Our Bodies, Their Battleground:

· GENDER-BASED ·
Violence During Conflict
SS512 - Gender Issues and Concerns in the Philippine Society
In this report We will talk about gender-based
violence, how sex, gender, and
women’s bodies are used as a tool
in war
“Violence is the
type of
possession.”

—Arif Naseem
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Overview 02 Rape as a Tool of War

Gender-Based Violence: A Silent, Wartime sexual abuses
Vicious Epidemic
(Terms/Definitions)

03 Issues 04 Impunity and Gender-Based

Violence
The actions taken and the issues
being discussed currently about
GBV
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

05 War and Women’s

Health
06 Violence
Conflict
against LGBT in
The effects of war on women’s LGBT sector’s vulnerability in
health and well-being conflict

07 The rape of men: the 08 Snapshots

darkest secret of war Some photographs of gender-based
Gender-based violence directed violence
towards men
01 OVERVIEW
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: A SILENT, VICIOUS EPIDEMIC

Whenever there is an armed conflict there are stories of

rape, of trauma, of unimaginable horror.

Sometimes the victims are in their 70s and 80s, sometimes

they are younger women, or teenagers. Some are as young
as six months old.

But what exactly is Gender-Based Violence?

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
According to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), the term ‘gender-based
violence’ (GBV) is used to distinguish violence that
targets individuals or groups of individuals on the
basis of their gender from other forms of violence.
This includes violent acts such as rape, torture,
mutilation, sexual slavery, forced impregnation and
murder.
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
When involving women, GBV is violence that is directed
against a woman or girl because she is a female, or that
affect women disproportionately.

Not all acts against a woman are gender-based

violence, or that all victims of gender-based violence
are female.
What is Sexual Violence?

The term sexual violence

is used to denote sexual
exploitation and sexual
abuse
--- any act, attempt, or threat of sexual nature that
results, or is likely to result in physical,
psychological and emotional harm.
Therefore it is a form of gender-based violence.
 A Short History of GBV in Conflict

During wars and most forms of civil conflict, women and

children have historically been targeted for a particular
kind of treatment. These atrocities have often been used
to destabilize and dehumanize “the enemy”, whose
face is often female.
 The Japanese Enslavement and Rape of
“Comfort Women”
Between 1932 and 1945, Japan forced
women from Korea, China, the Philippines
and other occupied countries to become
military prostitutes. For decades, the
history of the “comfort women” went
undocumented and unnoticed.

1932-1945
 The Rape of Nanking

The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing

(alternately written as the Nanking Massacre
or the Rape of Nanking) was an episode of
mass murder and mass rape committed by
Imperial Japanese troops against the
residents of Nanjing (Nanking), at that time
the capital of China, during the Second
Sino-Japanese War. 1937-1938
 The Nazi Genocide

Also known as the Holocaust, it was the

genocide of European Jews during World
War II. The murders were carried out in
pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy
of extermination through labor in
concentration camps; and in gas
chambers and gas vans in German
extermination camps

1941-1945
 Bosnian War

The Bosnian War was characterised by

bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of
cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and
systematic mass rape.

An estimated 12,000–50,000 women were

raped, mainly carried out by Serb forces
with most of the victims being Bosnian
Muslims.
1992-1995
 Rwandan Genocide and Rape

The Rwandan genocide, also sometimes

known as the genocide against the Tutsi,
occurred between 7 April and 15 July
1994 during the Rwandan Civil War.
Violence during the Rwandan genocide of
1994 took a gender-specific form when,
over the course of 100 days, up to half a
million women and children were raped,
sexually mutilated, or murdered.
1994
02
RAPE AS A TOOL
OF WAR
RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR

Rape, and other forms of sexual violence, is a

crime perpetrated against women in every country
in the world. ….however, the large-scale use of
rape as an instrument for delivering a psychological
blow during armed conflict has caused even more
concern.
 RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR
Classical Period - The ancient Greeks considered war rape of
women "socially acceptable behavior well within the rules of
warfare"

Middle Ages - the Catholic Church sought to prevent rape

during feudal warfare; “chivalry”.

The Vikings have acquired a reputation for "rape and pillage".

Female slavery and war rapes were also common during the
medieval Arab slave trade.

The Mongols caused much destruction during their invasions

through looting, pillaging, and raping.
 RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR
Early modern period- In the 19th century, the treatment of soldiers,
prisoners, the wounded, and civilians improved when core elements of the
laws of war were put in place by nations due to treaties only.
However, it doesn’t stop wartime rape in other areas.
A significant number of women were gang-raped by Royalist and Irish
Confederate troops under General Montrose who sacked Aberdeen in
Scotland in 1644.
In the Second Manchu invasion of Korea when Qing forces invaded the
Korean Kingdom of Joseon, many Korean women were subjected to rape
at the hands of the Qing forces
 RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR

20th Century - The prohibition of rape was excluded from the grave breaches
spelled out in the Geneva Conventions and was deliberately left vague by the
Hague Conventions.
World War II - The possibility of prosecuting sexual violence as a war
crime was present because of the recognition of war rape as serious
violation of the laws of war in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East did convict
Japanese officers "of failing to prevent rape" in the Nanking Massacre
 RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR
World War II.
Australian Army
A former prostitute recalled that as soon as Australian troops arrived in Kure in
early 1946, they 'dragged young women into their jeeps, took them to the
mountain, and then raped them.

United States Army

A large number of rapes were committed by U.S. forces during the
Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR
Vietnam War
There were rapes and sexual atrocities committed by American
servicemen and South Korean troops in the Vietnam war.

West New Guinea Occupation

The Indonesian invasion of East Timor and West Papua caused
the murders of approximately 300,000 to 400,000 West Papuans and
many thousands of women raped.
Reasons for using Rape as a Weapon

The use of rape as an organised and systematic

weapon of war, employed to destablized and
threaten an element of the civilian population
Women and girls are singled out because the harm
and humiliation inflicted not only hurts them, but
also deeply harms and affects the men in the
targeted community.
Inger Skjelsbæ writes three explanations of wartime rape:

1) essentialist, that view rape during war as an intrinsic

part of male behavior;
2) structuralist that view rape as having a political
component;
and 3) social constructionist, that view rape as having a
particular meaning depending on context.
From The Political Psychology of War Rape: Studies from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dara Kay Cohen argues that some military groups use
gang rape to bond soldiers and create a sense of
cohesion within units, particularly when troops are
recruited by force.

She also suggests that some militaries that use child

soldiers use rape as a maturation ritual to increase the
tolerance of troops for violence
RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR

The UNIFEM reports states,

“Women’s bodies were described as being

‘used as an envelope from one group of men to
another.’
03 ISSUES
Preventative action

In order to prevent these violence, much could be done

at both local and international level to prevent and
discourage the use of rape as a weapon in conflict, and
to mitgate the effets of it within a targeted community.

More could be done to communicate the issue to warring

factions.
Importance of Psychosocial Support

Psychosocial support is needed in coping with the

trauma of such attacks.
- To improve the mechanisms to support women
confronted with traumas
- the dilemmas of unwanted children
- sexually transmitted infection and HIV/AIDS;
- or being rejected by the community or husband.
Protecting displaced women

This is a particular area of concern among

humanitarians.
There is a need to re-establish for those who had
experienced sexual violence against displaced
women and children.
The Growth of a Movement
While GBV can be said to have been present in society since
earliest recorded history, it is only in the past 10 years that it
has been defined and declared an international human rights
issue.
---addressing Gender-based Violence in Refugee, Internally
Displaced, and Post Conflict Settings, that these changes are
due to the rise of women’s and human rights movements
across the world
Masculinity and Gender-Based Violence

The inequities of gender relations are

at the core of sexual violence and
depend on perceptions of male and
female roles in society and sexual
structures around this.

Changing the mindset of people is

key.
Masculinity and Gender-Based Violence

If we go to the heart of where

this comes from -- it relates to
the notions of masculinity,
sexual violence is still about
men fighting men, they are
just using the vessel of a
woman’s body
 No-risk environments for perpetrators
Universally, gender-based violence
goes largely unpunished.
During conflict, violence against
women becomes an excepted norm
while militarisation and the increased
presence of weapons result in high
levels of brutality and even greater
levels of impunity.
 International Agreements and Framework
The defining of the international community’s responsibilities in
response to gender and sexual violence was slow until the
recent years.

Although statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex

appeared in the original Universal declaration of Human Rights
in 1948, it is only in the last two decades that the issue of sexual
violence in conflict has been addressed rigourously.
The U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 1820, which noted
that "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war
crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect
to genocide"

The Office of the Special Representative of the

Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict
(SRSG-SVC) was established by Security Council Resolution
1888 (2009) serves as the United Nations' spokesperson and
political advocate on conflict-related sexual violence, and is the
chair of the network UN Action against Sexual Violence in
Conflict.
 Key international and regional laws, instruments and agreements
establishing state responsibilities for national police and armed forces
on women’s rights and eliminating violence against women.

Convention on the UN General Assembly,

Elimination of All Forms of Declaration on the
Discrimination against Elimination of Violence
Women (CEDAW - 1979) African Commission on against Women (1993)(1984)
Human and Peoples’ Rights,
Resolution on the Right to a
Remedy and Reparation for
Women and Girls Victims of Council of Europe
Convention Against Sexual Violence, (2007) Convention on preventing
Torture and Other and combating violence
Cruel, Inhuman or against women and
Degrading Treatment domestic violence (2011)
or Punishment (1984)
04
IMPUNITY AND
GENDER-BASED
VIOLENCE
IMPUNITY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: THE SECOND
WOUND OF RAPE

The terrible trauma of rape is not the

only crime commited against victims
of sexual assault.

In times of war, impunity for rapists is

only more flagrant.
IMPUNITY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: THE SECOND
WOUND OF RAPE

Lawlessness during wars and civil conflicts can create a culture of

impunity towards human rights abuses of civilians.

In many cases, countries where widespread gender-based violence

occurs today did not have a functioning or incorruptible judiciary
before conflict.
IMPUNITY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: THE SECOND
WOUND OF RAPE

In addition, the culture may be a male-dominated one in which

traditional values encourage men to have proprietary attitudes
towards women.

The prosecution of sexual criminals is often only a declaration of

intentions by authorities that results to inaction.
05 WAR AND WOMEN’S HEALTH
The effects of war on women’s health and well-being

Armed conflicts led to the deaths of some 2.8 million people in

2000, according to the British Medical Journal on Conflict World
Wide.

While the majority of people who died as a result of war were men
aged between 15 to 44, a quarter were women aged 15 to 29.

“Families and communities can be affected over generations,” said

Juliane Kippenberg, co-author of a 2002 Human Rights Watch
report ‘The War within the War’
5.1 Physical effects
Many girls and women are
gang-raped during or after war.
Some are very young, such as
infants, while others are very old.
They suffer multiple physical
injuries.
Sometimes the effects are felt
immediately, while others take
years to manifest.
Physical injuries as a result of conflict

Fistula Broken Amputations Back pain

A tear in the walls Bones Used as a and
migraines
separating hollow
internal organs. As a result of
brutal reminder
torture and gang to victims of
This causes painful rapes. Many of the enemy’s Sometimes
eliminations and immediate, but
these are not ‘intent’ (used
incontinence, along
treated properly often long-term,
with strong odors.
because of a lack
oten during the chronic effects of
As a result, many of
these women suffer of access to public civil war in brutal attacks.
family and health. This result Sierra Leone).
community rejection. in lifelong
disability.
5.2 Malnutrition
Often, civil conflict and human
rights abuses have paved the
way for famines (such as those
in Biafra in the 1960s, and the
Horn of Africa in the mid-1980s),
or prevented food from reaching
starving communities as
happened in Angola.
Other health issues
among women in
conflict:
--- Anemia
--- Scurvy
 5.3 Reproductive Health
During conflicts, women’s reproductive health is severely
threatened. Breakdowns in public health service and the scarcity of
money mean little to no access to birth control, life-saving
pregnancy-related care, and supplies for menstruating women.

Unwanted and unplanned pregnancies

can also be a result of war and
gender-based violence.
Other reproductive health
issues:
--- Miscarriages brought
on by physical and mental
stress.
--- Early pregnancy by
young girls
 5.4 Sexually Transmitted Infections
STIs are reaching epidemic proportions globally. Although many of
these diseases are easily diagnosed and treated with an
antibiotics, this aspect is often neglected in emergency situations.

A study of Rwandan women attending

antenatal clinics in refugee camps in
Tanzania found that more than 50
percent were infected with some form
of STI. HIV is one of the most serious
STIs resulting from rape.
5.5 Mental Health
The mental effects of war and
GBV can be enormous.
Anxiety;
Post-traumatic stress
disorders;
Depression;
and Suicide are the most
common mental effects of war.
 5.6 The burden of caring for others
Despite all the horrors women experience during and after wars,
they are also the one who bear the burden of caring for the ill.
Rarely is there anyone to care for them.

Often, husbands who do survive and

stay with their families become so
depressed that they drink too much
and abuse their families.
06
VIOLENCE AGAINST
LGBT IN CONFLICT
 VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT IN CONFLICT
Over the past two decades, sexual and gender-based
violence against women and girls in conflict situations has
received increasing attention…
At the same time, however, the health of men, boys, and
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and other
non-binary people exposed to sexual violence in conflict
has been insufficiently addressed by research and the UN
policy agenda
VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT IN CONFLICT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people

are a vulnerable group at the best of times. During times
of turmoil (conflict, natural disasters or widespread
violence) this vulnerability is exacerbated, often leaving
LGBT people to experience a level of violence and
exclusion beyond that borne by others.
 VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT IN CONFLICT

In 2009, Human Rights Watch reported that

violence against LGBT people in Iraq was on the
rise amidst the country’s conflict:
While the country remains a dangerous place for
many if not most of its citizens, death squads
started specifically singling out men whom they
considered not ‘manly’ enough, or whom they
suspected of homosexual conduct. The most trivial
details of appearance – the length of a man’s hair,
the fit of his clothes – could determine whether he
lived or died.
 VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT IN CONFLICT

In the same year, a number of men perceived to be gay were

forced to go underground after posters appeared on walls in
eastern Baghdad naming them and threatening to kill them.
Amnesty International reported at the time that at least 25 men
alleged to be gay had been killed in Baghdad in the space of a few
weeks.
 VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBT IN CONFLICT

Walter Dempster Jr. (May 20, 1924

– June 24, 2005), better known by
his alias Walterina Markova, was a
Filipino gay man who was forced as
a "comfort gay" (sex slave) for
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers
during the Japanese occupation of
the Philippines in World War II.
07
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE
DARKEST SECRET OF WAR
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE DARKEST SECRET OF WAR

When talking about wartime sexual

violence...
it is primarily images of raped women and
girls, of female victims of sexual slavery,
of forced pregnancies or abortions
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE DARKEST SECRET OF WAR

Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that
it exists mostly as a rumour.
It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim.
Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at
the UN barely acknowledge its possibility.
Yet every now and then, someone gathers the courage to tell
of it.
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE DARKEST SECRET OF WAR

A 2009 study by Lara Stemple found that it had been documented in

conflicts worldwide; for example, 76% of male political prisoners in
1980s El Salvador and 80% of concentration camp inmates in Sarajevo
reported being raped or sexually tortured.
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE DARKEST SECRET OF WAR

According to US Department of Defense (2012):

- 54% of victims of sexual violence in the US military were
men

According to medical doctors in eastern Congo (2010):

- ¼ of men and boys living in the region had been victims of
conflict-related sexual violence.
THE RAPE OF MEN: THE DARKEST SECRET OF WAR

The practice of wartime sexual violence is ancient, and was

recorded as taking place during the Crusades.

During periods of armed conflict men may be raped,

sexually mutilated, sexually humiliated, or even
enslaved.
WHY ARE MEN ESPECIALLY TARGETED?

Sexual violence
– whether against men or women –
is about asserting power and dominance.

This disempowerment or ’emasculation’ is at

both the private and community level.
In armed conflict, power and dominance manifest themselves in various forms
of emasculation including:

■ Feminisation: The intention of the rape may be to ‘lower’ the social

status of the male survivor by reducing him to a ‘feminised male’.
■ Homosexualisation: When reference is made to masculinity, the
dominant construct is that of heterosexual masculinity. The homosexual
male is considered less masculine and more effeminate than the
heterosexual male.
■ Prevention of procreation: Castration and violence against male organs
in conflict is about removing the procreative ability, and therefore the
virility or manliness of the victim.
■ Group emasculation: Sexual violence is also often targeted against
individuals belonging to particular ethnic, racial or religious groups in
order to symbolically dominate the entire group.
While sexual violence in all its forms is
criminalized in international law, the
culture of silence around sexual
violence against men often leaves male
victims with no support.
In one study, less than 3% of
organizations that address rape as a
weapon of war, mention men or provide
services to male victims
 WHY IS WARTIME SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN ARE
UNDERESTIMATED?

A number of factors explain that these cases and figures have

not attracted more media attention, or led to a shift in existing
public policies:
1. Literature focuses on killings and injuries only
2. Taboo
3. Conflict-related sexual violence is generally not coded in the
same way when victims are men
 08
SNAPSHOTS
Women and girls have experienced sexual‑ and gender‑based violence,
perpetrated by both the Myanmar army and by Rakhine locals (the incidence
of this violence has increased in frequency over the last two years). Many
women whose sexual assault resulted in conception are reported to have
sought out abortions after arriving in Bangladesh.
The extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has carried out
systematic rape and other sexual violence against Yezidi women and girls in
northern Iraq. Nearly all of them said they had been forced into marriage;
sold, in some cases a number of times; or given as “gifts.” The women and
girls also witnessed other captives being abused.
Such horrors were seen in Bosnia where Muslim women were systematically
raped as part of ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serb forces. Over 20,000
women are thought to have been raped during the war. Some are forcibly
impregnated with half-Serbian children to “dillute” Bosnian identity.
Lola Narcisa and Lola Estelita, the last surviving ‘comfort women’ still
fighting for justice in their late eighties. When they were girls so young
that they had not even started their periods, they were raped over and over
by Japanese soldiers who had occupied the country.
Dying of shame: a Congolese rape victim, currently resident in Uganda. This
man’s wife has left him, as she was unable to accept what happened. He
attempted suicide at the end of last year
 SOURCES
Our Bodies - Their Battle Ground: Gender-based Violence in Conflict Zones. IRIN Web Special on violence against women and girls
during and after conflict. http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/gbv/

Human Dignity Trust. (2015). Criminalising Homosexuality and LGBT Rights in Times of Conflict, Violence and Natural Disasters.
https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/8.-Criminalisation-Conflict-and-Natural-Disasters.pdf

Skjelsbæk, I. (2012). The political psychology of war rape: Studies from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Routledge.
Storr, W. (2011). The rape of men: the darkest secret of war. The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, April 18). Rape during the Bosnian War. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:17, April
23, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rape_during_the_Bosnian_War&oldid=1018515793

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, March 6). Rape during the Rwandan genocide. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:15,
April 23, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rape_during_the_Rwandan_genocide&oldid=1010543712

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Féron, E. (2018, November 28). Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men: The Hidden Face of Warfare from
https://www.rowmaninternational.com/blog/wartime-sexual-violence-against-men-the-hidden-face-of-warfare
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