A challenge to discourse on gender and violence

Definitions

International Humanitarian Law is “a set of rules which seek, for humanitarian reasons to limit the effects of armed conflict” (ICRC, 2004)

Gender-Based Violence as “violence, sexual or otherwise, which plays on gender norms and gender exclusions to break people down both physically and psychologically (BRIDGE Report, 2003)

“Rape as a cross- cultural language of male domination (that is domination by males; it can also be domination of males)” (Card, 1996)

Statistics

“Up to 50,000 women were raped in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and up to 500,000 during the Rwandan genocide. Horrifyingly still, 40 women are brutally raped each day in just one province of DRC” (Care UK, 2009)

“In the DRC at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence have been recorded since 1996” (UNHCR, 2010)

“New UN figures show 1,244 women have been raped in DRC during the first three months of this year”

The Rape of an Ethnic Group

Serbian regime recognized cultural and religious norms, and sought to destroy/break them

Patriarchal Society- women’s bodies as property of men

“In wartime, violation of female honor is a weapon used by the men of one ethnic group against those of another” (Olujic,1998, pg39)

It is “through the penetration of a woman’s corporeal body that the social body of her family is permanently and irretrievably damaged” (Olujic,1998, pg44)

Shared concept of Honor/ Shame/ Sexuality that are attached to women’s bodies

International Humanitarian Law and the United Nation’s Current Position

1949: Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War

1990s-2000s: Decisions of the ICTY and the ICTR

1998: The Statute of the International Criminal Court

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UN Resolution 1325: Reflection on conflicts during the 90’s in the Balkans

and Rwanda

Focuses on women, peace and security

Women and children as vulnerable groups in conflict and that they often make up the majority of refugees and IDP’s

Calls for women to be involved in peace building and post-conflict reconstruction as well as peacekeeping deliberations. (Scully, 2009)

…continued

UN Resolution 1820: Links sexual violence against women and girls

to threats to international peace and security

Reflection on conflicts during 2000’s such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and the DRC

Sexual crimes to be excluded from any amnesty provisions

Zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse by Peacekeeping forces

Calls for an end to impunity

Where the Gaps Remain

Recognizing the link between peacetime and war

Lack of reference to men and boys as victims

Implementation and enforcement?

National Response to Raped Victims in Bangladesh

Gender in institutions The construction of gender explains the

continuum of misogyny through state institutions

Gender is understood in South Asia through the overarching environment of patriarchy

Thus a woman’s sexuality is considered responsible for crimes against women and instrumentalized by the concept of ‘honor’

Misogyny translated into institutional violence

Bangladesh initiated 3 national programmes:

The national use of the term ‘Birangonas.’ To title the raped victims as heroes purportedly to “acknowledge their ‘sacrifice’ for the country”

“Marry them off campaign”

“National Central Women’s Rehabilitation Board” included abortion, adoption and the “rehabilitation” of victims

The outcome of the national programme

Disingenuous efforts of the government

The programmes back fired with results that further traumatized the victims

Bangladeshi men’s concerns addressed and their crimes overlooked

Continuum of institutional violence: From disingenuity to indifference?

Post conflict local reconstruction: Bangladesh govt. Understood the politics of gender norms, but only addressed the concerns of male social codes.

Post conflict international peacekeeping: International institutional bodies lack of local knowledge. Indifference?

Both forms of institutional violence illustrate the exacerbation of gender violence.

Challenges to the “Savior Complex”

Peacekeepers – channels of gender assumptions? UN peacekeepers to facilitate a return to normal

in war-torn societies, but… Failure to understand the politics of masculinity

and femininity (Cockburn & Zarkov, 11: 2002) Troop contributing countries deploy gender

concepts Role of masculinity in military culture (Patel &

Tripodi) Aggressive and predatory forces entrench

violent and unstable environments (Cockburn) Gender awareness training – underfunded and

rarely taken seriously (Murphy, 2006)

Peacekeepers as violators Zeid Report: widespread instances of rape

on the part of UN peacekeepers (Vojdik, 2007)

Violence against women by peacekeepers – part of the continuum of violence?

Exploitative relations – easy to establish in post-conflict environments (Murphy, 2006)

Male peacekeepers vs female peacekeepers – abuses of power?

‘As far as I’m concerned, there is no such thing as consensual sex between soldiers and the local population in a war or conflict zone’ – Gen. Romeo Dallaire

Who guards the guards? (Du Plessis and Pete) UN PK forces = subsidiary organ of

the UN Inability to hold individual

peacekeepers accountable Little alternative to present system

where UN forces are prosecuted by relevant national authorities

Difficulties in prosecution Zeid report: proposes broad

‘Peacekeeping Bill of Rights’ Role of the ICC? (Du Plessis & Pete)

Women, Peace and Security Women’s potential and strength in post-

war situations Resolution 1325 – a step in the chain of

attempts to mainstream gender in UN discourse in peace operations

UN gender discourse and the confines of modernity

Nature/body/private/women/peace vs. culture/mind/public/men/war (Vayrynen)

State-centred and patriarchal practices of conflict resolution and peacebuilding

A challenge to discourse on gender and violence

Dominant hegemonic masculinity

Gender based violence against men

Sex selective massacres

Forced recruitment

Sexual violence

Sex selective massacres

Men are more likely to take up arms

Men, not women, are assumed to carry ethnicity

Only the “humans” need be killed

Men are seen as disposable

Sex selective massacres Vukovar (November 1991) 200 – 300

Croatian men executed

Vlasic (August 1992) 200-250 male prisoners executed

Brcko (spring / summer 1992) Muslim men routinely executed, some 3000 estimated to have died.

Srebrenica (July 1995) men explicitly separated from women & children and over 8000 executed

Conscription ‘Men are made not born’ (Goldstein

2001)

Forced recruitment responsible for millions of overwhelmingly male deaths throughout history

The uncritical assumption that men, real men, will fight for their country when asked

Sexual Violence Being raped

Being forced to commit rape and other gratuitous sexual acts

Being forced to witness sexual violence, esp. against loved ones

Castration – explicitly connected to the feminization of the enemy

Sexual Violence

Shame is the glue that holds the man-making process together. Males who fail tests of manhood are publicly shamed, humiliated, and become a negative example for others (Goldstein 2001)

Men, beyond perpetrators Gender-based violence affects both

men and women

Men must be considered victims of the construction of a dominant hegemonic masculinity

‘Men are more vulnerable to getting killed. That’s a pretty big deal... Dead is dead’ (Carpenter 2006)

A challenge to discourse on gender and violence

Peaceful

Mothers, wives, daughters

Sex

Vulnerable

Communal

Children

Honour

Protected

Pedestal

Manipulative

Emotional

Domestic

Caretakers

Whores or Sexual Deviants?

Jezebel

MedusaThe Gorgons

Leila Khaled

Bernardine Dohrn

“Girls with guns” and gender equality?

Where is the equality line drawn?

Nationalist struggles – avenue for equality, or recreating patriarchy?

Women as soldiers and violence against

women