Yugoslavia (former)

Citation:

Batinic, Jelena. 2001. "Feminism, Nationalism, and War: The ‘Yugoslav Case’ in Feminist Texts." Journal of International Women's Studies 3 (1): 1-23. 

Author: Jelena Batinic

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, International Law, Justice, Nationalism, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2001

Citation:

Chappell, Louise. 2003. “Women, Gender and International Institutions: Exploring New Opportunities at the International Criminal Court.” Policy and Society 22 (1): 3–25. doi:10.1016/S1449-4035(03)70011-3.

Author: Louise Chappell

Abstract:

Traditionally women have been constructed in very limited terms under international law. They have been defined through their relationships with either men or with children. Moreover, the types of crimes experienced by women in times of armed conflict, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, have been categorised as less egregious than those experienced by men. In recent years feminists have sought to challenge the existing definition of women, drawing attention to the serious nature of gender-based crimes. They have done this through their engagement with new international institutions including the UN ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the development of the statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC). Through their efforts they have made some significant advances in bringing to light the complex, diverse and unique aspects of women’s lives previously ignored in international criminal and humanitarian law. Although there is still much to be done, feminist activists have demonstrated that the law and its influence are not fixed but dynamic and open to change.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Organizations, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2003

Citation:

Fisher, Siobhán K. 1996. “Occupation of the Womb: Forced Impregnation as Genocide.” Duke Law Journal 46 (1): 91–133.

Author: Siobhán K. Fisher

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 1996

Citation:

Gottschall, Jonathan. 2004. “Explaining Wartime Rape.” Journal of Sex Research 41 (2): 129–36. doi:10.1080/00224490409552221.

Author: Jonathan Gottschall

Abstract:

In the years since the first reports of mass rapes in the Yugoslavian wars of secession and the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, feminist activists and scholars, human rights organizations, journalists, and social scientists have dedicated unprecedented efforts to document, explain, and seek solutions for the phenomenon of wartime rape. While contributors to this literature agree on much, there is no consensus on causal factors. This paper provides a brief overview of the literature on wartime rape in historical and ethnographical societies and a critical analysis of the four leading explanations for its root causes: the feminist theory, the cultural pathology theory, the strategic rape theory, and the biosocial theory. The paper concludes that the biosocial theory is the only one capable of bringing all the phenomena associated with wartime rape into a single explanatory context.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Secessionist Wars, Gender, Genocide, Justice, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2004

Citation:

Sofos, Spyros. 2010. “Inter-Ethnic Violence and Gendered Constructions of Ethnicity in Former-Yugoslavia.” Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 2 (1): 73–92.

Author: Spyros Sofos

Abstract:

This article constitutes an attempt to put forward some suggestions towards constructing a framework of understanding the processes of social construction of sexuality and gender identity within the context of the ethnic conflict, and of nationalist/populist politics in former Yugoslavia. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which masculinist discourse is articulated to the politics of ethnicity in former Yugoslavia, by examining the definition and treatment of women as `biological reproducers of the nation’ through the discourses and policy proposals of moral majority nationalist and pro-life movements in Croatia and Slovenia, and of the nationalist movement and regime in Serbia, and the use of rape and sexual assault against women as `weapons’ in the ethnic conflict in Bosnia and other republics of former Yugoslavia.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Sexuality Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2010

Citation:

Vikman, Elisabeth. 2005. “Modern Combat: Sexual Violence in Warfare, Part II.” Anthropology & Medicine 12 (1): 33–46. doi:10.1080/13648470500049834.

Author: Elisabeth Vikman

Abstract:

The previous part of this paper showed how sexual violence was perpetrated in ancient warfare. To follow here is an examination of modern evidence from China, Vietnam and former Yugoslavia, investigating influences that have pertained over centuries. A considerable amount of literature treats this subject, both with regards to specific cases and general theories. The aim here is to follow up questions posed in the previous paper. When, how and against whom is sexual violence perpetrated? Are there patterns or is it executed at random? What are the motives? Records of the conflicts were researched and existing theories applied to assist the interpretation of data. The results showed that violence often follows a pattern and that individual and common motives are intertwined. Comparing ancient and modern warfare, this paper demonstrates how certain cultural factors of military life shape the execution and perception of sexual violence during war, historically and cross-culturally.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Balkans Countries: China, Vietnam, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2005

Citation:

Bracewell, Wendy. 2000. “Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism 6 (4): 563–90.

Author: Wendy Bracewell

Abstract:

Accusations of Albanian rape of Serbs in Kosovo became a highly charged political factor in the development of Serbian nationalism in the 1980s. Discussions of rape were used to link perceptions of national victimisation and a crisis of masculinity and to legitimate a militant Serbian nationalism, ultimately contributing to the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. The article argues for attention to the ways that nationalist projects have been structured with reference to ideals of masculinity, the specific political and cultural contexts that have influenced these processes, and the consequent implications for gender relations as well as for nationalist politics. Such an approach helps explain the appeal of Milošević’s nationalism; at the same time it highlights the divisions and conflicts that lie behind hegemonic gender and national identities constructed around difference.

Topics: Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Nationalism, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Baltic states, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2000

Citation:

Price, Lisa S. 2001. “Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist: Some Reflections on Comprehension and Accountability.” Women’s Studies International Forum 24 (2): 211–27.

Author: Lisa S. Price

Abstract:

Drawing on research into war rape in the former Yugoslavia, this article considers a means of comprehending the motives of perpetrators. It argues that they are neither mad nor bad but ordinary men acting out of comprehensible motives. It further argues that to the extent that perpetrators act out of choice, they can and should be held accountable for their acts of sexual violence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2001

Citation:

Niarchos, Catherine N. 1995. “Women, War, and Rape: Challenges Facing the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.” Human Rights Quarterly 17 (4): 649-90.

Author: Catherine N. Niarchos

Abstract:

The International Tribunal established in 1993 to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991 has jurisdiction over acts of violence against women, including rape, forced prostitution, and forced impregnation. An estimated 20,000-50,000 women were raped in acts which were not random but, in fact, appear to be part of a deliberate policy. Rape has always played a significant role in war. Historically, it has not been regarded as a serious crime; at most, it has been considered a crime against honor. In order for the Tribunal to successfully address rape in the former Yugoslavia, it must overcome the double legacy of the historic use of rape as a weapon of war and the tendency of international humanitarian law's to overlook and dismiss the experience of women.

Topics: Gender, Women, International Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 1995

Citation:

Stiglmayer, Alexandra. 1994. Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Author: Alexandra Stiglmayer

Abstract:

Alexandra Stiglmayer interviewed survivors of the continuing war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to reveal, to a seemingly deaf world, the horrors of the ongoing war in the former Yugoslavia. The women—primarily of Muslim but also of Croatian and Serbian origin—have endured the atrocities of rape and the loss of loved ones. Their testimony, published in the 1993 German edition, is bare, direct, and its cumulative effect overwhelming.

The first English edition contains Stiglmayer's updates to her own two essays, one detailing the historical context of the current conflict and the other presenting the core of the book, interviews with some twenty victims of rape as well as interviews with three Serbian perpetrators. Essays investigating mass rape and war from ethnopsychological, sociological, cultural, and medical perspectives are included.

New essays by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Rhonda Copelon, and Susan Brownmiller address the crucial issues of recognizing the human rights of women and children. A foreword by Roy Gutman describes war crimes within the context of the UN Tribunal, and an afterword by Cynthia Enloe relates the mass rapes of this war to developments and reactions in the international women's movement.

Accounts of torture, murder, mutilation, abduction, sexual enslavement, and systematic attempts to impregnate—all in the name of "ethnic cleansing"—make for the grimmest of reading. However brutal and appalling the information conveyed here, this book cannot and should not be ignored. (Amazon)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Torture Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 1994