This edited volume is both a guide for educators and a resource for everyone who wants to strengthen resistance against a major atrocity that besieges human development. Its contributors explore a crucial question: how to teach about rape in war and genocide?

This edited volume is both a guide for educators and a resource for everyone who wants to strengthen resistance against a major atrocity that besieges human development. Its contributors explore a crucial question: how to teach about rape in war and genocide?

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 16., , language: English, abstract: Rape has long been used as an instrument of war with relative impunity. The scale and horror of sexual violence against women and girls during times of conflict have gained it the recognition as serious crimes. Therefore, rape has become subject of national and international jurisprudence. The continued determination of women’s rights groups and other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have helped raise awareness and ensure protection from these horrific criminal acts. They effectively used international humanitarian law and put on trial some of the accusers. Rape and sexual violence against women during times of war has gained recognition as war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, treating rape as a war crime and prosecuting the accusers for crimes against humanity has not prevented these crimes from reoccurring. In order to prevent this horrific crime from occurring, war rape must be consider a violation of the most fundamental rights, human rights. Human rights do not apply to women. The language of human rights creates the illusion that everyone is equal before the law, regardless of gender. It disguises the reality of unequal gender power relations that affects all societies. When addressing the crime of rape during times of conflict, the concept of equality means much more than treating all persons in the same way. Human rights activists need to address sexual violence against women as an infringement of human rights, but the only way to do that is to challenge the belief that human rights provisions adequately address women’s rights. Activists must advocate to expand human rights laws and build human rights standards to include gender specific crimes. Rape and all forms of sexual violence against women need to be clearly stated as a human rights provision. The acceptance of violence against women during times of conflict, as an abuse of human rights will provide activists with access to the ruling by international law. Because it would be universally held to have political weight, it will provide a useful set of tools. Using these tools, women can demand the State’s and international protection, prevention against this horrific crimes and retribution against the perpetrators of abuse. To advocate human rights is to demand that the human dignity of all people be respected. Therefore, no women should be subject to any form of torture, degrading treatment of inhuman treatment.

This collection offers a new reflection on rape in war time through 15 case studies, ranging from Greece to Nigeria. It questions the specificity of rape as a universal transgression, its place in memories of war, its legacies, including children born from rape, and the challenge of writing about intimate violence as both a scientist and a human.

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Law - Criminal process, Criminology, Law Enforcement, grade: 2.1, University of Lincoln, course: Criminology and History (BA) Hons., language: English, abstract: Rape and sexual violence do not currently stand as separate crimes under international law; instead they are subsumed into the area of crime such as torture, genocide and the grave breaches of the Genocide Convention. As such international law recognises that rape at the least may accompany acts of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity as a tool of genocide. The definition of rape as genocide remains hazy, the ICTR and ICTY have interpreted rape in war conflict in various prosecution cases with different interpretations, this may be because that rape as genocide is a ‘recent occurrence within international law’. Rape is also seen as a product of war, a consequence of war rather than a component of war, as it should be interpreted as. In conflicts such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Rwanda, rape should be seen as a tool of genocide because of the deliberate intent of destruction as defined by The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948, specifically Article II (ICRC, Article II). Rape at the very least demonstrates condition (b) of Article II which stipulates that there has been an act of ‘causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group’ (ICRC, Article II). This assertion can be demonstrated in the cases of Rwanda in 1994 and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1990-1994. The emphasis of genocide remains focused on the collective, since there has to be demonstrative proof of intent of destruction of the group not just the individual. Rape however is a personal, individual experience and this complicates judicial responses to defining rape as genocide.

In times of war, women are subjected to sexual abuse that is largely ignored by military organizations, media outlets, and international courts. Existing literature has illustrated how wartime rape was accepted or dismissed in the past, and how today, while this practice continues, international courts are beginning to identify the harm being done to women, making explicit how rape is used as a tool of genocide. In this thesis I argue that wartime rape serves as a means of genocide, a way to eliminate a group of individuals and their culture. A recent example of how rape worked as genocide is seen in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Rape was used as a systematic policy to destroy a group of people, the Tutsi, through torture and the spreading of AIDS. The purpose of this research is to examine genocidal rape from the perspectives of women who were raped in Rwanda during the genocide. The focus is on gaining insight to wartime rape as a form of genocide and the aftermath of rape on the women and the culture within which it occurred. Qualitative, feminist analysis was used to answer the following research questions: How do women raped in the Rwandan genocide describe and explain their experiences with rape and its aftermath? How did the intersection of gender and ethnicity contribute to violence against women during the genocide? What are the implications of rape for the women who experienced it and for their families, communities, and their cultural group?

The plight and fate of female victims during the course of genocide is radically and profoundly different from their male counterparts. Like males, female victims suffer demonization, ostracism, discrimination, and deprivation of their basic human rights. They are often rounded up, deported, and killed. But, unlike most men, women are subjected to rape, gang rape, and mass rape. Such assaults and degradation can, and often do, result in horrible injuries to their reproductive systems and unwanted pregnancies. This volume takes one stride towards assessing these grievances, and argues against policies calculated to continue such indifference to great human suffering. The horror and pain suffered by females does not end with the act of rape. There is always the fear, and reality, of being infected with HIV/AIDS. Concomitantly, there is the possibility of becoming pregnant.Then, there is the birth of the babies. For some, the very sight of the babies and children reminds mothers of the horrific violations they suffered. When mothers harbor deep-seated hatred or distain for such children, it results in more misery. The hatred may be so great that children born of rape leave home early in order to fend for themselves on the street. This seventh volume in the Genocide series will provoke debate, discussion, reflection and, ultimately, action. The issues presented include ongoing mass rape of girls and women during periods of war and genocide, ostracism of female victims, terrible psychological and physical wounds, the plight of offspring resulting from rapes, and the critical need for medical and psychological services.