Wartime sexual violence is one of history’s greatest silences and one of today’s most extreme atrocities. It displaces, terrorizes, and destroys individuals, families, and entire communities, reaching unthinkable levels of cruelty against vulnerable groups of civilians, majorly targeting women and children. It can leave the survivors with emotional trauma and psychological damage, physical injuries, unwanted pregnancies, social stigma, and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Wartime sexual violence has long been considered an inevitable, if unfortunate, a by-product of war, a form of collateral damage beyond the control of military commanders. Beyond a failure to prevent it, evidence is mounting that in many conflicts of the last century, sexual violence has been orchestrated by political and military leaders.
While wartime rape, when widespread and systematic, is recognized as a war crime, it mostly goes unpunished and is often ignored in peace negotiations. After the war, it is far more likely that perpetrators will be rewarded as part of disarmament and peace-building agreements than that their victims will receive care, justice, or redress.
On the contrary, rape survivors are often rejected by their own families and communities. In many post-conflict countries, gender-based violence tops the list of crimes that the police have to address, even though it is severely under-reported. Even cases brought to the attention of the police are rarely investigated properly, seldom lead to arrests, and hardly ever culminate in convictions. Women and girls are primarily and increasingly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war. While women and girls are, in general, more predominantly subject to sexual violence, men and boys have also been victims of sexual violence, especially in contexts of detention.
The use of sexual violence in historical context
Its use as a weapon of war was gruesomely demonstrated during World War II, when both Allied and Axis armies committed rape as a means of terrorizing enemy civilian populations and demoralizing enemy troops. Two of the worst examples were the sexual enslavement of women in territories conquered by the Japanese army and the mass rape committed against German women by advancing Russian soldiers.
In the late 20th century, the international community began to recognize rape as a weapon and strategy of war, and efforts were made to prosecute such acts under existing international law. The primary statute, Article 27 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949), already included language protecting women “against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault”; this protection was extended in an additional protocol adopted in 1977.
In 1993 the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights (replaced in 2006 by the UN Human Rights Council) declared systematic rape and military sexual slavery to be crimes against humanity punishable as violations of women’s human rights. In 1995 the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women specified that rape by armed groups during wartime is a war crime.
Including strategic rape under the weapons framework addresses the growing concern that women receive the full benefit of IHL protections as demonstrated by the Security Council’s mandate for states to take action to ensure that women victims of sexual violence and rape in war are accorded ‘equal protection’ and ‘equal access to justice’ under IHL (UN, 2008b).
The distinct characteristics of war rape
The use of strategic rape has never been assessed or systematically monitored and analyzed by states under the weapons framework. Strategic rape is sui generis, with distinct characteristics rarely, if ever, seen outside of conflict. The unique and defining features of strategic rape
include:
Rape that deliberately aims to destroy or dominate specific anatomical reproductive and sexual organs and body functions, resulting in traumatic genitourinary injuries rarely, if ever, seen outside of this context.
Rape committed by multiple perpetrators: in some conflicts, up to 90 percent of the rapes are gang rapes (Hagen and Yohani, 2010).
The routine use of objects, in addition to or instead of the penis, forced into the vagina or anus, including guns, knives, burning firewood, or broken glass.
What motivates the armed forces to commit sexual crimes?
Rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate their social control and redraw ethnic boundaries. Sexual violence during conflict has proven highly effective in breaking the enemy's morale, particularly where women are raped in public or where relatives are coerced into participating. Widespread and systematic sexual violence also hampers sustainable post-conflict recovery. It does so in at least three ways: first, it undermines social stability by destroying families and communities; second, the fear of sexual violence restrains women's mobility, leading them to retreat from economic activity and causing girls to stay home from school; third when perpetrators of sexual violence go unpunished, efforts to establish faith in the State's ability to protect its citizens and establish the rule of law, is seriously undermined. Survivors face emotional torment, psychological damage, physical injuries, disease, social ostracism, and many other consequences that can devastate their lives,
Reacting, not accepting
Prosecution of sexual violence is an important indication of commitment to improved accountability for gender-specific crimes in conflict. It is also an important expression of commitment to deterring future crimes of this nature.
One of the greatest challenges is to prevent sexual violence against women in the first instance. This can be achieved by making concerted efforts in at least three arenas.
First, there must be heightened respect for women’s human rights in all aspects of their lives. Failure to address sex discrimination as a significant underlying cause of sexual violence will ensure that present and future generations of women continue to be at risk for sexual violence. Second, there must be significantly improved compliance with the provisions of IHL during armed conflicts.
Finally, there must be vigorous condemnation, investigation, and prosecution of gender-specific crimes against women in times of peace as well as war.