Torture

The Body and State Violence, from the Harrowing to the Mundane: Chilean Women's Oral Histories of the Augusto Pinochet Dictatorship (1973–1990)

Citation:

Townsend, Brandi. 2019. "The Body and State Violence, from the Harrowing to the Mundane: Chilean Women's Oral Histories of the Augusto Pinochet Dictatorship (19731990)." Journal of Women's History 31 (2): 33-56.

Author: Brandi Townsend

Abstract:

This article analyzes group interviews with three women from Valparaíso, Chile, who were imprisoned together under Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship (1973–1990). Sylvia, Alicia, and Oriana's oral histories reveal that they frequently spoke about their bodies to convey their experiences of state violence. Sylvia and Alicia constructed narratives of rebellion against the regime and challenged long-standing notions of men's domination over women's bodies. Oriana's account, however, uncovers the complexity of learning to live with the enduring effects of sexual torture, while at the same time defying conventional ideas about sex and motherhood. The article also emphasizes how these women spoke about structural and subtler forms of violence, including denying basic hygienic conditions, constraining freedom of movement, and restricting the right to control birth. It demonstrates how these oral histories were mediated by historical discourses of gender, maternity, sexuality, class, and race.

Topics: Class, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Health, Trauma, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights, Torture, Sexual Torture, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Chile

Year: 2019

Risky Dis/entanglements: Torture and Sexual Violence in Conflict

Citation:

Gray, Harriet, and Maria Stern. 2019. "Risky Dis/entanglements: Torture and Sexual Violence in Conflict." European Journal of International Relations 25 (4): 1035-58.

Authors: Harriet Gray, Maria Stern

Abstract:

Conflict-related sexual violence has become increasingly recognized in international spaces as a serious, political form of violence. As part of this process, distinctions between the categories of ‘sexual violence’ and ‘torture’ have blurred as scholars and other actors have sought to capitalize on the globally recognized status of torture in raising the profile of sexual violence. This move, while perhaps strategically promising, even already fruitful, prompts us to heed caution. What might we inadvertently engender by further pursuing such positioning? While torture and sexual violence have both been widely framed within the academic literature as strategic in recent decades, only torture, and not sexual violence, has emerged from elements of this literature as (potentially) legitimate, despite the slippages between them as categories of violence. This article offers one avenue for thinking through what an invigorated focus on sexual torture as a category of violence might unwittingly render possible, and thus for reflecting on the possible stakes of collapsing the categories of sexual violence and torture. Ultimately, we argue that we should perhaps resist the urge to frame sexual violence as torture and instead cleave to the sticky signifier of ‘the sexual’, despite the ways in which it has served to normalize, perpetuate and obfuscate grievous harms throughout history.

Keywords: conflict-related sexual violence, consent, gender, legitimacy, sexual torture, torture

Topics: Conflict, Torture, Sexual Torture, Sexual Violence

Year: 2019

Women in Post-Conflict Niger-Delta of Nigeria: Amnesty versus Restorative Justice

Citation:

Abimbola, Foluke Oluyemisi. 2019. "Women in Post-Conflict Niger-Delta of Nigeria: Amnesty versus Restorative Justice." Journal of Law and Criminal Justice 7 (1): 23-34.

Author: Foluke Oluyemisi Abimbola

Abstract:

The Niger-Delta of Nigeria is known for violence and conflicts as a result of opposition of militant groups to oil exploration activities concentrated in this area of Nigeria. The militant groups are still agitating for a share of the oil revenue and for the development of their region. Women in the Niger-Delta of Nigeria have experienced different levels of violence and torture during these conflict situations. Some of the crimes perpetrated against women during these conflicts are rape, forced labour, sex slavery, and brutal murder of their family members. In addition, during conflict situations and even thereafter, the women experience a deeper level of poverty as a result of their inability to continue with their economic activities such as farming or fishing due to displacements caused by the conflict as most of the women living in the Niger-Delta rural communities are subsistence farmers. Following years of insurgency by angry militants against the Nigerian government, the amnesty strategy was eventually mapped out by the government of the day in order to give the militant youth economic opportunities to stem the tide of conflicts. However, the vast majority of women and girls who were and are still victims of these conflicts were not included. This paper shall highlight the need for restorative justice especially for women who are victims of the insurgency. Whereas amnesty seeks to give a better future to the militants, the women are unable to recover effectively with little or no means of indemnifying their losses. This paper proposes restitution or compensation for victims while creating constructive roles for victims in the criminal justice process.

Keywords: women, Niger Delta, post-conflict mechanisms, amnesty, restorative justice

Topics: Age, Youth, Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Economies, Poverty, Conflict, Resource Conflict, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Governance, Justice, Torture, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2019

The Gender Dimensions of Violence and Conflict: The Case of Inter-Ethnic Land Conflict in Mt. Elgon, Kenya

Citation:

Kimkung, Pamela and Cristina Espinosa. 2012. "The Gender Dimensions of Violence and Conflict: The Case of Inter-Ethnic Land Conflict in Mt. Elgon, Kenya." International Journal of Development and Conflict 2 (3): 1-16.

Authors: Pamela Kimkung, Cristina Espinosa

Abstract:

The violence displayed during the inter-ethnic land conflicts in Mount Elgon–which started in 2005 and escalated in the midst of the nation-wide 2007 Post Election Violence–reveals not only the limits of post-colonial states to reverse the colonial expropriation of land that destroyed indigenous land tenure systems and accentuated inter-ethnic conflicts; it reveals the gender dimensions of the conflict, where men and women were differently affected before, during, and after the conflict. While gender and sexual based violence (GSBV) was not restricted to women there were important differences that confirms the subordinated status of women and the heavier cost they had to pay. While men were also subjected to GSBV in the form of torture and/or castration it was mostly some young men who were targeted for this abuse. By contrast, women raped and sexually abused ranged from little girls to old women, since women of all age were targeted for GSBV; while men experienced GSBV only during the conflict as inflicted either by enemies or the army, women experienced GSBV before, during, and after the conflict. Not only did they experience it from the militia, the army or the camp's guards but also from their own husbands in the form of domestic sexual violence; women also carried the stigma of rape and abuse forever after the episodes. While SGBV seriously challenged the masculinity of those individual men affected, it did not challenged the patriarchal hierarchies that keep women and girls subordinated, unable to find a nurturing environment to heal their wounds after the conflict. On the contrary, after the GSBV and abuse, women faced stigma and isolation and severe health issues in a context of social disruption of family, kin, and clan structures. The different ways men and women were affected by the conflict has severe implications for the post-conflict interventions which being gender-blind, have not been gender neutral, reinforcing female subordination and trauma among the survivors of the conflict. Some reflections on how to make post-conflict interventions more gender-sensitive are also presented.

Keywords: gender and sexual based violence, gender and post-conflict interventions, inter-ethnic land conflict and gender

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Land Tenure, Post-Conflict, Rights, Land Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Torture Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Kenya

Year: 2012

Violence against Women in Armed Conflicts: Pre, During and Post

Citation:

Sklavou, Konstantina. 2019. "Violence against Women in Armed Conflicts: Pre, During and Post." Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health 2 (4): 254-8. 

Author: Konstantina Sklavou

Abstract:

The article will briefly present the problem of violence against women in armed conflict. Violence during war varies in extent and takes distinct forms, sometimes is widespread and yet in other conflicts is quite limited. In conflicts violence takes different forms, sexual slavery, torture in detention, rape, humiliation, discriminations etc.  However sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflicts lacks visibility and is not fully understood as it is often labeled as a woman›s only issue and normalizing rape and sexual assault contains the risk of permitting sexual violence and legitimizing its use as a weapon of war.

Keywords: gender, violence, ethnicity, armed conflicts, human rights, immigrants, refugees

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Torture, Violence

Year: 2019

Female Crimes against Humanity

Citation:

DeCarlo, Josephine. 2019. "Female Crimes Against Humanity." In The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime, edited by Frances P. Bernat and Kelly Frailing. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Author: Josephine DeCarlo

Abstract:

Crimes against women have long been ignored or given diminished priority within justice systems whether those systems were local, national, or international. However, as the world strives for gender equality, the international justice system has begun to recognize the distinctive repercussions for female victims, and how women can be targeted as an identified people group. Through the help of advances within diverse fields (including psychology, sociology, applied criminology, etc.), we have also come to better analyze the motivation(s) behind gender crimes and the circumstances under which they are committed. Through closer analysis of the motivations and circumstances regarding crimes against women, we have further developed and expanded concepts such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. (While some notable trials are covered, for the sake of concision, not all are included.) Additionally, we have ascertained that one's sexuality can be utilized as a weapon or strategy of war.

Keywords: gender crimes, genocide, human rights, rape, sexual violence, torture, war crimes

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality, Torture

Year: 2019

Service Responses for Survivors of Conflict and Post-Conflict Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Torture in the Great Lakes Region

Citation:

Liebling, Helen. 2018. "Service Responses for Survivors of Conflict and Post-Conflict Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Torture in the Great Lakes Region." In Global Health and Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives, edited by Colleen O'Manique and Pieter Fourie, 28-44. Milton Park: Routledge.

Author: Helen Liebling

Abstract:

This chapter proposes that the impact of conflict and post-conflict sexual violence and torture on survivors has often been misunderstood by service providers, academics, and policy makers. It argues for an alternative conceptualisation that is gendered and recognises the devastating impact on survivors’ reproductive and psychological health based on research carried out in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The importance of placing the voices of survivors central in the security debate is highlighted. Sexual violence and torture are violations of survivors’ rights; their bodies, health, and their right to justice need to go hand in hand. Holistic service responses for survivors and a model of care for service providers are required. It is important that such approaches remain sensitive to gender differences, cultural context, and informed by a considered understanding and normalisation of the impact of traumatic experiences. It is argued that services should address stigma and shame as barriers to service access and hence effective responses. In conjunction with restorative justice processes and social support, this would effectively build on the resilience and reconstruction of identities of survivors and their communities.

Keywords: torture, violence, sexual violence, service provider, gender, health, justice, shame, normalization, social support, gender-specific factors, reconstruction, community, experience, resilience

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Security, Sexual Violence, Torture Regions: Africa, East Africa

Year: 2018

Djamilah

"Egyptian historical film about one of the most important figures in the history of Algeria, Djamila Bouhired. This film is regarded as not only highlighting the story of an important female revolutionary, but also showing the struggle of the Algerian people against the French occupation."

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051539/

Violencia de género hacia mujeres del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra

Citation:

Carrillo Franco, Blanca Estela, Emma Zapata Martelo, and Verónica Vázquez García. “Violencia de género hacia mujeres del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra.” Política y cultura, no. 32 (2009): 127–147.

Authors: Blance Estela Carillo Franco, Emma Zapata Martelo, Verónica Vázquez García

Abstract:

En este artículo se aborda la represión que sufrieron por parte del Estado las mujeres integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT), cuando se movilizaron para defender sus tierras. Mediante reconstrucción y análisis de las memorias que ellas guardan del suceso, se propone reflexionar cómo el Estado utiliza la violencia de género como estrategia para frenar la participación de las mujeres. Se parte de información testimonial y observación participante en espacios organizativos del FPDT para explicar cómo la intervención en este movimiento las ha llevado a sufrir violencia de género y tortura sexualizada. Asimismo, se expone cómo pudieron superar la experiencia que implicó la persecución política hacia el movimiento. (Abstract from original source)

This article analyzes the way in which the female members of the social movement Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT) have experienced state violence. Through oral testimonies and field work into organizative spaces of the FPDT, we show how women’s political participation has helped them overcome the experience of gender violence and political persecution, including sexual violation and torture. (English provided by original source)

Topics: Political Participation, Rights, Land Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2009

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

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