Gender-Based Violence

Guarantees of Non-Recurrence of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women after the Khmer Rouge

Citation:

You, Sotheary. 2019. "Guarantees of Non-Recurrence of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women after the Khmer Rouge." Swiss Peace Cambodia Working Paper Series 6/2019, Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law, University of Basel, Basel.

Author: Sotheary You

Abstract:

Four decades after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodian women continue to suffer from discriminatory social, cultural and economic norms and to experience gender injustice in social and political spheres. Against this background, this paper asks whether and to what extent transitional justice has contributed to providing guarantees of non-recurrence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women in Cambodia. This paper examines how the transitional justice process addressed SGBV committed under the Khmer Rouge regime. It shows that transitional justice has not adequately recognized SGBV against women under the Khmer Rouge, that there has been lack of representation of women in the process and that an unfair redistribution of resources after the Khmer Rouge contributed to further discrimination. Drawing from the concept of guarantees of non-recurrence and feminist scholarship on gender justice, this paper highlights how a lack of gender-transformative policy and the government’s lack of capacity to comply with international legal standards has shaped women’s experiences after the Khmer Rouge. It argues that, in order to guarantee the non-repetition of SGBV against women, transitional justice initiatives should aim to address social and cultural injustice effectively; to subvert patriarchal and oppressive norms; and to promote women’s participation in social, economic and political development in Cambodia. It concludes with policy recommendations.

Keywords: Khmer Rouge, guarantee of non-recurrence, transformative reparation, transitional justice, Cambodia, sexual and gender-based violence

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Justice, Transitional Justice, Political Participation, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia

Year: 2019

Women in Post-Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction in Africa

Citation:

Scanlon, Helen, 2019. "Women in Post-Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction in Africa." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, edited by Thomas Spear. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author: Helen Scanlon

Keywords: post-conflict resolution, post-conflict reconstruction, transitional justice, peace-building, gender-based human-rights violations, truth seeking, security sector reform, sexual violence in conflict (SVAC)

Annotation:

Summary: 
Women’s experiences of conflict have been the subject of increased international attention since the end of the Cold War and this has been accompanied by a concomitant growth in attention to the role of women in peace and security initiatives in Africa. Alongside the rise of humanitarian interventions, new trends have emerged in the realms of conflict resolution, accountability, and post-conflict transformation. As a result, post-conflict experiences in Africa in the 21st century have revealed numerous opportunities for the advancement of gender justice. Experiences from countries emerging from conflict on the continent provide some important examples of promoting women’s rights through accountability mechanisms, furthering access to government, producing gender-sensitive reform, challenging discriminatory laws, and advancing economic opportunities. However, while women’s needs and rights have been increasingly recognized through international and national commitments, women continue to face widespread gender-based violence as well as socioeconomic challenges in the aftermath of conflict. Thus, understanding intersectional experiences of conflict and the role of enduring gender power relations are critical to revisiting how transitions might be transformative. (Summary from Oxford Research Encyclopedias)

Topics: Economies, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Justice, Transitional Justice, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Security Sector Reform Regions: Africa

Year: 2019

Gendered Impact of Zimbabwe's Transitional Justice: Too Little Too Late

Citation:

Chaminuka, Lilian. 2019. "Gendered Impact of Zimbabwe’s Transitional Justice: Too Little Too Late." International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science 3 (3): 94-100.

Author: Lilian Chaminuka

Abstract:

The gendered impact of transitional justice after Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle is similar to early efforts in other countries to try and address massive and systematic human rights violations that are largely gender blind. The paper takes a historical analysis highlighting how government chose not to specifically address sexual violence, nor did they examine how women had been distinctly impacted by the war of liberation. There was a pervasive silence regarding violence against, harm to, and the degradation of women with female ex combatants becoming recipients of piecemeal policies and fragmented efforts to accommodate them. The process and what has been done for the Zimbabwean woman is either too little or has been done too late as the legacy of this violence endures long after independence was achieved in 1980. This is not to say government has done absolutely nothing as some gains have been made in building a gender balanced society that factors in contribution of women. The study which employed the qualitative approach, revealed that women are not particularly happy as they feel more can be done as the realities they face today under study show a continuum in the violence exercised against them, their subordinate role, their oppression, the threats and harassment they endured in the past and present lack of economic resources to live a dignified life. The paper is based from a broad study that was undertaken by the author in her studies at the Africa University in 2014.

Keywords: Gender, human rights, women ex-combatants, reintegration, transitional justice

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2019

Silence Breakers in War and Peace: Research on Gender and Violence with an Ethics of Engagement

Citation:

Skjelsbæk, Inger. 2018. "Silence Breakers in War and Peace: Research on Gender and Violence with an Ethics of Engagement." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 25 (4): 496-520.

Author: Inger Skjelsbæk

Abstract:

In 2001 I published an article in EJIR which analyzed 140 studies on sexual violence in war published in the 1900s. It took one year to gather the 140 articles. Today a quick Google search will yield thousands of hits. The political attention given to gender-based aspects of armed conflict, and sexual violence in particular, has created a demand for particular forms of knowledge and in this dynamic lies a tension for the academic community. This article presents an analysis of the social science literature on conflict-related sexual violence based on the notion of an ethics of engagement.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Violence

Year: 2018

Gender and Statebuilding in South Sudan

Citation:

Ali, Nada Mustafa. 2011. Gender and Statebuilding in South Sudan. 298. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace. 

Author: Nada Mustafa Ali

Annotation:

Summary:
"South Sudan’s independence ends decades of conflict as well as socioeconomic and political marginalization at the hands of successive governments in Khartoum, which affected women in gender-specific ways. Independence thus opens up opportunities for women’s economic and social empowerment, ensuring that the new country’s political and economic structures and institutions reflect commitments to women’s participation and human rights. In turn, empowering women will enable South Sudan to strengthen its economic and political structures and institutions.

There is great potential for gender equality and respect for women’s rights in South Sudan. The government has expressed commitments to equality between women and men and to women’s participation. South Sudan is relatively egalitarian and lacking in religious extremism. International actors interested in South Sudan recognize that promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and addressing gender-based violence (GBV) are key to maintaining peace and security and helping South Sudan’s economy grow.

Challenges abound, however. South Sudan is severely lacking in infrastructure and has some of the worst human development indicators worldwide. Social and cultural practices harmful to women compound the effects of conflict and marginalization. There are constant internal and external security threats, a limited understanding of gender equality, and a tendency within communities to view gender as an alien and illegitimate concern, given the acute problems that South Sudan faces.

The government of South Sudan, with the support of regional partners and the international community, should ensure that gender equality and women’s rights are fully integrated into and are outcomes of state building. National planning, developing the permanent constitution, and building the country’s new institutions and structures should reflect commitments to gender equality and input from women and women’s groups across South Sudan. The government should cost and meet the full budgetary needs of the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Welfare; ratify and implement the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; strengthen efforts to prevent GBV and address the needs of GBV victims and survivors; and invest more in quality and accessible health and education” (Ali 2011, 1-2).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Secessionist Wars, Economies, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: South Sudan

Year: 2011

Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women’s Rights

Citation:

Fanneron, Evelyn, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren. 2019. "Transitional Justice, Gender-Based Violence, and Women’s Rights." In Human Rights in Africa: Contemporary Debates and Struggles, edited by Eunice N. Sahle, 89-144. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, Kari Dahlgren

Abstract:

In this chapter, Evelyn Fanneron, Eunice N. Sahle, and Kari Dahlgren examine sources of gender-based violence in the context of conflict. Further, they explore the gendered underpinnings of transitional justice drawing on transitional justice mechanisms (TJMs in Rwanda and Sierra Leone). The chapter pays particular attention to these TJMs’ approach to wartime sexual violence in order to assess the ways in which they have begun to account for gendered harms and the ways in which they have not yet achieved gendered justice. To achieve its aims, the chapter draws insights from feminist concerns regarding human rights discourse and TJMs’ approaches to gender-based violence and wartime sexual violence.

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Rwanda, Sierra Leone

Year: 2019

From Depletion to Regeneration: Addressing Structural and Physical Violence in Post-Conflict Economies

Citation:

Rai, Shirin M., Jacqui True, and Maria Tanyag. 2019. "From Depletion to Regeneration: Addressing Structural and Physical Violence in Post-Conflict Economies." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 26 (4): 561-85. 

Authors: Shirin M. Rai, Jacqui True, Maria Tanyag

Abstract:

Drawing on depletion through social reproduction and political economy of violence against women (PEVAW) approaches, we show how the context of violence intensifies the depletion of women’s lives as they labor to meet their household needs; and how this depletion heightens their vulnerability to violence in conflict-affected contexts and inhibits their roles in peacebuilding. We propose the concept of the “regenerative state,” as a post-conflict moment of openness when state policy underpinned by attention to issues of depletion, social reproduction, and violence against women can help reshape gendered power relations in post-conflict transitions.

Topics: Conflict, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Livelihoods, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Violence

Year: 2019

'To Me, Justice Means to Be in a Group’: Survivors’ Groups as a Pathway to Justice in Northern Uganda

Citation:

Schulz, Philipp. 2019. "'To Me, Justice Means to Be in a Group’: Survivors’ Groups as a Pathway to Justice in Northern Uganda." Journal of Human Rights Practice 11 (1): 171-89.

Author: Philipp Schulz

Abstract:

How do male survivors of sexual violence conceptualize justice in a post-conflict and transitional context? Centralizing male survivors’ voices and perspectives, this article seeks to address this under-explored question in the growing literature on gender and transitional justice. Even though recent years have witnessed increasing consideration for redressing crimes of wartime sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, specific attention to justice for conflict-related sexual violence against men remains remarkably absent. Utilizing novel empirical data from northern Uganda, in this article I show that justice for male survivors of sexual violence means to be in a group with other survivors. Drawing on survivors’ perspectives, I argue that groups make it possible for male survivors to attain a sense of justice on the micro level and in a participatory capacity in four fundamental ways: (1) by enabling survivors to re-negotiate their gender identities; (2) by mitigating isolation through (re-)building relationships; (3) by offering safe spaces for storytelling as a culturally-resonating contribution to justice, enabling survivors to exercise agency; and (4) by initiating a process of recognizing male survivors’ experiences, contributing to justice through recognition. By addressing male sexual and gendered harms in a myriad of ways, survivors’ groups thereby constitute a pathway through which justice can be achieved among survivors themselves on the micro level. In northern Uganda, where formalized transitional justice processes are irresponsive to male sexual violations, survivors’ groups thus constitute community-driven and participatory alternative redress mechanisms for harms that remain unrecognized and unaddressed by standardized transitional justice processes.

Keywords: activism, Gender, masculinity, survivors' groups, sexual violence, Uganda

Topics: Gender, Men, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, SV against Men Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2019

The Political Economy of Post-conflict Violence against Women

Citation:

True, Jacqui. 2018. "The Political Economy of Post-conflict Violence against Women." In Handbook on the International Political Economy of Gender, edited by Juanita Elias and Adrienne Roberts, 184-195. London: Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Author: Jacqui True

Abstract:

Eliminating violence against women and girls globally is one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century. Transformations in the political economy of gender relations, including the increasing mobilisation of women’s labour beyond the household in the public sphere and the globalisation of women’s activism, have contributed to the breaking of silence on the problem of violence against women and girls. This chapter examines the opportunity to remake political and economic institutions to redress injustices and inequalities that contribute to various forms of violence against women and girls. Contrary to hunches about post-conflict bringing a social rupture in gender roles, post-conflict transitions often heighten gender inequality in power and economic power and exacerbate sexual and gender-based violence. The chapter shows how a feminist political economy method analyses the gendered economic inequalities underlying political inequalities and applies this analysis to explain the continuum of gendered violence in transitions from conflict to peace.

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, SV against Women

Year: 2018

Intersectionality, Transitional Justice, and the Case of Internally Displaced Moro Women in the Philippines

Citation:

Sifris, Ronli, and Maria Tanyag. 2019. "Intersectionality, Transitional Justice, and the Case of Internally Displaced Moro Women in the Philippines." Human Rights Quarterly 41 (2): 399-420.

Authors: Ronli Sifris, Maria Tanyag

Abstract:

This article explores the relevance of adopting an intersectional approach to transitional justice by focusing on the specific context of internal displacement and Moro women in Mindanao, Philippines. The analysis begins with a discussion of the value of adopting an intersectional lens when addressing overlapping and interrelated forms of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated in armed conflicts. It then proceeds to examine how such an approach may assist in revealing everyday practices that complicate dichotomies of gendered agency and victimhood. Capturing these intersections is vital for ensuring the most marginalized groups of women and girls faced with protracted displacement and compounded suffering are at the heart of transitional justice programs.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2019

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