Sexual Violence Against Women in Armed Conflict

Es gehört zum Alltagswissen, dass sexuelle Gewalt in bewaffneten Konflikten allgegenwärtig ist. Gegenstand gesellschaftlicher Auseinandersetzungen und wissenschaftlicher Forschung wurde sie jedoch erst in jüngster Zeit. Im Zuge der Frauen-, der Bürgerrechts- und der Antikriegsbewegung der 1970er Jahre wurden Kriegsvergewaltigungen zum Thema, doch es dauerte noch bis in die 1990er Jahre bis diese Gewalt breitere öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit erfuhr. Mit den Internationalen Strafgerichtshöfen für das ehemalige Jugoslawien und Ruanda begann man, sexuelle Gewalt als Kriegsverbrechen, Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit und Akt des Völkermords neu zu verstehen.
Trotz dieser Entwicklungen mangelt es bis heute an effektiven Gegenstrategien und an einem Verständnis für die Komplexität dieser Form von Gewalt. In Essays, Reflektionen und Gesprächen zeigen die Autorinnen und Autoren dieses Bandes, in welch vielfältigen Konstellationen sexuelle Gewalt auftritt. Zusammengestellt im Rahmen der International Research Group »Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict« führt das Buch in die historischen Dimensionen ein und diskutiert zentrale politische und juristische Fragen der Gegenwart.

P. Zawada, Kobiety w armii izraelskiej, [w:] Kobiety w przestrzeni społeczno-politycznej. Wybrane zagadnienia, Olsztyn 2017, s. 62-75.

Izrael w styczniu bieżącego roku został uznany przez czasopismo „The American Interest” za ósmą potęgę na świecie. Wysoką pozycję państwo to zawdzięcza niezwykłemu rozwojowi gospodarczemu oraz dobrze prowadzonej polityce zagranicznej. Te dwie sfery ściśle powiązane są z silną armią, która na swe uznanie zapracowała m.in. dzięki obowiązkowej służbie wojskowej dla obu płci.
Celem rozważań w niniejszym artykule jest prześledzenie historii nietypowego zjawiska, jakim jest obowiązkowa służba wojskowa dla kobiet, a także opis konsekwencji z tego wynikających dla państwa Izrael oraz barier w dostępie do wyższych stanowisk dla kobiet w armii. Teorią międzynarodową wykorzystywaną do analizy tematu pracy jest realizm klasyczny, a wśród metod badawczych należy wymienić analizę systemową, metodę decyzyjną oraz behawioralną. Ramy czasowe odnoszą się do lat 1948- 2016, czyli od momentu powstania Izraela do wydarzeń najbardziej współczesnych.


"Kobiety w przestrzeni społeczno-politycznej. Wybrane zagadnienia"
red. Magdalena Kumelska, Wojciech Tomasz Modzelewski, Paweł Schmidt
Wyd. INP UWM, Olsztyn 2017, ss. 165.

ISBN 978-83-89559-88-3

When I go to the rural areas and ask people about 1325, they say, what is that? Is that a taxi number? Even educated people don’t know about 1325. How can we expect people in the village to know all these numbers and remember them? They don’t know what the Security Council is and what UNSCR 1325 is. They may memorize it for once but they forget after the programme is  nished because the Security Council doesn’t sound “real” to them.

Este libro, producto de una beca del Centro Carter de Estados Unidos, aborda el impacto del desplazamiento, la tortura, la violencia sexual y las minas antipersonal, en el marco del conflicto armado colombiano, en la salud mental de las víctimas y en sus comunidades.

2007 habe ich als Postdoktorandin am Centro de Estudos Sociais (Universität Coimbra, Portugal) ein Forschungsprojekt begonnen, das die Darstellung von Vergewaltigungen deutscher Frauen und Mädchen im Zweiten Weltkrieg in der Literatur der Bundesrepublik und des vereinigten Deutschlands erforschen sollte.  Auch einige Filme und Memoiren wurden in das Korpus des Projekts integriert.  Hier werde ich auf einige Ergebnisse dieser Forschung aufmerksam machen mit dem Ziel, einige bibliographische Vorschläge für den didaktischen Umgang mit der Thematik zu unterbreiten. Nach einer kurzen Kartographie der sexuellen Gewalt im Zweiten Weltkrieg in Europa werde ich die Rolle der Kriegsvergewaltigungen im hegemonialen deutschen Kriegsgedächtnis beschreiben, aber ich werde auch literarische Werke, die eine komplexere Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen ermöglichen, vorstellen. Dabei werde ich für die Notwendigkeit einer interdisziplinären Untersuchung und eine Berücksichtigung der Repräsentationen der Anderen argumentieren.

The current recognition of sexual violence as a weapon, tactic or strategy offers an allegedly clear image of a wartime atrocity perpetrated against civilians. This image allows states and organisations to act in accordance with guidelines of international law and UN mandates. On an epistemological level, however, these concepts seem to have reached a limit. In recent years, different scholars have therefore suggested that it is time to reconceptualise the debate. I would like to contribute to such efforts by exploring the relationship between the acts of individual combatants in the field and the calculations of military leadership. How does the perpetration of sexual violence by individual soldiers become part of military calculations and tactical and strategic planning? When, why and how do military commands tacitly tolerate, accept, instigate or orchestrate the perpetration of sexual violence by their men? To explore these questions, it seems crucial to take the specific character of sexual violence (which differs from other forms of violence) as well as the everyday knowledge of violent sexual practices (in war as well as in non-war times) into account.

My considerations derive primarily from my study of warfare conducted by Western state militaries in the Age of the World Wars, and this article relies in particular on German army sources from WWII. Looking at the current debate, one might easily get the impression that sexual violence is primarily incorporated into warfare in non-Western armed groups and recent wars. A closer look, however, reveals similar mechanisms throughout modern wars and current armed-conflicts.

The systematic rape of women has been a regular feature of war and in today's civil conflicts, rape is a systematic and brutal weapon used by armed groups against civilian populations. Though rape has occurred in mass and systematic forms previously, it was not as primary of a weapon as it is in contemporary conflicts. Civil conflict has become the primary form of warfare around the world, employing smaller arms and less conventional tactics than traditional inter-state wars. It is in this context that rape has become a central feature of contemporary war.

Savaşlar tarihi insanlık tarihi kadar eskidir. Ancak tarih kitapları sadece savaşları erkekler üzerinden kazanılan zaferler ve yenilgiler üzerinden yazar. Ancak bu savaşların bir de sözlü tarihi, tanıkları ve aslında bu savaşlardan en çok etkilen kesimi vardır. Savaşlardan en çok etkilenenler toplumun en korunmasız ve en dezavantajlı kesimi olan kadınlar, yaşlılar ve çocuklar olmuştur. Savaşta kadınlar, savaş ganimeti olarak görülmüş ve savaşan eril gücün zaferinin simgesi olarak cinsel şiddet ve tacize maruz kalmışlardır. Savaşta ırza geçme eylemleri kaçınılmaz bir son olarak görülmüş, neredeyse tüm savaşlarda kadınlar benzer şiddet eylemleri ile karşılaşmıştır. Bu çalışmamızda, kadına yönelik cinsel şiddet konusunda en başat örneklerden biri olarak görülen Bosna Savaşındaki cinsel şiddet eylemleri irdelenerek, suç faillerine verilen cezaların yeterliliği tartışılacaktır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kadın, Cinsel Şiddet, Cinsel Taciz, Bosna Savaşı, Savaş Suçu
DARK FACE OF MAN: SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BOSNIAN WAR Wars are as old as human history. However, the history books write only the victories or defeat of men. However, these wars also have an oral history of the witnesses and in fact the ones most affected by these wars. This oral history is the history of women, children and old people which constitute the most vulnerable and disadvantaged part of the society. In wars, women were seen as spoils of war and they were exposed to sexual violence and harassment as the symbol of the victorious masculine victory. Rape was seen as an inevitable end in wars, and in almost all wars women experienced similar acts of violence. In this study, the acts of sexual violence in Bosnian War, which is seen as one of the most important examples of sexual violence against women, will be examined and the adequacy of punishments for offenders will be discussed.

Despite the proliferation of trauma and memory research in recent years, we know very little about the contribution of transitional justice mechanisms to psychological healing and societal reconciliation in the aftermath of genocide, armed conflict and politicized violence. Many scholars in this area have argued that the disclosure of traumatic experiences is beneficial to the psychological recovery process for survivors of gross human rights violations. This article critically examines this therapeutic assumption within a transitional justice paradigm. The article explores the potentials and limitations of international war crimes trials for victims of wartime sexual violence, focusing specifically on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The article provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the significance of testimony at international war crimes trials and raises some critical questions related to the psychological impact of trials. It is argued that due to the sheer diversity and heterogeneity of wartime rape victims, the experience of giving testimony is likely to be mixed: while some victims may suffer under the constraints of legal process, under the right circumstances, war crimes trials may help others to make sense of their suffering.

the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East -that have experienced armed conflict over the past twenty years. The second part of the report, entitled Implications for the Security Sector, explores strategies for security and justice actors to prevent and respond to sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. ISBN 978-92-9222-059-4

DEMUS presenta la publicación Mujeres en la Mira. Observatorio de Sentencias, una compilación de artículos jurídicos que analiza jurisprudencia nacional y supranacional en materia de derechos humanos de las mujeres. Su difusión no solo pretende dar un diagnóstico de la actuación del sistema de justicia, sino también evidenciar los desafíos que éste tiene frente a temas nuevos (reproducción asistida) o temas de preocupación histórica que deben remirarse desde el derecho constitucional y el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos (violencia). Sin duda un elemento articulador de los diferentes análisis realizados es la necesidad de que operadores y operadoras de justicia incorporen el enfoque de género en su análisis jurídico.

El libro se inicia con un artículo del profesor Carlos J. Zelada donde se analizan ocho sentencias de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos referidas a casos de violencia sexual. A través de ellas, el autor describe el proceso que denomina de “feminización” del sistema interamericano y muestra como la Corte ha aplicado la Convención de Belem do Pará y, de la mano del enfoque de género, ha determinado nuevos estándares de prueba para los casos de violencia sexual, así como la definición y exigencia del deber de debida diligencia. Su lectura es imprescindible para conocer el marco internacional obligatorio en el que operadores y operadoras de justicia deben desenvolverse al conocer casos de violencia de género.

SİLAHLI ÇATIŞMALARDA KADINLARA YÖNELİK SOYKIRIM SAİKİYLE CİNSEL ŞİDDET KULLANIMI: RUANDA ÖRNEĞİ
İlk hayatın başladığı andan bugüne değin insanın en temel isteği “hayatta kalmak” olmuştur. Hayatta tutunmak için de yegane ihtiyaç duyduğu şey güçtür. İşte bu hayatta kalma ve güç elde etme arzusu insan davranışlarının da zemininde yatan en başat unsurdur. Bu sebeple Thomas Hobbes, insanın en temel hakkının “kendi hayatını korumak için her şeyi yapma özgürlüğü” olduğunu belirtmiştir. Bu düşünce sistemine de en çok silahlı çatışma durumlarında rastlanır. Özellikle 19. Yüzyıl, insanlık tarihinin karşılaştığı en yıkıcı savaşlara ve en geniş çaplı insan hakları ihlallerine tanık olmuştur. Silahlı çatışmalar artlarında büyük zayiat ve tahribat bırakmaktadırlar. Bu zayiattan en çok etkilenen kesimi ise kadınlar ve çocuklar oluşturmaktadır. Kadına karşı şiddet suçları uzunca bir süre silahlı çatışmanın doğasından kaynaklanan olağan bir sonuç olarak algılanmıştır. Yanlış zamanda yanlış yerde olma, talihsizlik, söz dinlemeyen askerlerin disiplinsiz davranışları olarak kabul görmesi nedeniyle de failler cezasız kalacaklarını bilerek bu eylemlerini uzunca bir süre sürdürmeye devam etmişlerdir. Ulusal, etnik, dinsel ve ırksal grupların kısmen veya tamamen yok edilmesine yönelik fiziki ve kültürel imha yöntemi olarak bilinen soykırım suçu, uluslararası literatürde “crimes of crimes” (suçların suçu) olarak bilinmektedir ve uluslararası ceza hukukunun incelediği suçlar içinde en acımasız ve en insanlık dışı suç olarak tasvir edilmektedir. Ruanda’da 1994 yılında başlayan soykırımda, üç ay içinde bir milyona yakın savunmasız insan katledilmiştir. Bu kurbanların çoğunluğunu Tutsiler veya rejim karşıtı olan Hutu’lar oluşturuyordu. Dört yıl süren bir iç savaşı izleyen bu soykırımda, kitlesel katliamlar yaşanmıştır. Bu katliamlarda da kadınlar doğurganlık özellikleri hasebiyle hedef alınan gruplardan biri olmuşlardır. Yaygın ve sistematik olarak Hutular tarafından uygulanan cinsel şiddetin, Tutsi halkını yok etme sürecinin ayrılmaz bir parçası olarak kullanılmıştır. Hatta bazı durumlarda direk yaşamına son vermek maksadıyla ırza tecavüz uygulanmıştır. Irza tecavüzün soykırım maksadıyla kullanılmasındaki bir diğer durum da salgın hasta¬lıkların kullanımıdır. Tutsi kadınlarının özellikle HIV virüsü taşıyan Hutu erkeklerinin tecavüzüne uğradığı belirtilmektedir. BM raporlarında da belirtildiği gibi Tutsi kadınlarının büyük çoğunluğuna HIV+ teşhisi koyulmuştur. Yani; toplumun yavaş yavaş yok edilmesi saikiyle yapılan bu eylemde soykırım fiilen son bulsa da ölümler devam etmiştir. Benzer şekillerde uygulanan, cinsel sakatlama, zorla kısırlaştırma, doğum kontrolüne zorlama ve evlenmenin yasaklanması da soykırım suçu oluşturmuştur.

The article focuses on sexual/ized violence experienced by the female members of Ukrainian nationalist underground, its sympathizers, and civilians during Soviet counterinsurgency in Western Ukraine in the late Stalinist period. It reveals the reasons, forms, topography, functions and implications of sexual assaults on women suspected in collaboration with OUN and UPA during anti-partisan military and state security operations, interrogation process, recruitment to work for Soviet intelligence agencies, as well as in the prisons, and other places of detention. The article explores how the Soviet justice system tackled criminal investigations of sexual violence by members of the militia, NKVD-MVD-NKGB-MGB, Internal Troops, special military units (spetsgrupy), and other perpetrators. It examines whether the measures taken by the Soviet officials in order to prevent violence and to punish transgressors were sufficient. The paper argues that the sexual crimes and brutalization of women’s bodies were an intrinsic part of the state violent practices against anti-Soviet armed resistance, and a by-product of the continuum of political violence in Western Ukraine in the decade after the Second World War.

Joseph Vilsmaiers Film Stalingrad (1993) und Ulla Hahns Roman Un-scharfe Bilder (2005) sind Teil einer Tendenz der Nach-Wende-Erinne-rungskultur, die die Rolle der Deutschen als Täter im Zweiten Weltkrieg postuliert, aber das Leid der "normalen" Deutschen in den Vordergrund stellt. 4 Beide Fiktionen ignorieren nicht die von der Wehrmacht in der Sowjetunion begangenen Kriegsverbrechen. Der Film wurde vor der berühmten Ausstellung Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944 (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, 1995-1999) 5 und der Herausgabe der bekannten Studie Opa war kein Nazi (2002) 6 uraufge-führt. Der Roman, der mit den Ergebnissen der Studie in Verbindung steht, stellt eine literarische Fiktionalisierung der Auswirkungen der Aus-stellung in einer deutschen Familie dar. Die Besonderheit von Stalingrad und Unscharfe Bilder sowie der Grund, warum sie in dieser Untersuchung ausgewählt wurden, liegt darin, dass sie zu den wenigen deutschen Fiktio-nen gehören, die die Vergewaltigung von einheimischen Frauen in der

The Institute of Human Rights Communication, Nepal (IHRICON) conducted action research in late 2006 in conflict affected Districts of  Banke, Bardia, Doti, Achham and Rolpa in Nepal. The major objective of this research was to identify the nature, scale and impact of sexual violence against girls and women during the armed conflict from 1995-2005.  This report also identified the incidence of rape and sexual violence amongst young women and girls in Nepal in the vicinity of Maoist and security forces barracks.

The study found that during People’s War, there have been grave violations of women’s and girls’ human rights. This study aims to  generate information to develop and strengthen the response as well as prevention of sexual violence in the post-conflict period in Nepal.

En este texto se plantea la aparición de un paradigma novedoso en el sistema interamericano para la protección de las mujeres frente a la violencia. Distintas sentencias revelan una ruptura frente a los estándares de prueba tradicionalmente requeridos por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos para la acreditación efectiva de los actos de violencia sexual: Un giro radical frente a las exigencias probatorias y de contexto previamente establecidas en su propia jurisprudencia contenciosa.

Abstract
This paper uses the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, held in London in June 2014, as a window into the current wave of calls for action against wartime rape. The recent political attention to address sexual violence in conflict builds on decades of scholarly research, feminist activism, and more recently, the adoption of feminist goals in UN gender and security work. This paper asks if the feminist work done to unpack and unsettle gender binaries that foment sexual violence in war and in peace is not undone by the singular focus on rape-in-war. With the knowledge that rape in war tends to reproduce and naturalise the inequalities that fed into conflict in the first place, how should we understand a focus on eradicating sexual violence in war spearheaded by countries that regularly engage in postcolonial wars?  What does this say about the framing of contemporary war, and attitudes towards sexual violence? More specifically, to what extent can one usefully make war ’more civilised’ (US Secretary of State John Kerry’s words) by addressing one specific aspect? The paper builds on case study research in Peru which looks at how the state deals with rape in war and peace, as well as the broader literature in the field of gender, peace and security.

The researcher is grateful to several individuals who shared their experiences and institutions for their generous help and assistance provided during the course of the research and field visits. Special thanks to Assam Police department for providing information on various Right to Information (RTI) applications. The report is reviewed by Elizabeth Devi, independent researcher and the researcher remains grateful to her for the valuable comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Uma Chakravarti, eminent feminist, for valuable suggestions. The researcher is equally indebted to Diganta Sharma, journalist and writer, for providing valuable assistance in data collection and field visits.

This thesis was presented to obtain the Degree of Law at the University of San Martin de Porres (Peru) 2012 – The international standards applied to the human rights, and gender analysis in acts of sexual violence against women as a form of torture during the internal armed conflict in Peru (case study of Loayza Tamayo). The original version is in Spanish.

In recent genocides and other conflicts—for example, the Sudan, Burma, and now Iraq—sexual violence and religion have received increasing but modest systematic treatment in genocide studies. This essay contributes to the nascent scholarship on the religious and sexual dimensions of genocide by providing a model for investigating the intersections among religion, genocide, and sexual violence. I treat the Rwandan genocide as a case study using secondary and primary sources and proffer the reinforcing typologies of " othering, " justification, and authorization as an investigatory tool. I further nuance the influences of religion on forms of sexual violation by arguing that religion indirectly (distally) and directly (proximately) furthers the aims of genocide by coding genocidal ideology and violence as " religious. " Ultimately, I contend that studying the religious and sexual aspects of genocide deepens our understanding of the complex dynamics of genocide and opens new lines of inquiry into genocide studies.

El objetivo de este texto es analizar el trabajo y el informe final de la CVR de Sierra Leona en lo que se refiere a su consideración de la violencia sexual y, más ampliamente, a su inclusión de la perspectiva de género.

Tras una breve referencia al contexto del conflicto, destaco algunas ideas sobre la CVR, como la base jurídica para su creación y las dificultades en su puesta en marcha. Propiamente en cuanto al análisis de género de la Comisión, examino su mandato relacionado con la violencia sexual, su metodología y el capítulo específico del informe final que fue dedicado a las mujeres y el conflicto armado. En la valoración de la inclusión de la perspectiva de género, me centraré en particular en lo que considero dos aportes relevantes de esta Comisión: por un lado, su capacidad para reflejar la existencia de un continuum de violencia contra las mujeres que trasciende el marco del conflicto armado; y, por otro, su análisis de la realidad de las mujeres desde el reconocimiento de la heterogeneidad de sus posiciones, roles y experiencias durante el mismo. Finalmente, concluyo este trabajo con varias reflexiones finales.

This thesis critiques the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict developed in 2014 by the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth Office. I show the Protocol, despite being the largest effort at creating standards for investigating conflict related sexual violence (CRSV), to lack critical guidelines. These absences have manifest negative consequences for survivors of sexual violence and investigations. Through assessing over 120 similar guidance documents from around the world and interviewing CRSV experts, I find the Protocol to be deeply flawed. These shortcomings include: 1) An approach to documentation and investigation that is not survivor-centric in which only 7.5 pages of the 146 are dedicated to the needs of survivors/victims. 2) An absence of recommendations that take into account the effects of PTSD and trauma to both survivors and their testimonies. 3) A failure to include suggestions for how male and non-female victims/survivors might experience CRSV differently, and how to inclusively handle investigations. 4) An utter exclusion of CRSV forms not considered under current international law, such as intimate partner rape, or noncombatant perpetration. 5) An outlook that investigations will take place immediately during or after active violent conflict, which in turn excludes critical elements of temporality and memory issues. 6) No guidelines to mitigate conflicting testimonies that can hamper prosecutions and potentially retraumatize survivors. 7) A near-complete lack of tangible recommendations to minimize secondary traumatization of investigative staff and provide the psychosocial support necessary to prevent burnout. I explain these exclusions through public policy theories & literature, reinforced by my own qualitative interviews.

Women in Governance [WinG] is a unique network of women who are striving to be change agents in a world dominated by patriarchal traditions. The members of WinG are all women from marginalized communities who are working for women"s rights and trying to assist in creating space for women to become leaders in their communities. By discussing relevant topic relating to women"s leadership and empowerment, the women of WinG share their personal experiences and develop their own skills as agents of change while formulating an action plan to get more women active in state and local governance. This research titled, "Human security and situation of women in North East India" was conceived with the idea of having an in-depth understanding the current situation of women in armed conflict region of north east India that could lead in formulating future strategies of WinG. This research was completed in three months starting from

Women, a girl, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, overall girl could be a key of a family. World
will never be complete without a girl. Law is the set of rules implemented to govern the behavior
of individuals. From the start of this world women is treated as a weaker section of the society
frequently are the victims of the crimes like rape, eve teasing, feminine infanticide, dowry,
domestic violence, child marriage and acid throwing. India is facing the matter of accelerating
range of cases of sexual harassment at the workplace despite the actual fact that there are various
laws to curb the menace. Irrefutably, it hampers women’s constitutional and fundamental rights
to equality, justice and dignity. The paper begins with shaping the idea of sexual harassment then
looks into the assorted aspects allied to the current brutal issue. In addition to it, the issues with
the measures taken are mentioned to clarify the status of sexual harassment in Indian context and
the way organizations can facilitate in safeguarding the dignity of their women employees. The
study indicates that the problem of sexual harassment at the workplace is at an appalling stage
and needs an immediate attention by the organizations moreover from government. The work of
activists, human rights mechanisms and States has been crucial in guaranteeing that the human
rights framework has developed and adjusted to summarize the gender specific dimensions of
human rights violations to safeguard women in a better approach. Further, few recommendations
also are projected to tackle the problem of sexual harassment of women in Indian organizations

La guerra contemporanea investe ogni persona e ogni cosa. Tra le vittime civili, le più esposte e vulnerabili sono le donne, incluse ragazze e bambine. IL presente articolo indaga come, in determinate guerre, il corpo della donna diventi terreno di forte identità per un gruppo o una nazione e come, su questa identità, il nemico eserciti una violenza disumanizzante per affermare la propria superiorità. La donna, identificata col proprio corpo, diventa il territorio simbolico di un attraversamento che, nella violenza sessuale, rende tangibile il superamento di un confine. La disumanizzazione dei popoli, come nel caso dell'ex Jugoslavia o del Ruanda, è iniziata perciò dal corpo delle donne. Non è tanto la violenza sessuale in sé a essere rilevante qui, ma il suo utilizzo come strategia di guerra poggiante su significati sociali ben precisi. Da un lato, l'atrocità compiuta sul corpo femminile anche in pubblico simboleggia l'annientamento permanente della società rivale e si configura come espressione di odio etnico più che di misoginia. Dall'altro lato, l'identificazione della donna come "proprietà del maschio" che si vuole annientare, si radica in una criticabile concezione patriarcale della società.

Over a million people were killed in 1994 during Rwanda's genocide and war, with many women compelled to 'offer' sex, raped, held in collective or individual sexual slavery and mutilated. An estimated 250 000 to 500 000 women still alive were raped between 1990 and 1994, 30 000 pregnancies resulted from rape and the 67% of survivors considered HIV positive continue to suffer the consequences of wartime sexual violence (Wells, 2004-2005). Countless women now live with serious illnesses, pain or injury, unable to provide for families. The level of trauma is severe, compounded by shame, exclusion, stigma, survivor's guilt and contested feelings towards the children of bad memories born of rape and as many perpetrators were neighbours who often live nearby. Despite commitment to the rights of women and recognition of the prevalence of rape during the genocide, the Rwandese government has been slow to offer legal redress, medical treatment and counselling and has not prioritized prosecution and punishment. Conviction rates are low. Reparations are not forthcoming. Neither the national courts nor the gacaca, have investigated and prosecuted these cases in a fitting manner. Although attention has been paid to sexual violence, defects in the drafting of statutory law and its implementation discourage reporting, investigation and prosecution. Recent procedural revisions dismiss very real fears around fair trial, public ridicule, and increased trauma. Difficulties in addressing the legacies and widespread nature of sexual violence are being overlooked as the government prioritizes the construction of a sense of nationhood and continuation of its own power over the needs of survivors. The result is that many women, infected with HIV or with other serious illnesses, are slowly dying without reparation, healthcare, counselling or seeing perpetrators brought to justice.

“Why can’t people understand that we are victims?” asked us a young man born further to the rape of his mother during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. This is a cri de coeur that calls for unpacking, both in the assumptions that underly it and in the framework that is called upon to answer it. The need to respond to this question arises from previous research that has uncovered the reality of stigma, victimization, violence and socio-economic marginalisation of children born of war (CBW). Children themselves across a variety of post-conflict context have, through extensive in-depth interviews, told us that their entire life trajectory has been shaped by their birth origins. While they consider themselves as victims, domestic and international actors largely have failed to recognise CBW within legal conceptions of victimhood. Whether a child born of harmful behaviour should be seen as a victim has been significantly explored in law only in relation to so-called ‘wrongful life’ and ‘wrongful birth’ cases in the law of private responsibility. On the whole, courts have been extremely reluctant to accept claims of that nature because of a perceived tension between what has been refereed to as the “gift of life” and any harm associated with the circumstances of birth. Generally, the concept of the victim has remained under-theorised in criminal law, a regime squarely focussed on the perpetrator as the centre-point of the legal narrative of accountability. International Criminal Law is a site in which a significant discussion of who should be considered a victim has occurred. The announced shift to a ‘victim-centred’ approach with the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court has led to the elaboration of a more nuanced legal understanding of who should be considered a victim. Drawing from elements of the concept of victimhood as articulated in international criminal law leads us to conclude that CBW should indeed be considered as victims. This important finding challenges the policies and practices of domestic and international actors that have failed to recognise CBW as victims in post-conflict transition.

Der Begriff der Störung erfährt eine zunehmende Konjunktur in den Geisteswissenschaften und etabliert sich dort als epistemologische Analysekategorie. Diese Studie untersucht die Texte der Shoah-Überlebenden Imre Kertész, Liana Millu und Ruth Klüger systematisch auf ihr Störpotenzial und erweitert das Forschungsfeld um die sprechhand- lungstheoretischen Konzepte «Wissen» und «Erwarten». Ein grundlegend störendes Potenzial entfalten die Erzählungen, weil sie von konkreten historischen Ereignissen zeugen und damit deren Vergessen entgegenarbeiten. Die Untersuchung stellt unter anderem am Beispiel des Muselmanns, der Repräsentation von sexuellem Tauschhandel oder der Kritik an KZ-Gedenkstätten heraus, wie die Texte narrativ verfestigte Kategorien in Bewegung bringen, Wissen infrage stellen und gegen gesellschaftliche Diskurse ihrer Zeit polemisieren.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "gender-based inequity is usually exacerbated during situations of extreme violence such as armed conflict." Women and girls in particular experience conflict and displacement in different ways from men because of the gender division of roles and responsibilities. The targeting of women and girls by armed forces further exacerbates the situation.
Examples of such targeting and gender-based inequity leading to higher mortality and morbidity (illness) among females during armed conflict include: violence against girls and women, including rape and sexual slavery; hunger and exploitation in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons, when men take control of food distribution; malnutrition, when food aid neglects women's and children's special nutritional requirements; and culturally inappropriate and/or inadequate access to health services, including mental and reproductive health services.
Against this background, this Paper seeks to examine the Rights of Women in War times. In so doing, it will examine the extent to which international law has sought to protect the right of women against violation in times of war. This paper will thus examine the Geneva Conventions of 1949 vis-à-vis provisions for the protection of the rights of women in times of war. It will further peer into the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, adopted in 1974.
This paper will also examine the incidence of the violation of women’s rights in notable wars in history while paying particular attention to the wanton violation of women’s rights by the Japanese. It will also examine cases of violation of women’s rights in wartimes in Africa. It will focus on assessing to what extent has the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Declaration positively aided the protection of women’s rights in times of War.
In Conclusion, this Paper will provide Policy recommendations that could better strengthen existing legal framework for the protection of women’s rights in war times.

This analysis stems from a renewed sense of urgency to understand the roots of violence in Central America deemed critical by late globalization and migration. More specifically, this article utilizes the concept of impunity not merely as an element of culture but rather as a defining structure of everyday human interactions in wartime El Salvador, as presented by Mario Bencastro’s _Árbol de la Vida: Historias de la guerra civil_ (1993) and _Disparo en la catedral_ (1990). As a cornerstone of these literary representations, I argue, impunity presents such ostensibly disparate locations as the office of the human rights commission, army barracks, and a chapel as an interconnected web of lawlessness. Thus, Bencastro’s fiction offers a holistic view of wartime El Salvador, in which the characters must negotiate the impunity that characterizes the social imaginary.

The question of sexual violence in the context of armed conflict has
been widely known; however, this discipline has not explored in depth
how bodies of the victims suffer different effects in the midst of the
power dynamics. Methodology carried out consisted in to review
reports of the Historical Memory Centre in Colombia; look at, how
bodies of women and those who choose a subalternized sexual orientation undergo different impacts in the framework of the Colombian
army conflict, countersanding it with the theories of ungrievable
bodies of Judith Butler. In conclusion, this work sheds new findings
on the little-recognized issue of the stigmatized bodies of warfare in
Colombia.

This paper will aim to look at the condition and the rights of women in conflict situations in light of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and some guidelines. It does so by recognizing that women have special needs and roles in all the three stages of conflict-prevention, conflict and post-conflict. Women's experience of conflict is essentially different, whether as civilians, combatants or as prisoners of war; however, the rights of those involved in conflict along with peace-building efforts have largely been conceived considering the male as the norm. Whether internally displaced, stateless, captive or combatant, humanitarian law and the rights framework have not come to the aid of women in spite of provisions and this paper will explore what these provisions are and why they have not helped.