Gender-Based Violence

When There Is No Justice: Gendered Violence and Harm in Post-conflict Sri Lanka

Citation:

Davies, Sara E., and Jacqui True. 2017. "When There Is No Justice: Gendered Violence and Harm in Post-conflict Sri Lanka." The International Journal of Human Rights 21 (9): 1320-36.

Authors: Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True

Abstract:

Reparative measures for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) attend to the practical needs of victims while also addressing the long-term structural conditions that led to the violence and often endure after conflict. Over the last decade, transitional justice has sought to address high levels of impunity for SGBV, while also addressing the long-term structural conditions causing and exacerbating it. In this article we study the case of Sri Lanka, where crimes have been committed during and after the civil war (1983–2009) but a transitional justice mechanism to redress them is unlikely to be established. The article considers whether in such a situation of impunity gender-sensitive approaches to SGBV prevention can still be promoted to ensure its non-recurrence. We closely examine post-conflict Sri Lanka and women’s ongoing experiences of multiple forms of insecurity and violence to highlight the relationship between enduring structural gender inequalities and reparative justice. Bridging human rights and political economy approaches, we argue that addressing gender inequalities in access to resources and public space is essential to prevent further gender-based violence and structural harms in conflict-affected countries like Sri Lanka.

Keywords: post-conflict, sexual violence, gender-based violence, gender inequality, human rights, transitional justice, Sri Lanka

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Rights, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2017

Female Combatants after Armed Struggle: Lost in Transition?

Citation:

Gilmartin, Niall. 2019. Female Combatants after Armed Struggle: Lost in Transition? New York: Routledge. 

Author: Niall Gilmartin

Annotation:

Summary:
This book stems from a simple 'feminist curiosity' that can be succinctly summed up into a single question: what happens to combatant women after the war? Based on in-depth interviews with forty research participants, mostly former combatants within the Irish Republican Army (IRA), this book offers a critical exploration of republican women and conflict transition in the North of Ireland. 
 
Drawing on the feminist theory of a continuum of violence, this book finds that the dichotomous separation of war and peace within conventional approaches represents a gendered fiction. Despite undertaking war-time roles that were empowering, agentic, and subversive, this book finds that the 'post-conflict moment' as experienced by female combatants represents not peace and security, but a continuity of gender discrimination, violence, injustice and insecurity. The experiences and perspectives contained in this book challenge the discursive deployment of terms such as post-conflict, peace, and security, and moreover, shed light on the many forms of post-war activism undertaken by combatant women in pursuit of peace, equality and security. 
 
The book represents an important intervention in the field of gender, political violence, and peace and more specifically, female combatants and conflict transition. It is analytically significant in its exploration of the ways in which gender operates within non-state military movements emerging from conflict and will be of interest to students and scholars alike. (Summary from Routledge)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
 
2. Who Fought the War? The Gendered Constructions of Soldiering Roles in Post-war Commemorative Processes
 
3. Gendering the Post-conflict Narrative
 
4. From the Front Lines of War to the Sidelines of Peace? Rebuplican Women and the Irish Peace Process
 
5. Beyond Regression: Change and Continuity in Post-war Activism
 
6. Conclusion

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Peacekeeping, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2019

Gender and the Security Sector: Towards a More Secure Future

Citation:

Arostegui, Julie L. 2015. "Gender and the Security Sector: Towards a More Secure Future." Connections 14 (3): 7-30.

Author: Julie L. Arostegui

Annotation:

Summary: 
In recent decades, the nature of war has changed dramatically. Internal conflicts are being waged by opposing armed groups, often divided along ideological or ethnic lines that increasingly target civilians and wreak havoc on society with severe physical, psychological, social, political, and economic consequences. With the changed nature of conflict has come an increasing demand to consider its varied effects on women and girls, men and boys, and to address their specific needs before, during, and after conflict. There is also an increasing awareness of the importance of including women in peace and security processes. Women are 50 percent of the population and a critical part of society and, without them, real and sustainable peace cannot be achieved. They are not merely victims of conflict; they also play active roles as combatants, peace builders, politicians, and activists, and are often in the strongest position to bring about peace in their communities. Women around the world have emerged as voices of peace, mobilizing across communities and using their social roles and networks to mediate and mitigate violence. They have demanded attention to the complex issues of peace and peace building, and the needs of the communities involved, rather than to just cease-fires and power sharing. The international community has responded with a framework for addressing women, peace, and security, which includes United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions and binding international law. Regional bodies such as the European Union, NATO, and the African Union have also developed strong frameworks around gender equality and women’s rights in order to build sustainable peace, driven by advocacy by women’s groups and the experiences of conflict. With these changes has also come a paradigm shift in the concept of security from one of state security to human security. Whereas traditionally security involved the protection of borders and state sovereignty, the modern concept of security addresses the security of individuals and communities. It broadens both the nature of security threats such as poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence, lack of democracy and marginalization, and the actors involved, including non-state actors and civil society. It means creating societies that can withstand instability and conflict. It is more than the absence of armed conflict; it is an environment where individuals can thrive.2 A security sector that is based in human security takes into account the differing needs of men, women, boys, and girls, and ensures that the full and equal participation of women addresses the needs of all of the population and helps to establish a more peaceful and secure society. Integrating a gender perspective into the security sector is essential: 1) to abide by universally accepted human rights principles; 2) because when both men and women are involved in decision-making processes, there are better outcomes; and 3) using gender perspectives and mainstreaming increases operational effectiveness" (Arostegui 2015, 7-8).

Topics: Armed Conflict, "New Wars", Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Organizations, Peace and Security, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS

Year: 2015

Gender Justice in Transition: Gendered Agency in War and Peace

Citation:

O'Reilly, Maria. 2018. Gendered Agency in War and Peace. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Maria O'Reilly

Annotation:

Summary:
This book examines how gendered agency emerges in peacebuilding contexts. It develops a feminist critique of the international peacebuilding interventions, through a study of transitional justice policies and practices implemented in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and local activists’ responses to official discourses surrounding them. Extending Nancy Fraser’s tripartite model of justice to peacebuilding contexts, the book also advances notions of recognition, redistribution and representation as crucial components of gender-just peace. It argues that recognising women as victims and survivors of conflict, achieving a gender-equitable distribution of material and symbolic resources, and enabling women to participate as agents of transitional justice processes, are all essential for transforming the structural inequalities that enable gender violence and discrimination to materialise before, during, and after conflict. This study establishes a new avenue of analysis for understanding responses and resistances to international peacebuilding, by offering a sustained engagement with feminist social and political theory. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillan)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
 
2. Contextualising Gendered Agency in War and Peace: Gender Justice and Women's Activism in Historical Perspective
 
3. Gender Justice in Transition: Gendered Agency in War and Peace
 
4. "The Triumph of Justice"? Examining Official Discourse on Transitional Justice
 
5. "Justice Does Not Come": Gendered Agency and Activism Around Wartime Sexual Violence in BiH
 
6. "I Cannot Extinguish Hope": Gendered Agency and the Search for Missing Persons in BiH
 
7. Conclusion

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Justice, Transitional Justice, Peacebuilding Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2018

Gender, Peacekeeping, and Child Soldiers: Training and Research in Implementation of the Vancouver Principles

Citation:

Johnson, Dustin, and Allyssa Walsh. 2020. "Gender, Peacekeeping, and Child Soldiers: Training and Research in Implementation of the Vancouver Principles." Allons-y: Journal of Children, Peace and Security 4: 51-60.

Authors: Dustin Johnson, Alyssa Walsh

Abstract:

Since the passage of UN Security Council resolution 1325, there has been a growing focus on the involvement of women in peacekeeping operations. Ambitious UN targets, the Vancouver Principles, and the Canadian government’s Elsie Initiative all aim to support the increased inclusion of uniformed women in peacekeeping missions. This article discusses three areas in which the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (Dallaire Initiative) is working to support Vancouver Principle (VP) 11 through the training of women security sector actors, training on gendered dimensions of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and SGBV against child soldiers, and through research on how gender matters in peacekeeping operations. Based on these experiences and an engagement with the academic literature, it makes a number of policy recommendations in support of VP 11.

Keywords: Gender, peacekeeping, training, child soldiers, SGBV

Topics: Age, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2020

Delivering Integrated Care after Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Citation:

Bress, Joshua, Givano Kashemwa, Christine Amisi, Jean Armas, Cindy McWhorter, Theodore Ruel, Arthur J. Ammann, Denis Mukwege, and Lisa M. Butler. 2019. "Delivering Integrated Care after Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo." BMJ Global Health 4. 

Authors: Joshua Bress, Givano Kashemwa, Christine Amisi, Jean Armas, Cindy McWhorter, Theodore Ruel, Arthur J. Ammann, Denis Mukwege, Lisa M. Butler

Abstract:

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, ongoing armed conflict increases the incidence of gender-based violence (GBV) and presents a distinct and major barrier to care delivery for all survivors of GBV. A specific challenge is providing emergency contraception, HIV prophylaxis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections to all survivors within 72 hours of violence. To address the multiple barriers to providing this time sensitive medical care, Global Strategies and Panzi Hospital implemented the Prevention Pack Program. The Prevention Pack is a prepackaged post-rape medical kit containing antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis, antibiotics for treatment of sexually transmitted infections and emergency contraception. The Prevention Pack Program combines community sensitisation about post-rape medical care with the provision of Prevention Packs and the implementation of a cloud-based and Global Positioning System (GPS)–enabled inventory management system. The Panzi Hospital gender-based violence team implemented the Prevention Pack Program at Panzi Hospital and 12 rural clinics in the South Kivu Province. The data manager took GPS coordinates of each site, provided an initial stock of Prevention Packs and then called all sites daily to determine demand for post-rape care and Prevention Pack consumption. Inventory data were entered into the GPS-enabled cloud-based inventory management system. Project personnel used the consumption rate, trends and geolocation of sites to guide Prevention Pack restocking strategy. Between 2013 and 2017, a total of 8206 individuals presented for care following rape at the study sites. Of the 1414 individuals who presented in the rural areas, 1211 (85.6%) did so within the first 72 hours of reported rape. Care was delivered continuously and without a single stockout of medication across all sites. The Prevention Pack Program provided timely and consistent access to emergency contraception, HIV prophylaxis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections for rape survivors in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Sexual Violence, Rape, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2019

Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives

Citation:

Jurasz, Olga, and Solange Mouthaan. 2019. Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives. Cambridge: Intersentia.

Authors: Solange Mouthaan, Olga Jurasz

Keywords: Gender, war, transitional justice, international law, conflict

Annotation:

Summary: 
This book explores and challenges common assumptions about gender, conflict, and post-conflict situations. It critically examines the gendered aspects of international and transitional justice processes by subverting traditional understandings of how wars are waged, the power dynamics involved, and the experiences of victims.The book also highlights the gendered stereotypes that underpin the (mis)perceptions about gender and war in order to reveal the multi-dimensional nature of modern conflicts and their aftermaths.
 
Featuring contributions from academics in law, criminology, international relations, politics and psychology, as well as legal practitioners in the field, Gender and War offers a unique and multi-disciplinary insight into contemporary understandings of conflict and explores the potential for international and transitional justice processes to evolve in order to better acknowledge diverse and gendered experiences of modern conflicts.
 
This book provides the reader with international and interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of international law, conflict, gender and transitional justice. (Summary from Intersentia)
 
Introduction (p.1)
 
Part I. Women's Involvement in Armed Conflict
              How and Why Women Participate in Armed Conflict (p.9)
​              Female Perpetrators in the Fromer Yugoslav Republic and Rwanda (p. 41)
​              Female War Crime Perpetrators in Bosnia and Herzegovina (p. 65)
 
Part II. Men and Children's Experiences of Armed Conflict
​              Towards a Gender Analysis of Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Conflict (p. 93)
​              Children and Armed Conflict (p. 119)
 
Part III. Gendered Expereiences of International Criminal Justice
​              Gender, Enslavement and War Economies in Sierra Leone (p. 145)
​              Male Victims and Female Perpetrators of Sexual Violence in Conflict (p. 169)
​              Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes in the International Criminal Court (p. 209)
​              Reparations for Gendered Harms at the International Criminal Court (p. 235)
 
Part IV. Gendered Experiences of Transitional Justice
​              Children in Transitional Justice Processes (p. 259)
​              Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Kosovo (p. 285)
​              Staying the Course (p. 311)
 
Part V. Conclusions
​              Conclusions (p. 353)
 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Economies, War Economies, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, SV against Men Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2019

An Analysis of the Implementation of Gender Based Initiatives in Post-conflict Liberia

Citation:

Pruit, Carli N. 2018. "An Analysis of the Implementation of Gender Based Initiatives in Post-conflict Liberia." PhD diss, Widener University.

Author: Carli N. Pruitt

Abstract:

The Liberian people have suffered immensely in recent decades; years of guerrilla-style civil conflict followed by the Ebola crisis has dramatically impacted the nation in a variety of ways. Sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) is highly prevalent in modern day Liberia, as a result of the country’s torrid past. This qualitative study examined the implementation of gender based initiatives under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in post-conflict Liberia. The primary goal of the study was to identify barriers to implementation of initiatives aimed at gender equality and addressing the issue of sexual and gender based violence. Identification of these barriers is the first step to improved implementation and, ultimately, a reduction in the prevalence of SBGV as well as justice and improved treatment for victims. Seven individuals who directly work with victims of sexual and gender based violence were interviewed utilizing a semistructure questionnaire, and the transcripts were then analyzed using NVivo software and modified grounded theory. Three themes emerged from the content of the interviews: cultural trauma, inadequate government action, and ineffective community response. Participants identified poverty, an inefficient legal system, and a lack of accessible healthcare as the most prominent barriers to implementation of UNSCR gender based initiatives in post-conflict Liberia. Moreover, participants made numerous recommendations to positively impact implementation and identified ways in which the government and the communities are already making positive steps in the right direction. While this study demonstrates that there is much more work to be done, it also highlights the progress achieved thus far as well as the hope and resilience of the Liberian people.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2018

Masculinity, Post-Conflict Police Reform & Gender-Based Violence in Northern Ireland & Bosnia Herzegovina

Citation:

Melia, Jan. 2018. "Masculinity, Post-Conflict Police Reform & Gender-Based Violence in Northern Ireland & Bosnia Herzegovina." PhD diss., University of Aberdeen.

Author: Jan Melia

Abstract:

This dissertation aims to examine masculinities and transitional police reform, considering policy and processes, and investigating the policing of gender-based violence in post-war societies. Drawing upon current feminist theory in the field of transitional justice, it focuses on masculinities in formal post-conflict police reform processes, an area that has been much under-researched in the academic literature. More specifically, the dissertation examines international processes focused on police reform advocacy relating to gender-sensitive reform, and local level police reform relating to gender-based violence (GBV). To examine local level reforms, two post-conflict case sites, Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH), and Northern Ireland (NI) were selected for investigation. My research understands gender as a discursive construct and investigates the gendered conceptions built into police reform policy, process, and practice. How these conceptions come to be part of police reform texts and how they manifest in post-conflict policing responses to gender-based violence (GBV) is the focus of the dissertation. Overall, my research identifies masculinity as an unstated norm in police reform, and case study findings indicate that hegemonic masculinities shape police reform policy and practice relating to GBV in particular ways, reiterating conventional gender norms, and limiting the potential for transformative change. Findings suggest that current reforms in post-conflict transitions contribute to, and constitute a process of remasculinisation.

Keywords: masculinity, police, police administration, women

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Security Sector Reform Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, United Kingdom

Year: 2018

Human Rights Frameworks and Women's Rights in Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone

Citation:

Lahai, John Idriss, and Nenneh Lahai. 2018. "Human Rights Frameworks and Women's Rights in Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone." In Gender in Human Rights and Transitional Justice, edited by John Idriss Lahai and Khanyisela Moyo, 143-74. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: John Idriss Lahai, Nenneh Lahai

Abstract:

The end of transitional justice in Sierra Leone coincided with an increase in women’s human rights activism. Reasons for this included an increase in the level of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and the ineffectiveness and insensitivity of the human rights laws of the country. To the women’s rights activists, SGBV and its associated inequalities before the law, irrespective of the context, were incompatible with the universal tenets of human rights. Within the purview of feminist legal theory, women’s rights were understood to be not just about the codification of rights and responsibilities (see Bunch, 1995; Manjoo, 2012; Quraishi, 2011), but also about recognizing the familial, social, cultural, political, and economic ramifications of gender inequality on the incidence of violence and discrimination experienced by women who seek redress from, or are in conflict with, the law (Banda & Joffe, 2016; Lockwood, 2006; Reilly, 2009). This theory also understands, in context-neutral terms, women’s rights to be about the reconfiguration of the institutions and policies created to protect the inalienable rights and agency of women.

Keywords: human rights, transitional justice, violence against women (VAW), Sierra Leone Police, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2018

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