Sexual Violence: A Tool of War

It is mainly women who bear the scars of violent conflict.

Rape committed during war is often systematic and intended to terrorize the population, break up families, destroy communities, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation. Sometimes it is also used to render women from the targeted community incapable of bearing more children.

In the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), rape has been a means of warfare used by all groups in the conflict. In the case of Rwanda, an estimated 100,000-250,000 women were raped during the three months of genocide in 1994. UN agencies estimate that armed militias raped over 60,000 women in the Sierra Leonean civil war and more than 40,000 in the Liberian conflict. The UN Development Fund for the Women (UNIFEM) estimates that 60,000 women were raped in the former Yugoslavia.

Sexual violence, says UNIFEM’s Central Africa program Director, Josephine Odera, is “one of the most common atrocities during conflict.”
However, despite its prevalence, “it has only recently been recognised for its devastating effect. A lot more needs to be done by governments, civil society and ordinary civilians in order to address it.”

Dr Denis Mukwege Mukengere, director of Panzi hospital in Bukavu, Eastern DRC, says that most survivors his hospital treats are not only raped but often have their genitals mutilated. He says the practice is common and attackers use it to increase the chances of the woman protracting HIV/AIDS, and to ensure that she can never give birth again.

“It is a tool of genocide aimed at destroying the targeted community by ensuring their women can bear no more children.”

Tens of thousands of women have been raped in this region during a decade long war and the hospital has received about 20 rape survivors a day since the war began in 1996, a third of them needing extensive reconstructive surgery to repair injuries from sexual violence. Panzi is one of only three health centres in South Kivu Province equipped to handle the massive physical and psychological trauma that sexual violence inflicts on its survivors.

These observations are backed by UNIFEM and other UN Agencies. Combatants routinely use mass rape, acts of sexual assault, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and forced pregnancy as instruments of torture, ethnic domination and ethnic cleansing. Rapes and other acts of sexual violence are often carried out in public so as to maximise the humiliation and terror that the woman and her community experience.

“It is a tool of terror, used to end resistance, by inspiring fear of reprisal,” says researcher Jeanne Ward.


Recognising sexual violence as a crime of war

Sexual violence against women is a common crime. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that one in every five women has experienced some form of sexual violence. Despite such prevalence, getting sexual violence recognized and punished as a crime has been difficult in peace times, and even more so in post-war societies where legal systems are often in a state of collapse. Consequently, perpetrators often go unpunished.

A 1998 UN report on Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict notes that historically, armies considered rape a legitimate way of keeping troops happy. Because many societies considered women to as “property”, a victorious army often raped and took women into sexual slavery as spoils of war. Such armies abused and humiliated women in the same way that they pillaged or destroyed other properties owned by enemy groups. Until World War II, the report states, rape was “accepted as an inevitable, albeit unfortunate, reality of armed conflict.”

For example, during World War II, both sides of the conflict were accused of mass rapes and yet neither of the two courts set up by the victorious allied countries to prosecute suspected war crimes - in Tokyo and Nuremberg - recognised the crime of sexual violence in their Charters.

The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which deals with the protection of civilians in times of war prohibits torture and cruel treatment as well as “outrages upon personal dignity”, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. The Convention also explicitly states that women would be “especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.” However, rape and sexual assault were not included in the list of "grave breaches" under the Convention which obligate states to pursue and prosecute violations. Similar language is reflected in the two Additional Protocols to the Convention (relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts), that were adopted in 1977.

It was not until 1992, in the face of widespread rapes of women in the former Yugoslav Republic, that the issue of sexual violence in conflict finally came to the attention of the UN Security Council. On 18 December 1992, the Council declared the “massive, organized and systematic detention and rape of women, in particular Muslim women, in Bosnia and Herzegovina" as an international crime that must be addressed. Subsequently, the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia included rape as a crime against humanity, alongside other crimes such as torture and extermination, when it is committed in armed conflict against a civilian population. This was followed shortly after by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and several years later the first convictions were handed down:

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) includes rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or “any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity” as a crime against humanity when it is committed in a widespread or systematic way. The arrest warrants issued by the ICC in 2007 for two Sudanese suspects include several counts of rape as both a war crime and a crime against humanity.


Giving women a voice in peace and security issues

In 2000, recognising the need to do more than punish rape in war, the Security Council went further. On 31 October 2000, the Council passed Resolution 1325, the first resolution ever passed by the Security Council that specifically addressed the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

The resolution emphasized the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including those relating to sexual violence against women and girls; and to exclude such crimes from any amnesty provisions. It called on all actors, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt measures to protect the rights of women and girls with respect to local laws, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary.

To complement the full implementation of resolution 1325, the Security Council voted unanimously for resolution 1820 in June 2009, which recognizes sexual violence as a tactic of war and a matter of international peace and security. It affirms sexual violence in conflict as a war crime, crime against humanity and constituent act of genocide that is prohibited. Stronger and clearer guidelines shall be given to United Nations peacekeepers to prevent sexual violence. Further, the resolution asserts the importance of women's participation in all processes related to stopping sexual violence in conflict, including their participation in peace talks.

An August 2008 report from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Security Council painted a disturbing picture of sexual violence perpetrated against civilians in armed conflicts and their aftermath. “Parties to armed conflict continue to use sexual violence with efficient brutality. Like a grenade or a gun, sexual violence is part of their arsenal to pursue military, political, social and economic aims,” said the Secretary-General. In his report, he laid out several recommendations to prevent sexual violence in conflict and end impunity for perpetrators.

As a result of this report, the Security Council, chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September 2009, adopted resolution 1888, demanding that all parties to armed conflict take immediate action to protect civilians, including women and children, from all forms of sexual violence. The Council also urged greater measures by States to end sexual violence in conflict and requested the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative to work on the issue.


Putting an end to rape at the national level

“A lot of impunity accompanies these crimes. The way to address this is to raise the visibility of the issue so that the violators are isolated and prosecution is improved. Part of what we are working on as UNIFEM is a project to break the silence. We are encouraging opinion shapers and leaders to speak out against sexual violence and to tell people that they will be held accountable for such crimes.” - Ms Josphine Odera, UNIFEM Regional Director Central Africa.

While international courts have achieved some success in prosecuting perpetrators of rape in conflict, national courts in countries where these crimes have taken place struggle to achieve the same success.

In order to prosecute such cases successfully, investigations have to be prompt, thorough, sensitive and effective. Investigators need to keep good official records, evidence must be professionally gathered and safeguarded and policies to protect witnesses and survivors must be instituted. These things are difficult to achieve in peace time and more so in a post war environment. Many countries have failed to create local laws, and/ or lack effective court systems to prosecute perpetrators. Consequently, justice is often delayed for years.

Even in places where all the right mechanisms are in place, negative cultural attitudes towards women can make police stations and courts a hostile environment for survivors of sexual violence.

To address this, UN agencies and NGOs are advocating more resources for the training of police and military officers to better handle cases of sexual violence.


Changing negative cultural attitudes

Although training authorities and changing national laws are major steps towards punishing and ending these crimes, they cannot be successful without a fundamental change in people’s attitudes towards the sexual abuse of women.

Sexual violence, whether in peace or in war has to become, for all people, a repugnant crime, which society refuses to accept and punishes severely. At present, says Dr Mukwege, director of Panzi hospital in Bukavu, Eastern DRC, this is not the case.

“Right now, the woman who gets raped is the one who is stigmatised and excluded for it. Beyond laws we have to get social sanction on the side of the woman. We need to get to a point where the victim receives the support of the community and the man who rapes is the one who is stigmatised and excluded and penalised by the whole community. It’s the only way we can stop these crimes. Social sanction would be more effective in putting an end to these crimes than just the legal process.”

This is where media, civil society and activist groups can play an important role. Through town hall meetings, radio and television talk shows, education campaigns and other means, these groups can advocate for removing the stigma on those who have been sexually assaulted, infected with HIV/AIDS, or who have conceived children as a result of such attacks, and generate societal condemnation against perpetrators. Moreover they can also lobby for the adoption and enforcement of more effective laws against such crimes.


Meeting the needs of survivors

Sexual violence during war creates multi-fold challenges for survivors. They have medical needs, especially for reconstructive surgeries and may need HIV AIDS treatment; they want justice and need psychological help to heal the trauma and emotional wounds of the attack and many need financial help and support to

The shame and stigma of public rape can often force a rape survivor and her family to flee their community, leaving behind land, property and resources. This often leaves such women poorer and more vulnerable to further abuse and they and their families need financial assistance to get back on their feet.

The women and their families also face lasting psychological trauma. Sadly, there are often few properly trained counsellors and psychologists working in these areas as war typically destroys the very infrastructure needed to help such women. Health centres lack resources and skilled personnel.

Addressing all these gaps requires money and resources that most post-conflict countries do not have. The surgeries that survivors need require expensive equipment and trained staff. Training medical and counselling staff requires financial and logistical resources. Medicines, and especially HIV-related medications, are expensive and largely unavailable. As a result, hospitals such as Panzi run on donations and the dedication of staff.

Jeanne Ward, a researcher with a consortium of UN and NGO agencies working on sexual violence, says that up to now the world’s response to growing evidence of massive rape in conflict has largely been helpless shock and horror. She challenges those with resources to stop asking the question- “How can this happen?” and start asking how to address the issue. “We have enough evidence from around the globe to anticipate that rape will be a component of all the conflicts,” she says. “We do not need more proof that it exists. We need more support for programming that addresses it.”

For more on sexual violence against women in conflict visit the UN Action Against Violence Against Women site at: www.stoprapenow.org .