Human Rights

Citation:

Lykes, M. Brinton, Mary M. Brabeck, Theresa Ferns, and Angela Radan. 1993. “Human Rights and Mental Health among Latin American Women in Situations of State-Sponsored Violence.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 17 (4): 525-44.

Authors: M. Brinton Lykes, Mary M. Brabeck, Theresa Ferns, Angela Radan

Abstract:

A Task Force of the American Psychological Association Division 35, Psychology of Women, has been collecting resources that address issues of human rights and mental health among Latin American women living in situations of war and/or state-sponsored violence. This work is being conducted primarily by women's groups, progressive organizations, and individual women in these contexts of institutionalized political violence. This paper describes our reflections on themes that emerged from our reading of this work. We discuss the false dichotomy between public and private violence, the silencing of women as an inevitable consequence of state-imposed violence, and the collective efforts of women to resist violence and heal its effects. These themes suggest that extreme violence against women can be most adequately understood and responded to within a psychosocial and cultural framework. We examined three issues that emerge from the material gathered by the Task Force that suggest how some Latin American psychologists and activists have begun to articulate such a framework: (a) exile within and outside of one's country of origin; (b) torture, the most extreme form of state-sponsored violence; and (c) nontraditional, culturally appropriate interventions that are alternatives to Anglo-Saxon theory and practice. The work of Latin American individuals is described here as a resource for all who are engaged in the struggle to achieve justice for women.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Rights, Human Rights, Torture, Violence Regions: Americas, Central America, South America

Year: 1993

Citation:

Marshall, Jill. 2008.“Positive Obligations and Gender-based Violence: Judicial Developments.” International Community Law Review 10 (2): 143-69.

Author: Jill Marshall

Abstract:

International human rights protection traditionally protects individuals from human rights violations committed by their own states. This has been criticised by many, and feminists in particular, as failing those who are violated in the 'private sphere', by actions perpetrated by non-state actors not the state itself. Yet protection from the actions of non-state actors is now increasingly falling within the ambit of international human rights law through positive obligations on states, particularly seen in the concept of due diligence. Developments in this area are analysed in this article with focus on recent decisions of international human rights judicial institutions on cases concerning gender-based violence to show how gender-based violations committed by non-state actors are increasingly being included and interpreted as human rights violations. Whilst not without problems, it is argued that the creativity and potential for protecting all persons from human rights violations is shown, particularly through developments towards a right to personal autonomy, identity and integrity.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Human Rights, Justice, Rights, Human Rights

Year: 2008

Citation:

Tétreault, Mary Ann. 1997. “Justice for All: Wartime Rape and Women’s Human Rights.” Global Governance 3 (2): 197–212.

Author: Mary Ann Tétreault

Abstract:

Among the issues to be resolved after an armed conflict are how to reconcile war victims to crimes committed against them, and whether sexual assaults should be incorporated formally among injuries to be redressed. The omission of rape as a war crime is attributed to the gender-differentiated development of human rights norms in the western tradition and in international law. The patterns of redress followed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the recent civil war in Bosnia are compared. While each incorporates significant advantages to victims of wartime rape, the more cumbersome procedure requiring that criminals be tried before an international tribunal is more likely ultimately to assuage the pain of victims individually and promote reconciliation among groups formerly at war.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, International Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kuwait

Year: 1997

Citation:

Gardam, Judith, and Hilary Charlesworth. 2000. “Protection of Women in Armed Conflict.” Human Rights Quarterly 22 (1): 148-66.

Authors: Judith Gardam, Hilary Charlesworth

Abstract:

This article examines the role of the international law in protecting women during armed conflict. The article takes note of role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in addressing needs of women during armed conflict. Women increasingly bear the major burden of armed conflict. In recent years particular attention has been given to the question of violence against women in armed conflict. The significance of these developments is considerable. Considerable work has been done regarding women and armed conflict by institutions concerned with human rights violations against women generally. Indeed, the process of identifying women's particular experiences and demonstrating the failure of the law to acknowledge them is more advanced in this context than in organizations focusing solely on armed conflict. It is evident today that women experience armed conflict in a different way than men. The article concludes that the ICRC is finally recognizing the need to address the specific needs of women in armed conflict. However, a serious commitment to real change is needed. As the traditional guardian of International Humanitarian Law, the ICRC must take concrete steps to make the law relevant to the lives of the majority of the world's population.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Organizations, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2000

Citation:

Stephens, Beth, and Mary Ann Dadisman. 1993. “Women and the Atrocities of War.” American Bar Association 20 (3): 12–15.

Authors: Beth Stephens, Mary Ann Dadisman

Abstract:

The article highlights the need to revise the manner in which violence against women is addressed by international law as of 1003. Worldwide, women have called on the United Nations to incorporate women's human rights concerns into the international human rights agenda, particularly the right to be free from physical abuse. The widespread reporting of the brutal rapes inflicted on Moslem women by Bosnian Serb forces over the last year has given an unprecedented visibility to rapes committed during war. Estimates of the number of women raped--many repeatedly--range from several thousand to 20,000 and higher. Rapes have been committed in detention camps, including special prostitution camps, in homes and villages. There are several ways to approach the application of international law to the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Customary international law includes the basic human rights norms that cannot be derogated and are recognized as binding on all nations. It applies during war as well as during peace, prohibiting gross human rights violations. Many of the norms governing the conduct of war have been recognized as customary international law, binding on all parties whether or not they have ratified the Geneva Conventions or any other international agreement.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Human Rights, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 1993

Citation:

Ron, James. 2000. “Savage Restraint: Israel, Palestine and the Dialectics of Legal Repression.” Social Problems 47 (4): 445–72.

Author: James Ron

Abstract:

In 1988, Israeli security forces engaged in a wide variety of repressive tactics aimed at putting down the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rather than viewing these methods solely as products of instructions handed down from on high, this article regards Israeli tactics as emerging from processes of innovation and elaboration by military personnel. Rules stipulating the legal use of lethal force placed important limits on Israeli military behavior. Within those limits, however soldiers were free to invent new methods of repression. The article draws on 50 open-ended interviews with Israeli military veterans.

Topics: Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2000

Citation:

Alldén, Susanne. 2007. “Internalising the Culture of Human Rights: Securing Women’s Rights in Post-Conflict East Timor.” Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights & the Law 8 (1): 1–23.

Author: Susanne Alldén

Topics: Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2007

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

Citation:

Mantilla Falcón, Julissa. 2005. “The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Treatment of Sexual Violence Against Women.” Human Rights Brief 12 (2): 1–4.

Author: Julissa Mantilla Falcón

Abstract:

Sexual violence against women is an expression of gender- based violence that affects thousands of women around the world during times of armed conflict, as well as in times of peace. Impunity and silence typically surround these cases.

Many times, victims do not discuss what happened to them because of feelings of shame and guilt. In most cases, government authorities and some sectors of civil society do not consider sexual violence to be a human rights violation. Fortunately, international human rights instruments and judicial decisions have begun to define sexual violence as a violation of human rights and, in some contexts, as a crime against humanity or a war crime.

The work of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (PTRC) made important inroads in identifying sex- ual violence as a human rights violation. In its Final Report, the PTRC analyzed the situation of Peruvian women subjected to sexual violence during the armed conflict and countered the idea that it was simply a collateral damage of war. Asserting that sexual violence is a human rights violation, the PTRC established a record of the sexual violence that occurred during Peru’s 20 year armed conflict and recommended that the State institute a system of reparations for the victims.

The Final Report of the PTRC, released on August 28, 2003, includes a chapter on sexual violence against women. This article presents its main findings.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Human Rights, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Impunity, Reparations, TRCs, War Crimes, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Peru

Year: 2005

Citation:

Goldblatt, Beth, and Sheila Meintjes. 1997. “Dealing with the Aftermath: Sexual Violence and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” Agenda, no. 36, 7–18.

Authors: Beth Goldblatt, Sheila Meintjes

Abstract:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has completed its task of holding human rights violation hearings. Thousands of people have faced the Commission and the nation to tell their stories and air their pain. Many, who have listened to this testimony for the past two years, will understandably believe that the story of our past has now been completely told. It has not - violence against women is one of the hidden sides to the story of our past. While certain women bravely recorded their experiences, many others have not been able to come before the TRC. This has implications not only for our understanding of our history but also for current attempts to heal our society. In this article we suggest that past and present violence against women is located on a continuum. The process of rebuilding our society involves helping women survivors to deal with their trauma. The process of creating a new society based on human rights and justice demands serious efforts to create a society where women are free from fear and able to participate fully as citizens of the society. This article first examines the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in dealing with the issue of sexual violence against women and the evidence that did and did not emerge. The article then tries to explore the relationship between political and other sexual violence and the relationship between public and private violence. This leads us towards a preliminary understanding of the gendered nature of South African society both during and in the aftermath of apartheid. Finally, the article proposes certain reparation measures as the means to ensure positive social reconstruction. These must go hand-in- hand with state action to protect women's safety in terms of rights in the Bill of Rights, such as the right to bodily integrity and the right to citizenship. Such rights must however, be asserted and given content by women's organisations and others committed to gender equality.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, TRCs, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 1997