Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War

Abstract

Sexual violence during times of conflict has been historically viewed as a spoil of war or as an individual act of violence rather than one that is politically or ideologically motivated. Today, however, there is an increased understanding that rape—the forced vaginal, anal, or oral penetration of either a male or a female with either a person or an object—is used as a strategic and systematic tactic during armed conflict.1- 3 This Viewpoint examines why sexual violence is an effective weapon of war, its health and psychosocial sequelae, and its association with other forms of gender-based violence.

Full text

The physical wounds suered in most
forms of combat are usually visible,
prioritised for medical treatment
and eventually healed. In contrast,
while sexual violence may result
in signicant physical damage and
severe internal wounding, it is far
less likely to be treated than other
forms of wounding. Handbooks
for intervention in emergency
situations rarely mention vaginal
re-construction as a priority for
surgical intervention even though
sexual violence is now widely
recognised as a frequent method of
warfare. Médecins Sans Frontières’
1997 handbook for emergency
response, for example, had only
two pages dealing with sexual
violence out of a total of 381 pages.1
It is not only physically mature
women who are raped during war but
also children whose bodies have not
yet developed and who may sustain
horric internal injuries as a result.
In addition, in countries where most
women and girls have undergone
female genital mutilation, sexual
violence can cause extensive tearing
externally as well as internally.
Aer conict-related sexual violence,
women and girls with extreme pain
and deep internal tears are oen
le to heal without medication or
surgical intervention – and may
suer vesico-vaginal stulae (tears)
and permanent damage to the uterus
and vagina and may also contract
HIV or other sexually transmied
infections. If she does have access to
medical assistance, a woman or girl
will have to describe and show the
wounds, causing her further distress.
The mental eects of sexual violence
are also distinct in comparison
with other forms of violence. When
violence is perpetrated by a more
powerful other – for example by
virtue of the fact that the perpetrator
is physically stronger, in a gang
and/or armed – the trauma of the
wounding is compounded by the
trauma of being helpless. In addition,
when the violence is sexual it invades
a person’s most intimate space. Raped
women oen live with very high
levels of anxiety and pain. They may
nd it dicult to undertake normal
tasks and interact with others. Women
who have been exposed to sexual
violence experience great distress,
may suer periods of mental illness
and are at increased risk of suicide.
Sexual violence has a profound and long-lasting physical,
psychological and social impact.
Sexual violence: weapon of war
by Katie Thomas
15
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
FMR 27
acknowledging their dierences
assumes a common female agenda
that is hard to dene. Osnat
Lubrani from UNIFEM Bratislava
illustrated UNIFEM’s initiatives for
promoting UNSCR 1325 in South
Eastern Europe and the Middle
East, building on national women’s
movements for peace. And donor
representatives from Switzerland
and Denmark emphasised the
necessity of gender mainstreaming
in projects and programmmes
in conict-prone countries.
Changing gender roles during
conict can empower women but
all too oen their increased role in
household and community decision
making proves unsustainable
when peace returns. Former female
combatants face marginalisation
and discrimination because they
have breached gender stereotypes.
They are all too rarely compensated
for the sexual and psychological
abuse they have suered.
The 300 participants contributed
to recommendations for enhancing
and strengthening implementation
of UNSCR 1325. Speakers and
participants concluded that:
If we do not manage to improve
women’s status at times of
peace we cannot succeed in
doing so at time of war.
Preventing conicts is as
important as peace-building in
post-conict situations: eective
prevention requires good
governance, a functioning justice
system and active respect and
enforcement of human rights.
While justice necessarily entails
punishment for human rights
violators, it also depends on
healing, truth, reconciliation
and forgiveness: local traditions
and rituals can contribute to
this process of reconciliation.
It is important to recognise
that boundaries of who is
victim/perpetrator/protector
are oen blurred.
It is vital to support the media to
disseminate peace messages.
UNSCR 1325 has opened doors but
the resolution and its implications
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are poorly understood. There is a
need to go beyond awareness and
advocacy in order to strengthen the
political process and engage local,
national and international actors,
including women’s organisations.
Brigie M Holzner (brigie.holzner@
ada.gv.at) is gender and development
adviser and Dominique-Claire Mair
(dominique-claire.mair@ada.gv.at)
conict prevention and peace building
adviser for the Austrian Development
Agency. More information about
the symposium – including an
edited video of proceedings – is
at www.ada.gv.at/view.php3?f_
id=9021&LNG=en&version=
1. Symposium speaker Renate Winter drew this parallel
with the Trojan war.
2. See preceding article by Kirk and Taylor.
3. Also former UN Under-Secretary-General, and co-
author – with (current) Liberian President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf – of UNIFEM’s Women, War and Peace.
4. Set up by the Government of Sierra Leone and the
UN, it has indicted 11 senior members of the country’s
former warring factions on charges of commiing war
crimes. www.sc-sl.org
5. www.humansecuritynetwork.org

16 SEXUAL VIOLENCE FMR 27
Most societies will blame, ostracise
and punish women – rather than
men – for sexual violence. The
woman or girl may well be disowned
by her family or expelled by her
community. The indierence of their
family, community, nation and the
international community reinforces
the individual’s hopelessness and
distress. Women and girls who
have experienced sexual violence
have learned that the world is not
safe for females. While an ethnic
or national enemy can be avoided
in a post-conict scenario, it is not
possible to avoid all males. Even
though a woman or girl may be
able to acknowledge intellectually
that the men in her community may
not pose a threat to her, she must
still cope with fear and traumatic
memories as she interacts with men
on a daily basis. This can have a
signicant impact on her capacity to
deal with those in her community.
As their wounds are not externally
visible, women and girls who have
suered sexual violence may receive
lile sympathy or acknowledgement
of their impaired capacity to meet
female workload expectations.
Concessions made for the person
suering such obvious war-related
incapacity as loss of a limb are
unlikely to be made for those with
equally severe wounding
inicted by sexual violence.
The shame and secrecy
associated with sexual
wounding means that it
is oen not spoken about,
even amongst women,
so there is lile social
support for the victim.
The sense of stigmatisation,
betrayal and abandonment
aects a woman’s capacity to
participate in community life
and to raise children. Raising
children requires a sense
of hope about the future. A
woman’s ability to meet her
children’s day-to-day physical
and psychological needs
can be severely depleted or
destroyed by her experience
of sexual violence. This
impacts on the development
of the child’s social
competence and emotional
well-being. Trauma for the
mother can aect the brain
development of the infant
in the critical rst twelve months
of life and thereby create ongoing
health, educational and welfare
costs for the community. Children of
raped mothers are at increased risk
of mental illness themselves and of
abandonment, abuse or neglect.
When used as a strategic, systemic
tool of war – as in Rwanda, Sudan,
Sierra Leone, Kosovo and many
other conicts – sexual violence can
lead to cultural destruction. While
most violence in war is inicted
in order to kill the enemy, sexual
violence is usually perpetrated not
only to cause physical wounding
and humiliation but also to help
destroy the opposing culture. The
damage to cultural and community
life wrought by the use of sexual
violence in warfare can persist for
generations. Long-term psychological
damage and ongoing suering mean
that such violence aects not only
the immediate victim but also her
children and grandchildren, family,
extended family and community life.
The physical wounds caused by
sexual violence are also less likely to
receive treatment because government
and non-state actor combatants
usually share a low valuation of
women. No other physical wound
with injuries as severe as those
perpetrated by sexual violence could
be ignored or de-prioritised without
international outcry. Governments
comprised mainly of men may not
only share a low valuation of women
but may also lack appreciation
of the depth and breadth of the
impact of sexual violence on the
life of individual women and on
family and community life.
Priorities
National governments and the
international humanitarian
community are responsible
for reducing the occurrence of
sexual violence in conict and
for providing adequate response
when it occurs. The following
recommendations should be
implemented in all conict situations:
In the emergency phase, the
increased vulnerability of
women and children must be
recognised and their evacuation
and protection needs made a
national and international priority.
The treatment of the psychological
and physical wounds resulting
from sexual violence needs
to be prioritised in both the
emergency and post-emergency
phases of conict. Treatment
should be one of the top ten
priorities for response in the
emergency phase, along with
food, nutrition and the prevention
of communicable diseases.
Data collection of cases of sexual
violence and sexual injury needs to
be integrated into all standardised
data collection protocols used
at borders and camps.
The international community
needs to ensure that swi and
appropriate penalties be meted
out for the war crimes of
sexual violence.
Katie Thomas (Katie.thomas@
curtin.edu.au) is a psychologist
specialising in trauma recovery.
She works at the Centre for
International Health, Curtin
University of Technology, Perth,
Australia www.cih.curtin.edu.au
1. MSF, Refugee Health: An approach to emergency
situations. www.msf.org/source/reooks/MSF_Docs/En/
Refugee_Health/RH1.pdf
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Miriam, 18, and
her twin baby
girls, in West
Darfur. Miriam
was raped
by Janjaweed
ghters when
she was 16
and later gave
birth to what
her community
calls “Janjaweed
babies”.
UNHCR/H Caux