GENDER AND RECONCILIATION IN POST-CONFLICT
SOCIETIES: THE DILEMAS OF RESPONDING TO
LARGE-SCALE SEXUAL VIOLENCE
M. Melandri
IPPR Volume 5 Number 1 (October 2009)
pp. 4-27
© 2009
International Public Policy Review • The Department of Political Science
The Rubin Building 29/30 • Tavistock Square • London • WC1 9QU
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ippr/
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GENDER AND RECONCILIATION IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES:
THE DILEMMAS OF RESPONDING TO LARGE-SCALE SEXUAL
VIOLENCE
M. Melandri
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses how a better understanding of women's wartime experiences of
sexual violence can influence the theory and practice of transitional justice. Attention is
first given to identifying the causes behind the widespread use of large-scale sexual
violence in contemporary conflicts. Second, an overview is offered of the positive
achievements of introducing a gender perspective in planning and implementing judicial
and non-judicial transitional justice mechanisms. Third, it is argued that a truly gendersensitive analysis of wartime sexual violence against women has the potential to expand
the concept and the scope of post-conflict reconciliation programmes.
Keywords: rape, post-conflict reconciliation, sexual violence, transitional justice, war
INTRODUCTION
War, women, and sexual violence against women in wartime have always existed,
but it was not until the 1990s that this issue reached the agenda of the international
community. The mass rape of women in Rwanda and Bosnia finally lifted the taboo of
wartime sexual violence, and the phenomenon started to attract worldwide attention.
Recent research has shed light on the epidemic proportion of sexual violence taking place
during contemporary conflicts. Statistics suggest that as many as 275,000 women and
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girls may have been violated during the war in Sierra Leone1, approximately 500,000
during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda2, and between 20,000 and 60,000 in BosniaHerzegovina.3
This essay will discuss how a better understanding of women’s wartime
experiences of sexual violence can influence the theory and practice of transitional
justice. Research on this topic is needed because it has been recognized that both the legal
standards and the processes which transitional justice mechanisms draw on, have tended
to either exclude women or to operate with a gender bias.4 In many respects, the way
transitional justice programmes are designed and implemented determines how survivors
of wartime sexual violence are treated in the aftermath of conflict and the type of support
they receive from the community. It is thus imperative that the needs of women survivors
of sexual violence are properly understood, if appropriate responses are to be given.
The term ‘transitional justice’ has been attributed a wide range of meanings, but it
should be understood here as ‘the set of practices, mechanisms and concerns that arise
following a period of conflict, civil strife or repression, and that are aimed directly at
confronting and dealing with past violations of human rights and humanitarian law’.5 The
term encompasses both judicial mechanisms aimed at bringing perpetrators to account
(criminal proceedings) and non-judicial mechanisms (truth commissions, vetting,
reparation programmes and security sector reforms) aimed at providing justice for
victims and promoting peace and reconciliation.
The paper argues that a broader approach to transitional justice should be adopted
to encompass women’s experiences of conflict and duly address the specific
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1
Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Witness to Truth (Freetown, 2004), pp.
86.
2
R. Baksh et al, eds., Gender Mainstreaming in Conflict Transformation (London, Commonwealth
Secretariat, 2005), pp. 22.
3
R. Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars”, Women’s Studies International
Forum vol. 19, no. 1/2 (1996): pp. 35; R. Seifert, “War and Rape: A Preliminary Analysis”, in Mass Rape:
The War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ed. A. Stiglmayer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska,
2001), pp. 55.
4
See C. Bell, C. Campbell and F. Nì Aolàin, “Justice Discourses in Transition”, Social and Legal Studies
vol. 13, no. 3 (2004): pp. 318-19; C. Bell and C. O’Rourke, “Does Feminism Need a Theory of Transitional
Justice? An Introductory Essay”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice vol. 1, no. 1 (2007): pp.
24-25; N. Reilly, “Seeking Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Transitions: Towards a Transformative
Women’s Human Rights Approach”, International Journal of Law in Context vol. 3, no. 2 (2007): pp. 159.
5
N. Roth-Arriaza and J. Mazzacurrena, Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth
versus Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2006), pp. 2.
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consequences of wartime sexual violence perpetrated against women. In so doing, the
discussion will focus particularly on the issue of reconciliation. This issue indeed remains
largely unexplored in contemporary transitional justice discourses. To date, reconciliation
discourses have substantially failed to address ‘gender reconciliation’.6 Some steps have
been taken for reconciliation efforts to include an understanding of how conflicts affect
different social groups, including women. Nevertheless, I will argue that this current
understanding of how reconciliation should address gender-specific violence, although an
important achievement, has yet to include fully women's concerns. Drawing on women’s
experiences of sexual violence in wartime, I suggest that the concept and processes of
reconciliation should be re-interpreted and expanded to meet women’s needs better.
The topic is one of relevance to the realms of both law and public policy, since the
two are closely interlinked in the area of transitional justice. However, this paper should
not be interpreted as advocating a strong approach to the 'legalisation' of transitional
justice, or to reconciliation strategies in particular. In recent decades the law has already
made very important steps in shaping justice programmes to protect better women
seeking justice after war. What needs to be broadened now is the scope and meaning of
justice itself, so as to reflect better women's experiences of conflict. Hence, the essay is
best read as a call for a reinterpretation of the boundaries of international public policies
on transitional justice; for policy in this area to proceed alongside the achievements of the
law. It is argued here that only such a combined and interdisciplinary interpretation of
justice can fully respond to the needs of women who have experienced wartime sexual
violence.
The paper is divided in three sections. Part 1 considers why sexual violence
against women, and rape in particular, is perpetrated in times of war, so as to gain a
clearer view of the social consequences of such violence, and to understand the extent to
which these consequences are not incidental but intentional. Part 2 briefly sketches out
the positive achievements of introducing a gender perspective into planning and
implementing transitional justice projects, including international tribunals, truth
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6
Some have acknowledged this gap, see Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA),
Reconciliation after Conflict (Stockholm: IDEA, 2003), pp. 13-14; D. Pankhurst, ed., Gendered Peace:
Women’s Struggle for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation (Geneva: Routledge & UNRISD, 2007), pp. 11;
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Gender Equality: Striving for
Justice in an Unequal World (Geneva: UNRISD, 2005), pp. 233.
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commissions and formal reparations programmes. It highlights the conceptual exclusion
of women’s experiences in formulating the ideas of justice and reconciliation, and
explains how a truly gender-sensitive analysis of wartime sexual violence can address
these shortcomings. The final section offers concluding remarks on the inescapable link
between fully including women’s experiences of conflict and the need to enlarge the
scope of transitional justice, and considers future trends in post-conflict reconciliation.
It must be emphasised that while the discussion will focus on the experiences of
women, its aim is to develop a gender analysis of the implications of large-scale sexual
violence committed in wartime. More specifically, the focus will be on the use of sexual
violence as a gender crime, hence perpetrated against women with a specific aim in mind:
to destroy community relations by targeting women because of their gender. It is
considered methodologically sound to limit this research to violence perpetrated against
women because of the different values and restrictions attributed by society to male and
female sexuality. For these reasons, sexual violence perpetrated against men will not
come under consideration here.7
1. CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF WARTIME SEXUAL VIOLENCE
This section considers the causes and consequences of sexual violence
(particularly of rape) perpetrated during armed conflicts. It endeavours to unravel the
underlying motives behind wartime rape and what differentiates it from peacetime rape.
The closer focus on rape, among other forms of sexual violence, is explained by the
existence of a more extensive body of literature specifically on this issue. However, it
should be borne in mind that in fact there is a wide array of other abhorrent practices such
as forced impregnation, forced abortion, enforced prostitution, sexual slavery, abduction,
and forced marriage, which are widespread and often perpetrated systematically against
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7
For an in-depth discussion of this issue see S. Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed
Conflict”, European Journal of International Law vol. 18, no. 2 (2007).
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women during conflict.8 Why, then, is rape used in wartime, and what strategic purposes
are served by sexual violence against women during armed conflicts?
1.1 THE MOTIVATIONS FOR WARTIME RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
A survey of the literature reveals that rape and sexual violence arise from different
specific motivations in various wars, which are not necessarily linked to sexual desire.9
The reasons advanced to explain wartime rape are manifold and approach the issue from
different levels.
At the individual level, Goldstein argues that wartime rape essentially occurs
because war presents different opportunities from peacetime. He notes that rape was used
as revenge by Russian soldiers in Berlin in 1945; it stemmed from soldiers’ frustration in
Vietnam, or it may result from the weakening of social norms and the awakening of
aggressiveness.10 Other writers have attributed soldiers’ aggressive sexual conduct to the
‘craziness of war’, lack of discipline, frustration, suffering and drug use.11
Critics have strongly opposed such theories which try to explain wartime rape
through an individual approach, arguing that they fail to account for the fact that many
men do not rape during war.12 From a sociological perspective, it was indeed argued that
wartime sexual attacks on women are historical and social processes carried out
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8
E. Rehn and E. J. Sirleaf, Women, War and Peace: The Independent Expert’s Assessment on the Impact of
Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peacebuilding (New York: United Nations Development
Fund for Women, 2002), pp. 3.
9
See M. Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence: Women’s Human Rights and Questions of Masculinity”,
Review of International Studies vol. 33 (2007); M. Eriksson-Baaz and M. Stern, “Making Sense of
Violence: Voices of Soldiers in the Congo (DRC)”, Journal of Modern African Studies vol. 46, no. 1
(2008); J. S. Goldstein, War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Cambridge:
Cambridge University, 2001). Interestingly, Seifert (1996) argues that the ‘sexual urge’ argument does not
stand up to scientific scrutiny, because wartime rape has nothing to do with the availability of willing
women or prostitutes.
10
Goldstein, pp. 362-65.
11
Eriksson-Baaz and Stern, pp. 75-76. From interviews conducted with soldiers from the Democratic
Republic of Congo Eriksson-Baaz and Stern found that the major reasons behind the violence were factors
such as hunger, suffering and frustration related to poverty and neglect (pp. 78). The authors also noticed
how the soldiers differentiate between ‘evil’ or 'bad' rapes – where the violence is intended to humiliate the
victim and often involves mutilations or is committed against children – and 'normal rapes', where the
violence is intended to satisfy sexual desire (pp. 83).
12
See C. Snyder et al, “On the Battleground of Women’s Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina”,
Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work vol. 21, no. 2 (2006): pp. 185-6.
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collectively, which must therefore have a collective meaning.13 Looking from the rapist’s
perspective, some authors have put forward the idea that rape, and especially gang rape
(which represents a high proportion of wartime sexual violence), serves primarily as an
act of loyalty between men, a bonding ritual which promotes group cohesion.14 On the
other hand, from the victim’s standpoint, social interpretations of sexual violence argue
that women in war are not raped simply because they are women, but because of the
interplay of their gender and other attributes which inevitably make certain women more
vulnerable than others to sexual violence. For instance, Skjelsbaek notes that, during
ethnic conflicts, it is the particular combination of their gender and ethnic identity which
makes women ‘eligible’ for rape15. Indeed in many cases it is the intersection of gender
and other factors, such as ethnicity, that permits warring parties to differentiate women as
theirs and others’. Women thus become targets because they belong to a specific group,
and their violation and humiliation becomes a way to humiliate the men, religion, ethnic
group, nation-state and culture they are identified with.16
In the last two decades, increasing attention has been paid to a conceptualisation
of wartime rape as a ‘weapon of war’. In this sense, rape may be used against targeted
segments of the female population as part of a military strategy and to advance military
aims, for instance, with genocidal intent. Forced impregnation is the most blatant
example of rape as genocide. The explanation for how forced pregnancy could constitute
genocide lies with cultural attitudes to ethnicity, according to which a woman is only a
‘biological box’, since the children will bear the father-rapist’s ethnicity.17 In other
words, through systematic rape the perpetrators aim to create more babies belonging to
their ethnic group, and through this to alter and erase the ethnic, religious and national
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13
Seifert (1996), pp. 36.
The authors highlight that this is an important factor in highly militarized societies. See Alison, pp. 77; L.
Price, “Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist: Some Reflections on Comprehension and Accountability”,
Women’s Studies International Forum vol. 24, no. 2 (2001): pp. 216.
15
See Alison, pp. 79-80; I. Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor: Narrated Social Identities of Women Who
Experienced Rape During the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina”, Feminism & Psychology vol. 16, no. 4 (2006):
pp. 388.
16
Snyder et al, pp.193. Rejali argues that, where ethnic identities are blurred, rape can also serve as an
‘ethnomarker’, which redefines racial and ethnic conventions. See D. Rejali, “After Feminist Analyses of
Bosnian Violence”, Peace Review vol. 8 (1996).
17
B. Allen quoted in Alison, pp. 86.
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identities of the raped women.18 In this case, rape (and subsequent pregnancy) thus serves
to transform the victim ethnically, culturally or religiously. In other cases, studies have
revealed that rape as a weapon of war has been used a means of terrorising not only the
victims, but also their families and the larger population, into leaving their homes – hence
functioning as a strategy of ethnic cleansing.19
Finally, there is evidence of rape and sexual violence being used as a weapon of
war with the specific intent of destroying the social and cultural stability of the collective
enemy, its very social fabric.20 Even more than in peacetime, in times of war women
hold families and communities together while the men are called to arms. Women’s
physical and emotional destruction, therefore, strongly affects the group’s social and
cultural cohesion. Hence, in some cases, sexually-violent acts carry the defined intent to
destroy the enemy by violating its social and gender-structured arrangements. This is
confirmed by the fact that sexual violence is indeed largely perpetrated in contexts where
cultures of honour and shame are deeply rooted, and where a high value is placed on
female sexuality, chastity and marital virtue. In such contexts, it is rape victims
themselves who bear the main burden of shame and stigma, rather than the rapists. The
violence has therefore long-lasting effects, not only on the victims themselves, but also
on gender relationships within the affected community.21 As we will see, this gives rise to
a number of specific consequences in the aftermath of attacks.
2.1
CONSEQUENCES OF WARTIME RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Donna Pankhurst notes that sexual violence, especially public rape, is used
particularly successfully in strongly patriarchal societies to undermine the enemy22. The
presence of an honour/shame culture, and the emphasis many cultures place on women’s
sexual virtue, indeed, enables the rapist to humiliate and demoralize not only the women
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18
Skjelsbaek (2006), pp. 375.
Price, pp. 223, Snyder at al, pp. 190.
20
J. Phillips quoted in Rejali, pp. 367; Seifert (1996), pp. 39; Alison, pp. 18.
21
International Alert, Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone (London: International Alert,
2007), pp. 12; Seifert (1996), pp. 41.
22
Pankhurst, pp. 46. See also I. Skjelsbaek, “Sexual Violence and War: Mapping Out a Complex
Relationship”, European Journal of International Relations vol. 7, no. 2 (2001): pp. 228.
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themselves, but also the whole community and the men who have failed to protect ‘their’
women.23 Speaking of the conflict in the Balkans, and in relation to the existence of an
honour/shame culture, Olijic writes:
Men suffer the shame of their failure to protect their property that includes
women, family, bloodlines, and soil. Women suffer through their duty to
endure the private stigma of shame. Their suffering is protection of men’s
public shame. Public admission of sexual victimization means public defeat
of the honour of the men: the loss of their public, status-focused face; the
public admission of the loss of their bloodline; and the loss of their
soil/nation.24
The shaming intent behind the use of rape and sexual violence in war gives rise to
a number of important social consequences for the violated women. Non-governmental
organizations working in conflict-affected countries have consistently reported alarming
cases of women whom, because of the violence they suffered, have been stigmatised,
systematically ostracised by their communities, or even abandoned by their husbands. A
husband may indeed simply refuse to have further contact with his wife after such
violence and may abandon or ostracise her, or he may allow her to remain in the
household but humiliate her, or even take a second wife.25 Many men abandon the
woman claiming that she may have been infected by HIV/AIDS, and fearing that they in
turn will contract the virus. Although data are difficult to obtain (because sexual crimes
go largely unreported), a 2003 survey conducted by International Alert in the area of
Kivu, Eastern DRC, reports that in a sample of 492 women and girls who experienced
rape, 26% of married victims had been abandoned by their husbands.26 In addition, the
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23
Skjelsbaek (2006), pp. 388.
M. Olijic quoted in Snyder et al, pp. 190.
25
Human Rights Watch, The War Within the War: Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Eastern
Congo (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002), pp. 64-66; Medicins Sans Frontieres, ‘I Have No Joy, No
Peace of Mind: Medical, Psychosocial, and Socio-Economic Consequences of Sexual Violence in Eastern
DRC (Amsterdam: Medicins Sans Frontieres, 2004).
26
International Alert, International Alert, Women’s Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence against
Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Kivu (1996- 2003)
(London: International Alert, 2005), pp. 42-43.
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divorce rate among couples where the rape resulted in pregnancy was reported to be at
36%.27 In general, the research reports that of the husbands told about such violence,
about half reacted very badly, becoming suspicious of their wives, while only a third
showed compassion and supported their wives.28
These data are alarming and paint a tragic picture of the situation of women who
have survived wartime sexual violence. Despite this, some researchers have warned
against the risk of stereotyping rape victims as being isolated, hopeless individuals.
Skjelsbaek argues that, in fact, the impact of wartime rapes in patriarchal families can be
quite different from what one might expect, and that rejection, stigmatisation and
ostracism are only one part of the picture.29
Interesting examples of the real complexities through which social stigma
operates can be found in ethnographic studies conducted on rape survivors. Mookherjee,
in her study of rape survivors and their husbands in a rural Bengali village, describes
quite effectively the complex interplay of factors affecting these families at community
level.30 In the Bangladesh war of 1971, it is estimated that as many as 200,000 women
were raped. After the war, the government of Bangladesh publicly referred to the raped
women as birangonas (‘war heroines’), in an attempt to discourage social ostracisation.31
Despite these efforts, after the violence many of these women were still rejected by their
husbands and ended up living in camps appositely set up by the government.32 At the
same time, Mookherjee found that the women who, instead, had been ‘accepted’ by their
husbands after rape, and even actively supported in their struggle for accountability, had
witnessed their husbands, in their turn, becoming extremely vulnerable to stigma and
verbal violence in their communities, as well as economically in their daily
negotiations.33 Essentially, this suggests that the discrimination faced by sexual violence
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27
Ibid.
Ibid.
29
Skjelsbaek (2006), pp. 385-97.
30
N. Mookherjee, “May man (honour) is Lost but I Still Have my iman (principle): Sexual Violence and
Articulations of Masculinity”, in South Asian Masculinities: Context of Change, Sites of Continuity, ed R.
Chopra, C. Osella & F. Osella (Delhi: Unlimited, 2004).
31
See N. Mookherjee, “"Remembering to Forget": Public Secrecy and Memory of Sexual Violence in the
Bangladesh War of 1971”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. 12 (2006), pp. 440-41.
32
Price, pp. 37.
33
Mookherjee (2004).
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survivors is a complex phenomenon, and one which is articulated at many different
levels.
Summing up, the underlying rationales explaining wartime rape are many and
cannot be reduced to a single, oversimplified notion of ‘rape as a weapon of war’.
Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that a large proportion of violence is indeed
perpetrated as part of military strategy, which thus needs to be addressed and understood
as such. We have seen that rape as a weapon of war is, to some extent, perpetrated with
the intention of altering social and cultural stability, or destroingy the social fabric, by
destabilising gender and family relations. This kind of violence is what this paper
primarily addresses, as a specific typology of war rape.
To conclude, if rape and sexual violence are used as a weapon of war, they
constitute an intrinsic part of the parties’ military strategies. Hence sexual violence is a
component of the conflict itself, and is chosen because it is the most efficient means of
reaching certain specific and strategic aims. In other words, large-scale sexual violence
may be used during conflict with the specific aim of destroying a society by destroying
its gender relations. It is an effective strategy as it is often successful in destabilising
social patterns, indeed, it creates situations where women may be ostracised, abandoned
by their husbands, or where families who support the woman can themselves be
ostracised by the community. This paper argues that this is an important point, and one
which needs to be taken into consideration in designing remedial and preventive
measures for the violence. Thus, how should the international community respond to the
needs of victims of wartime rape and, more generally, of sexual violence?
2. GENDER, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION
Transitional justice has become a key pillar of the international community’s postconflict reconstruction framework. Its processes and mechanisms are designed with the
twin aims of providing justice for the victims and making the perpetrators accountable. In
doing this, transitional justice should also encompass what Mckay defines as ‘gender
justice’: ‘legal processes which are equitable, not privileged by and for men, and which
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distinguish the nefarious forms of injustice women experience during and after armed
conflict’.34
With few exceptions, women today are denied justice. The majority of
perpetrators of wartime sexual violence still go unpunished – due in part to the massive
numbers of perpetrators with which no national system can cope, and so women
themselves often do not receive redress. In the last two decades, significant steps have
been taken at international level to including women’s experiences of conflict in justice
programmes, yet some argue that their invisibility in transitional justice processes has
still not been adequately addressed.35 The following discussion centres on the present
shortcomings of transitional justice projects, and proposes a new model of reconciliation
to address fully women’s experiences of sexual violence during armed conflicts.
2.1 GENDER AND JUSTICE
International law has led the way in including women in its efforts to respond to
massive human rights violations, and it first did so by conceptualising sexual violence as
a weapon of war. The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda have indeed made notable progress in recognizing sexual and gender-based
violence as a violation of the laws of war, not least by including rape as a crime against
humanity in their statutes.36 Although the judgements they delivered represent but a tiny
fraction of the real number of abuses, they have set important historical precedents. As a
result of their pioneering practices, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(ICC) today lists a number of provisions with respect to the prosecution of genderspecific crimes, including forced pregnancy, enforced prostitution, enforced sterilisation
and sexual slavery.37
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34
S. Mckay, “Gender Justice and Reconciliation”, Women’s Studies International Forum vol. 23, no. 5
(2000), pp. 561.
35
S. N. Anderlini, Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why it Matters (London: Lynne Rienner, 2007),
pp. 158.
36
C. Chinkin, “Gender-Related Crimes: A Feminist Perspective”, in From Sovereign Impunity to
International Accountability: The Search for Justice in a World of States, eds R. Thakur and P. Malcontent
(Tokyo, United Nations University, 2005), pp. 117.
37
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in A/Conf.138/9 (reprinted in 37 ILM (1998), 999.
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The practice of the tribunals thus marks an important contribution to the
advancement of accountability for gender crimes. Their practices have nonetheless been
beset by problems and inconsistencies. International justice has for instance been accused
of being too slow, of having inadequately supported victims and witnesses, of having
conducted inappropriate investigations and with inadequate staff training - all of which
are regarded in some quarters as having amounted to further victimisation.38
Acknowledging these shortcomings, the ICC rules of procedure have been designed to
include witness protection programmes, trained staff with expertise in trauma related to
sexual crimes, and have introduced a requirement for judges to have specific expertise on
the issue.39 In additon, under the complementarity principle, in future the ICC may have a
role in influencing the adoption of domestic laws and judicial remedies for women living
in conflict-affected countries.
These recent developments have marked the beginning of a new era of
international justice and accountability for women. However, a broader critique was
made that justice for women survivors of sexual violence should not be understood
simply in terms of criminal accountability. Indeed, while some women proactively seek
accountability, the majority prefer not to be exposed to public knowledge – often fearing
social stigma and ostracisation, as already discussed. Also, women survivors of sexual
violence are often in desperate need of healthcare and social rehabilitation programmes.
Widows, or women rejected by their husbands, are especially likely to be unable to
provide for themselves and their children, and to many, prostitution may seem the only
viable option.40 For these reasons, if gender justice requires the introduction of gender
perspectives in all dimensions of justice, it also requires a redefinition of the boundaries
of justice itself to accommodate women’s requirements. Noleen Heyzer, former
Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
argues that in many countries a focusing on restorative justice is needed, to help women
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38
See Anderlini (2007), pp. 160-174; B. Noworojee, ““Your Justice is Too Slow”: Will the ICTR Fail
Rwanda’s Rape Victims?” (Geneva: UNRISD, 2005); E. Rehn and E. J. Sirleaf, pp. 93-96.
39
Reilly, pp. 161-62.
40
J. Ward and M. Marsh, “Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in War and Its Aftermath: Realities,
Responses and Required Resources”, paper presented to the Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and
Beyond, 21-23 June 2006, Brussels, Belgium.
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move beyond their trauma and begin to reconstruct their lives.41 The concept of
restorative justice moves beyond discourses of criminal punishment to focus on repairing
relationships.42 In post-conflict transitions, this model of justice proposes mechanisms
such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) and formal reparation
programmes, which, it is argued, are capable of delivering a broad range of possible
objectives, including national and personal reconciliation.
2.2 GENDER AND RECONCILIATION
The word ‘reconciliation’ has many meanings and remains a highly-contested
concept. A basic definition entails the search for a shared truth, some form of justice, and
an element of forgiveness and healing43; but while some focus on the individual level,
some consider groups, while others consider society as a whole.44
Post-conflict
reconciliation can typically occur in a situation where war has ended, a settlement has
been reached, and a new regime is struggling to reconstruct society. In this context,
reconciliation is a process through which a society moves from a divided past to a shared
future, deeply concerned with re-building relationships between former enemies.45 Of
particular concern here are the issues raised when a gender perspective is included in
reconciliation efforts, particularly as to how this could affect the idea of whom needs to
be reconciled.
One of the most commonly employed reconciliation processes is to establish a
national TRC. TRCs provide a public forum where victims can express their grievances,
recount their memories of violence and, by so doing, seek reconciliation. Prior to 2000,
the only commissions to take gender crimes into account were those in Guatemala, Haiti
and South Africa. Since 2001, gender crimes are expressly on the agenda of TRCs –
including those in Sierra Leone, East Timor and Peru. This emerging practice has had the
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41
N. Heyzer, “Gender Justice”, Statement to the Security Council on Women, Peace and Security by
Noleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM, 28 October 2004.
42
Bell and O’Rourke, pp. 40-41.
43
S. N. Anderlini, C. P. Conaway and L. Kays, “Transitional Justice and Reconciliation”, in Inclusive
Security, Sustainable Peace: A Toolkit for Advocacy and Action, eds Women Waging Peace (Cambridge,
MA: Women Waging Peace, 2005), pp. 3; IDEA, pp. 12.
44
Pankhurst, pp. 11.
45
IDEA, pp. 12.
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important effect of broadening the scope and methods of investigation.46 Significant
developments have indeed resulted in ensuring that the process takes into account the
needs of women traumatised by sexual violence, both at the substantial level and at the
procedural level. For example, the South Africa TRC created Special Hearings on
Women and formed an all-women panel to encourage women to speak freely about their
experiences of violence.47 In Sierra Leone, guidelines were developed on how to take
statements, and included the presence of female statement-takers, the absence of fathers
and husbands (unless explicitly requested by the victim), and training for personnel
dealing with traumatised women.48
Some relative success was achieved by TRCs in addressing women’s experiences
of human rights violations and in acknowledging the ways in which women have
experienced conflict. According to Lederach, acknowledgement is decisive in the
reconciliation dynamic. While knowledge is important, acknowledgement is a different
social phenomenon, and a necessary one for reconciliation, as it is only through
acknowledgement that it is possible to start restoring relationships.49 Yet, the validity of
this principle in the context of sexual offences is disputed. Feminist critique has warned
against the potentially risky assumptions of a vision of reconciliation through public
acknowledgement, which may not be universally applicable. While hundreds of sexual
violence survivors have courageously come forward to recount their experiences in
public forums, in most cases women hesitate to testify because it would be considered
shameful and, typically, result in stigmatisation and even severe punishment.50
Seeking justice in an environment where women are traditionally encouraged to
‘forgive and forget’ may indeed prove more complicated than providing fair processes for
witnesses, mainly because of the complexity inherent in the social dynamics of shame
and stigmatization. The ethnographic study conducted among rape survivors in
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46
See K. Askin, “The Quest for Post-Conflict Justice”, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law vol. 41
(2003), pp. 513; V. Nesiah, Gender and Truth Commissions Mandates (New York: International Center for
Transitional Justice, 2005); World Bank, Gender and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (Washington,
DS: World Bank, 2006).
47
Anderlini, pp. 163.
48
Ibid., pp. 172-73.
49
J. Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Washington, DC: United
States Institute of Peace, 1998), pp. 26.
50
See IDEA, pp. 56; N. Valji, Gender Justice and Reconciliation (Berlin: Friederich Ebert Stiftung, 2007),
pp. 17.
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Bangladesh specifically illustrates this. Mookherjee found that while the public
authorities and the wider community acknowledged the heroism of the women
(birangonas) who had endured sexual violence, this was lacking in the community, and
in the villages the women who exposed their experiences were considered shameful.51 In
the villagers’ eyes, the proper response to such taboo crimes was to remain silent, hidden
and invisible.52 Following their public acknowledgement, the women were seen as sinful,
often branded prostitutes, and subjected together with their families to scorn and blame.53
Summing up, the reconciliation process for gender-specific crimes needs to take
place without undue assumptions, or it may run the risk of doing harm instead of
restoring dignity. McKay stated that, ideally, ‘new meaning can be given to private
shame as it is transformed into political dignity when the traumatic story becomes
testimony.’54 The above discussion warns that this may not always be the case. The issue
of shame, a paramount concern to women victims of sexual abuse, poses significant
questions as to whether including a gender perspective into reconciliation discourses
could indeed mean more than just re-adapting the current categories of reconciliation to
accommodate women’s needs, as we shall see.
2.3 HOW GENDER COULD SHAPE THE DISCOURSE ON RECONCILIATION
Transitional justice mechanisms have been built on false demarcations between
conflict-related (political) violence – to be addressed in justice and reconciliation
processes, and post-conflict (incidental) side-effects of such violence – largely neglected
by justice and reconciliation programmes. I suggest that the case of wartime sexual
violence challenges such assumptions, precisely because of the reasons behind the use of
sexual violence as a strategy of war. When rape, sexual violence and other horrible
practices alike are chosen as the form of wartime violence which best serves the purpose
of destroying the enemy’s social fabric by destabilizing gender and family relations, I
would argue that justice and reconciliation programmes, to be effective, must not ignore
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51
Mookherjee (2006), pp. 440-41.
Ibid.
53
Ibid. See also Noworojee, pp. 24.
54
Mckay, pp. 564.
52
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the tangible, and intended, long-term social consequences of such violence and must aim
to repair damaged gender relations.
It has been said that, for women who have experienced sexual abuse,
reconciliation means:
‘Offences against them being recognized and punished, illegitimate children
being recognized as legitimate with full rights, and resources being allocated
to deal with the physical and psychological consequences. For war widows,
reconciliation would be expected to include compensation and to address
existing inheritance laws and practices that dispossess them or hinder them in
fulfilling their new obligations as family providers’.55
This continues, noting that:
‘Establishing trustful and respectful relations between men and women, and
between particularly targeted groups of men and women, is essential for
fashioning a democratic society’.56
Some progress has been made in recent years, partially to address these concerns.
The report of the Sierra Leone TRC sets the agenda in this regard, by endorsing important
policy recommendations on the adoption of reparation measures, and by calling, for
instance, for the government to provide free healthcare for victims of sexual violence, a
monthly pension, and skills-training programmes.57 Moreover, there is a move towards
the prevention of wife abandonment or stigmatisation with the Commission establishing
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55
IDEA, pp. 13.
Ibid.
57
J. King, “Gender and Reparations in Sierra Leone: The Wounds of War Remain Open”, in What
Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations, eds R. Rubio-Marín
(New York: Social Sciences Research Council, 2006), pp. 22-23. The reparations programme, however,
does not provide direct government assistance for widows. See generally, Report of the Sierra Leone TRC
(2004).
56
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that male spouses should also receive free medical treatment for HIV/AIDS, counselling
and psychosocial support.58
Nothing has been done though to establish better relationships between men and
women.59 Hence the key purpose of this essay is to suggest that the widespread use of
wartime rape and sexual violence calls for urgent action to remedy this situation. For
these purposes, Lederach’s understanding of reconciliation as a locus – a space or
location – where the parties to a conflict meet, provides an interesting model. In the
specific case of sexual violence as a weapon of war, it can be argued that there are many
parties to the conflict which need to meet: the perpetrator, the woman, her husband and
family, and the community to which the woman belongs. As discussed earlier, rape and
sexual violence are not only used to humiliate the woman, but are deliberately chosen
among other forms of violence for their negative social connotations, with the purpose of
humiliating and destroying the social relationships of an entire group. Reconciliation
should therefore take into consideration all these dynamics and be understood as
providing a context for the healing process to take place at many different levels. Indeed,
reconciliation needs to take place at the individual level, between the victim and the
perpetrator; at the family level, between the victim, the family and husband; and at the
community level, between the victim and the local community which has stigmatised her.
In other words, a closer analysis of women's experiences of conflict suggests that
reconciliation should be understood as the locus where all the parties intended to be
affected by the conflict (whether directly or indirectly) meet, and where all the
dimensions of the conflict are addressed. In so doing, it is suggested that reconciliation
efforts should leave space for, and engage with, community practices. Such mechanisms
are anchored in existing values and relationships, and thus they are likely to receive
broader support60 and possibly be more effective in working towards the elimination of
the stigma attached to victims of sexual violence. Community leaders can play an
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58
Ibid.
In the words of Donna Pankhurst, “there has been virtually no discussion about ‘gender reconciliation’.
Women are often expected to identify themselves with reconciliation and peace-building interventions [...]
Some of these interventions could be interpreted as being about reconciliation between women and men”
(pp. 11).
60
IDEA, pp. 17; R. Shaw, “Rethinking Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Lessons from Sierra
Leone” (Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace, 2005).
59
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important role in promoting the social reintegration of survivors as, for instance, was
done in Burundi where community leaders themselves negotiated with husbands and
fathers to allow wives and daughters back into the household.61
It cannot be over-stressed how important it would be for reconciliation
programmes to include space for men to participate, through the community, in the
process of healing. In so doing, men themselves would have a role in promoting the
public acknowledgement of gender violence – an act which is traditionally discouraged
for women. This is an essential step to achieve reconciliation for gender crimes, and one
which is likely to rebuild more egalitarian gender structures because it should initiate a
process of re-negotiation of gender roles in which both genders can participate.
Safeguards to prevent abusive traditional practices should also be put in place, to avoid
the recurrence of abusive practices – such as reconciliation by means of asking the rapist
to marry the raped woman, or the compensatory exchange of women.
To sum up, I have argued that reconciliation efforts should include consideration
of how to eliminate the shame attached to victims of sexual violence, this might be
achieved by integrating a deeper understanding of rape as a form of conflict into the logic
of re-building relationships between the parties involved in the conflict. If rape
constitutes a form of conflict chosen with the specific intention of affecting not only the
woman but, through her, the wider community, then all these parties then must participate
in the reconciliation process. Indeed, not only should the process aim to reconcile the
rapist with the victim, but also it should aim to restore the relationships pre-existing
between the woman and her family and the woman, her family and her community. At
present, instead, the woman who decides to participate in national justice and
reconciliation programmes must deal with the perpetrators largely unsupported, leaving
her vulnerable to stigma and ostracism by her family, husband and community. It is
incumbent on the international community to find ways to respond to the needs of women
who have endured sexual violence, to offer them a third alternative to the rocky road to
public acknowledgement which is often followed by social stigmatisation, and the
socially-acceptable coping strategy of self-imposed silence.
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61
)
See N. Zicherman, “Addressing Sexual Violence in Burundi”, Forced Migration Review vol. 27 (2007).
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3. CONCLUSIONS: HOW WARTIME SEXUAL VIOLENCE MAY RE-DEFINE THE
BOUNDARIES OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
The inclusion of sexual violence in the range of offences which are seen as
constituting an international crime, and grave breaches of the laws of war, has resulted in
significant developments in the substance and practice of international criminal justice.
Perpetrators have been held accountable for raping girls and women during conflicts, and
tribunals have gradually been adapting to the need to protect and support victims of
sexual violence. Although much remains to be done, women’s experiences of conflict are
now on the international agenda and cannot be neglected by accountability mechanisms.
The formal commitment on behalf of the international community to eliminate sexual
violence in armed conflicts was expressed through Security Council Resolution 1325
(2000), and again through Resolution 1820 (2008).
This paper has highlighted that, notwithstanding the noble intents, women’s
perspectives are not yet fully included in the discourse and practice of reconciliation
programmes. Social stigma is still the biggest obstacle to achieving gender accountability
and reconciliation - but for reconciliation to be effective and inclusive it needs to be
eliminated. To this end, reconciliation must be re-defined to include and address the
intended negative consequences on women of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of
war. Security Council resolutions provide the grounds for such reinterpretation, and thus
the international community is not only urged but also mandated to address this issue. A
key future challenge for justice and reconciliation programmes, therefore, is to develop a
more holistic understanding of how such violence impacts on women’s lives and on
gender relations more broadly, and to promote a multi-dimensional understanding of the
harm suffered. At this stage, an analysis is essential of how patriarchal social structures
and gender discrimination interact to further victimise women in post-conflict settings.
This essay has advocated the need to understand women’s experiences of conflict,
so as to advance an inclusive vision of gender justice and reconciliation in post-conflict
societies. I have shown how this could redefine the scope of international public policies
on transitional justice and move beyond the initial boundaries created by gender-blind
mechanisms. Further, I suggest that, in so doing, future justice and reconciliation efforts
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could be designed with a view to promoting a shift towards gender equality in social and
interpersonal relationships. Essentially, it appears that the transformative potential of
including gender analysis in transitional justice is still largely under-explored.
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