Rape As A Weapon Of War In The Eastern Drc Analysis

The future of genocidal intervention must allow us to move beyond a definition affixed to body counts, and particularly when we don’t gender those victims. By gendering the way violence impacts both men and women, we can both detect genocidal acts earlier as well as paying attention to the act of rape as genocidal in and of itself. While those who committed these acts certainly are evil, to understand the gendered logic (if it can be called such) of violence is conducted provides us better perspective in identifying it within conflicts, and understand which populations are at risk and in what ways.

According to ICRtoP, the Democratic Republic of Congo is reported to be the “rape capital of the world” with an estimated 15,000 rape cases in the Congo’s eastern provinces alone. Rape is a tool of war used by the various armed forces in the Congo in order to “create instability in

Rapists are rarely imprisoned for an adequate amount of time—if any—which is why once convicted, the sentencing that they receive should remain unchanged until it is fulfilled. Too many judges will allow the convict’s sentence to be shortened or changed to house arrest. Which means that survivors of rape have to deal with the fear of being raped again or even killed when their assailant is released from prison earlier than expected. Rape is a very traumatic experience and can happen to anyone. The effects after a traumatizing experience, such as rape, can last a lifetime and lead to the decay of a victim’s life. These outcomes can cause physical and mental damage for the survivor. To make matters worse, victims are essentially punished by the justice system for their own rapes when a rapist is not sufficiently prosecute and there are not any laws to protect the survivors. They are forced to live in fear of being raped again and sometimes are even ridiculed or shunned by peers and family for being raped, Therefore elucidating the impression that the rape was the fault of the victim. Many people who do not sympathize or empathize with the trauma of rape may claim that the survivor wanted to be raped. This is never true, even despite the circumstances. Nobody asks to be raped, not a woman, not a man, not a

The video focuses on events in the Republic of the Congo, but it’s commonplace where there are chaos and lawlessness. Consider how people changed in the wake of hurricane Katrina, cultural norms eroded overnight and the criminal action began, so far there have been over 140 reported rapes and gang rapes. During the fight in Africa, these actives are normal. Without legal repercussion, conflict rape is considered “an unchangeable externality of war (Haddad, 2002).” As a weapon it’s has a psychological effect on the families and communities involved. It instills fear in both genders because of the fear of it being done to them and as important to their loved ones. The uncertainty of that’s happened to the people that go missing in the night is unimaginable. Another disturbing intent of people in power is to remove the bloodline of the opposed (aka ethnic cleansing), this is done through forced breeding, mutilation of females, eliminating future generations and ultimately driving the unwanted from the territory (Isgandarova, 2013). The third use of a weapon if creating fear to destabilize communities makes are taken and forced into combat roles while females are taken for the pleasure of their captors. This fear paralyzes people preventing them from taking up arms or collaborating to stop the offenses. With fewer adolescent and young adults, generations become weaker

Western assumptions mean they are not surprised by the number of rape victims they treat. Congolese women and communities understood that the narrative of rape was what westerns listened to and telling stories of rape meant that women got access to international aid. The common knowledge formed that in many areas to be a legitimate recipient of international aid, in the eyes of intervening actors, a woman must be a rape victim. Sexual Violence as a weapon of war.

Internationally, sexual assault is more likely the result of conflict with or within a society or nation. Emily Rauhala goes into much depth concerning males as victims of sexual assault primarily in the South African Congo and how this is not as spoken upon. She provides information about detention facilities and prisons that have reportedly used sexual assault as a torture treatment during these war times. “In South Africa’s overcrowded, under-funded prisons, rape and sexual violence are used to define and maintain a strict social hierarchy in which victims are humiliated, dominated and feminized,” (Johnson 2014). Rauhala provides an account of a male in the Congo who tells of his experience with sexual assault and how it has changed his life forever.

However, the aid organization's argument does not account how desperately these women need help from international aid organizations. However, the argument centered on culture is narrow and does not allow for aid organizations to truly access the situation of women in Congo. There were cultural changes within Congo during years of war, that had a history of violence against women. Never the less, women and communities understood that the story of rape was a way to access international aid, and a way to protect women. There were other communities that knew they could protect women who truly were raped, by having most women in the meaning that other women would lie. Warner. The Congo We Listen To. (2017).

While war in the DRC already created unpleasant outcomes, such as poverty and corruption, it also created cruel type of a weapon, humiliation and rape of women beside the guns and bombs. Meger asserts in her article that the majority of the rape crimes involve gang rapes, “with an average of 4.5 attackers per victim,” and they also tend to be systematically preplanned (127). Women depicted in Ruined are examples of rape victims. Salima’s story in particular demonstrates how violent and unforgiving it can be out in there. She was gang raped when she was in her garden and her attackers even ended up killing her infant. Not only was she brutally assaulted, but also neglected and abandoned by her husband and the village, which left her nowhere to turn to. Salima sees Mama Nadi’s bar as a place to live, but in an entirely new way of

An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 woman were victims of rape during the Rwandan genocide. More than 67% of these woman also suffered from the transmission of HIV through a system rape used as a genocidal weapon. This was one of the many cruel methods carried out by Hutu nationalists to oppress the Tutsi people, and eradicate their presence from Rwanda. Over a 3 month period Rwanda experienced an outbreak of mass killings of Tutsi people and Hutu moderates. Media broadcasting prompted Hutu nationalist to raise arms against their Tutsi oppressors, who for decades had subjected them as inferior by influence of a biased imperial race ideology. Nationalism was a driving force on both sides of these two major ethnic groups in Rwanda. The introduction

Alissa Rubin wrote an article entitled, “For Afghanistan Women, Justice Runs Into Unforgiving Wall of Custom.” Rubin talks about a few different women's stories, such as a women, Gulnaz, who was in prison, gave birth to her rapists child, and was sentenced to more jail time unless she married her rapist. These women are abused and treated very poorly and because they were raped they are no longer wanted. Rubin wrote that Gulnaz claimed “ My rapist has destroyed my future, no one will marry me after what he has done to me, so I must marry my rapist for my child's sake” (Alissa Rubin, 2011). This article relates to the article, “Rape of Girl, 5, Draws Focus to Child Assault in India”, because both articles talk about rape and women being abused and mistreated. This article is deviant because women should be able to marry whoever they want and certainly should not be forced to marry their rapist. Sadly in this society these women are blamed for being raped, and because they are no longer desired they are forced to marry the person who caused the problem and pain. This article again demonstrates Gender Conflict Theory, because the women are seen as inferior two men and although they are the victims of rape they are “guilty” and

To analyze rape as a weapon appears to be complex. This complexity is justifiable because of different factors, which come into play at different scales or levels. However, competing theories can still attempt to explain rape as a weapon with its pervasiveness in the DR Congo. Humphreys (2017), provides theoretical insights into how to understand and analyze the motives of players fighting for power or dominion. In regard to these theoretical insights, Humphreys (2017), has identified strategy without strategizing, psychological games, and the tragedy of the commons among others. These theoretical insights focus on the predictions of the actors’ actions. In this study, however, I will use psychology game to explain the pervasiveness

First, the thought that women shouldn't be transparent with their wants—that they can’t say “yes” to sex without getting flack for being “easy” or a “slut” leads to the belief that “no” isn’t a refusal, but rather a veiled invitation (Tegenfeldt). The more disturbing side of this comes when we realize that these aren’t singular, disconnected incidents, but rather that these ideas are widespread—not just in America, but in the world. If we consider that the phrase“security of person” is a right clearly stated in article three of the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we are faced with considering the morality of rape (United Nations 2). While the meaning of the line itself may be up to some interpretation, if we stop to think that when someone feels violated, and feels like their body no longer belongs to themselves, there becomes little room for argument as to whether rape is covered under it or not (Dickson). Going even further, the use of rape in war can be considered even worse. Rape in warfare is a “deliberate attempt to engender public humiliation” and destroy the morale of those who are victimized (Moore 107). The UDHR states in article five that people shouldn’t be subjected to “cruel,” or“degrading treatment or punishment, ” a term that arises as Moore describes rape being used to punish and publicly humiliate opposition (United Nations 2, Moore 107-109). To debate the ethical and moral standpoint of rape, we must first truly understand what it is, and what it stands for. We must also understand why it is a violation of rights, and the reasons people don’t speak out against it. Once we have that, it becomes much easier to realize how an issue that is domestically focused on is really something spread across the

Sexual violence is about being in power and has been used throughout the world as a tool to humiliate and disempower others. These such acts are done from the majority of males, who aim to cause physical, psychological or sexual harm on a female victim, for their own personal gain or satisfaction. It is a dehumanizing experience and a profound violation of a human being. The effects on a person’s mental well being can be dramatically altered, resulting in mental illnesses, destroying their lives forever. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, brutal rape has become a large battle to fight by the “Raise Hope for the Congo,” Campaign. By identifying the problem at hand, which is the excessive amount of sexual cruelty

In the Central African Republic, women and girls between the ages of 10 and 75 are being raped, kidnapped, and used as sexual slaves as a tactic of war by the Muslim Seleka and the Christian and animist militia called anti-balaka from early 2013 to mid-2017. According to the article “They said we are their Slaves” by Smita Sharma it discusses that in some cases of sexual slavery the Seleka or anti-Balaka committed sexual violence and exerted ownership over victims, women or girls who experienced multiple rapes over a period of weeks. 17 women and 4 girls say that they experienced violence by an armed group that included capturing women, beating them and other physical abuse. All these cases happened in the capital, Bangui, and around the towns of

The autonomy of the victim has been violated in some more ways that make it impossible for them to go on about with their daily life. Rape violates the autonomy of the victim, he/she is denied the right to determine an importation area of his life. Alternatively, he/she is treated as merely a means for the rapist. Rape violates a person’s self-determination and sexuality is an important area in the formation of an individual’s personality. When it comes to sexual self-determination, People have the right to control their own body. The problem line with the area of the body that the person can’t control and that is what gets them into a problem with