Sexual violence as a tool of war

Extracted Attributes

• Forms

  Gang rape, rape with objects, institutionalized sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy.

• Impact

  Terrorize the population, break up families, destroy communities, change ethnic make-up of the next generation, deliberately infect women with HIV.

• Motives

  Spoils of war, broader sociological motives (especially in ethnic conflict), psychological warfare to humiliate and terrorize the enemy, intent to destroy a targeted group (genocide).

• Definition

  Rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during an armed conflict, war, or military occupation.

• Distinction

  Distinct from sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and rape committed amongst troops in military service.

• Historical Context

  Historically, armies considered rape one of the legitimate spoils of war.

• Key Legal Instrument

  Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

• Legal Classification

  War crime, crime against humanity, genocide (when committed with intent to destroy a group).

• Challenges in Addressing

  Widespread denialism, political polarization, rising anti-Semitism, silence from some segments of the feminism movement, difficulty of establishing truth amidst the fog of war.

Timeline

• International legal instruments for prosecuting perpetrators of genocide were developed, recognizing sexual violence as a tool of war. (Source: Wikipedia, Summary)

  1990s

• Widespread rapes of women in the former Yugoslavia brought significant international attention to sexual violence in conflict. (Source: Web Search)

  1992

• The Akayesu case of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda successfully prosecuted rape as an instrument of genocide, setting a historical precedent. (Source: Wikipedia, Summary)

  1998-09-02

• Systematic use of sexual violence by Hamas during the October 7th attacks in Israel. (Source: Related Documents, Summary)

  2023-10-07

• Sheryl Sandberg's documentary 'Screams Before Silence' and related discussions on the All-In Podcast highlight the systematic use of sexual violence in conflict and the challenges of denialism. (Source: Related Documents, Summary)

  2023-2024

Wartime sexual violence

Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during an armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader sociological motives. Wartime sexual violence may also include gang rape and rape with objects. It is distinguished from sexual harassment, sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service. During war and armed conflict, rape is frequently used as a means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate and terrorize the enemy. Wartime sexual violence may occur in a variety of situations, including institutionalized sexual slavery, wartime sexual violence associated with specific battles or massacres, as well as individual or isolated acts of sexual violence. Rape can also be recognized as genocide when it is committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group. International legal instruments for prosecuting perpetrators of genocide were developed in the 1990s, and the Akayesu case of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, between the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia and itself, which themselves were "pivotal judicial bodies [in] the larger framework of transitional justice", was "widely lauded for its historical precedent in successfully prosecuting rape as an instrument of genocide". The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, and forced pregnancy as crimes against humanity and as war crimes.

Web Search Results

• [PDF] Sexual Violence: a Tool of War - the United Nations

  BACKGROUND NOTE Sexual Violence: a Tool of War “Sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as the war crime that it is; it can no longer be treated as an unfortunate collateral damage of war.” -- UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura The victims of modern armed conflict are far more likely to be civilians than soldiers. According to UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, the vast majority of casualties in today’s wars are among civilians, [...] mostly women and children. Women in particular can face devastating forms of sexual violence, which are sometimes deployed systematically to achieve military or political objectives. Rape committed during war is often intended to terrorize the population, break up families, destroy communities, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation. Sometimes it is also used to deliberately infect women with HIV or render women from the targeted community incapable of bearing [...] accepted as unavoidable. A 1998 UN report on sexual violence and armed conflict notes that historically, armies considered rape one of the legitimate spoils of war. During World War II, all sides of the conflict were accused of mass rapes, yet neither of the two courts set up by the victorious allied countries to prosecute suspected war crimes – in Tokyo and Nuremberg – recognized the crime of sexual violence. 2 It was not until 1992, in the face of widespread rapes of women in the former

• [PDF] Rape as a Tactic of War - UN Women

  Conflict and post conflict Sexual violence during and after conflict Wartime sexual violence is one of history’s greatest silences and one of today’s most extreme atrocities. In many contexts, sexual violence is not merely the action of rogue soldiers, but a deliberate tactic of warfare. It displaces, terrorizes and destroys individuals, families and entire communities, reaching unthinkable levels of cruelty against women of all ages from infants to grandmothers. It can leave the survivors with [...] Rape in conflict, when widespread and systematic, is now recognized as a crime against humanity and a war crime. However, it mostly goes unpunished, perpetuating impunity. Sexual violence is routinely ignored in peace negotiations. After 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 [...] 1820 and related resolutions and agreements on women, peace and security. UNIFEM is a founding member of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, an inter-agency network of 13 UN entities that advocates action against sexual violence under the banner Stop Rape Now. UNIFEM’s efforts to address conflict-related sexual violence include: •  Undertaking high-impact research and analysis that can generate policy attention. One such review revealed that in a sample of 45 conflicts since 1989,

• Wartime sexual violence - Wikipedia

  Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during an armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader sociological motives. Wartime sexual violence may also include gang rape and rape with objects. It is distinguished from sexual harassment, sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service. [...] During war and armed conflict, rape is frequently used as a means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate "Demoralization (warfare)") and terrorize the enemy. Wartime sexual violence may occur in a variety of situations, including institutionalized sexual slavery, wartime sexual violence associated with specific battles or massacres, as well as individual or isolated acts of sexual violence. [...] The Greek and Roman armies reportedly engaged in war rape, which is documented by ancient authors such as Homer, Herodotus, Livy and Tacitus. Ancient sources held multiple, often contradictory attitudes to sexual violence in warfare. Haaretz writer and archaeologist Terry Madenholm") explains that rape did not only serve as an instrument of sexual gratification or a tool for anger relief management.

• The Devastating Use of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War

  A UN report, jointly authored by the UN Office in Haiti and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, described armed gangs using sexual violence to “instill fear, intimidate, subjugate, and control local populations.” Gangs employ sexual violence as a tactic in larger regiments of terror and violence, as mechanisms by which to punish people associated with rival gangs, as part of kidnappings, and to “assert power and control over people living in their own areas.” [...] International bodies can prosecute rape and sexual violence as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide. The standards for these crimes were codified in the 1990s by the statutes of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In addition to ad hoc tribunals created by the United Nations, like those mentioned above, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has the authority to bring charges and initiate trial proceedings. The ICC has already launched [...] committed. Under certain circumstances, sexual violence can be categorized as a crime of torture or an act of genocide. Various other national and international bodies have condemned the use of sexual violence in conflicts.

• Timeline of the History of Sexual Violence in the U.S.

  Further, the law also communicated that it was not necessary for Black women to give consent in a sexual encounter. Black women were not able to file rape charges against white men until 1861. Even with this legal protection, sexual violence against Black women continued to be used as a political tool. Many historians consider the American Civil War to be an anomaly in that it did not see widespread sexual violence. However, this conclusion is untrue and erases the experiences of many enslaved [...] Racialized sexual violence perpetrated by U.S. citizens was not confined to American soil. During World War II, systematic sexual violence was perpetrated against women by many different armies. The Japanese military employed a system of sexual slavery that exploited over 200,000 women and girls as “comfort women” for Japanese soldiers. While the United States military did not have such a formalized system, historians are continuing to unravel the atrocities it committed in Japan during [...] During Reconstruction, which began in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, white people were watching as the oppressive social order they built crumbled after emancipation. They then began to seek ways to reassert that power over Black people. This resulted in widespread sexual violence and violence in general perpetrated by white mobs and individuals against Black people between 1865 and 1877. A key idea this rash of violence relied on was framing Black men as commonly desiring to rape white