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by Wayne Campbell
“The bodies of women and girls become battlefields. Rape is used as a weapon of war just as surely as the bomb that blows up a building or the tank that ploughs through a crowd. It points to the scale and ubiquity of gender inequality and gender-based violence in all societies, everywhere, an unacceptable reality that is only exacerbated by crises and conflict.” – Natalia Kanem, chief of the UN Population Fund.
Despite all the good and positive things in today’s world evil exists. One such unspeakable axis of evil is that of conflict related sexual violence. According to the United Nations (UN) the term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilisation, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict.
The term also encompasses trafficking in persons when committed in situations of conflict for the purpose of sexual violence or exploitation. The UN adds that a consistent concern is that fear and cultural stigma converge to prevent the vast majority of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence from coming forward to report such violence. Alarmingly, practitioners in the field estimate that for each rape reported in connection with a conflict, 10 to 20 cases go undocumented.
UN Resolutions
On 19 June 2015, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed June 19th of each year The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, in order to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence, to honour the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world and to pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives to and lost their lives in standing up for the eradication of these crimes.
The date was chosen to commemorate the adoption on 19 June 2008 of Security Council resolution in which the Council condemned sexual violence as a tactic of war and an impediment to peace building.
The UN states that acknowledging sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism; it further affirmed that victims of trafficking and sexual violence committed by terrorist groups should be eligible for official redress as victims of terrorism.
The UN added that rising inequality, increased militarization, reduced civic space and the illicit flow of small arms and light weapons also contributed, among other factors, to fuelling widespread and systematic conflict-related sexual violence, even in the midst of a global pandemic.
Women peace builders and human rights defenders were often specifically targeted, including through sexual violence and harassment as a form of reprisal, in order to exclude them from public life.
Activists and advocates working to highlight the plight and defend the rights of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, and to support their access to justice and services, were also subjected to reprisals and intimidation.
Weaponised rape in the Russian Ukraine War
By now most of the world is aware of the Russian- Ukrainian War. War is horrible. We have seen and continue to see and have read about the atrocities being committed in Ukraine.
The following are brutal and graphic accounts of Ukrainian women who have been raped by invading soldiers. The stories have been reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In a quiet, rural neighbourhood 70km (45miles) west of Kyiv, we spoke to Anna, who is 50.
The BBC changed her name to protect her identity. Anna told us that on 7 March she had been at home with her husband when a foreign soldier barged in. At gunpoint, he took me to a house nearby. He ordered me: ‘Take your clothes off or I’ll shoot you.’
He kept threatening to kill me if I didn’t do as he said. Then he started raping me,” she said. Anna described her attacker as a young, thin, Chechen fighter allied with Russia.
“While he was raping me, four more soldiers entered. I thought that I was done for. But they took him away. I never saw him again,” she said. She believes she was saved by a separate unit of Russian soldiers.
Down the road from Anna’s house, we heard another chilling story. A woman was allegedly raped and killed, and neighbours say it was done by the same man who raped Anna, before he went to Anna’s house.
The woman was in her 40s. She was taken out of her home, says neighbours, and held in the bedroom of a house nearby whose occupants had evacuated when the war began. The well-decorated room, with ornate wallpaper and a bed with a golden headboard, is now a disturbing crime scene.
There are large bloodstains on the mattress and duvet. In a corner is a mirror with a note written in lipstick, appearing to suggest where the victim was buried.
A family of three, a couple in their thirties and their young child – lived in a house on the edge of the village. On 9 March, several soldiers of the Russian army entered the house. The husband tried to protect his wife and child. So they shot him in the yard,” said Mr Nebytov.
“After that, two soldiers repeatedly raped the wife. They would leave and then come back. They returned three times to rape her. They threatened that if she resisted, they would harm her little boy. To protect her child, she didn’t resist.” When the soldiers left, they burnt down the house and shot the family’s dogs. Ukraine’s ombudsman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova says they are documenting several such cases.
“About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha. Nine of them are pregnant,” she said. “Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children.”
Sexual violence in the context of COVID-19
Undoubtedly, sexual violence further impeded women’s livelihood activities, and this is especially so against the backdrop of economic shocks and poverty driven by protracted conflict and pandemic-related restrictions.
These trends emerged at a time when the global public health crisis as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had already diminished humanitarian access and diverted resources away from life-saving services to address gender-based violence and deeply affecting survivors, in particular displaced women and girls. Despite this governments continue to invest more in their military and weapons acquisition than in their fragile health care systems more so in conflict-affected countries.
In pursuit of a protective culture
There was a time in most cultures that women and children were protected. Unfortunately, such times have disappeared and we now operate in an era where women are specifically targeted regarding conflict related sexual violence.
Those of us who know of our history will remember that the liberating forces of the former Soviet Union present day Russia also used rape as a form of war during the Second World War from 1939-1945. Russia is not alone in committing these monstrous acts of crimes.
There are countries such as, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Somalia, Central African, Sudan, the Cameroon, Myanmar, Mali, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Wherever we have had war, women and girls have been subjected to rape, sexual torture and violence. Sadly, in many instances the perpetrators are not brought to justice and the victims are left without getting justice.
In many societies, victims of rape are stigmatized and discriminated against. Oftentimes those voiceless victims rape become severely depressed especially if they are not given psycho-social support.
There tends to be a generalisation that only women and girls are victims of conflict related sexual violence; however, documentary evidence proves otherwise as men and boys are also victims of conflict related sexual violence. We are experts at theorising issues; however, practical steps are needed in the pursuit of a protective culture.
This protective culture should be one which deters as much as provide for support for the victims of conflict related to sexual violence. This protective culture should also be one in which perpetrators are brought to justice. Most of us have some platform, whether it is church, some civic organization and or social media.
We must all work in unison to create a safe community for the victims of gender-based violence, human trafficking and discrimination. As the ongoing war in Ukraine pushes on, we must be mindful that sexual violence is a violation of human rights and a crime under international humanitarian law.
The international community needs to galvanise around this issue and do more. It is not enough to issue condemnations; words alone will not stop this horrendous practice. It bares thought that victims must see their perpetrators brought to trial and face the judgment of their deeds. The time for collective action in order to eradicate this awful practice is now.
According to Ban Ki-Moon, former UN Secretary-General, sexual violence is now widely recognised as a deliberate strategy used to shred the fabric of society; to control and intimidate communities and to force people from their homes. It is rightly seen as a threat to international peace and security, a serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, and a major impediment to post-conflict reconciliation and economic development.
Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCam#EndRapeInWar #StopRapeNow #sexualviolence #endCRSV ©
