Justice

International Protection for the Victims of Sexual Violence in Conflict?

Citation:

Freedman, Jane. 2009. “International Protection for the Victims of Sexual Violence in Conflict?” Paper presented at the International Studies Association’s 50th Annual Convention, New York, February 15.

Author: Jane Freedman

Annotation:

Despite the recognition of rape as a war crime by international policy-making organisations and international criminal tribunals,  it is still difficult for the victims of rape during wars to access national and international protection or reparation.

Topics: Armed Conflict, International Law, International Organizations, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Reparations, War Crimes, Sexual Violence

Year: 2009

Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime: Human Rights’ Last Taboo?

Citation:

Del Zotto, Augusta, and Adam Jones. 2002. “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime: Human Rights’ Last Taboo?” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, New Orleans, March 23-27.

Authors: Augusta Del Zotto, Adam Jones

Annotation:

Del Zotto and Jones explore the complex cultural and institutional factors that have contributed to the silencing of men's and boy's experiences of sexual assault in warfare. They state that the lack of widespread institutional recognition of male-on-male sexual violence in wartime stems form three conditions: (1) The historical silencing of men's experiences of intra-gender abuse and cruelty. (2) The far-reaching dissemination and institutionalization of narrow feminist constructions of masculinity and sexual violence, reflected in the academic and activist literature as well as the actions of international organizations and the coverage offered by mass media. (3) The appropriation of this narrow construction of masculinity by political elites as a way of upholding regional security interests

The authors examine in turn the agendas and discourse of policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and feminist scholarship. They argue that, because institutionalized recognition of war sex crimes performs a strategic function, the construction of this human rights problem calls attention to certain types of victims, while ignoring others.  Human rights policies and activism are determined by narrow constructions of masculinity and femininity. Some indication of the power of the dominant framework can be found in a random sample of 60 NGO reports that address the issue of sexual assault in wartime. The authors find that 58 NGO reports framed victims of sexual assaults solely as “women or girls.”   An analysis of 4,076 NGOs conducting work on sexual violence and assault during wartime shows that only 3 % of the organizations specifically mention the experience of male victims in their programming or literature, while roughly 25 % of the groups deny male on male sexual violence as a problem. Del Zotto and Jones argue that one key reason for this neglect is that NGOs rely on both government and private funding to operate their services. Another influential element is the framing of sexual violence by feminist scholars and activists.In the second part of the paper, the authors look at feminism and sexual victimization in the Balkan’s War, arguing that there has not been a serious attempt to explore the subject of male sexual victimization in the feminist study of the Balkans wars. The authors also argue that the ICTY’s mandate focused on the protection of women, argue that male victims were omitted, conceptually and de facto, from the trial process. 

19 of the reports actually used the phrase ‘war against women’ as a central one in their literature. 58 framed victims of sexual assaults solely as ‘women’ and/or ‘girls.’ The remaining two used the generic phrase ‘person.’ 13 referred to sexual torture as deriving from male heterosexual desire (all were agencies based in the Third World). 24 evinced a preoccupation with female ‘honor’ (sexual assault reduces or eliminates the female's chances of marriage, etc.). This construction pervaded both western and non-western sources, including reports by the respected organization Human Rights Watch. 7, including OXFAM, did mention the sexual exploitation of male children, though.

Quotes:

"Elite political actors, non-governmental organizations, and feminist scholars and activists must all be pressed to incorporate the male victim into their analysis of wartime sexual violence, and to work to provide the necessary resources to meet that victim's needs. Until they do so, the prevailing framing of sexual violence in war will continue to be one-dimensional and woefully inadequate, and the survivors will continue to suffer in silence imposed from both within and without." 

“Between 1998 and 2000, over a half-million women applied for asylum or refugee status in the U.S. based on gendered persecution, including war-related persecution. Meanwhile, approximately 70,000 men apply for U.S. asylum each year (over the past 10 years), representing 15% more applications than women. How many applications cited sexual violence? None.”

“An examination of 36 asylum cases involving women and 44 involving men found that all but two women were questioned by INS officials as to whether they faced sexual danger in their homeland; none of the males was asked a similar question (U.S. Justice Department Immigration Briefs, 1997-2001).”

“A hermeneutic reading of 360 transcripts from the U.S. Congress and State Department as well as British, German, and Canadian parliaments between 1977 and 1989 indicates that rape and sexual assault in wartime have been defined as exclusively heterosexual (more specifically, male-on-female) acts. The framework throughout was informed by a narrow definition of sexual assault stemming from a monolithic view of masculine power and a one-dimensional interpretation of female victimization.” 

“To our knowledge, no international organization or NGO has established a research program or policy initiative specifically focused on male victims of sexual violence in wartime; and not a single international NGO mentions wartime sexual violence against males in its annual report. These are oversights that in our view urgently need to be addressed and rectified.”

“There are currently 4,076 non-governmental groups that address war rape and other forms of political sexual violence (Del Zotto, 2001). Out of this number, only 3% mention the experiences of males at all in their programs and informational literature. About one quarter of the groups explicitly deny that male-on-male violence is a serious problem.” 

Topics: Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, International Organizations, Justice, War Crimes, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2002

UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Gender, and Transitional Justice

Citation:

Binder, Christina, Karin Lukas, and Romana Schweiger. 2009. “UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Gender, and Transitional Justice.” In Gendering Global Transformations: Gender, Culture, Race, and Identity, edited by Chima J. Korieh and Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika, 201-19. New York: Routledge.

Authors: Christina Binder, Karin Lukas, Romana Schweiger

Topics: Gender, Women, Justice, Transitional Justice, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2009

“The Grass That Gets Trampled When Elephants Fight”: Will the Codification of the Crime of Aggression Protect Women?

Citation:

Schaack, Beth. 2010. “‘The Grass That Gets Trampled When Elephants Fight’: Will the Codification of the Crime of Aggression Protect Women?” 10-10, School of Law, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA.

Author: Beth Schaack

Abstract:

This article analyzes the outcome of the Kampala process with an eye toward the rarely-considered gender aspects of the crime of aggression, whether or not the provisions adopted represent an advancement for women, and how aspects of feminist theory might interpret the new regime. The article concludes that any impact of the provisions will inevitably be limited by gaps and ambiguities in the definition of the crime and the jurisdictional regime, which is premised on state consent and exempts non-states parties altogether. At the same time, the insertion of the crime of aggression in the Rome Statute enables the prosecution of a wider range of acts, and actors, that cause harm to women and makes actionable harm to women that may not rise to the level of war crimes or crimes against humanity and that has historically been rendered juridically invisible by the collateral damage euphemism. Extending the reach of international criminal law may generate indirect negative effects from the interaction of the Court’s potential to prosecute the crime of aggression and the long-standing jus in bello, that body of rules governing how war is waged rather than why war is waged, which is the purview of the jus ad bellum. By penalizing the resort to armed force, the threat of prosecution of the crime of aggression may undermine incentives to comply with key doctrines within international humanitarian law that serve to protect civilians and other vulnerable groups.

It also remains to be seen whether the codification of the crime of aggression will serve any deterrent purpose whatsoever when governmental leaders contemplate using force – offensively or defensively – in their international relations, especially in situations that do not implicate exigent sovereign threats. To the extent that the new provisions do exert a restraining effect, the expansive way in which the crime has been defined may end up chilling those uses of force that are protective and thus more discretionary, such as uses of force employed pursuant to the nascent doctrine of responsibility to protect. The crime may thus result in more ex post prosecutions at the expense of ex ante efforts at preventing and repressing violence. Whether this over-deterrence argument should be raised on behalf of women, however, requires an acceptance of the legitimacy, if not lawfulness, of humanitarian intervention with or without Security Council approval and a coming to terms with a certain valorization of militarism and its inherent masculinities – a perspective that is alien to much feminist thinking.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has yet to demonstrate that it can fulfill its current mandate. Operationalizing the crime of aggression without allocating additional resources to enable the Court to prosecute this controversial, largely unprecedented, and qualitatively different crime may distract the Court from responding more effectively to the “atrocity crimes” that now finally address gender-based violence more directly. The crime may also encourage the Court to focus on leaders in capital cities rather than the warlords next door, whom victims more directly associate with atrocities and without whose prosecution it may be impossible to achieve complete justice for women. Given the potential to reach top political leaders, the crime may be also subject to abuse. The amendments approved in Kampala will eventually permit states parties to refer each other to the ICC as alleged violators of the prohibition against aggression. Misuse of this referral authority could render the Court little more than just another forum for states to manipulate and exploit in order to advance their interests. Such an outcome would politicize and de-legitimate the Court.

At this early stage in the life of the Court and in the absence of any concrete experience investigating or prosecuting the new crime of aggression, these bases for criticism and praise are inherently speculative. Applying a feminist perspective to the codification of the crime of aggression yields no easy conclusions. Rather, reasoning through the central question of whether the codification of the crime in the ICC Statute will be good for women produces a dizzying spiral of dialectical reasoning. And so, as a feminist, I approach the crime with a profound ambivalence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups

Year: 2010

Peacekeepers and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Citation:

Bastick, Megan, Karen Grimm, and Rahel Kunz. 2007. Peacekeepers and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

Authors: Megan Bastick, Karen Grimm, Rahel Kunz

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Displacement & Migration, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women

Year: 2007

Rape at Rome: Feminist Interventions in the Criminalization of Sex Related Violence in Positive International Criminal Law

Citation:

Halley, Janet. 2008. “Rape at Rome: Feminist Interventions in the Criminalization of Sex Related Violence in Positive International Criminal Law.” Michigan Journal of International Law 30: 1–123.

Author: Janet Halley

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Sexual Violence

Year: 2008

Gender-Based Crimes under the Draft Statute for the Permanent International Criminal Court

Citation:

Erb, Nicole Eva. 1998. “Gender-Based Crimes under the Draft Statute for the Permanent International Criminal Court.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 29: 401–35.

Author: Nicole Eva Erb

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 1998

Breaking the Silence: Rape as an International Crime

Citation:

Ellis, Mark. 2006. “Breaking the Silence: Rape as an International Crime.” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 38 (2): 225–47.

Author: Mark Ellis

Abstract:

The article focuses on the advancement of the crime of rape as an international crime through the ad hoc Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The concept of rape as an international crime has been defined as a crime of genocide, a crime against humanity, and a war crime. The legal development of rape came in 1949, when rape and assault were included in the Geneva Conventions. Furthermore, the International Criminal Court conduct a diverse out-reach campaign for victims of sexual violence.

Topics: Gender, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans Countries: Rwanda, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2006

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