Conflict and Gender: The Implications of the Burundian Conflict on HIV/AIDS Risks

Citation:

Seckinelgin, Hakan, Joseph Bigirumwami, and Jill Morris. 2011. “Conflict and Gender: The Implications of the Burundian Conflict on HIV/AIDS Risks.” Conflict, Security & Development 11 (1): 55–77.

Authors: Hakan Seckinelgin, Joseph Bigirumwami, Jill Morris

Abstract:

Sexual and gender-based violence in many conflict and post-conflict contexts are creating vulnerabilities to HIV. The paper is based on research conducted in Burundi in 2007-08. The country was in a long-term civil war from the early 1990s until recently and has been the locus of post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, providing a coherent and focused study. The research finds that the relationship between conflict and HIV/AIDS is a function of pre-existing gender relations that also regulate sexual life and determine critical female vulnerabilities. When put under stress by armed conflict, these vulnerabilities become amplified, creating conditions for increased spread of HIV. Analysis of how gender relations and vulnerabilities change according to the specific social and economic circumstances generated by military mobilization, organization and deployment, in relation to civilian displacement and insecurity, in a range of distinct circumstances, provides a framework for understanding HIV vulnerabilities during and after the conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, DDR, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Health, HIV/AIDS, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Burundi

Year: 2011