7jm7-dbReY5-7ZxrkX-6R29Q6-36mmPk-9nJKrX-e6isEb-mhs7R2-9A1Y5E-DhiFUQ-Lfsud-aRsoFZ-dx4Mos-aRsoFg-aRs3Wc-aRs3WP-aRs3Vg-aRsoGr-aRsoEz-aRs3UD">UN/Sylvain Liechti/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure></p>
<p>The situation lasted until October 2013 when the main rebel movement supported by the Rwandan authorities, M23, was defeated by the intervention of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/05/congo-rebels-surrender-hopes-peace">UN troops</a>. The surrender allowed Congolese armed forces to retake the DRC’s eastern provinces. Beyond the urban centres and main roads, however, various armed forces and militia continue to exploit local resources and populations.</p>
<h2>Women still suffer</h2>
<p>Now 20 years long, the conflict is fuelled by armed groups that are being continuously renewed. Local populations are subject to violence and abuse not only at the hands of foreign armies, but also numerous guerrilla movements fighting for control of land, resources and people.</p>
<p>Among those implicated by women’s testimony are men carrying arms or wearing uniforms, including many Congolese military and police officers. So are “all the men” who, in the climate of impunity and violence, abuse their authority over local populations, and particularly women. It is no longer a question of a war, but the perpetuation of a state of lawlessness.</p>
<p>Many countries rebuilding after an armed conflict see rates of sexual violence remain high or even increase. The continuing instability in eastern Congo has led to the region being dubbed the “<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23086003">rape capital of the world</a>”, even if reliable statistics in this domain remain difficult to establish.</p>
<p>The attitude of the Congolese authorities is also questionable, revealed by their <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dr-congo-bans-documentary-surgeon-denis-mukwege-who-treated-40000-women-raped-conflict-1518315">banning</a> The Man Who Mends Women for two months after its initial release in September 2015.</p>
<p>In this context, it’s astonishing that the DRC - the site of the first great African war, which caused the highest number of casualties since World War II - has never set up special tribunal. An independent authority is needed to fully assess this tragedy and establish the responsibilities of all the warring parties.</p>
<p>Tribunals in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda at least made strong symbolic denunciations of sexual violence as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Leighton Walter Kille.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Guichaoua has received funding in the context of the research work of his laboratory.</span></em></p>
Even with the end of the war in central Africa, continuing instability in the region has triggered an epidemic of rape.
André Guichaoua, Professeur des universités, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46165
2015-08-17T14:05:49Z
2015-08-17T14:05:49Z
The treatment of Yazidi women highlights a historical issue: what makes someone human?
<p>The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html?ref=world&_r=0">recent revelations</a> about the savage treatment of Yazidi women at the hands of Islamic State, or ISIS, fighters is the latest in a shocking set of disclosures regarding the group’s behavior. It sadly echoes the the abject treatment and sexual abuse reportedly suffered by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/15/world/middleeast/isis-held-us-aid-worker-as-sex-slave-before-death.html?ref=world&_r=0">Kayla Mueller</a>, the American hostage who died in February while being held by ISIS.</p>
<p>For Americans, the disclosure is all the more uncomfortable because the reported trade in these women recalls many of the attributes of slavery as practiced in the US until the American Civil War – a controversial <a href="http://www.bpnews.net/44186/obama-draws-pushback-on-isis-crusades-slavery">comparison</a> made by President Obama himself earlier in the year.</p>
<p>The horror of the systematically brutal treatment of these women cannot be rationalized by any religious philosophy. And it conforms to a general perception of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html">radical Jihadism as a medieval one </a>that defies conventional conceptions of what we like to call “modernity.” </p>
<p>But the behavior of ISIS raises a broader question: what does it mean to be “human” in the modern world?</p>
<h2>Being human</h2>
<p>The answer may seem obvious to most of us. Being human is defined physically. It is being a member of a species. </p>
<p>Those with a more metaphysical approach might define it philosophically. As René Descartes said, <a href="http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-7/descartes-i-think-therefore-i-am">“I think; therefore I am.”</a> </p>
<p>Others might focus on the legal aspects, as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that was first proclaimed in 1948. It states that all humans have inalienable, fundamental human rights that <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Introduction.aspx">must be protected.</a> </p>
<p>But the sorry fact is that the definition of who is a human – and thus worthy of our concern – has always been contested and it still is today. </p>
<p>And the most important point is that this definition has had an enormous effect on when and where countries act to save lives; where and when they provide aid; and who is enslaved and abused. </p>
<p>The answer to these questions essentially distinguishes between who is human – and thus vulnerable and worthy of our protection and resources – and who is not. </p>
<h2>Humanitarian intervention and gunboat diplomacy</h2>
<p>Let’s take the example of humanitarian intervention and civilian protection. </p>
<p>Over a decade ago, George Washington University political scientist Martha Finnemore wrote a short but highly informative book on the <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100775070">history of military intervention.</a>. In it she pointed out that the reasons that countries – or the international community as a whole – intervene has altered dramatically over time. </p>
<p>For example, the Europeans did so initially to collect sovereign debt in the early and mid-1800s – mostly from Latin America. They would sail in and seize any taxes that had been collected and stored in customs houses. That was a perfectly acceptable practice at the time. But imagine the gunboats sailing to Argentina today, a country that is officially bankrupt, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-07-17/-no-why-argentina-refuses-to-pay-its-debts">to seize their money from bank vaults!</a> </p>
<p>Indeed, the very idea of humanitarian intervention only developed later, and very selectively – initially to protect people “like us.”</p>
<p>So, for example, a coalition force led by the Russian Empire invaded the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1877 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_%281877%E2%80%9378%29">to protect orthodox Christian Slavs</a>. Protecting your religious and ethnic brothers and sisters was acceptable. They were human. Others were not.</p>
<p>In fact, the universalizing of the definition of the human to justify intervening where there is no ethnic or religious tie is a relatively recent idea.</p>
<p>It is one that has only really gained traction since the end of the Cold War. </p>
<p>As the United Nation’s “<a href="http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/responsibility.shtml">Responsibility to Protect</a>” initiative makes crystal clear, when it come to humanitarian intervention to protect vulnerable populations, humanity isn’t defined by religion, skin color, gender, race or caste. But that initiative has taken off only in the last 15 years and the principle has been applied only on a <a href="http://www.unric.org/en/responsibility-to-protect/26988-the-responsibly-to-protect-on-a-case-by-case-basis">very limited basis.</a> The multilateral intervention against <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18709571">Muammar Qaddafi’s</a> government in 2011 remains the most prominent example.</p>
<h2>The principle and practice of sexual violence</h2>
<p>Of course, addressing these issues in practice is always more complicated than in principle. And the issue of who is a human is still very much contested today – far more so than many of us might imagine.</p>
<p>Take the example of the inhumane treatment of the Yazidi women, held against their will, sold like chattel and sexually abused. It has all the hallmarks of slavery. Yet while an extreme example, it is by no means unique – either historically or in today’s world. </p>
<p>Historically, we know that women have been enslaved and abused on a mass scale. The treatment of Korean “Comfort Women” during the Second World War is an issue that still divides South Korea and Japan, as <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/south-korea-man-sets-himself-alight-anti-japan-rally-support-comfort-women-1515152">the self-immolation of a South Korean man</a> on August 12 demonstrated. The same kind of sexual violence has been documented in numerous, <a href="http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/about/bgsexualviolence.shtml">more recent wars.</a></p>
<p>So it’s not that sexual violence in war is a new problem. But it has become more documented and prominently discussed in policy circles in recent years. </p>
<p>The UN acknowledged, for example, that rape is a weapon of war and <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/newsevents/pages/rapeweaponwar.aspx">classified it as a war crime only in 2008.</a></p>
<p>This recognition is in large part explained by the fact that we have expanded our definition of the human – and thus become more aware of the issue. </p>
<h2>21 million slaves…at least</h2>
<p>Yet according to the <a href="http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/">Global Slavery Index,</a> classifying certain people as not human is still a characteristic feature of many societies, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.</p>
<p>Modern slavery can take many forms: from using children as soldiers to men on fishing boats and women as industrial workers or as prostitutes. In each case it reduces a person to a commodity, denying them their essential humanity. </p>
<p>The United Nations estimates that there are upward of <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48037#.Vc4Uc0Wf7N8">21 million slaves in the world today</a>, while the Global Slavery Index offers the larger figure of <a href="http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/">35.8 million</a> – the number changing depending on how they define a slave. </p>
<p>Sadly, these figures suggest that it is the reporting of the problem, rather than its scale, that has changed.</p>
<p>What is disturbingly clear from one major New York Times story is that a Yazidi can be given her freedom by her owner (albeit with ISIS’ definition of the still limited rights of a Muslim woman) and thus <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html?ref=world&_r=0">“become human.”</a></p>
<p>That’s an idea so at odds with contemporary Western thinking it once again begs the question: if you are so opposed to it, what are you willing to do about it?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The recent revelations about the savage treatment of Yazidi women at the hands of Islamic State, or ISIS, fighters is the latest in a shocking set of disclosures regarding the group’s behavior. It sadly…
Simon Reich, Professor in The Division of Global Affairs and The Department of Political Science, Rutgers University - Newark
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/41470
2015-05-11T05:24:56Z
2015-05-11T05:24:56Z
Violent crime as old as the Bible: Boko Haram uses rape as a weapon of war
<p>Days after Nigerian security forces freed 234 women from Boko Haram’s stronghold in Nigeria’s Sambisa forest <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/05/boko-haram-pregnant-victims_n_7215792.html">it was reported</a> that at least 214 (91%) of them were pregnant. </p>
<p>The women were among nearly 700 rescued from the Islamic terrorist group in operations and have been taken to safe camps in Borno State where they will be offered medical and pre-natal care and counselling. It is not yet known whether any of the 230 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in the town of Chibok in April 2014 were among them. </p>
<p>Most of those kidnapped by Boko Haram are from Christian homes, but were reportedly forced to convert to Islam. Women and girls were also forced into marriage, and there are reports of people being sold into slavery. Amnesty International estimates that more than 2,000 women and girls were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. </p>
<p>To many, forced marriage and sexual slavery are viewed as rape, situations in which the victim has no choice but to submit time and time again to unwanted sex. People in such appalling circumstances run the risk of physical violence, torture, sexually transmitted diseases and death. Women have the added risk of pregnancy, and all of the attendant problems of mental adjustment to unwanted children and the health issues associated with giving birth in far from ideal conditions, with little medical aid and being cut off from family.</p>
<h2>Shameful weapon</h2>
<p>Sexual violence is often used as a weapon in conflict, as a military or terrorist tactic. There are references to it in the Bible’s Old Testament as either <a href="http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Deuteronomy-Chapter-21/">a reward to the victors</a> or as a punishment to the men of the vanquished nation. More recently, systematic organised rape has been used as an intentional tactic of terror or revenge, from Nazi atrocities against Jewish women, and Japanese rape of women in Nanking, to the standard operations of the American GIs in the Vietnam War and the sexual enslavement of Algerian women by Muslim revolutionaries in 1997. </p>
<p>The United Nations has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jun/25/unitednations.warcrimes">recognised rape in war as a war crime</a> in its own right and a universal issue affecting men and children as well as women. In 2014, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict">Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict</a> was held in London, with the intention to agree practical steps to tackle the use of rape as a weapon of war. The agreement was to address the culture of impunity for such crimes and to hold perpetrators to account, while ensuring survivors of sexual violence in conflict are supported.</p>
<p>It is difficult to imagine, however, how such worthy goals can be achieved when rape in general is a secret crime – surrounded by shame and blame – and rapists are so rarely prosecuted and convicted. If figures from the UK are accurate, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214970/sexual-offending-overview-jan-2013.pdf">only 15% of victims report a rape</a>, and a very small number of these reach a conviction. When we consider that the victims of sexual violence in the UK do, at least in theory, have recourse to investigative processes, a legal system and a support system – and still we have a low number of perpetrators being held to account – how much more difficult must it be for victims of rape in war to attempt to receive justice and support?</p>
<h2>Survival strategy</h2>
<p>How will the victims of Boko Haram cope with their unwanted pregnancies and babies born of conflict? Rape victims still suffer from the culture of blame that is endemic, even in so-called enlightened societies. Campaigns, such as those in the UK, that tell women not to get drunk or walk home alone do nothing to communicate to potential perpetrators that their behaviour is unacceptable and will be punished. </p>
<p>How much more difficult it is to overcome stigma in societies in which women are seen as property and are stoned or whipped for having sex outside marriage? The girls in Nigeria, taken from places they thought safe and subjected to the nightmare of rape, have returned to their homes as women, with children they would not have chosen to conceive. </p>
<p>There are multiple examples of such cases we can draw on to advise them. Odeth Katengwa <a href="http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/334/html">studied the victims of genocidal rape in Rwanda</a> and agrees that women with children of rape face challenges associated with social stigma, lack of psycho-social resources and disclosing paternity. </p>
<p>Women do report that embracing their motherhood is the most positive way forward, and can even provide the only reason to live. Such attitudes, or the guidance towards them, appear to be essential in the recovery of survivors of genocidal rape. </p>
<p>For now, it is essential that these women are provided with the ante and postnatal care they need. The <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/">UN Population Fund</a> is doing its best to arrange this, together with counselling and psycho-social support. </p>
<p>But it is unclear how the women will be re-integrated into their communities, which may be in areas with little access to the things we take for granted. For now, we must do our best to remember that rescue is not the end of the nightmare for the women of the Sambisa Forest and their children born of rape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Gavin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Hundreds of women rescued from the Nigerian Islamist group are pregnant after being held in sexual slavery.
Helen Gavin, Director of Graduate Education and Principal Lecturer in Psychology, University of Huddersfield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/39004
2015-03-19T19:18:32Z
2015-03-19T19:18:32Z
Leaked report details UN peacekeepers’ sexual exploitation and abuse
<p>The NGO, Aids Free World, has released a copy of a <a href="http://www.aidsfreeworld.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2015/Open-Letter-to-UN-Missions.aspx">report</a> on sexual violations committed by UN peacekeeping personnel.</p>
<p>The UN’s opaque nature means that rather than address the points made by the independent experts, the report was not circulated – but copies of it were leaked to Aids Free World, which sent it to the ambassadors and permanent representatives of every UN member state.</p>
<p>Sexual violence in peacekeeping has long been recognised as a central problem that must be addressed. Allegations have emerged throughout the past 20 years. Sexual violence by peacekeepers has not been limited to a particular region, mission, or to troops from certain countries.</p>
<p>In countries as diverse as Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), East Timor, Eritrea, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Somalia, numerous examples of rape, paedophilia, prostitution, and other forms of sexual exploitation and abuse have come to light in recent decades.</p>
<p>This much is true: cases of UN personnel being involved in sexual violence have been catching international attention for years, with particular focus on the missions in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6195830.stm">Liberia</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3145-2004Dec15.html">Congo</a>, among <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2032996/Six-year-olds-sexually-abused-by-UN-peacekeepers.html">others</a>. And for years there has been vociferous public condemnation of the abuse of women and children by civilians and troops operating under the UN banner.</p>
<h2>Not enough</h2>
<p>The increasing attention to sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping, especially from the global media, has led to a number of measures being taken by the UN – albeit to little effect.</p>
<p>In 2002, the UN <a href="http://www.un.org/en/pseataskforce/achievements.shtml">created</a> a Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises. Then, in 2003, then Secretary General Kofi Annan issued the <a href="http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=ST/SGB/2003/13">Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse Bulletin</a>. In 2004, Annan appointed Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan to act as his Adviser on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, in turn leading to the 2005 <a href="http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/247/90/PDF/N0524790.pdf?OpenElement">Zeid Report</a>. And in 2007, the General Assembly adopted a <a href="http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N07/476/61/PDF/N0747661.pdf?OpenElement">strategy</a> on assistance to victims as well as a <a href="http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/4176258.14676285.html">resolution on criminal accountability</a> of UN officials or experts on missions.</p>
<p>Despite such attention, but limited action, on sexual violence and peacekeeping, the leaked independent expert report demonstrates that the same concerns exist as have done for the past 20 years – and that the situation may in fact be deteriorating. </p>
<p>The expert report emphasises that the culture of peacekeeping missions has changed very little, and the incidence of sexual violence around them is accordingly still very high. It says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Overall, there was noted a culture of enforcement avoidance, with managers feeling powerless to enforce anti-SEA rules, a culture of silence around reporting and discussing cases, and a culture of extreme caution with respect to the rights of the accused, and little accorded to the rights of the victim.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rather than addressing these issues, the UN Secretary-General and his staff have tried to sweep them under the carpet. They neither showed or circulated the report to states, nor referred to any of its contents in the annual report to states on progress against sexual violations committed by UN peacekeeping personnel.</p>
<p>Of course, the UN is not known for transparency in its work. Whereas it does have the reputation for seeking to protect its own interests over those of the states and the people that it serves. This is particularly pronounced where it comes to peacekeeping activities. </p>
<p>Recent years have seen the introduction <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-after-haiti-quake-a-new-setback-for-cholera-victims-36149">deadly diseases</a> into a country, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301699.html">oil-for-food</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/may/9/20060509-090826-9806r/">sex-for-food</a> scandals, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/09/world/un-focuses-on-peacekeepers-involved-in-child-prostitution.html">child prostitution</a>, and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/15/un-backed-troops-accused-rape-congo">beating and murdering of locals</a>. The list goes on and on. </p>
<p>Why then is the UN apparently set on avoiding making the changes necessary to eliminate such crimes and abuses, or at least reduce their incidence? The answer lies in peacekeeping’s growing importance around the world, and its very precarious circumstances.</p>
<h2>Growing need</h2>
<p>Since the early 1990s, peacekeeping missions have sprung up all over the world. With many states increasingly fragile thanks to resource scarcity, drastic environmental changes, the rise of extremist non-state actors, and “regular” armed conflicts, it is highly likely that more and more peacekeeping missions will be required in coming years. </p>
<p>These missions are vital. They are at the centre of conflict resolution, protection of civilians, peace-building, and state-building; they not only ensure stability inside fragile states, but also protect international peace and security. </p>
<p>To staff the missions, the UN relies upon more than 300,000 peacekeepers, a number incorporating international civil servants, national police personnel, and most numerous of all, troops from national militaries. </p>
<p>These people work in some of the most difficult and dangerous places in the world, and none of them are legally required to do so. Similarly, troop-contributing countries have the option of withdrawing their support and forces from missions whenever they wish.</p>
<p>That means that UN peacekeeping always works under the threat that countries will pull out of missions. Any serious attempts to prosecute and punish perpetrators could make it very difficult to secure the forces needed for the missions to function.</p>
<p>It therefore does not serve the UN’s interests to create ways of holding individuals accountable for their crimes and abuses. Ultimately, despite the fact that its every peacekeeping mission is mandated to protect civilians, the UN fails to focus on the countless victims of abuses committed by people acting under its banner. </p>
<p>Instead, its impulse is to protect the perpetrators, providing a cloak of impunity for crimes and abuses. That leaves the people who most need protecting by the international community exposed to grave harms at the hands of the very UN peacekeepers sent to keep them safe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The UN buried a report on human rights abuses carried out by forces operating in its name. Here’s why.
Rosa Freedman, Senior Lecturer (Law), University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/37556
2015-02-27T06:30:09Z
2015-02-27T06:30:09Z
Congo warlord’s acquittal upheld by ICC as assault on Hutu militia begins
<p>The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-31617135">launched long-planned strikes against Rwandan Hutu rebels</a> on its territory, after they failed to meet a disarmament deadline. </p>
<p>The strikes mark a major escalation in a conflict that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13283212">claimed close to six million civilian lives</a>, but which has never really gone away.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the final chapter in one of the most notorious atrocities of the <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/1213296">Second Congo War</a> is about to be told. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld the acquittal of militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo – 12 years after the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/dr-congo-massacre-may-alter-international-law-2014215122427499229.html">Bogoro massacre</a> for which he was originally tried.</p>
<h2>Acquittal and appeal</h2>
<p>On February 24 2003, armed groups allegedly led by Ngudjolo and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27531534">Germain Katanga</a> attacked the Hema village of Bogoro. More than 200 civilians were killed, most of them children. Homes were ransacked, and survivors were locked in a room filled with corpses. Many of the attackers were made up of child soldiers in their ranks. Women and girls were dragged away by the attackers to be gang-raped for days. </p>
<p>Ngudjolo was long wanted by the ICC for leading one of the Lendu groups that committed crimes during the attack on Bogoro. He was finally arrested in the DRC and transferred to the court in February 2008. Ngudjolo was jointly charged with co-accused Germain Katanga for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bogoro. He pled not guilty, claiming he had been in another town delivering a baby at the time of the massacre.</p>
<p>In December 2012, the Trial Chamber acquitted him, holding that the prosecution had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that he was the commander in charge of the Bogoro attack. But the prosecution <a href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/situations%20and%20cases/situations/situation%20icc%200104/related%20cases/ICC-01-04-02-12/Pages/default.aspx">appealed</a> the decision, arguing that the Trial Chamber misapplied the standard of proof, did not consider all the evidence, and failed to provide a fair and expeditious trial.</p>
<p>Ngudjolo and his defence team claimed that the prosecution’s appeal continued to harass the defendant, who they <a href="http://www.ijmonitor.org/2014/10/appeals-chamber-hears-arguments-in-ngudjolo-trial-ngudjolo-claims-he-is-a-victim/">described</a> as the “victim of everything that has happened”. </p>
<p>In the end, the appeal decision upheld the original trial decision and confirmed his acquittal. Despite a confession made by Ngudjolo to a UN investigator on his organisation of the Bogoro massacre, the ICC found that this statement was too general, and was probably a gambit to obtain a promotion in the DRC army. In addition, the appeal chamber found that the original failure to release full phone records to the prosecution implicating Ngudjolo in intimidating witnesses did not undermine the prosecution’s right to a fair trial. </p>
<p>But the acquittal of Ngudjolo stems from disturbing weaknesses in the ICC prosecutor’s original investigation – which in turn shows just how difficult it is to secure justice for victims and perpetrators in a conflict as sprawling as the DRC’s.</p>
<h2>Hard graft</h2>
<p>Investigating international crimes is an enormously difficult task. The ICC prosecution has fallen short of its own standards in the past – and it will continue to do so. The court faces the unique challenge of investigating international crimes during conflict or insecure areas without the benefit of its own police force, meaning it relies on states to co-operate in investigations – even when they are as fragile and embattled as the DRC. </p>
<p>And while the ICC judges have doggedly safeguarded defendants’ right to a fair trial, the prosecution in Ngudjolo’s case failed to effectively conduct a thorough investigation that could deliver justice to the Bogoro victims.</p>
<p>Despite the prevalence of sexual violence in Ituri and at the Bogoro massacre for which he was originally convicted, Ngudjolo was not found responsible for rape or sexual violence. There are similar concerns in the case of Uganda’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/dominic-ongwen-surrenders-but-justice-for-lords-resistance-army-victims-will-be-hard-to-find-35966">Dominic Ongwen</a>, who faces very narrow charges despite the array of crimes of which he is suspected. </p>
<p>Perhaps these “representative” prosecutions are the best the ICC can do with its limited resources and constrained investigations. But ultimately, it is up to states to effectively investigate and prosecute those responsible for crimes on their territory and to provide reparations directly to victims. </p>
<h2>Bad neighbours</h2>
<p>The cases before the ICC need to be considered in the wider context of the conflict in Ituri and the Great Lakes region. </p>
<p>Much of the ethnic violence in the eastern DRC began with atrocities committed by Ugandan forces. The UN International Court of Justice also found Uganda <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/20/congo.uganda">responsible</a> for killing, torturing and targeting civilians, destroying and looting their property, and training child soldiers, amongst other violations. In 2005, the Ugandan government was ordered to pay billions of dollars to the DRC in reparations – but ten years on, the money has yet to materialise. </p>
<p>Rwanda, meanwhile, has been heavily involved in the conflict in the eastern DRC since the end of its own genocide in 1994. Rwanda has backed pro-Tutsi groups such as the CNDP and M23 against Hutu groups such as the FDLR in the neighbouring Kivus, and UN investigators have <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/RDCProjetMapping.aspx">documented</a>the exploitation of resources by both Rwandan and Ugandan forces and their proxy militias. </p>
<p>One of Rwanda’s former militia leaders, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/10/congo-warlord-bosco-ntaganda-war-crimes-hague">Bosco Ntaganda</a>, awaits trial before the ICC in June. He faces charges for crimes in Ituri, and was known as “The Terminator” in the Kivus for the atrocities his group committed there.</p>
<p>Two decades on from the Rwandan genocide, the failure of the international community and governments in the region to protect civilians and end impunity means the ICC’s work will only ever be a drop in the ocean. Despite the recent offensive against the Hutu FDLR by Congolese forces, the two sides have often fought together in the past and have committed numerous atrocities jointly.</p>
<p>The DRC and Uganda were early supporters of the ICC, but they have failed to hold their own forces to account for past atrocities and to stop them from committing more. And now the 22,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in DRC has <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-31409899">backed out of the planned assault on FDLR rebels</a> because the DRC will not withdraw two generals who are implicated in past human rights violations. That in turn sets the stage for increased Rwandan involvement – and with it, the risk of renewed cross-border violence with massive casualties.</p>
<p>For justice of victims of international crimes to be truly done, states and the international community obviously need to do more to prevent and punish those who wish to commit mass atrocities. But how to “do more” in countries as messy and multi-polar as that in the DRC is far from clear.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been updated to reflect the ICC’s decision to uphold Ngudjolo’s acquittal.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Moffett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As the Democratic Republic of Congo seeks justice for one of its most notorious massacres, it’s also preparing to engage Rwandan fighters once again.
Luke Moffett, Law Lecturer in international criminal justice, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/35697
2014-12-23T06:01:24Z
2014-12-23T06:01:24Z
Women raped and enslaved by warped IS code that encourages widespread sexual abuse
<p>In the late summer of 2014, the international community watched helplessly as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/islamic-state">Islamic State</a> (IS) unleashed widespread human rights abuses against civilians across Syria and Iraq, with little standing in its way.</p>
<p>Among its actions were various forms of sexual abuse, initially directed against <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30573385">women from the Yazidi community</a> of Sinjar, but this was rapidly expanded to all women in the areas IS now controls. </p>
<p>These are not isolated outbreaks of bad behaviour by a few individuals; they are part of the sexual politics IS is deliberately implementing in all the regions under its sway. Justified by means of fatwas and radical theology, and deployed as both recruitment tools and theocratic law, the abuses are a stark and sobering example of the use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war.</p>
<h2>Letter of the law</h2>
<p>IS’s rules on sex and women were first laid out in detail in the October 2014 issues of the group’s official journal, <a href="http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/dabiq-strategic-messaging-islamic-state">Dabiq</a>, which is disseminated in both electronic and hard copy across northern Syria and Iraq. IS also circulated an explanatory booklet, entitled <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/12/world/meast/isis-justification-female-slaves/">Questions and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom</a>, in the larger cities and towns under its control, particularly Mosul and Raqqa. </p>
<p>First presented during Friday prayers, and distributed to the faithful outside mosques, the booklet offers a first-hand insight into IS’s new gender and sex policies.</p>
<p>It shows how IS’s leaders and propagandists have reactivated and reinterpreted a grab-bag of old legal rules and fatwas that were utilised from the Middle Ages until the 18th century. In particular, the principles they espouse have an underpinning in their interpretation of the law of war (fiqh al-harb) and laws dealing with non-Muslims living in Muslim territories. </p>
<h2>The spoils of war</h2>
<p>Under the medieval Islamic law of war, the mainstream position of theologians at the time was to consider captured women as spoils, mere booty to be treated as property. Ancient sources also emphasised the need to distinguish Muslim women from non-Muslim women, as well as differentiating married and unmarried women.</p>
<p>It was not permitted to enslave Muslim women, who were deemed free by definition. The sharia – moral code – requires their consent for sexual relations. </p>
<p>Identifying women as Muslim was relatively simple and fast: a commander would ask a “captured woman” to pronounce the Muslim profession of faith, then to recite at least three chapters (surât) of the Koran.</p>
<p>In the case of IS, which considers Shiites heretics, other tests have been added to establish whether captured women are Sunni or Shiite. Even a Muslim woman can be deemed a “concubine” or even a “slave” by IS simply because she is Shiite; only Sunni women are considered truly Muslim and therefore protected at all from sexual enslavement. </p>
<h2>Virgins in paradise</h2>
<p>In IS’s jihadist mindset, women’s virginity offers obvious advantages to men – in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/12/books.guardianreview5">some literalist interpretations</a>, the Koran promises “houris” (virgins) for Muslim men after death, especially if the death occurs on the “jihad path” to Allah.</p>
<p>A “quest for virginity” has led IS fighters to seek sex with <a href="http://rt.com/news/213615-isis-sex-slave-children/">increasingly young girls</a>, sometimes barely at the age of adolescence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67934/original/image-20141222-15646-1x3wgq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yazidi women in a refugee camp in Northern Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.epa.eu/politics-photos/refugees-photos/yazidi-refugee-camp-photos-51526355">EPA/STR</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, relations with non-Muslim women in IS-controlled territories are managed by giving them a status called “dhimma”, which literally means “protection”. Since the beginning of Islam, non-Muslims have been considered “dhimmis”, literally “protected residents” – but within IS’s theological system, dhimmi women can be used for a man’s own sexual pleasure or sold on the female slave market.</p>
<p>Many jihadist groups believe that the more non-Muslim women they capture, the more “points” they earn for faster passage to paradise; indeed, they see the action of converting a non-Muslim woman to Islam as the best possible guarantee for entry into heaven. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to forced conversions, forced marriage and rape.</p>
<h2>Do this, not that</h2>
<p>Over the past few months, the “theologians” of IS have attempted to clarify these practices by issuing a number of fatwas meant to guide fighters’ sexual practices in the field.</p>
<p>Examples include the pronouncement that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/12/the-islamic-state-issues-guide-on-when-its-okay-to-beat-your-sex-slave/">a “captive woman” may be beaten</a> to instill discipline, but that she may not be beaten “for the sake of pleasure” of her master. </p>
<p>There are also numerous legal statements and fatwas about the “types of unions” that are lawful to contract with a Muslim women, as well as with respect to the practical arrangements to “break the union” (divorce, repudiation, abandonment).</p>
<p>IS has issued a number of “theological innovations”, especially designed to attract and recruit increased numbers of young fighters and supporters. One of its most effective moves was to authorise the “distance marriage”, which involves a young woman and man uniting religiously and remotely over the internet. </p>
<p>This has attracted many candidates, male and female, originating mainly from European countries. It has also assisted IS with facilitating and accelerating the process of conversion of non-Muslim men, as, according to Islamic Law, it is not permissible for a Muslim woman to marry or to have sex with a non-Muslim man, while the opposite is permissible for a Muslim man. </p>
<h2>Thriving</h2>
<p>These new rules have helped IS to both attract new candidates and supporters while strictly controlling the sexuality and intimate lives of its fighters and followers.</p>
<p>As I have found in my <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/f24-interview/20140714-sex-sharia-taboos-arab-world-spring/">research</a>, many sexually frustrated young men have joined the ranks of IS. The organisation facilities relations between the sexes and provides them an allegedly Islamic frame within which having “sex” – at least in very specific theologically defined circumstances that favour men and enslave almost all women – is not shameful or sinful. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, these practices and theologies are spreading to other continents. Following the example of IS, Nigeria’s Boko Haram has also <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/08/nigeria-rejects-boko-haram-caliphate-claim-20148251062176395.html">declared a Caliphate</a>, and invoking the same theological justifications to subject abducted and captured women to a perverse sexual order.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, despite protests from Muslim religious authorities <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/12/muslim-leader-condemns-islamic-state_n_5671572.html">around the world</a>, most of whom consider these practices un-Islamic abuses of theology, IS and its ilk continue to thrive – and their abusive, mysogynistic sexual order along with them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathieu Guidère does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the late summer of 2014, the international community watched helplessly as Islamic State (IS) unleashed widespread human rights abuses against civilians across Syria and Iraq, with little standing in…
Mathieu Guidère, Professor of Middle-Eastern and Islamic Studies, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33638
2014-11-02T19:21:42Z
2014-11-02T19:21:42Z
The rape scene in Brad Pitt’s Fury no-one is talking about
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63295/original/42w55z5k-1414655459.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">International law is clear on whether sexual consent is possible when civilians are faced with armed soldiers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://instagram.com/furymovie">Instagram/Furymovie</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.channel24.co.za/Movies/News/Brad-Pitt-war-film-wraps-up-London-Film-Festival-20141020">Brad Pitt says</a> his new <a href="http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/160847/Im-Immensely-Proud-Of-Angie-Brad-Pitt-Talks-Potential-Oscar-Battle-Between-Unbroken-Fury">Oscar-tipped</a> film <a href="http://furymovie.tumblr.com/all#all">Fury</a> is “a real study in leadership and learning to command respect and because of this, I am now a better father”. </p>
<p>But while many reviewers have commented on the “moral ambiguity” and “realism” of Fury, hardly any have commented on a key “sex scene” that made me wish I hadn’t gone to see it – and left me wondering what Pitt’s wife Angelina Jolie thinks too.</p>
<p>Fury doesn’t glorify war, which is shown as realistically brutal. But it does glorify the revered leader of a small tank crew, Collier (Pitt), despite the way his character commits and encourages others to commit war crimes: first with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/10/fury-first-look-review-brad-pitt-london-film-festival">the execution of an unarmed prisoner of war</a>, and later in claiming the sexual spoils of war.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1xli7OTE_0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Fury trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Americans have taken over a German town, where they are looting and “taking” women. </p>
<p>Pitt’s character Collier and “newbie” teenage soldier Norman (played by Logan Lerman) enter an apartment to find a woman and a teenage girl Emma – both utterly terrified. </p>
<p>Yet as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/23/fury-review-brad-pitt-second-world-war-drama">Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw</a> writes, it quickly turns from terror into a:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>bizarrely naive ‘coming-of-age’ sex scene that director David Ayer seems to think is some kind of humanistically redemptive moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Collier tells Norman to take the teenage Emma into the bedroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She’s a good clean girl. If you don’t take her into that bedroom, I will.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet despite Norman taking a machine gun into the room with the girl, the sex scene between them is then shot as consensual: a wonderful loss-of-virginity moment. This is reinforced by the congratulations and snickering comments Norman gets from his fellow officers when they arrive in the apartment later on.</p>
<p>It’s surprising how few reviewers have written about the scene, although <a href="http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/10/16/fury/">Fox5 San Diego’s Josh Board</a> did:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps Pitt is trying to just light a fire under the new guy when he tells him to take a girl to bed (“She’s a good, clean girl. If you don’t take her into that bedroom, I will.”). But to me, that’s a threat of rape. Are we supposed to cheer the fact that this young soldier loses his virginity and not think about how these women were forced into this situation?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course, some people who watch Fury might see this scene and interpret it the way the director seems to want us to: as a moment where two people find comfort in each other in a tense situation. <a href="http://claireyfairy1.tumblr.com/post/100579314971/fury-review">Some audiences have even laughed</a> at it – including at the screening I went to.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63294/original/7cdnjpm4-1414650307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brad Pitt, former British Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Foreign and Commonwealth Office</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But as Pitt’s wife Angelina Jolie knows better than most people, international law is clear about whether sexual consent is possible when civilians are faced with armed soldiers.</p>
<p>Rape has been a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/822485/Sexual_Exploitation_and_Beyond_Using_the_Rome_Statute_of_the_International_Criminal_Court_to_Prosecute_UN_Peacekeepers_for_Gender-based_Crimes">war crime since the 1800s</a>, but the definition of what is considered rape has been clarified in the late 20th century, particularly by the Rwandan and Yugoslav International Tribunals. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unictr.org/Portals/0/Case/English/Akayesu/judgement/akay001.pdf">Akayesu case</a> at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ruled that “coercion may be inherent in certain circumstances, such as armed conflict or … military presence”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PPd4q06juIc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How sexual violence became listed as a crime against humanity and how rapists were prosecuted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it is not appropriate to always portray women as victims, or as incapable of sexual autonomy, the circumstances in Fury are certainly inherently coercive. </p>
<p>If the film starred a different A-list actor, all this wouldn’t be quite so surprising. But Pitt is clearly aware of the issue of wartime sexual violence.</p>
<p>Jolie is a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In June this year she co-chaired the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict/about">Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict</a>, and <a href="http://www.channel24.co.za/News/International/PHOTOS-Brad-Pitt-joins-Angelina-Jolie-at-summit-against-sexual-violence-in-London-20140613">Pitt joined her</a>. </p>
<p>She also works with the <a href="http://www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk/how-to-get-involved/preventing-sexual-violence-initiative.html">Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative</a>, including with rape survivors, for which she was recently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/10/angelina-jolie-honorary-damehood">awarded an honorary damehood</a> by Queen Elizabeth. </p>
<p>Jolie <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/147288_angelina_jolie_speaks_at_global_summit_to_end_sexual_violence_conflict/">has stated</a> that rape in war “has nothing to do with sex, everything to do with power”. It is exactly power that is the context of the rape in Fury. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aNmNp0Xm-h4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Angelina Jolie’s speech at opening of End Sexual Violence in Conflict summit in June 2014.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pitt could have chosen to highlight this in media interviews about the film. But as far as I have seen, he hasn’t, instead largely focusing on the film’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/23/fury-review-brad-pitt-second-world-war-drama">realism</a> and the “<a href="http://xin.msn.com/en-sg/movies/story/brad-pitt-fury-has-made-me-better-father/ar-BBabpbc">real leadership” his character showed</a>“.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old father of six was also <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/brad-pitt-ok-with-son-13-seeing-brutal-war-film-fury-1.2800440">happy for his 13-year-old son Maddox</a> to see the R-rated film.</p>
<p>"He’s a World War II buff,” Pitt told Associated Press. “The world is a beautiful place, but it’s also a very violent place. We talk about it afterward, so I’m not so opposed.”</p>
<p>Here’s hoping Pitt talked with his son about the seemingly touching “sex scene” in Fury – and that he starts considering what messages it sends to the wider community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie O'Brien is affiliated with the International Humanitarian Law Committee of the Queensland Red Cross.</span></em></p>
Brad Pitt says his new Oscar-tipped film Fury is “a real study in leadership and learning to command respect and because of this, I am now a better father”. But while many reviewers have commented on the…
Melanie O'Brien, International Law Researcher, Anti-Slavery Australia, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.