Analyze Rape As A Tool Of War

Rape culture extends across the globe. In 2012, a group of men gang-raped a young woman and assaulted her friend aboard a moving bus in New Delhi, India. The crime was horrific. And yet, there were some within the country who chose to blame the victims instead of the perpetrators. Asaram Bapu, a self-realized saint from India with approximately 40 million disciples said, “The victim’s daughter is as guilty as her rapists…She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop…This could have saved her dignity and life. Can you clap with one hand? I don’t think so” (Herald). Then in 1995, during the Bosnian War and the Bosnian genocide, the violence assumed a gender-targeted form through the use of rape. It is estimated that 50,000 women were raped. A year prior during the Rwandan genocide, known as the 100-day genocide, it is estimated that 500,000 women were raped. During the times when these genocides were taking place, rape and sexual violence was seen as just another part of war, but not seen as a crime. Thousands and thousands of women were raped and will never obtain the justice they deserve for their perpetrators’

Rape can be used as a weapon of war and is a common occurrence in prisons. For the purpose of this presentation, we will be focusing on civil societies, especially as the topic was covered last year.

During the Rwandan genocide, some rapes occurred recurrently throughout a timespan. “Sexual enslavements occurred when a woman was detained, typically in the house of an Interhamwe, and subjected to repeated sexual assaults over a period of days,” (Mullins 727). These kinds of rapes belong in their own category because of the added element of confinement and intent to continually rape and therefore, harm. An Interhamwe soldier named Rafiki, personally sought out one Tutsi woman whom he had

In “Rape as Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victim's’ Perspective” by Anna Maedl, It begins to describe the problems around the community and how some respond with rape to help it stop. Rape as a Weapon used against people? For me it doesn't matter if you deserve to suffer, rape isn’t something to be played with or become an answer to a problem. “Indiscriminate violence against civilians, including mass rape and sexual torture, are not an exception in so-called “new wars”18 or “complex political emergencies,”19 but are the modus operandi by which these armed conflicts are fought.” (Rape 131) Modus Operandi? Which means a new way of doing things, but why rape? During the wars they believed as something normal one could do to another country’s women, yet after the massive rapes happening many women were destroyed emotionally. Not only did they chances to marry pure has disappeared, but also they are unable to even look at their love one like they did normally. When a person rapes another person, I think of them as animal that shouldn’t be considered human. Why don’t they think, “what happens if someone was raping one of my family member? How would they feel? And what would I do?” they don’t think about the consequences of the victim and of the child they may posses in the near future. However, even though the research that was conducted knew there were massive of rapes, they were able to conclude a concise number because of the numerous women who didn’t want to be interviewed of the situation that happened to them. What makes me angered is most of the victims were unable to fight back for their freedom because about 90.9% of the attackers were carrying weapons like pistols, spears and Machetes/knifes (Rape 140). Though I was unable to get a clear picture on which side Anna was trying to argue with, I have a clear statement on how the victims felt and the massive rape that was happening during the wars like World War II.

Women between the ages of 15 to 44 are at a greater risk of rape than cancer, malaria and a motor accident (Wood, 2009). According to Amnesty International (2014), 40 women are raped everyday in South Kivu regarding the on-going armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sexual violence during armed conflict has historically been known as one of the legitimate spoils of war (Brown, 2011). Spoils of war result from defeating a population and claiming benefits due to its instability. Thus violence towards civilian’s asserts dominance, however the implications involved must be rooted to deeper consequences to a nation. In this essay I will argue that rape is perpetrated against women

Sexual Abuse is known to occur among any relationship, race, sex, and gender, including male victims and homosexual couples. When rape is committed, authorities do what’s possible in order to seek justice. However, when the authoritative ones are those whom commit the crime, it is nearly impossible to seek justice. In the military forces, rape is the main issue among the soldiers and the authority figures. Although men are victimized in several cases, women constantly suffer from unjustified rape. Participating in sexual assaults are led due to external theories of gender construction, such as the Social-Learning Theory, supporting the influence of patriarchy (Barbara F. McManus, pt. 3). Male authorities allow corruption of the military forces against rape, initiating obstacles towards the justice for women.

In 2008 rape and other forms of sexual violence became an official punishable offense by the United Nations General Assembly. Scholars such as Katharine Derderian in her analysis Common Fate, Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917 states that wartime rape theory is sumararily used when discussing or analyzing the genocides of Yugoslavia and Rwanda, however the theories developed out of the genocide can be applied in instances of the Armenian genocide as its own theory regarding rape seemed more in-tune with dismissing wartime rape as a natural occurrence and by-product of conflict.

In our modern, 20th century society, we must deal with crimes by nation states. This involves governmental crimes, democratization, and transnational forms of policing. However, under this broad topic of crimes, it can be narrowed down to focus on particular topics. One I would like to focus on is genocide- the mass murder of a group of people that eliminates the social vitality of a group. And in delving deeper into this topic, I want to focus on the role and experience of gender, specifically women, in the case of genocide. In 20th century lives, genocide occurs often in times of war. The problem that is over looked is the consequences of genocide on women during times of war. The issue of gender, women’s rights, and violence against

This essay will discuss about the problems within international law which revolves around sexual violence and using the Democratic Republic of Congo as a case study. In addition, the essay will explain about who is accountable, how to obtain witnesses and provide recommendations on improving international law to bring the perpetrators to justice and reduce crime overall. But primarily, the sexual violence has to be explained and how there is international law for this issue.

Sexual violence, including rape and the intentional spreading of HIV, was a common way of perpetrating genocide against Tutsi women. As discussed by Dorris Buss (2009, 145-146), feminists have argued that rape is not just a by-product of violence, but something that is planned and used intentionally as a method of destruction against the enemy. Consequently, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda classed rape as a crime against humanity as it was done with the intention to destroy the Tutsi population because of their racial background (Buss, 2009, 150). Specifically, rape was used to disgrace the Tutsi women’s identity and humiliate Tutsi society more broadly, in addition to creating mixed-race children that would serve as a reminder of their degradation (Mullins, 2009, 722). Mullins expands on this by adding that rape was used as a mechanism to heighten fear and domination over Tutsi women and to terrorize them and their families, as their husbands and

Interestingly, in 2013 Laura Heaton questioned the narrative of violence against women in her article about the mass rape in Luvungi. Heaton's article for Foreign Policy titled "What Happened in Luvungi?", questioned whether three-hundred and eighty-seven women were truly raped during a rebel attack in Luvungi. Heaton discusses the high statistics of rape in Eastern Congo. The New York Times reported Congo population at approximately 70 million people, and 1.8 million women were raped in the whole state. Additionally, in one-year period 438,785 Congolese women were raped. Gettleman, Jeffery. "Congo Study Sets Estimates for Rapes Much Higher." The New York Times, May 11, 2011. Accessed March 8, 2018.

Amnesty International’s purpose is “to analyze the failure of the authorities to respect the right to reparation of survivors of wartime rape.” (AI) This purpose is legitimate as out of the tens of thousands of women who were victims of wartime rape, “fewer than 40 cases have been prosecuted.” (AI) The governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina are cited to have numerous new legislation being passed that would provide reparations. For example, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees set up a program for victims of violence in conflict, specifically targeting this

In the two articles one by the UN and another one by Catharine MacKinnon who is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer and teacher both focus on the violation against women. The two articles agree on the increase in number of dowry murder, and the fact that women are used as war weapons. On the other side Mackinnon strictly talk about women; but the UN also talks about Violation of human rights in general. The following is a more detailed view about the two articles;

My discussion question is discussing why the authorities are not recognizing these as war crimes and putting forth more effort to prevent it. There are such high amounts of women being violently raped and left with severe injuries and three is still little amounts of evidence connecting them to the perpetrators. There are also more women who are not able to be registered as a victim because they cannot access hospitals to report anything. There could be a larger amount of women who have been violently raped and the perpetrator could have been a part of the armed groups. These women are not only physically and psychologically traumatized they are also being outcasted by their others around them. Some women cannot work because the severity of

Sexual offences have been committed in conflict in various forms globally as a strategy and a ‘weapon of war’ even in the 21st century. As early as the 1st century, prohibitions of sexual violence were contained in military codes that were designed to protect innocent persons like women, children, farmers, merchants and priests from harm of any nature. This was often done on paper but in reality prosecuting sexual crimes was not given priority as “the legacy of impunity for wartime rape is often the normalization of chronic rape in the post-conflict phase.” For various reasons of patriarchy, women were historically considered as “property” and therefore could be owned and controlled by men. For that reason, when a sexual assault was perpetrated