SV against Men

'Luk pe Coo,' or Compensation as Dowry? Gendered Reflections on Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against Men

Citation:

Schulz, Philipp. 2018. "'Luk pe Coo,' or Compensation as Dowry? Gendered Reflections on Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against Men." The International Journal of Transitional Justice 12 (3): 537-48.

Author: Schulz, Philipp

Abstract:

This Note explores a divergent viewpoint on reparations represented by a small group of male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Northern Uganda. According to this perspective, reparative justice measures equal the payment of dowry, locally conceptualized as luk. In this reading, reparations, if regarded as dowry, further cement survivors’ perceived inferior subject positioning in a gendered manifestation and as previously initiated through the sexual violations. If viewed as dowry, reparations can thus entrench further gendered harms, rather than redressing suffering and vulnerabilities. These findings stand in contrast to how the relationships between reparations, victimhood and gender are commonly theorized, thus implying novel empirical and conceptual implications for gender-sensitive reparations in response to conflict-related sexual violence. Based upon these findings, I emphasize that reparations are value-loaded and inevitably depend on local gendered, cultural and societal contexts.

Keywords: reparations, gender, sexual violence / rape, masculinities, Northern Uganda

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Reparations, Sexual Violence, SV against Men Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2018

Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court

Citation:

Grey, Rosemary. 2019. Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes at the International Criminal Court. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Rosemary Grey

Annotation:

Summary: 
The 1998 Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), includes a longer list of gender-based crimes than any previous instrument of international criminal law. The Statute's twentieth anniversary provides an opportunity to examine how successful the ICC has been in prosecuting those crimes, what challenges it has faced, and how its caselaw on these crimes might develop in future. Taking up that opportunity, this book analyses the ICC's practice in prosecuting gender-based crimes across all cases for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the ICC up until mid-2018. This analysis is based on a detailed examination of court records and original interviews with prosecutors and gender experts at the Court. This book covers topics of emerging interest to practitioners in this field, including wartime sexual violence against men and boys, persecution on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation, and sexual violence against 'child soldiers'. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)

 

Topics: Combatants, Child Soldiers, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, LGBTQ, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2019

The Vulnerability of the Penis: Sexual Violence against Men in Conflict and Security Frames

Citation:

Clark, Janine Natalya. 2017. "The Vulnerability of the Penis: Sexual Violence against Men in Conflict and Security Frames." Men and Masculinities 22 (5): 778-800.

Author: Janine Natalya Clark

Abstract:

Sexual violence remains a persistent scourge of war. The use of sexual violence against men in armed conflict, however, remains underresearched and is often sidelined. As an explanation, this interdisciplinary article situates the issue of sexual violence against men within a new analytical framework. It does so through a focus on the core subtext which this violence reveals—the vulnerability of the penis. Highlighting critical disconnects between what the penis is and what it is constructed as being, it argues that the vulnerable penis destabilizes the edifice of phallocentric masculinity, and hence it has wider security implications. Conflict-related sexual violence has increasingly been securitized within the framework of human security. The concept of human security, however, is deeply gendered and often excludes male victims of sexual violence. This gendering, in turn, reflects a broader gendered relationship between sexual violence and security. Sexual violence against women manifests and reaffirms their long-recognized vulnerability in war. Sexual violence against men, in contrast, exposes the vulnerability of the penis and thus represents a deeper security threat. Fundamentally, preserving the integrity and power of the phallus is critical to the security and integrity of phallocentric masculinity and thus to maintaining a systemic stability that is crucial in situations of war and armed conflict.

Keywords: bodies, conflict, hegemonic masculinity, performativity, violence, war

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, Violence

Year: 2017

Languages of Castration – Male Genital Mutilation in Conflict and Its Embedded Messages

Citation:

Myrttinen, Henri. 2018. "Languages of Castration – Male Genital Mutilation in Conflict and Its Embedded Messages." In Sexual Violence Against Men in Global Politics, edited by Marysia Zalewski, Paula Drumond, Elisabeth Prugl, and Maria Stern. London: Routledge.

Author: Henri Myrttinen

Abstract:

This chapter explores the various forms of violence directed against male sexual/reproductive organs in different settings of violent conflict and some of the meanings attached to these acts in these contexts by the various people partaking in the act directly either as victims/survivors, perpetrator, and witnesses or indirectly as audiences. The tendency to not discuss acts of violence against male genital mutilation and its real-life repercussions even where there is evidence of these acts has the potential to render whole categories of victims/survivors invisible. Another key problem with interpreting the ‘languages of castration’ is a lack of research on perpetrator motivations as well as on victims’ and community members’ understandings of the violence and its meanings. The chapter focuses on a review of secondary materials, in addition to which some background interviews were conducted with academic researchers and NGO practitioners working on sexual violence against men and boys (SVAMB) as well as informal discussions with investigators working for international agencies.

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Men, Boys, Health, Reproductive Health, International Organizations, Male Victims, NGOs, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2018

Invisible Victims? Where are Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in International Law and Policy?

Citation:

Gorris, Ellen Anna Philo. 2015. “Invisible Victims? Where are Male Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in International Law and Policy?” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 412-427. 

Author: Ellen Anna Philo Gorris

Abstract:

In this article the author argues that men and boys have been historically and structurally rendered an invisible group of victims in international human rights and policy responses towards conflict-related sexual violence stemming from the United Nations. The apparent female-focused approach of instruments on sexual violence is criticized followed by a discussion – through analysis and interviews with legal scholars and champions for the recognition of male survivors’ experiences – of the first ‘emergence’ of male victims in these instruments and key actors involved in this process. The existing serious dichotomy between visible and invisible victims is prominently based on their ‘gender identity’ and leads to structural discrimination of male victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence. To overcome this situation and develop more inclusive instruments, a reconceptualization is needed of the meaning and use of words like ‘gender’ and ‘gender-based violence’. Additionally, a more intersectional approach to sexual violence should be adopted, understanding that victims have a multitude of identities such as ethnicity or religious affiliation that make them particularly vulnerable to suffering.

Keywords: sexual violence, male victims, human rights, conflict, gender, intersectionality, women, women, peace, and Security

Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Men, Boys, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Conflict, Intersectionality, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR 1820, UNSCR 1888, UNSCR 1889, UNSCR 1960, UNSCR 2106, UNSCR 2122, Sexual Violence, SV against Men

Year: 2015

Locating “Queer” in Contemporary Writing of Love and War in Nigeria

Citation:

Munro, Brenna. 2016. “Locating ‘Queer’ in Contemporary Writing of Love and War in Nigeria.” Research in African Literatures 47 (2): 121–38.

Author: Brenna Munro

Abstract:

The child soldier novel is not usually read in terms of sexuality; however, sexual trauma, sex between men and boys, and the production of damaged masculinities are central to representations of the boy soldier in contem- porary writing about war from Nigeria, including Chris Abani’s Song for Night (2007), Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation (2005), and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). The queer gures of the perverse adult military man and the violated and violating boy soldier emerge in complex relation to contemporary representations of the Nigerian gay man—and all of these texts negotiate the politics of sex and race across multiple reading publics. Jude Dibia’s gay character Adrian in Walking with Shadows (2005) asserts legibility and respectability in sharp contrast to the queer subjectivi- ties of war writing, for example, yet all of these texts dramatize negotiations with stigma as it circulates across representations of sexuality.

 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Gender, Men, Boys, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Race, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Men, Terrorism Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2016

Sexual Minorities in Conflict Zones: A Review of the Literature

Citation:

Moore, Melinda W., and John R. Barner. 2017. “Sexual Minorities in Conflict Zones: A Review of the Literature.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 35: 33-37.

Authors: Melinda W. Moore, John R. Barner

Abstract:

In civil and ethnic conflict, sexual minorities experience a heightened risk for war crimes such as sexual violence, torture, and death. As a result, sexual minorities remain an invisible population in armed conflict out of a need for safety. Further study of sexual minorities in conflict zones confronts matters of human rights, war crimes, and the psychosocial effects of war. This article reviews the existing research on sexual minorities in conflict zones, examines the findings on human rights, war crimes, and the psychosocial effects of war and violence on sexual minority populations, and reviews the barriers to effectiveness faced by intervention programs developed spe- cifically to aid post-conflict societies. The article concludes with a summary of findings within the literature and further considerations for research on aggression and violent behavior with sexual minority groups in conflict zones.

Keywords: violence, aggression, Sexual minorities, gender, war, armed conflict, human rights

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Human Rights, Justice, War Crimes, LGBTQ, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, SV against Women, Torture, Sexual Torture, Violence

Year: 2017

Rape as a Weapon of War(riors): The Militarisation of Sexual Violence in the United States, 1990-2000

Citation:

Cerretti, Josh. 2016. “Rape as a Weapon of War(riors): The Militarisation of Sexual Violence in the United States, 1990-2000.” Gender & History 28 (3): 794-812. 

Author: Josh Cerretti

Topics: Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Men, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2016

Gender Trouble at Abu Ghraib?

Citation:

Kaufman-Osborn, Timothy. 2005. “Gender Trouble at Abu Ghraib?” Politics & Gender 1 (4): 597-619.

Author: Timothy Kaufman-Osborn

Abstract:

This essay explores the controversy spawned by the release, in April, 2004, of the photo- graphs taken by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Its particular concern is with photographs that depict American servicewomen engaged in various forms of abusive conduct against Iraqi prisoners. In its opening half, the essay examines and criticizes the responses to these photographs offered, first, by right-wing commentators and, second, by American feminists, most notably Barbara Ehrenreich. All read these photographs as a referendum on feminism and, more particularly, its commitment to the cause of gender equality; and all do so, I argue, on the basis of a naive understanding of gender. In its latter half, accordingly, the essay offers a more adequate understanding of gender, one loosely grounded in the work of Judith Butler and the concept of performativity. Referencing various official interrogation manuals, as well as the investigative reports released in the wake of this scandal, the essay employs this concept in offering a more adequate account of the gendered import of the deeds depicted in the Abu Ghraib photographs. It concludes by arguing that what is important about these photographs is neither whether the perpetrators of the exploitation they depict are male or female, nor whether the deeds they portray somehow compromise the feminist quest for gender equality. Rather, what is important are the multiple ways in which specifically gendered practices, which can be detached from the bodies they conventionally regulate, are deployed as elements within a more comprehensive network of technologies aimed at disciplining prisoners and so confirming their status as abject subjects of U.S. military power.

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, SV against Men

Year: 2005

The Politics of Pain and the Uses of Torture

Citation:

Philipose, Liz. 2007. “The Politics of Pain and the Uses of Torture.” Signs 32 (4): 1047-71.

Author: Liz Philipose

Annotation:

Summary:
"Since September 11, 2001, the equation of Muslim with terrorist has lodged in the popular imagination in the United States. This conflation undermines the ability to distinguish between a few individuals who have committed or intend to commit acts of extrastate violence (terrorism) and the rest of the Muslim population, a population that consists of more than 1 billion people worldwide. Although public discussions of the so-called Muslim terrorist are often accompanied by disclaimers acknowledging that not all Muslims are a problem or that the political abuse of Islam, rather than Islam itself, is a problem, these caveats fail to dislodge the increasingly intractable conflation of Muslim with terrorist. This article examines how the racialized terrorist is produced through various war- on-terror tactics, including the indefinite detainment and torture of prisoners in U.S. military detention centers and the circulation of torture photographs" (Philipose 2007, 1047).

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Religion, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, Terrorism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2007

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